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[eva]

this was dug up from over a year ago. learn the techniques of the tea-stirrer today!!

--

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL ERES originally published 1/6/10

eva: hello paul

paul: hi

eva: how are you this evening

paul: tired
but happy

eva: so, you failed miserably in this year's IGF. your thoughts

paul: no i succeeding, cause i entered igf as way to work on game faster for igf deadline
and it made me work on gam faster
so success

eva: what do you think about the igf selections

paul: i haven't played most of the games that are finalists, because like 90% of them are unfinished and aren't available to the public, as usual
although i don't like that vvvvvv isn't anywhere in there

eva:
on to more serious questions, do you think people who grow potatoes are racist?

paul:
yes

eva:
why do you think so

paul:
because everyone is racist

eva:
do you think a person's capability to be racist has to do with a person's weight?

paul:
yes

eva:
why do you think this

paul:
because the more weight, the more "person", and since people are racist, the more pounds you weigh, the more pounds of you are racist

eva:
now, what do you see yourself as in the world of indie gams

paul:
i do some reviews of indie games for various blogs, and make some games

eva:
has racism ever influence any of your gams?

paul:
probably, i haven't thought about it, but probably yes
for instance
most of the characters in my games have been white i think
there were a few asians in alphasix
and one black guy (one of the Points) in immortal defense, although he wasn't really human anyway

eva:
do you believe that people should express hate in their art? why or why not

paul:
i believe people should express hate in art yes
because sometimes it leads to interesting stuff

eva:
do you feel that the interesting stuff is worth the trouble? see muslim massacre

paul:
yes, muslim massacre is one of my favorite indie gams

eva:
what's with the haircut? and whyd you just give ortoslon my msn?

paul:
superjoe paid for my haircut
and i gave him your msn cause he asked me for it


superjoe paid for my haircut

eva:
tell me about saturated dreamers

paul:
i don't believe that the zelda series followed zelda1 very well
zelda1 was nonlinear, you could do dungeons in any order, and a lot of the fun was exploring around
whereas later zelda games made it more linear, jump through these hoops, do this in this order
they were less about a world and more about a path to take
so i wanted to make a game that was like zelda1

eva:
compared to zelda1, the main difference is that saturated dreamers is a gam intended for hippies, are you a hippy?

paul:
no, i don't like rock music
well there are one or two songs the beatles made that i like

eva:
if you had to make 3 wishes, what would they be? no wishing for more wishes!!!

paul:
good question, hmmmmmmm
1) i'd wish to become everyone at once, instead of just me, that way i could live all possible lives in the universe rather than just my own
and experience everything they ever did / ever will
2) i'd wish universe to never end, if it was going to end
3) a trillion dollars

eva:
you are very selfish

paul:
yes

eva:
what would be the last words you'd say to your mother

paul:
bye

eva:
how about... to your girlfriend

paul:
i wouldn't waste time saying anything, i'd just want to look at her another second

eva:
romantic... or heartless... i do not know!!

paul:
:)

eva:
ok random trivia time...

dream sandwich

paul:
i don't really like sandwiches that much
but i do like philly cheesesteak
but i'm lactose intolerant so
i don't eat those anymore

eva:
your opinion on anchovies

paul:
i don't like them
but wouldn't refuse pizza just because of them

eva:
candles: sexy... or dangerous

paul:
can be both

eva:
last time you've been out of your house

paul:
to visit my sister and two of my cousins for dinner
i peeled sweet potatoes
for the dinner

eva:
opinion: hot sauce

paul:
it's not hot enough

eva:
pineapples?

paul:
i like them crushed or sliced, but not whole

eva:
money...

paul:
i like having it, but i also think it's a trick played on people by banks and governments

eva:
what do you do every morning

paul:
go to bathroom

eva:
what do you usually do first in the bathroom

paul:
close the door behind me

eva:
good, do you have any friends or relatives who don't close the door while they use the bathroom?

paul:
patrick dugan, who stayed over my house for a day once, didn't and my aunt also doesn't

eva:
what do you think about the rich

paul:
i think they usually waste too much money on unimportant stuff

eva:
what do you think about the poor

paul:
i think they should riot and start a revolution

eva:
what is your favorite word

paul:
that's a tough question, let me think

eva:
are you using this thinking time to go to the bathroom?

paul:
no
how about........ gam
gam is my favorite word right now

eva:
do you stir your tea clockwise, or counter clockwise? do you think stirring a certain way is important? as seen in the gam "sere luap", a masterful tea stirring experience.

paul:
i stir it both ways, and switch between the two, i find it's the fastest way to dissolve the sugar
and i don't think it's important but it does save some time
sort of like pressing 66 on the microwave
instead of 1 0 0

eva:
i do not know what kind of microwave you use

paul:
i don't know either
it's white
and old

eva:
what would you name your son/daughter

paul:
i'd name my daughter eris
that way her name can be eris eres
which are both prounced the same
i don't know what i'd name my son
i'd let the mother decide, probably

eva:
5 words...

paul:
i never heard of gams

[FARTRON]

best interview 

[Blademasterbobo]

best interview 

[deathtotheweird]

10/10 would read again

[ink.inc]

Holy shit

I name at least one of my characters Eris in everything I do

Goddess of Dischord

Hi Five

[Knifemaker]

Hi Five

proof that she is in everything you do

[Hangedman]

Fantastiche.

[PleasingFungus]

How could you leave this unpublished for so long?

[Dustin Smith]

i vaguely remember reading this on facebook last year.

6 cracked out gamepro heads outta five.

[ChevyRay]

eva:
what would be the last words you'd say to your mother

paul:
bye

Hahaha excellent.

[JoGribbs]

The racism/weight thing was quite funny.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

How could you leave this unpublished for so long?

this one was actually up on her blog for a while before she deleted her blog after being banned by derek

but for some reason most of my interviews never seem to make it to publication, perhaps it's because people don't want to publish most of the things i say in them; for instance patrick dugan (the very one mentioned in this interview who doesn't close the door when he goes to the bathroom) interviewed me once for gamasutra, but it was never put up; that was a good interview too

[Blademasterbobo]

do you have the interview? you should post it up here

[s0]

I read that when it was on your blog originally. Good to see it reposted. 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i have it in unedited form in my gmail somewhere since the interview was over gmail, but i don't think i'm allowed to post it up because maybe gamasutra will get around to it someday (they probably own the rights to it or something). i did once publish an excerpt about it, about portal:

http://rinku.livejournal.com/1803224.html

[s0]

The main thing is that less weird people tend to design games based on
what they believe to be 'best game design practices' -- a balanced
difficulty curve, and basic things that people tell them all games
"should" have, instead of what they personally want to put in a game.
Portal is a perfect example of this type of game: it does everything
right, and in doing everything right from that standpoint it does
everything wrong from another. Portal was a theoretical "best game",
with perfectly tested everything and perfect polished everything, with
everything in the right place, but wasn't anyone's "dream game"

This explains my exact problem with Portal. I know people are probably going to hate me for this, but I felt the same way about Braid. Those games are almost like "etudes" in game design, and as a result they feel oddly bland, clinical almost. Contrary to what a lot of people think, I believe there is such a thing as overpolishing.

But then again I'm also big fan of Cave shmups which I would also consider "perfect" games from a design standpoint. I dunno. 

[gimymblert]

Come on Rinku, portal is full of weird thing that were dream up by people (cake, gloados and song at the end) and was based on a weird game (nabacular drop). I thought that portal was weirder than ico (typical fantasy setting more from the childbook side)

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i didn't say portal wasn't weirder than ico, just that the people who made ico are weirder than the people who made portal (and that we can know that just by the games themselves). i think you're misreading the quote entirely if you think i'm saying that weird people make weird games.

[JoGribbs]

I think Portal had to be really strictly designed to make sense. I mean, now that I've played the game, I know pretty well how everything in that game works, but watching trailers for that game made my brain hurt. If you listen to any of developer commentaries, you can see they go to great lengths to make sure the player understands exactly how everything works. To be fair though, I mostly agree with you, I just think Portal was really good despite being very 'traditionally' well-built.

Your comments about Zelda 1 interest me because that was my impetus for the game I am making at the moment. Even though I enjoy post-zelda 1 zelda games much more than zelda 1, I think there was something that was lost there. Like, if it had kept going in that direction then it could have lead to some interesting things.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah i wasn't saying portal was a 'bad game', there are many people who enjoyed it and i enjoyed it. just that i don't think there was a little kid who was like 'some day i'm going to grow up to balance difficulty curves and make cleverly designed puzzles in perfect difficulty progression', and if there was that little kid is dum

and yeah, braid was much the same way. it's a game clearly made by a game design theorist; it was made through deliberation and planning, not excitement and frenzy