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[darthlupi]

Sorry, my first post ever and I misposted and double posted.  This was supposed to go into the meet and greet topic. 

If everyone could kindly berate me, and some admin save me by moving or deleting this I will love you forever.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I'm not a mod so I can't. Good to see you here Darthlupi!

[ChevyRay]

Aw, there goes the planet.

Oi Lupi. Welcome to the best open indie board on the web. You and I still have to collab one of these days, having such similar tastes.

Games I've completed that I think are barely worth mentioning amongst all you great folk are the following:
Winter's Heart, The Cleaner, Legend of Shadow and Raging Skies.

All 4 of those games are gold, you modest SOB. :D


Picture = awesome. What are you pointing at, exactly?

[jennatar]

Hello, I'm Jenn, and I live near Chinatown in San Francisco. I don't make games -- I just write about them -- but when I was 11 years old I wanted to be Roberta Williams.

Instead of being Roberta Williams, though, I now talk about formative game experiences from my youth on a podcast sometimes, but mostly I just help people with stuff (my job performance review called me 'supportive'). In my old life, I lived in Chicago, sold toys and art at Rotofugi, built websites, freelanced a lot of game reviews, and worked with a sequential art performance troupe a lot. I still piddle with music a little bit, and I like chip and glitch a bunch, so me and Yuppster went halfsies and bought this thing we're going to try out on the NES.

What's funny is, when I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to play video game consoles -- a 486 was OK, though, because it was smarter and classier -- and my parents weren't even happy about my taking a 2600 and a grey Game Boy to college. I also wasn't allowed to play role-playing games (here defined as any game in which the main character evolves outside of a preexisting narrative arc). Now when I play games, it's half out of nostalgia and half making-up-for-lost-time.

I really liked meeting a lot of you during IGF and GDC this year, so mostly I registered so's we can keep in touch, and also to keep an eye on new stuff people are doing.

[darthlupi]

>>Picture = awesome. What are you pointing at, exactly?
The next conquest of course!!!  Actually I think I was just being gay and pointing like an explorer of things unexplored.  Incidentally there was a rad coral reef over there!

[EvilDrBin]

Figure I may as well post here, seeing as I've barely posted anywhere else!

I am Chris.



The first game I ever played was 'Grannies garden' while at school, followed shortly by through the dragons eye, woop! My first home computer was an Amstrad PPC-512 and the first game I played on that was Jason Jupiter, followed by Digger



Errr, let's see. Game making wise, I first had a go when The Games Factory demo came with PC Format yeeeears ago. I mucked around with it for a few weeks until I found a download for Klik and Play. I mucked around with that for a few more weeks before finally buying it (yeah I know, naughty me!) from Europress.

Eventually I got my hands on Click and Create and while I didn't really finish any games for, like, years. I had a great time and consider myself a 'klikker' at heart. I, like many others spent years waiting for Trigger Happy 2 (still waiting)

I grew up a bit and all of a sudden saturday nights seemed best spent drinking instead of mucking around on a computer (weird eh?) This remained the case until my final year project at uni, where I decided to make a game in Blitzmax called Pogo Fred (something I had tried making years ago in CnC). Last year I made the game Ninjah and having just bought an Xbox 360, I'm hoping to remake it using XNA.

So, err, yeah. Hi everyone!

[jcromartie]

Hi,

My name is John.

I'm 24 and married to a graphic design student who I am going to shanghai into doing art for my game development endeavors.

I had a Tandy 1000 and some inconsequential SHMUP at a very early age.  I also played various text-based games and roguelikes on my dad's UNIX computers before I had an NES.  I've had just about every console since the NES except for the latest round from Microsoft and Sony.  I just don't think they're worth that much.

I brought the "JUSTIN BAILEY" code home from Kindergarten one day, crudely scrawled by a friend on giant art paper with finger paint.

I got truly addicted to action-adventure and RPG gaming through Crystalis on the NES, and Zelda on the SNES.  Now I spend more time fiddling with programming than really playing or making games, but I'm trying to just get some game work finished and play more indie stuff.  Cave Story had a huge impact on me and convinced me that indie development on the PC(/Mac) is truly worthwhile, even if not profitable.

I know good pixel art when I see it, but I am very poor at it myself.  Practice is in order.  Until then, my programming talents are wasting away, waiting to find a good artist to pair up with.

I don't like posts that go like "this is a game I am working on."  I don't believe in them.  If you make a post about "a game I am working on" it is cursed forever and will not be completed.

Derek, fish, and Adam Atomic would be my childhood heroes if I were still a child, so, seeing as some people call me a big kid, I will say that they are my man-childhood heroes...

[Matthew Longworth]

Now that the VGNG contest is over (I didn't make the deadline), I actually have some spare time to properly introduce myself.

My name is Matthew Longworth, and I currently live in the UK earning a living writing software for my corporate masters.  I've been programming ever since my father sat me down in front of our 286 and taught me GWBasic.

It was a while before that computer got upgraded (the next one was a pentium), so I spent a fair portion of my life working with just the 16 colours an EGA graphics card would allow.  I still remember with fondness the text-based slot machine, the scrolling shoot-em-up with colour-based collision detection and four frames of animation, a Worms / Scorched earth clone, and a totally awesome 16x16 sprite editor that are probably slowly rotting on a massive 20Mb hard disk somewhere.

Eventually, when the computer actually got upgraded, I started playing games more than making them, which leads on nicely to:

Games that Influenced me in no particular order:



Descent (and illicit multiplayer games after school in the computer lab)
I never really played Doom – the shooter that really caught my attention was Descent and its confusing 3D levels.  My first foray into IPX-based internet gaming and level design.
-- Descent levels created – lost in the mists of time

Quake (and Team Fortress in particular)
Another shooter I remember having awesome fun with – not only with more level design and multiplayer, but also coding - and an important lesson in game design.

I had a fantastic idea for a quake mod – multiplayer survival horror.  All the enemies would be replaced with zombies that could never be gibbed – they could never be killed, only slowed down.  To heighten the tension, and to promote teamwork, I stole---- was influenced by Team Fortress, and added three classes.  One to use keys, one to use buttons, and one with a more powerful weapon. 

The very first playtest session with my friends was a complete farce - there were three of us, each playing one of the classes. This was perhaps not the best of ideas, because as soon as a single player died, the entire team was doomed, trapped behind doors they could not open or zombies they could not kill.  The only way to regroup was for the stragglers to commit suicide, and respawn at the start of the level.  And fight back through all the zombies which had now recovered (and the health packs and ammo that had not).  To this day my friends never let me forget it.
-- Levels and mods created for this game – quite possibly backed up on a CD lost in the garage.

Myst (and it's sequels, but especially Riven)
I have no amusing anecdotes to relate.  I will just say that the combination of exploration, puzzles and atmosphere is something that has influenced many of the games I have designed on paper.  And I have completed none of them.
-- Knytt Stories level partially influenced by the atmosphere of some Myst ages – started, not finished:



Final Fantasy Tactics (and all Nipon Ichi's entries into the tactical number-porn genre)
Far more guilty of stealing my time than influencing me in any meaningful way, I still enjoy a good tactical RPG.  One of these days I'll probably buy a PSP just for Final Fantasy Tactics.
-- Plans for making my own Tactical RPG – all in my head.

The Incredible Machine 2 (which I have never found a worthy successor for)
Another game I played obsessively in my youth, it caters to my love of things that are far to complicated to be practical.  I wish I had a computer that could play it.
-- Prototypes for a card game based on Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg style machines: Started, not finished


Lemmings (and its music)
Yet another game I wish I could still play with the original music (why does the windows version have such bad music?)  Did they have something against Tracker music?
-- Designs for lemmings levels – strewn on a million pieces of scrap paper in childhood.

And, of course Cave Story.  But you already knew that, because it is that good.

As for me, my camera is broken, so here is a photo taken three years ago, with my family cropped out:

Digger

Oh man, that brings back memories.  I loved that game (I remember the day I learned that you actually had a weapon.  The game became only slightly easier). 

I don't like posts that go like "this is a game I am working on."  I don't believe in them.  If you make a post about "a game I am working on" it is cursed forever and will not be completed.

I think I have to agree with you – I am one of those annoying people with a tiny attention span who goes “Look what I started” and then never has the dedication to finish.  With any luck, I'm going to finish off my failed VGNG entry and make it a real game.  We shall see how that goes.

Wow that was long.

[EvilDrBin]

Oh man, that brings back memories.  I loved that game (I remember the day I learned that you actually had a weapon.  The game became only slightly easier).

Haha yeah, it was something stupid like f1 wasn't it?

[Matthew Longworth]

Yup.  I wonder who thought that F1 would make a good button for fire.  Maybe they though that when the players finally got fed up getting crushed by the collectables and pressed F1 for help, they'd discover the fire button.

I have to go and find a version that works under Vista now.  There was a java version on digger.org, but it was a bit slow

[Kvalsternacka]

Kvalsternacka, what company do you work for?

You've probably never heard of it, but the name of the studio is Tarsier Studios. The only thing it's remotely known for is a never released game called City of Metronome.

[Gressmon]

Hi guys,

I'm Pierre, 21, from Paris, France (les gars, si vous me lisez ...). You can find me on teh internet as Gressmon (nice smiley, eh!), and I'm on an holy epic quest to promote independent games in France (or for 100 french people, it'll be a good start).

Look at this image closely. It's not me.

Look at this closely. It's me. Srsly.

I started playing at the age of i-dont-remember-when. My father had an old computer and installed some old games like Jill of the Jungle, or Commander Keen. As soon as I started playing, my fate was sealed, I was destined to be a passionate gamer  .

I should play it again some day ...

Then I had a gameboy, with Tetris and Kirby (). I never had a NES or SNES, I started console playing with Playstation, and I blame myself for that (sad, sad story  )

My favorite all time game is Little Big Adventure 2, on PC.

I like everything in gaming : innovative gameplay, catchy music, original graphic style, good story. I like new games, old games, hard games, weird games, 2h programmed-games (I love you cactus).

As you can see, independent games match perfectly with my gaming-taste, as they are often innovative on every aspect. My favorites are so far : Cave Story, Nikujin, Within a Deep Forest, Fl0w, World Of Goo, Clean Asia, and maybe some others ...

I love you 2D Boy !

I also have a recently started blog on independent games. Beware, it's in French, and it's called La Pause du Gamer.

As I said, I'm just on the player side, I'm not programming (not yet, maybe in future). I'm studiyng web programmation and visual communication in a school at Montreuil, near Ubisoft (he!).

Finally, I'm a guitar player who likes to cover some NES music, check out my videos !






MegaMan X - Storm Eagle

Voilà ! Thanks for reading !

[Noyb]

You've probably never heard of it, but the name of the studio is Tarsier Studios. The only thing it's remotely known for is a never released game called City of Metronome.

The game where you would record music and background sounds in order to attack enemies and solve puzzles? Looked amazing when I saw a gameplay trailer for it a while back. Last I heard you guys were having publisher troubles, right? Is there any chance it'll ever be released? 

[Alec]

Finally, I'm a guitar player who likes to cover some NES music, check out my videos !






MegaMan X - Storm Eagle

Voilà ! Thanks for reading !

Nice, I love listening to these!

and welcome.

[jennatar]

I started playing at the age of i-dont-remember-when. My father had an old computer and installed some old games like Jill of the Jungle, or Commander Keen. As soon as I started playing, my fate was sealed, I was destined to be a passionate gamer  .

I should play it again some day ...

God I love that game. Early "Epic MegaGames" shareware! It's pretty terrible. I still play it every once in awhile in dosbox.

[Bubbinska]

Hi, all.

I just signed up to the forums to vote on the VGNG competition, but I might stick around, because I guess I could consider myself a game developer. Right now, I'm just a pizza guy with limited experience and a sock full of mushy ideas, but maybe one day I'll be a pizza guy with a few games under his belt. Currently I'm learning C++ so I can make a mod for Half-Life 2.

I'm a graphic artist some days, and a programmer on others. I live in Australia, and have been gaming since the days of god-knows-when. I noticed someone posted a pic of Jill of the Jungle, and I remember that. Played the shareware of Commander Keen, the first Duke Nukem and so forth. I still can't bring myself to finally delete quake 2.

[bowlofnoodles]

Hello, I'm Ben.  I'm going to apologize in advance for the ad hoc writing structure of this post.

I'm a high school junior at the time of this writing.  I started programming QBASIC (lol) in 6th or 7th grade, I can't remember.  I taught myself HTML via one of those for Dummies books (to this day I'm not sure how, as those books really aren't so great) and quickly picked up XHTML/CSS.  But that stuff's not really programming.

My first "games" were text adventures in QBASIC and even TI-BASIC... I think I was just very bored in Algebra I.  Today I make weird stuff on the TI-83+ on those "blah" days in Calc BC class...

I grew up with computer games on some DOS computer that had Wolfenstein 3D on it; it was the first "violent" game I ever played.  The computer also had that classic "scorched earth" game, but it was all ASCII graphics.  The first thing with any resemblance to a GUI that I ever saw was good ol' Norton Commander.  And then came Windows 3.1 and SkiFree.  And then assorted games from Humongous Entertainment that all ran on the SCUMM engine (used for Escape from Monkey Island and those other Lucasfilm games).  All of this happened in my early elementary school days, that is, first or second grade, I think.

My dad's friend had sent me a Game Boy Advance before it had come out in the States.  I was the coolest kid on the block and all these weirdo children were trying to connect their game boy colors to the advance so they could play some Mario Bros.... Those kids never made sense in anything they did.

So then was all that middle school stuff I said.  I (aka my dad whom I paid) bought the domain bowlofnoodles.com when I was in 7th grade. In freshman year I did freelance web design/webdev with my newly self-taught PHP skills.  I never looked at many programming languages other than that at the time.  Sophomore year came and I didn't do much but play tennis, violin, and video games.  Oh yeah, I was teaching myself Japanese in sophomore year... ここのフォーラムで誰が日本語を話せますか？ But then I discovered Blender.  However, I was put off by its intimidating interface until last year.  Now, I love Blender.  I've only recently seriously taken up programming; I took a Java course last semester and I'm doing Data Structures now...  I taught myself python over Christmas break and I'm tinkering with the Panda3D game/graphics library for python (http://www.panda3d.org).

I signed up on these forums because I thought I would enter the VGNG competition, but I realized that I would have to learn a lot to be able to produce anything I would actually want to exhibit.  I didn't want to do something in Game Maker because that seemed sort of low to me.  Now, I'm definitely not dissing GM users, not with awesome games like seiklus out there (http://www.autofish.net/clysm/art/video_games/seiklus/)...  I just wanted to be able to say that I did more than make graphics and script simple actions.

In any case, I think I'll create Caribbean Lawnmowing Psychiatrist anyway.

よろしくお願いします。 （・＿・）

[Pencil_In_Pain]

Hi, everybody.

I just wanted to leave a small message in one of the threads, but I suppose I should follow the rules and post here too. My name is Alberto and I live in Spain, so English is not my birth language. Sorry if my posts aren't too long and I apologise for any mistakes I can make. I've been lurking around the forums and the main TIGSource website for some months and I've found a lot of great games and info, so thanks everybody.

Now, speaking about gaming... I'm mostly a PC guy, but I have a taste for discount stores and dated (retro?) games. I'm currently playing through the first MDK and System Shock 2 but I love pixel art and 2d games too.

A few favorites through the ages: Batman (CPC), Kung-Fu Master, Carrier Command, Anything by Capcom / SNK in the arcades, Shadowrun (SNES), Snatcher, Chrono Trigger, Mario Kart, Power Stone I/II, Jet Set Radio, Noctropolis, Gabriel Knight, DiscWorld, Incubation, Resident Evil I/II, Diablo, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex (favorite game ever).

My favorite independent games? Torus Trooper, 1213, The Art of Theft, Chalk, Noitu Love, Iwanaga, Psychosomnium and Eternal Daughter to name only a few.

You can also visit my small website. There you can see some samples of my work as an illustrator and graphic designer. www.albertosilva.es

See you around!

[Friendly Rhinoceros]

Hello everyone!  I'm FriendlyRhinoceros.  I've read TIGSource for maybe a year, but probably less, and just recently looked at the forums, so I decided to join.

I've played games for a while, but I started getting tired of them a few years ago because I'm tired of all these games where you just shoot things.  I've seen thirteen movies this year so far, but I haven't finished a single game!  I've only ever finished one big game, Wind Waker, because I usually just get tired of them.  That's why I really enjoy these indie games.

My favorite game is Street Fighter.  I love everything about it, but I don't have people to play with.  Every once in a while I threaten to teach a friend Street Fighter, but they just laugh.  Maybe when IV comes out they will change their minds

I also like Guitar Hero.  I recently moved up to Expert and I love playing Search and Destroy until the solo and then failing

In terms of indie games, I love cactus's games (is that the right possessive?), especially Clean-Asia and Akuchizoku.  I also like Alien Hominid (it was my first indie game!) and can't wait for Castle Crashers.

For the past two or three years I've tried out a bunch of stuff game-related.  I learned to program (Java, C++, Actionscript), started animating/pixelling (Flash and Photoshop), and started taking piano lessons.  For music I use Ableton Live, but I'm really not that good at music yet.  Maybe one day!

ここのフォーラムで誰が日本語を話せますか？

すこし日本語をはなす! 日本語の二きゅう学生です.

I took it for two years, but I don't remember very much, especially kanji.  It's a fascinating language, though.  I really want to pick it up again.

[Daniel Benmergui]

hi,

I am Daniel Benmergui, and I'm so old I don't even remember when I started playing and making games, but I think it was an Atari 2600 when it was bleeding edge. I did not make games for the Atari 2600 though, because I was waiting for Game Maker to come out for it.

My main source of inspiration to do games are (some) Psygnosis games on the Amiga:

They had Roger Dean's art on them, the music was sophisticated compared to games at that time. But the gameplay was not up to it.

So I believe some twisted psychological dysfunction formed that compels me to think about gameplay to try to make the universe whole again.

I have a blog with which I have a love/hate relationship in http://ludomancy.com, where you can see some of the stuff I've been doing lately.

As for the future, I'm waiting for 2029 to become a cyborg together with Ray Kurzweil.

I want to visit mars.