One of the games in our showcase is Crimson Children, and it’s made by Cynic-P. Next to that game, she’s also working on Zelda: Return from Grace, and some other games. Cynic-P was kind enough to answer a few questions about making games.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? How old you are, where you live, how you spend your days, etc?
I’m a 19-year-old college students living in Orlando, Florida. I spend most of my days playing video games like the Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, The Last of Us, and Fallout: New Vegas (no, I haven’t gotten the fourth one yet because I am a broke college student). Sometimes I eat healthy and get plenty of sunshine and exercise… Sometimes I don’t. Okay, most of the time I don’t. I also spend much of my time trying to create games.
What inspired you to make your own game “Crimson Children”?
It has to absolutely be my upbringing with RPGs that inspired me to create “Crimson Children”. I was raised on Zelda, a game that not only taught me practical skills like hand-eye coordination, literacy, and problem solving but also moral factors. My mom worked for may hours of the day, and my father was nonexistent, so the game was a replacement for a moral compass; it taught me loyalty, love for your fellow man, determination, tenacity, dedication, and, of course, to always save your princess.
All of these moral values Zelda instilled in me accumulated into this respect of video games (and a cringey middle school phase of fanfiction and yaoi to boot ;D) that I have today. Like books– or, the devil as I like to call them– or movies, video games have their own way of telling a story, and what are humans if not habitual story-tellers? I want to capitalize on this seldom seen medium for intellectual, moral, and critical thinking that video games pose, and thus “Crimson Children” was born.
You have a very nice vision on games. A lot of people consider games just as entertainment, or even consider them as a bad influence, because of all the fighting and violence. It’s nice to hear your experience and vision is the complete opposite.
How did you end up with using RPG Playground? I assume you tried other tools before?
Oh, yes, absolutely! I’ve been delving into making games since I was in elementary school. It first started with a makeshift point-and-click adventure using Power Point. It was an extremely tedious process of using action buttons, pulling images from Google, then dress up games, and then the 3D animation software MikuMikuDance, but I soon realized it was not worth the hassle. I needed something better. From there, I did what every other millennial with a question does: I went to Google.
I tried to get Flash, as Newgrounds was all the hype back then, but the coding and UI was a bit too much on the 11-year-old eyes. So, then I tried RPGMaker. And failed. I tried Adventure Maker. And failed. It seemed that that was it for me and my gaming career… Until I came across RPG Playground.
Right away, I was impressed by the UI. It was clear, straightforward, and simple. Clean. I played around with it for a while and found that what it offered was almost everything that I was looking for, and that it allowed for me to really get creative and find ways to set my games apart. I also liked the relatively small community (as anyone who posts games to Steam knows this is a blessing), and the approachability of the host (yes, you, Koen ;D). It wasn’t perfect, but it was growing, and that was how I ended up using RPG Playground.
What would make it perfect for you?
I’d have to say, it needs two major things. The first thing, which I know you’re probably tired of hearing about and have already ingrained it into your head by now lol, is a battle system. I’m not even picky at this point. Something that works. Something customizable. The second thing is that it needs to have a more evolved screenplay (i.e being able to have an actor move out of the way with a certain token, which I know was one of your visions a while back, and also effect other events). With those two things, it would only be a matter of a few tweaks here and there. For example, making it so that you can duplicate rooms (which is insanely helpful given that I currently have to manually make an exact copy of a room in order to make it seem as though an action effected the room) or adding a feature for menus, etc.
I know you’re working hard, and I want you to know that we all really appreciate it. You’re doing great things, Koen, and we’re all excited for what’s in store for the future of RPG Playground.
Assume RPG Playground has all these features, and you are able to make a complete game with it. Would you consider making a commercial release of your game, on Steam or some App store?
I would consider it. I’m not sure if I would or not, but it would be a possibility. I have very limited time, and keeping up with a commercial version of a hobby would be very difficult if not impossible at this stage in my life. I also believe in free games 🙂
In that case I’m really looking forward to play all of your free games :). Thank you a lot for this interview, and I hope to see more of your work, especially when new features are added to RPG Playground. Thank you Cynic-P!
Definitely! Thanks for all you do, too, Koen! You’re doing awesome things.