LuisCastanon.com

Buzzwerd and TrueDarkness

December 2007

Q:

It’s been quite awhile since we had a multi-author Artist of the Month feature, what better time than now?
I admit that these features are a bit more biased to the ‘artistic’ end of the Flash scene but it’s always nice to be able to squeeze in our actionscripting brothers whenever the opportunity allows for it.
This month we pry into the minds of two of the most consistent artist-programmer team-ups that the Flash scene has fathered. Kevin Barrios aka Buzzwerd and fellow programmer TrueDarkness aka David Silver have spent the bulk of their Flash lives working collaboratively, lets see if we can squeeze out the secret recipe for happy artist-programmer relationships by the time we get to the end of the interview. Welcome Gentelmen!
Ok first question is the classic one, what got you started in flash? when did you start? and why?

A:

Buzzwerd: My brother got me started. I’d been making little cartoons using MS Paint and Windows Movie Maker. When my brother saw them, he suggested I try Flash 5. He showed me the ropes and I kind of learned from there on my own. I’ve been drawing since I was like 5, and when I got to see my drawings moving around it was magical. So I stuck with it, and to this day still work with Flash.

TrueDarkness: I started using Flash at the age of 12, when I was introduced to it by my older brother, who’s friends used it. Amazed at the types of animations my brothers friends created, I was motivated to create my own little animations. Shown the basics of how the program worked by my brother, I started to create some little silly stick animations, in which at the time I thought were the greatest animations on Earth. Soon after using Flash, I began to visit Newgrounds.com, a site that had strangely intrigued me. I guess the reason it captured me so much was because of the idea that there were other people out there like me, making the same types of animations, if not much better. So all in all the site motivated me to keep doing what I was doing. So, 2 years go by and I still haven’t lost interest in Flash. However, I began experiencing something you may know as Animator/Artist block, and since I wasn’t the best of both of those anyway, I had suffered from it even more. So, I took a turn in my little Flash career and started to get into programming. I began to experience the wonders and joys of coding. It was a lot of fun, and I was enjoying what I was doing even more this time round. So, I stuck with that. I’m 16 years old now and I’ve been coding ever since.

Q:

You all are such youngins…. so how did you two hook up? How long have you guys been working together for?

A:

Buzzwerd: We worked together back when Dave was an animator on a collaboration Xionic Demon put together. A bit later, I found out Dave was dipping his toes into coding so I talked to him about starting a project. From that came out first full game, Kogent Knight. It’s been about 2 years now, though it feels much longer.

TrueDarkness: I met Kevin one day online when he had IMed me for a reason I can’t recall. I remember that we had worked on a collab with some other people previously. He was just another user that animated in my eyes, as was I to him. But, that day that he IMed me, he had asked me if I knew how to code. By this time, I did, and fairly well too. So, I told him yes. He then asked me if I wanted to make a game with him. Doubting my scripting skills, I was hesitant on saying yes, but for some strange reason, I did. He said, “great!” and drew up an amazing character design. Amazed at his artwork, I became thrilled with the idea of working with him. So after a month or so, we had released our first true game in 2005, Kogent Knight, which is actually fairly popular now, to my surprise. We’ve been working together, a lot, ever since.

Q:

Adorable. So is there any particular styles or artist that have influenced you throughout your Flash career?(Kevin) Feel free to jump right in Dave with whatever games may have influenced your work in the scene!

A:

Buzzwerd: Its hard to pinpoint any artists in particular. My influences are mainly old video games. They seemed to have it down back then. The creative design back then is baffling, and puts most new game designers to shame. The art as well, with such limited technology, some of the most amazing graphics have been created. Nowadays with rendered graphics, games have lost their hand made appeal, and it all feels like a robot did it. Some of it at least. In my opinion, good artists aren’t so much influenced by a few artists, but they absorb a little something from all over. That’s how it works for me at least..

TrueDarkness: Oh, there are many, many games that have influenced my work. However, to list them all would be pretty crazy. I haven’t really been influenced by a single particular game, but rather, lots of different games, that have spawned different ideas in my head for things I can create myself.

Q:

I’d say your style is reminescent of Japanese design or street art, Kevin. I cant exactly put my finger on it, but I can see traces of Murakami. Anywho, enough of the cutesy questions, time to stir up the contraversy. Flash gaming in particular has enjoyed a boom lately with start-up sponsors companies coming out of nowhere and providing financial freedom to creators that previously didnt exist. What influence did that have on your own work and what influence do you think it has on the scene as a whole from your point of view?

A:

Buzzwerd: With the “boom” of these sponsors, I’ve noticed a massive deterioration in the quality of games coming onto the scene. However, there are still a handful of good games coming through. I’ve noticed a lot of new artists jumping into flash in search of a quick buck, and it really just diminishes the quality of our media. When we create a game, we do it because we love it. We are going to keep making games no matter what, and if people want to give us money for it, why not? The problem really, are the people that come in expecting to make tons of money. It doesn’t play any part in how we make our games, we do what we want, and if someone wants to pay us for it, sure.

TrueDarkness: Well, before I had started working with Kevin, I had declared myself a good enough scripter to create a game with my friend Scott. We had heard of sponsorships, but didn’t know much about them and how they worked. All we knew is that we got money for doing something that we both loved. We knew of a fairly big sponsoring company that seemed rather legit, Games of Gondor. So, I contacted them via email, and they were hasty in replying back to me. They answered some questions I had, and helped me understand a lot. So, Scott and I had agreed to have them sponsor our game, Hoverbot. Sure enough, they paid us both as they said they would. I was very happy, and had then began to trust them as sponsors. They had soon changed their name to Armor Games.
Now, I continue to make games with Kevin, and generally get them sponsored. However, I’d like people to understand that we don’t make games FOR money, nor should anyone. Making games should be a personal passion, not a way of making money. I make games because I love to. When I don’t, I become unhappy and unmotivated. Making games gives me a sense of accomplishment. If I can get money on the side for what I love to do, then great. If I can’t, big whoop, I’m still going to complete it and publish it. I feel that too many authors are making low quality games for money, when they could be making high quality games for fun!

Q:

Its interesting how that whole dilemma was one that didnt exist during my early years, its amazing how things change as the Flash scene matures. Speaking of change, where do you think the scene is headed in 2008 and beyond? Dave feel free to take a stab at this one.

A:

TrueDarkness: Every year, I see an increase in what sponsors are willing to pay authors. I think that because of this, a lot more games will be made in 2008, as will even more games be made in 2009, and so on. The fact is, people are greedy. Not everyone, nowhere near everyone, but a lot of people ARE greedy. So, these people with a talent of being able to make games, are going to use their talent for the wrong reasons, producing low quality, unoriginal games to get a nice sum of money. I think that this is the wrong way to go, and like I said, games should be made for the love of making games, not for how much money you can get off of it. However, I also think that with each upcoming year, talented flash artists will get even better, and produce higher and higher quality of games, with lots of originality, that are loads of fun to play. Now that is admirable!

Q:

Well, I think that the sponsor scene can only go so far, I can see it blowing its bottom similar to how the .com boom did back in the early 2000’s. Let’s spin a question Kevin’s way now: You are predominantly an game artist and have gotten a good grasp of the world of optimizing your animations in a flash game environment…. do you ever dabble in the pure animation end of the flash spectrum? Does it interest you at all, why or why not?

A:

Buzzwerd: I enjoy making games because it doesn’t require planning. I can set up tons of sprites and then mix them together and it ties itself into place. With a movie, lots of planning is required. When I have something planned out, and I already know what I have to do next I get bored. I don’t like knowing how something will turn out. I enjoy the spontaneity of it all. However I still do some animation, just so I don’t get rusty, and it is fun to do when you don’t plan everything out.
Making a game is kind of like building a robot, you put together the pieces, program it and paint it to make it look nice. I’ve always loved putting things together, making them work properly, and making them look nice. Making a movie to me always felt like knitting a sweater. You know almost exactly how the sweater will look, and all you have to do is work on it patiently until its done. With the robot, you know how it will turn out, but its function can vary. While one person might make the robot bring in the paper, another person might have it sweep leaves in the yard. A sweater has a set function, you put it on, it keeps your warm. I’ve never liked how set in stone the use of a movie is. That’s always been my problem with animation, it never changes when you watch it. Its really the only thing that keeps me from using my animation skill for movies, I would like to try it eventually though.

Q:

Well I must say that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of animiation being compared to a sweater. Kudos.
I can see Dave getting bored of our art babble, lets throw him a bone:
With Adobe’s semi-recent release of Flash 9 and their heavy concentration on fixing the actionscript end of the program, what sort of potential do its new features provide you from a flash game programmer. Have you got anything cooking up in your kitchen that is heavily influenced by Flash’s new suite of features in AS3 world?

A:

TrueDarkness: I haven’t worked much with Actionscript 3 yet, but I do plan to. I’ve created some small engines in AS3 that have prooved to run much faster and smoother, which can provide me with the ability to make new games a lot faster and better. I think that AS3 provides potential to do a lot of new things, including scripting involving 3D. I hope to learn such things sometime soon. At this point I do not have anything in the works with AS3, but I do have plans for many more games that I hope to release by the end of this year.

Q:

Speaking of learning, you and I actually worked together not too long ago on Escape from camp hostility, it was a pretty good learning experience for me and I noticed that naturally our work process was not totally in sync and we often bumped heads. I figure that with the amount of games that you and Kevin have churned out, you now work pretty smoothly in unison, that being said, do you feel less inclined to work with new artists due to the growing pains that you wouldnt have to go through with working with Kevin or on the otherhand do you feel burned out and yearn for a new face sometimes?
Dont worry I told Kevin to not feel hurt by the mean things you might say. :*(

A:

TrueDarkness: That is a very good point. I enjoy working with Kevin, a lot. We work quick, we know what we’re doing, and we’re both generally right on top of things, despite the differences we might have from time to time ;). I would have to say that after working with someone for such a long time like I have, it can be quite frustrating working with someone else, especially someone who’s never made a game before, and does not know how to organize their art in Flash. I enjoy working with other developers a lot, but I would have to say that it can get quite annoying from time to time when working with other developers. Truthfully, I don’t think I could ever get burned out when working with Kevin. Not only do I absoloutely love his art, but he is a cool guy, and we talk all the time about lots of things, school, parents, girls, music, movies. We’re not just artists, we’re good friends.

Q:

The theme song for the Ambiguously Gay Duo seemed to play in my head while you answered that. Ok, I’m losing focus. Here’s an easy question for both you goons, what’s your favorite game you’ve made thus far and why?

A:

Buzzwerd: Edward. It was under appreciated because of the latency issues, a growing problem in our newer games. However, it took many months of hard work and what we had when it was done was exactly what we wanted in our games. We had come close with Prehistoric, but it missed the mood that Edward had. The pride I have in Edward is that Tom Fulp actually sponsored it himself. It was great, it felt better than just being another closed off deal someone had made. Tom actually played the game, and sponsored it himself. I also got Johnny Utah to do a little voice clip in the beginning, though I don’t think he ever played the game.
TrueDarkness: I would have to say our most recent game, Edward too. I love the game and I love the feel of it. The art is just awesome and it has an epic story and great new features like nothing we’ve done before. I just think it’s an awesome game, and makes me happy knowing that we accomplished making such a game.

Q:

Boo, i didnt like that game that much. I think it had some awesome concepts but it had maybe TOO many concepts going around and it got a little scatter brained and not all of them were able to enjoy the limelight. Ok so any plans for 2008 for you lovebirds? 2007 is practically over you know.

A:

Buzzwerd: My main goal for 2008 is to make up for my laziness this year and push out a ton of new games. After Edward we kind of slowed down, and I hope this next year brings us back up again. It feels a bit like we’re falling off the map, and we’ve got to get back on it. We had a couple projects in production, but for now we’re going to focus on new things, hopefully things you will all get to see before 2008.
TrueDarkness: Games. Lots of games. I hope to release a bunch of new games in 2008, to make up for the lack of games we’ve produced this year. I hope to learn new scripting techniques to produce even better games and maybe even start scripting some AS3-made games, as talked about earlier.
Thanks a lot Luis for this interview and I’m glad you all get to hear my thoughts and opinions.

Thank you both for having me pull double-duty this month. Merry Quanza!