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OHR Weekly August 8th, 2001

       By: Chaos Nyte
       


  Interview with Ralfo-

  [ChaosNyte] Ralfo, now were all eager to hear about new GS information, but first, how about a little background information. How long have you been working on OHR, and how many games have you made?
  [Ralfo] Hmm...
  [Ralfo] I've been working on the OHR since August of '98, where I found it on some random DBZ fanpage...I started coming around the community channel and website maybe early '99.
  [Ralfo] I've only released Fighting Chance officially, my newbie game, in demo form, and Wood! RPG which Jazz_Man and I did for the first 48 hour contest.
  [ChaosNyte] Ah yes. Fighting Chance, which you've recently submitted to O:OHR for review. Anything you're particularly proud of in it?
  [Ralfo] No.
  [Ralfo] Nothing about it at all, its horrible. :P
  [Ralfo] It had a nonexistent plot, rather poor graphics, and weak characters.
  [Ralfo] I also worked briefly on "Ron the Pimp" RPG as soon as I found OHR.

  [ChaosNyte] Ron the Pimp?
  [ChaosNyte] What was that all about?
  [Ralfo] Ron the Pimp...is...interesting...very very bad...it was all 3 maps: First you walked around a city, finding fellow pimps and street hoodlums and fighting police. The next map consisted of walking into a sewer and fighting a mutant slime man.
  [Ralfo] It had no planned story.
  [ChaosNyte] Sounds great.
  [Ralfo] I was basically just toying with the idea of making my own games.
  [Ralfo] Next up was FC.
  [Ralfo] The only reason I submitted FC for review was for completeness.
  [Ralfo] After FC, I went briefly on to work on a game called "Slakerz".
  [Ralfo] Which was supposed to be a modern RPG about a kid who was normal but witnessed black magic and was forced to fight them all by himself as well as everyone who didn't believe him.
  [Ralfo] I lost motivation on that and never really made any progression on it.

  [ChaosNyte] So now, what were all dying to hear about. Gevaldian Stakes. You've all ready submitted pictures on the boards, stopping a Flame War. So I've got to ask, how did you come up with that name, and what does it mean?
  [Ralfo] Heh.
  [Ralfo] Well...
  [Ralfo] First I might as well explain how the whole game came around, so bear with me:
  [Ralfo] Gevaldian Stakes was originally based on a short story I began writing simply titled "Hayman".
  [Ralfo] I never intended a game to come of it, but this past fall when I was laid up with a serious back problem, I drew a couple pictures of Hayman to keep me busy.
  [Ralfo] I just liked the way he came out, and figured he'd be cool. So I began drawing up pictures of the main character, Taeron, and sooner or later it just happened.
  [ChaosNyte] Interesting.
  [Ralfo] The name Gevaldian stakes came quite later.
  [Ralfo] Gevaldia is the name of the existence of the story.
  [Ralfo] They don�t understand the concept of a continent or planet, so its really just a portion of a continent and a few islands.
  [Ralfo] The name has a double meaning.
  [Ralfo] There is a geographical area of a dead forest called the Gevaldian Stakes, named so for the appearance of the bare trees.
  [Ralfo] It also means that the stakes (as in gambling stakes, whats at stake, you know what Imean) are so high they are exclusive to the area.
  [Ralfo] Essentially, Gevaldia is at stake.
  [Ralfo] Sounded alot better than "Hayman RPG" to me. :P

  [ChaosNyte] How much of the demo is, at this point, complete? How long do you hope the game will be?
  [Ralfo] The demo is around 60% done..it has most of the graphics complete, all that really remains is making a couple maps, some more plotscripting, and an intense bugtesting and playtesting phase by PK Fortis in order to insure maximum quality.
  [Ralfo] The wise do not set release dates, but I'd like to get it out before the end of summer. Don't hold me to that, however, because I won't release anything I don't deem the highest quality I can deliver.

  [ChaosNyte] How long will the full game be? Do you intend to finish it?
  [Ralfo] The full game covers alot of terrain.
  [Ralfo] If I had to set it in terms, I'd say this demo covers maybe 25-30 percent of the story.
  [Ralfo] The game changes feeling dramatically in the 2nd and 3rd parts, and the 4th will tie back to the first demo.

  [ChaosNyte] So will it all be one game?
  [Ralfo] Yes. However, the realm itself has a great potential for expansion.

  [ChaosNyte] So perhaps a sequel?
  [Ralfo] It has essentially another story that happens before GS, and there is already parts after I've thought up.

  [ChaosNyte] How much of GS are you actually doing?
  [Ralfo] I'm doing all the maptiles, NPCs, attacks, enemies, and backgrounds. Hero graphics are supposedly being done by Shiz, though he's being rather lethargic on the whole idea :)
  [ChaosNyte] Heh.
  [Ralfo] I'm also writing the entire story and dialogue, most of the game mechanics, etc.
  [Ralfo] I have a crack staff of Jazz_Man writing an original sound track, T-Master on plotscripting in order to deliver minigames and other intensive programming, and Shiz on graphics, I hope, and PK working on balancing.

  [ChaosNyte] How did you manage to enlist such a noteworthy team?
  [Ralfo] We are all members of Red Murdock Software save for PK, and good friends as well.
  [ChaosNyte] Ah.
  [Ralfo] I've worked with Jazz before on Wood! RPG, and TM on various RMS projects behind the scenes.
  [Ralfo] PK and I are good friends and help each other out whenever possible.
  [Ralfo] And Shiz is a great artist and was willing to help.

  [ChaosNyte] Ralfo, with your recent techno hit "Flame War" which has just come out, and long time classics like :"Jimmy Hack", there are reports that your planning a CD. Anything you can tell us?
  [Ralfo] Heh.
  [Ralfo] Me and Scyree have messed around with wav and mp3 for a while.
  [Ralfo] We even had Mattgamerr recording with us on a funny track of a Blink 182 song.
  [Ralfo] If I was gonna do a CD, which would be purely for a fun joke or a conversation at school, they would all be home-burned, free CDs I'd hand out to my friends or whatnot.
  [Ralfo] All of my songs would be available free from a whoever wants to host us.
  [Ralfo] Another idea would be to create a OHR CD.
  [ChaosNyte] Which would be cool.
  [Ralfo] Since I know Harlock, Nova, Jazz_Man, UberSteve, and others on IRC late at night sometimes like to exchange wacky songs with each other and myself.
  [Ralfo] No one can underestimate the humor potential for the community.

  [ChaosNyte] Any plans? You know it would sell well.
  [Ralfo] Sell well to who?
  [ChaosNyte] Er...I'd buy a copy.
  [Ralfo] Most of the stuff is inside jokes, but as of now it's just joking around and having a good time.
  [Ralfo] People like my parents never could do stuff like this when they were kids.

  [ChaosNyte] Anything else you'd like to add?
  [Ralfo] I like to see more of these contests.
  [Ralfo] We get larger releases of quality games than from anything else.
  [Ralfo] Also, those of you who are new to the engine: Don't get frustrated on your projects if it doesn't look as good as someone else's, or if they don�t have the intense scripting. As long as YOU like your game, and you get to share your ideas with everyone else, its worth producing.
  [Ralfo] Come around IRC, most of us won't kill you.
  [ChaosNyte] Heh, not true.
  [Ralfo] As long as you are mature and ask intelligent questions, myself and others will likely be happy to contribute to your troubleshooting.
  [Ralfo] The only person you have to worry about is CN, who will make fun of you unless you call him a big-stupid-harry-potter-head.
  [ChaosNyte] Heh.
  [Ralfo] My last comment:
  [Ralfo] There's nothing more fun than drinking hot cocoa with pirates. Think about that for a while. Thanks, CN.
  [ChaosNyte] Great job Ralfo.
  [ChaosNyte] Damn. One more question.
  [Ralfo] Okay, throw it in.
  [ChaosNyte] Why in god's name did you pick the name Ralfo?
  [Ralfo] Ralfo has a long and colorful history
  [Ralfo] Back in the day when Everquest came out, I ran out and bought it with all my friends. As soon as I had it installed, I was possessed by the idea of a halfling druid named Ralfo.
  [Ralfo] I just stuck with that character for the whole 8 months I played the game.
  [Ralfo] I don�t know really where it came from.
  [Ralfo] It hit me like a sack of bricks.
  [ChaosNyte] Like a ton of rec'tanglar building objects?
  [Ralfo] I just like it because its short, original, and sounds wacky and interesting.
  [ChaosNyte] Heh.
  [Ralfo] Like a cartoon action onomatopoeia for getting hit with a rubber mallet.
  [ChaosNyte] All right, thanks Ralfo. And...were out!

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