It's been 10 years now. Wow, time sure does fly by... it seems only like yesterday that I've set foot into this place. And man, have things changed in 10 years.
But don't take my word for it! Here's... me, with a message for everyone here.
10 Years - The Sentimental Video
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Anniversaries are a time of reminiscing, of nostalgia. Yes, a lot has happened in 10 years. And the great majority of that lot includes the holds that I've been working on. To anybody who's known me for long enough, you'll know that I have this tendency to start many projects and not finish most of them. It's a pretty disappointing fact of life, because many of these projects had a lot of promise. Unfortunately, fate has struck them down it seems. But on this 10 year anniversary, I believe it only fitting to pay homage to all those holds that I published here, and the ones that never really got finished. So here's my tribute. Enjoy.
10 Years - Jeff_Ray's Hold History
Here are some thoughts on each hold in the montage:
Sudoken's Dungeon: It's weird how the first hold I ever posted on the Architecture board was better quality than the first hold I published. But I guess that's how it turned out. Sudoken's Dungeon was a fairly simplistic hold with a few grains of cleverness here and there. It's mostly hack and slash, but I'd say it was pretty good.
An event #1: This hold has become really infamous in this community. It's hands down the worst thing I've ever made. And 1N shows us exactly why we need Hold Admins.
Jeffrey's Hold (The First One): I don't have any traces of this madness anymore. This hold saw me in a delirious frenzy to create a 60 level behemoth, and it didn't pan out too well. I managed to make it to around Level 33 before a Windows crash caused me to lose all data. It's an unfortunate loss. Kind of like a library being burned down, I guess.
My Thoughts Built Into DROD: These ~3 rooms were built on paper, and then were ported into the game. As a result, this became one of the better works of my early years.
Beethro's Roach: This hold was my attempt to emulate JtRH in my own way. It was pretty crummy. In it, Beethro apparently has a pet roach that can talk, and it and Halph are supposedly agents of the Empire. It got to 13 levels, plus a started 14th one, before the project stopped being worked on.
Pritanus' Dungeon: Another hold that was planned to be pretty huge. In it, Beethro clears a dungeon but finds out there are people in there. One of the guards becomes Beethro's friend and accompanies him through the dungeon. I managed to make it to 13 full levels, and started the 14th one before I stopped working on it.
Jeffrey's Hold (MK II): One day, I posted a topic claiming I was stumped with Architecture. None of my projects ever got anywhere. So someone suggested making a short 1 level hold instead of giant projects. And so this hold was made, and eventually published. After about 2 years, I published my second hold, and it was much better than the first!
Tardustrial Park: 3rd published hold. I aimed for a shorter project just like with Jeffrey's Hold, and it paid off! The hold involves Beethro going to a tar park to hone his smitemaster skills, and ends up trying to save the tarstuff from goblins that want to harvest the essence of tar to make cures for injuries... by killing the tar mothers and babies. Yeah, plot wasn't my main focus here.
Dark Sewers: With TCB offering lots of new possibilities, I wanted to fully explore them. This hold featured Beethro wandering into a sewer, only to find himself on a quest to the Briar Lair to strike the Master Orb so that prisoners could be freed. I almost finished that hold, but I stopped working on it right before starting the Briar Lair...
Hool Mansion: This one was a bit weird. Looking back on it, I'm not sure what I was trying to do. There was one level in which you play the role of the supposed antagonist, but that's about it. Lots of fegundo puzzles in that level.
Smart Brain Sanctum: Another short hold focused on puzzles instead of size. This one is probably one of the more forgettable holds I released, but there are still a few nuggets of cleverness here and there.
Mysteries of the Deep: This one was a pretty risky effort. After a long time of making short to medium-sized projects, I began this rather epic effort to make a beginner-friendly hold. Sadly, it... kind of failed. There are some rooms that are way too frustrating for their location (coughlevelfivequarcenorthcough). But it's generally well-liked, so I guess that's good. Also, there are some pretty silly nonsensical lines in there.
Homeward Adventure: Ah, my magnum opus.
This one took seven (count them, seven!) years to get from its start to its release. And I couldn't be any prouder of it. Sure, the rooms for the most part harken to a time where my level design wasn't all that top-notch, but again it seems to work well for some people. I'm especially proud of the touches I added after the release of TSS (the intro sequence, the map, the post-conquer content, most of the secrets). In fact, after the release of TSS, I spent almost a whole month reworking the hold to a satisfactory level. I put a lot of work into this hold, and I'm glad to see it see the light of day.
Halph's Resurfacing: My first foray into RPG holds. This one was pretty linear in general. Not much else to say.
The Test of Mind: This hold was inspired by Fetch the Pie, if I remember correctly. I aimed to make a relatively challenging hold, but it turned out pretty easy in the end. Still, in a land of rather tough holds, this was a welcome change. It even won an award in the 2009 Deadlies!
Invasion of the Critters: To counter-balance the previous, much easier hold, I made this one as tough as possible. And many people seem to agree that this one is really rough. However, it didn't get too far into production.
Caravel Building RPG: This hold was based on Inside the Caravel Building, a Caravel Forum fanfic which portrays the forum as a huge building where every member lives their forum lives. I made it to three levels, and began a fourth, but the third and fourth levels were lost to time, which made me pretty much give up on the whole thing.
Riddles Within The Below: The title is basically just a synonym for Mysteries of the Deep.
Anyway, this hold is my attempt to make a higher quality version of MotD, with a friendlier difficulty curve and fewer dud rooms. It's still in progress as we speak, 16 levels have been finished and the 17th is being made.
The Rough Adventure Of Budkin: My attempt at a high difficulty hold. It didn't work too well though, since the only truly challenging room was 1W. For the most part, this hold has horde puzzles. It's only a level long, which makes it one of my shorter works.
Out The Deep End: I wanted this hold to become the first GatEB hold published, but it ended up being one of the last. It's one level long with around 10 shallow water-focused puzzles.
An event #2: This hold is meant to be a bit of a parody of its predecessor and other bad holds, but it evolved into a truly absurd lampshade-hanging adventure with loads of scripted elements. Still in works as we speak. The next version will feature very amateur voice acting!
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So that's about it for my 10 year celebration. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for providing me with these 10 wonderful years of awesomeness. It's been a blast, and I certainly hope it will continue to be a blast. Here's to 10 more great years!
-Jeff_Ray ===
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I make Let's Plays too!
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(Updated 5/05/2020)
-Witherwood Castle
-Escort Mission
-Subterra Prime
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