Thanks for the topic!
I know I've often shared parts of my DROD story, but I've never sat down to write up the whole thing.
I first discovered DROD thanks to a friend from another forum I used to frequent. At the time, I was studying for my MA and didn't have much money, so I had the attitude that it wasn't okay to spend money on games unless it was something
really special (like the PC remakes of the
Repton series).
So I got the JtRH demo and played KDD as my first hold. The 2.0 demo has only the Foundation room style, so for me, the Foundation music has always felt like the "
main theme"
of DROD. I got through KDD fairly easily, only needing help on a few rooms: the backswiping room in Level 3, 14:2E because it used not to have that checkpoint at the beginning, and 23:1N because manipulating two goblins at once was more than I could handle. (It was a severe disappointment when I looked up H&S and it said that you can just break the snake widget. More on that later.)
I was immediately drawn to the editor, because making new levels for games has been one of my biggest passions ever since
Repton 3 when I was a kid. I didn't make puzzles at first; I played around with Beethro meeting NPCs, and I had rooms like a castle entrance where you have to fight guards. I may have started forming ideas for a grandiose story I could tell in the DROD medium, but nothing came of it.
Then, just over a month after I discovered DROD, TCB came out. Of course I grabbed the demo and was absolutely blown away: without having played JtRH, I didn't really know what was going on in the story, but it was clear that this was a whole
world to explore, full of fascinating lore and quirks that set my imagination flowing. The new lighting effects were gorgeous, adding a new sense of atmosphere and mystery to the already gorgeous graphics. And the writing... I had
never seen writing like this in a game before. It still sends shivers down my spine when I re-read it:
Pit Thing: Beethro Budkin.
Beethro: Eh? Who's there?
Pit Thing: Just an old friend.
Beethro: Oh, you. Yeah, it's been a while. So we're friends now?
Beethro: Mostly I remember you hissing at me a lot and trying to act scary.
Pit Thing: Always we were friends, Beethro. Like a child loves his toys.
Pit Thing: I sought only to deepen your ability to fear.
Pit Thing: There are very large things to fear. A brave man has only conquered smaller worries.
Sadly, I still didn't feel able to buy either game's full version. That was a huge mistake. Very soon, all the new holds coming out were using 3.0 elements that I didn't understand, and I felt left behind. It didn't help that I was going through a difficult stage in my life in other respects, which I won't go into. In any case, at some point I just gave up on DROD and quit the forum.
After a long time, I checked back in to see how things were ticking over, and there was a new game on the block. I loved DROD RPG straight off, and finally managed to talk myself into buying the full version. (I think I also bought JtRH at around this time, and played up to Level 18 before getting stuck.) For a long time, I was involved with the RPG but still felt I didn't really "
get"
DROD itself. The community's interest in RPG waned once the novelty had worn off, and after a while I took another hiatus.
Then a couple of years later, I happened to check back in again, and again there was a new game out. Seeing that GatEB was specially designed as an easier introduction to the series, I
had to give it a go, and it was a huge confidence boost when I got through it without getting stuck, and then went back and finished off JtRH.
Then the biggest thing of all happened. I was chosen to be a beta tester for TSS. I wasn't just a bumbling idiot crashing the DROD party any more. I could give useful feedback on how the new game felt to someone who wasn't good at DROD. But I wanted to do more, and I pushed hard against the game until I made progress.
Eye of the Storm nearly broke me, but I persisted. I completed
Experiment of Ages by myself. (That felt so good that I still have a screenshot of the moment "
Exit Level"
came up as my wallpaper!)
I also, finally, got started with architecture. Indeed, I believe
Bubble Wrap holds the distinction of being the first usermade hold started in 5.0. I knew that I couldn't make a really good puzzle hold, but I believed one thing I could do was make a hold that would appeal to beginners and be a step up from the usual "
tutorial hold"
fare.
The whole project of updating the official holds really started when I got stuck with
Bubble Wrap. I'm not even sure which level or room I was on, but I was finding it difficult to put together a puzzle the way I saw it in my mind, or maybe I just wasn't coming up with good ideas, and I wanted to get something done, so I started adding challenges to KDD as a form of relaxation to take my mind off the feeling of frustration. Mike liked the idea, so I got permission to add scripted challenges to the official KDD2.0 release, and things took off from there.
As for
Entry Point, that's another big story. At first, I saw it as a rival to
Bubble Wrap and wasn't at all keen to involve myself in both. After a month, the founding members of EP had built the first three levels, but with no team leader, there was no mechanism for putting them together into a tier, calling that done, and moving on. One day in chat, 12th Archivist was talking about scrapping the project, and I didn't want it to fall apart, so I decided I had to step up. It's been a long journey, but I don't regret the time I've spent on it. It's helped me enormously with my confidence, and meant I have something to say at job interviews when I'm asked about working in a team. And I think we've made a
really good hold, and I am really looking forward to getting it released.
____________________________
50th Skywatcher
) made me take the plunge recently and I bought them all at once there on GOG, at full price, to boot. Now I've played them and, whilst right now I'm pretty damn poor as a player (...seriously. Think even simple screens), I just can't get enough. And I totally think the graphics suit the game(s). Sometimes you need to experience something direct to realise, without just looking at a static image, or even watching a video. The graphics are simple and uncluttered and are exactly what's needed, whilst still having enough detail.
), but in the end the combination of how many portal 2 maps there were, the exceptionally poor organization scheme valve has for the workshop with respect to something like individual levels, and just a lack of any real curation in general, my creations weren't getting much attention.
