Image made by Lukasox.
Hello, KoGaMians!
Starting this year, a new regular type of news post will make its rounds here back on the platform - Builder Spotlight! You may’ve already heard the announcement of this in a prior post at the beginning of this year - but that was only scratching the surface! We’re taking the time here to explain to you a bit more about what is the purpose of this, what will it yield and what this could bring for the future.
(Note that the number of order is not a mistake: there have been 3 prior Builder Spotlights before!)
Info
Builder Spotlight will focus on a particular builder who has been active these past months; and has shown great skills, aspirations and impact on the platform. It’ll explore the builder’s history; starting with how they became accustomed to the platform, their struggles and new-found skills, their advice for other people on KoGaMa and what they’ll do next.
Contrary to Highlights of the Week, Builder Spotlight will appear once a month around the mid-to-late period, which will continue through the years. This means that in one year, there’ll be a total of 12 spotlights!
To read more about Builder Spotlight, its benefits and criteria, the link to it is [here.]
(This info will be mentioned inside the [wiki,] which will be linked at the bottom of every Builder Spotlight page, so you won’t have to keep coming back here to refresh your mind!)
And what better to start the first Builder Spotlight of this year than with PandaS2006!
About
Most likely you’ve come across this player already from his various games by the name of PandaS2006, also known as LukaBazooka. He’s been largely affiliated with creating content for the platform; ranging from games, models and to avatars! While notable on the outside, the creations at hand are not what they seem on the surface: their meanings and the impact they’ve had on him may not be as clear to others.
In this interview, PandaS2006 will dive deep into his experiences on KoGaMa, how he discovered the platform, what is the story behind his creations and advice to others in the creating field.
The interview
1. Introduce yourself to the community. When and how did you discover KoGaMa?
When I was a very young lad, half my days were spent playing browser games, whether they were from Miniclip, Newgrounds or other sites, if it caught my attention, I'd play them forever. And I think this is the same case with how I discovered KoGaMa. I probably found it by accident when it was advertised somewhere on another site back in 2015 & as I was open to playing anything to cure my boredom, I gave it a try & I guess the rest really's history.
2. From a design standpoint, your games stand out as being like art and literature projects rather than simple forms of leisure. What led you to pursue this creative path?
Certainly, a lot of poetry had to do with this aspect of my architectural work & since in Romanian schools they still teach about poets & poetry from the interbelic period, which gives you a lot of imagination to assemble into words or creations: a project or simply an idea that you want to see how far it can go. And I really like to draw, albeit I don't have as much time for it as I used to. So, in a way, I satisfy this desire for creativity and the desire to draw & to express myself by building all sorts of things in KoGaMa, but mostly portraits these days. Thus, mostly what inspires me to pursue this path is plenty of poetry, drawing & quite a lot of music as well.
3. Your game "Dimness Within [Light Crumbles]" is remarkable for its abundance of small details. How did you manage to create such an environment without it feeling disorganized?
"Dimness Within" was one of those projects where I didn't know what I was doing, but simultaneously knew I could establish something very unique & out of the box. The original concept for "Dimness Within" came from this game called "[The Dark War]" by [space_ᴀʟᴘʜᴀ] & [Wapiti12], which was featured a while back. And that game's idea alone inspired me to create something similar, but in a completely different direction. ...Over time, the concept evolved into this very complex, yet very simple PVP-type game that has a really iconic imagery that other games might not embrace.
As for how I managed to create the environment - I had a lot of patience and also, a lot of hiatuses occurred in developing "Dimness Within" because you cannot force yourself to form creation, especially when you have writer's block. And I'm also a sucker for designing even the most unnoticeable details, which is why the game has this eccentric identity, so to speak. Therefore, a lot of patience & desire to improve certain skills of building.
4. Using models, you've closely designed wonderful pieces of art. A few of them have also been references to other pieces of media and pop culture. What is your overall approach to making a work of art from idea to completion?
How I'd go about it would be to have a base & or at least know what you're going to build. From this idea or base, you'll shape the overall structure with the desired theme & you don't have to relinquish from the beginning - it may not look great at first, but keep developing the idea until even you'd be shocked that you could create that. Once you've got a pretty good canvas to work from, you can go berserk & overdo the details as much as you like, but remember to set a limit on accessories and design so you don't end up ruining the creation. Also, don't let your rudimentary skills get in the way, and be open to improving thy construction skills. We've all been there wherein we couldn't build the simplest things, but we still tried to get better because we knew that at the end of the day, we could do better & enhance our building knowledge.
Anyway, once you're confident that you've got your point across with this creation, be open with authenticity through the colour palette & be bold with the idea you want to put out there, make it authentic. After that, check to see if there are any mistakes made that might not be noticeable at first, because even I have a few models that suffer from me not taking the trouble to check for problems. And when you've done all the checks & you're sure it's ready to be expressed, publish it and share it with the community! Also, take your time with your craft and don't hesitate - sometimes inspiration & natural talent don't always come immediately, so don't be disappointed. Take time off & do other things outside of KoGaMa if it helps.
5. What's the story behind your game "Faceless City"? Did you face any challenges while designing or planning the game?
"Faceless City" started as a simple remastered version of Michal's KoGaMaCity, & eventually it turned out to be this close-to-home representation of where I live, so to speak. With gloomy landscapes & a few ounces of democracy herein and there, but generally rusted into the frozen past. I pretty much attempted to portray my hometown & I think I did as good a job as I could ever do. And "faceless" really comes from the imagery of most cities in the country I come from. They show this slow evolution towards Europeanisation but still have a long way to go to reach that level.
As for the challenges of making the game, I expected it to be a very long project to finish & it really was. If I remember correctly, it took me about two and a half years to finish the game completely, but it was still quite a lot of fun, although there were times when I would have loved to do something else than just work and concentrate on this project. But I'm not complaining, because in the end, I was very happy with the game, even when it was only a demo and most of the game was completely empty, I still felt like I'd done something awesome!
And I have to thank my long-time friend georgi2244 for giving me the right to use his vehicle models & for building the gigantic landscraper. I'm very grateful that he took the time to create such a huge building & make it one of the main intriguing parts of "Faceless City". ...In any case, designing this game and seeing it through to completion has been a tough challenge, but also a very therapeutic way of expressing myself, and the game says it all.
6. Aside from games, you've also designed a number of avatars and models. All of them have a clear route: your avatars are withered versions of the official avatars and models following a square-like pattern, taking the boundaries of creating a model fully into use. How did you come to find this solution to be the best for you?
Model-wise, I was strongly inspired by EmperoRoman's creations, which showed this square-like pattern in the golden days of KoGaMa. So one day I decided to buy one of his models that had that idea & I pretty much experimented with it in my own style & that led to my model "4 Paths". That model started this series of models that revitalised this old concept to today's standards, which I really enjoyed establishing & which turned out to be quite successful as well!
As for my Withered Avatars, I've never been the greatest avatar builder & I probably never will be, but I wanted to have an avatar that looked very outstanding & authentic, so I wanted to see if I could make something similar to those Fnaf 2 avatars I used to see a lot back in the day. Therefore, I came up with Withered Block Boy & I didn't like it at first, but I tried this method again with the basic Panda avatar & I really liked how that turned out. From therein, I knew I could develop this idea into a bigger series, which I still have to finish, hopefully this year! Also, it's very relaxing to make this kind of avatar, because it's very complex yet simple, to the point where it doesn't even follow a certain method & it ends up looking like madness! and that's cool with me.
7. You've been extraordinarily active the past years, publishing your games and interacting with the community daily. What has motivated you to never miss a day?
This game has meant a lot to me since childhood & made my later adolescent years very happy, which I'm forever grateful for. In terms of what motivates me to still be herein, the game hasn't really changed that much, so it doesn't make me feel foreign playing it again. And it was only a few years ago that I discovered how much you can actually do on this platform! Hence why my motivation has grown exponentially over the past few years. And I love communicating with other people & helping them out with advice or two. It makes me feel good about myself & disconnects me from the classic adversities of my life. So it's a win for everyone!
8. What skills have you acquired as a game creator on KoGaMa?
That I should know from the beginning what I want to conceive & not get too messy when it's just the first phase of building. It's easy to fall into your own trap, especially if you're building alone & you don't ask for suggestions or opinions. Also, patience & perseverance are fundamental keys that I must not lose & that I oughtn't hesitate at times. So in summary, to be organized & shrewd about what I want to plan out, as well as have more faith in myself and believe in what I want to enunciate.
9. Have you ever experienced burnout on KoGaMa? What advice do you have for people who are struggling to find motivation and create on the platform?
Of course! Burnouts are really common with me & assuredly with many players in KoGaMa. My advice would be to do other things outside of KoGaMa to obliterate the writer's block - for me reading books really helps & it gives me more courage & ideas to compile things into something brand new. Even casual chores can help! So don't falter into taking a break with a project - not every time you are fervent to do something amazing, thus think outside of the game & arrive with a different lense of the spectrum when you start working on the game again. And get inspired! My inspiration came from many games from KoGaMa and not only. So don't worry, it's not the end of the world. It happens to everyone, we just have to be shrewd & bold to deal with it.
10. Are there any updates or changes you would like to see made to the game itself that would help you with your work?
For me, it would be great if there were some tutorials to get my logic knowledge better 'cause I love animation, but for me, it has always kinda been foreign to me, despite the fact that I did experiment with it & most of the time I nailed it. That'd be awesome! But anything else, presumably like a second layer for models or something like that. For me, I've been building for so long that I got really used to it, hence why it's tough for me to change something, albeit I'd like the old rotator back.
11. From the sneak peeks that you've been posting in Discord, we can tell that another game of yours is in the works. Would you like to let the community know about what you've been up to in the past months? Is there an estimated time of arrival for your game?
Well, my next game "Circuiti Chiptone" is currently being detailed & the process seems to be quite solid. The game has many similar elements to "Dimness Within", but it features the latest in melee weapon customization & the map is presumably 10x larger than "Dimness Within" & more akin to the size of "Faceless City." It's a very interesting game filled with many secrets & illustrations, in an eerie atmosphere of electricity, if you will. I started the project at the end of the summer & hopefully, it'll be released at the end of February or around spring. It's a tedious process to complete the game with all the details I plan to exhibit, but when it's done, it's gonna look amazing!
If you are interested, you can learn more about PandaS2006’s collage of works [here.]
Interview conducted by Lukasox.
Be considered for the Builder Spotlight!
To be considered, join the official Discord Server [here] and leave us a detailed message about why we should spotlight you next month to the HotW Suggestions bot. The Highlights of the Week Committee will review your message and they will take it into consideration if they like it.
To read more about Builder Spotlight, its criteria and benefits, the link to it is [here.]
This News Post is brought to you thanks to the whole members of the HotW Committee.
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