Creator Spotlight 12 - jwwphotos

[ConfusedCartman]

Note by ConfusedCartman: MrsSpookyBuz completed two Creator Spotlights before departing from LBPCentral. Now that we have the Creator Spotlight back up on its feet, we are beginning to publish these as we did before she left. This Creator Spotlight and the Creator Spotlight published two weeks ago were both written by her - all Creator Spotlights after this one will be written by someone new. Who? Well, I guess you'll just have to stick around to find out!

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jwwphotos
The Beautiful Mind
Interview conducted by MrsSpookyBuz

jwwphotos is a popular member here on LBPC. Why? Well, because he's possibly the nicest, kindest guy I've never met. But as well as being a brother to everyone, he's one heck of a great creator. His enthusiasm in infectious, and for the interview, I didn't even need to tie him down...

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"Adventure in Tiny Town" by jwwphotos. Childlike, charming and utterly brilliant.

The Low-Down

First off, it's truly an honor to be interviewed by the Buz called MrsSpookyfor a Creator Spotlight. With all the incredible Creators that call LBPChome, I'm not sure what I did to deserve such an honor, but wow.. this is such a great treat that I cannot refuse! ...of course the paintenator to the back of my head right now should not in any way cause alarm to thosethinking I am candy coating my answers! No sir!! However, I sure wish the ropes tying me to this chair were a bit less scratchy. Ah well... let the interrogations begin!

What video games did you enjoy playing before LBP was released?
Until we bought our first PS3 and LBP, the only video games I've played in the past several years have been on a PC. I played quite a few FPS series like Quake, Doom, Duke Nuke'em, Serious Sam and then on to more recent ones like Half Life 2, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 2142 as I really enjoyed the online play with those last 3. I also enjoyed strategy games like from the Command and Conquer and Kings Quest series. I also have done a huge amount of racing sims and have worn out like 3 or 4 racing wheels! Some of my favorites have been F1 Challenge 99 - 02, GTR, GTR 2, GTR evo, and TocaRace Driver 3. One of my favorite parties is having a few friends over during the 24 Hours of Le Mans and fire up the racing sims, take turns doing laps, eating pizza, and watching the race.

What was the first full level you ever built? And what was it like?
Oh gosh.. this is embarrassing for sure. I did one called City Arcade that was a goofy sort of theme park thing along the lines of TheWiggler's Wiggler's World levels. However mine featured badly constructed sections up in the sky, with an incredible amount of wasted vertices as I was just getting used to drawing in bits and not knowing how amazing the corner editor was! It was more of a "What comes next?!" and would pretty much toss whatever I thought was fun at it. It had a zip line, a small roller coaster with an ugly dark matter track, a pretty cool shooting gallery with a fun way to get there, an ice slide into a pinball machine where you are the ball, a balloon ride, a car ride past a snack stand including a pretty bad excuse for a clown character selling balloons, disgruntled skateboarders forenemies, and a golf cart race on an alternate path. You know.. normal stuff. It actually did pretty well for what it was as far as hearts, plays, and stars go, but it is one pretty weird level! It was still quite a bit of fun and had a blast creating it. What is scary is that it got a ton more hearts and plays than my most recent!!

What levels have you published to date?
Not enough!!! I am horribly slow at building due to other interests and commitments as well as I keep dreaming up more complicated stuff that takes longer to build. I'm also horribly picky when it comes to style, design, and fun factor so anymore, quite a bit of the time I spend is doing prototypes to figure out how to build something and so I can see if it was even worth building it to being with! I also took a bit of time off last year as I was a bit burnt out after being so heavily involved in the beta. For fun, I got really involved in the LBPC Character Contest as it was something I hadn't done much and wanted to push myself a bit outside of my comfort zone. Ok!! Enough of the disclaimers! Here the list in order of appearance. * Denote full levels in lbp + Denote beta levels not in LBP - Denote character contest entries:

* City Arcade
* Adventure in Tiny Town
* Baja Off Road Racing Challenge
* Space Escape (spotlighted!)
+ PITM - Three Muses and a Witch (OC Beta Challenge 2 that I did with Killian, Wex and Squigg - not in LBP yet)
+ Survival Line (OC Beta Challenge 3 - picked by Mm for a Bug Blaster award that I did with Killian and some help from Squigg - Still haven't made it to LBP yet, but hope to soon. It's a co-op survival challenge that is really aunique and totally fun concept!!)
+ Orson the swimming fishy from the deep (Beta challenge 4 entry. Swam via a fin and an internal emitted ballast system that made it surface and dive like a sub.)
- Billy the Bad News Bunny (LBPC Character Contest round 1 entry complete with 44 magnum salad shooter pistol that shoots carrots)
- PavaRobby (LBPC Character Contest round 2 entry - He sings! Badly!)
- Chucky the Caustic Caterpillar (LBPC Character Contest round 3 entry - 3rd place! - I love this character, but the setting is up in the trees and the scenery on the way to the scoreboard for me is the best part!)
- RobbyNoid (entry for Wex's retro robots contest - cousin to PavaRobby)
* The Underwater Cavern (Water Beta level I did as an experiment to play with water and a secret area by mopthefloo - ultra detailed underwater scenery and underwater explosives with a treasure hunt of sorts. Pulled over to LBP as is and hope to add quite a bit more to this one and re-releaseit.)
* Flight 19 (co op level from the water Beta and published under Morgana25 in LBP - I did this with Morgana, Fullgorr and quite a few others - a really fun, semi free roaming, and exploration level)
* Space Escape II (spotlighted!)


Which of these is your own favourite? And why?
Wow.. I love them all in very unique ways. I guess my current pride and joy is my latest, Space Escape II. However the one that is nearest and dearestfor a very special reason is Adventure in Tiny Town for just for the story factor and how it ends. Back when I was a small boy, one of my favorite toys was this little wooden train set. There wasn't all the cool toys like there is now and to make up for it, you had to use your imagination quite a bit. Imade up so many fun adventures with that train playing on my bedroom floor and the ending of Tiny Town is where you realize that the entire adventure you had was really just the imagination of a small boy playing in his room with his train set. Some may find that silly, but that one makes me smile quite a bit. It could stand quite a bit more decoration, but it was hit with the 160 hour bug as well as a full thermometer. Any attempt to reclaim thermo and update has failed with some freaky issues. I have not been brave enough yet to attempt capturing all the bits and pull into a new level, but I might just for fun sometime as I really wanted to decorate it as well as have a fireworks show for part of the ride at the end. However... I like to tell folks that my most favorite level is the one I haven't done yet. Where I first get that glint of a concept or an idea that puts a twinkle in my eye and has me grabbing the controller or the sketchbook.


Are there any other creators who inspire you?
Wow... there are so many great creators in LBP and especially in LBPC that it is hard not to be inspired around here just playing through thespotlighted levels!! Plus I am so blessed by so many great friends that are such talented creators and wonderful people that I hate to ever leave anyoneout. However there are a few that always has me grabbing my controller tosee what they have been up to as well as having inspired and helped me in very unique ways... Please, please don't hate me if I don't call your nameas I am sure it is simply an omission!

Kiminski, julesyjules, mrsupercomputer, CuzFeeshe, Wexfordian, MrsSpookyBuz, GruntosUK, NinjaMicWZ, Mother-Misty, Morgana25, Jaeyden, Nuclearfish,jackofcourse, Poms, OIL_, and TheKillian.



What’s the worst thing that’s happened while creating?
Gheesh.. not saving, glue glitches, and those nasty stupid human tricks via a controller. However I think the worst one was discovering the 160 hour bug and why I now build everything modular and in separate workshops. In thereal level, I rarely allow it out of pause, only for a gravity check, andthen rewind. In workshops I can test the components to death before I everbring it into the level. It is a bit extra work, but I like working that wayas I have much more room and can't accidently compromise the level byscrewing something up as well as creating several different versions while experimenting. Though in Space Escape II some of those modules ended up really huge. Sometimes it has been handy having a second in create with me to back this huge component into place and lend me an extra eye. Thankfully I have good friends as well as an understanding and awesome girlfriend with an extra PS3 close by. By having her positioned in another area, it's like having a rear view mirror eyeing the extra screen!


What’s your pet hate in LBP?
Nooo!! I don't hate pets! Oh wait.. xkappax already did that joke! I dunno... I don't hate anything, but wobble bolts are a bit more of a pain than they should be sometimes!



If you worked for Media Molecule, what tool/object/material would you have liked to see developed?
Oh wow.. They actually need me on their team, but not sure I want to move that far away!

*Genre and possibly skill categories when publishing! I would like to see different genres of cool levels rather than one huge mess like it is now
*Keyboard input values in the tweak menu - Just overtype the number in most cases.
*Selection tool enhancement - Drawing a square is basically like a 'select all' in that whatever you draw around is selected. I would like the ability to select more items or deselect items from what is selected. (Like Ctrl Click in windows) Too many times the square grabs more than it should or not quite enough.
*Profile defaults! Being able to save your favorite settings for things that are tweakable. For example pistons set to stiff, reverse and hidden. Mag switches set to hidden as well as your favorite default color, range andangle and so on.
*Ability to precision select items. Too many times on a small object with quite a few parts, the pop-it will jump to another thing like a prox sensoror a piston not even close to where you are pointing.
*Selecting behind a layer. You can cut a triangle hole in the front layer(s) to get to stuff, but sometimes items get quite small and digging into get what you want to grab, tweak, or corner edit is a major issue.
*Copy and paste properties. For example if you have several like pistons you have positioned perfectly but decide they should all be reverse and just a bit shorter minimum distance. Copying and then pasting those attributes to the next one rather than having to tweak them all would be pretty cool.
*Object and properties inspector. This would tell you the relative coordinates of an object or a single point to aid in positioning. Along with that it would be cool to type in other values for the sizes and positions.
*Alignment!!! Selecting a few objects and have them align themselves to either the top, right, left, center, distribute widths etc just like you can in Photoshop and quite a few other graphics programs.
*Wiring inspector - being able to toggle a particular switch and see the wires in a different color. You can sometimes set it to one shot and get that effect, but I think it would be handy to toggle wires to a different colors for a bit.
*Hiding wires - along with the inspector, disable showing the wires for a bit. Either totally, or just a switch at a time. *Material properties like invisible and non gravity would be nice.
*Rearranging elements in the pop-it menu. The menu is one huge horrid list anymore, you can use the hearted list for a smaller list, but still it would be nice if you could move things around as well as create custom categories or lists.

Burn rubber, baby! "Baja Offroad Racing Challenge".

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Digging Deeper

As a great photographer, how does your keen eye help you when creating your levels?
LOL!! Great photographer?! Thanks for that! I guess I have had a bit ofsuccess in that respect! I think photography helps me understand foreground and background elements, as well subject. It stresses composition, lighting, as well as camera angles to make things look as cool as possible. Though there also needs to be consideration for platforming abilities when thinking in LBP! I am also a graphics artist and do web design in my spare time, so I think that really helps quite a bit as well. Especially when it comes to nifty level badges!


Your Baja Off Road Racing Challenge level is top fun and has retained mass appeal to a wide audience. Looking back, is there anything you would've done differently or do you remain pretty satisfied with its success?
I am actually quite embarrassed how well it has done, but I still think it is a pretty fun level for general audiences. If I had it to do over with the corner editing skills I have now, there would be a ton more goofy stuff in there. There were actually several things I had in mind that got passed on due to my thermo going through the roof drawing things with the circle tool. EEEK!! Trust me, I know better now! I had plans for a UFO chasing you down and shooting at you, a ton more scenery.. may have added a few vignettes as well as some layered platforming parts, some extra road hazards to avoid, some secrets and possibly a drive-in snack area or something. Can you tell I like snacks!!?


Space Escape is already turning into a brilliant series, but how did the idea first come to you? And where is it going to take us in the future?
Wow.. so honored you feel that way! It is really a goofy idea that started with me making that huge gun turret that is in the middle of the first episode. I also was curious to see if I made a cool looking hallway to come up to it. Then I started realizing how silly it was to have a gun turret INSIDE a ship at the end of a hallway behind a door! It made no sense! So I had to work backwards to figure out how the heck I got there as well as why I was there and what was really going on. Once I got further to the beginning, a wacky story was born as well as a interesting way to get up and over that huge gun turret!

The future will take you deeper and deeper into the ship traveling through it non linear since you are horribly lost. There will be more fun and goofy rooms to platform in and figure out. There will also be more bits of the story line as well as more strange technology and devices of this wacky ship to be discovered. Along the way you will be encountering more and more pest control systems, janitorial robots, puzzles, hopefully more unique platforming, and yes, there will be more mop buckets! Basically, more wrong turns into more and more hopeless situations which hopefully someday end with the final huge boss of sorts I conjured up quite a while ago, as well as the actual exit of the ship!! Yes we will exit someday! Now if that is one more level or five more levels, I seriously have no idea. The original was "supposed" to be the whole thing. Now there are two and promising a third, so hard telling how many more there might be!


And can I just say: robot mops in space! Genius! How the heck were these truly memorable enemies conceived?
Oh gosh.. Once I got on the theme of pest control systems like that chicken leg enticed missile silo in the first episode, my girlfriend (TheCountessZ - also a member here) suggested pest spray.. or maybe I had thought of pest spray cans while creating the Bug Zappers (the yellow and black flying robotic mosquitoes of sorts in the first episode). Anyway one day she said.. Oh!! There should be mop buckets in one of the halls!! I discounted thethought instantly as she is quite goofy and insane. In fact almost as much as me!! LOL!! So I just smiled and I ignored her. Later that evening after she had gone to bed, I kept chuckling about how silly and comical it would be if there was something that goofy wandering around. I decided instead of a normal bucket and mop, that they needed to be like those yellow industrial janitorial types, make them robotic as well as adding a moving electrified mop! So she was my muse on those and I give her full credit, but I cannot tell you how long and loud she laughed when she finally got a look at those mop buckets moving around in a workshop.


I love the fact that ALL your levels have a fun, innocent and childlike quality that is sometimes sadly forgotten in this fun, innocent and childlike game! Was this something you aimed for, or are you simply young at heart?!!
LOL!! So funny you asked, but I am just that goofy, silly, and young at heart in real life!! I have never grown up in that sense. The small boy playing with his train on the bedroom floor of Tiny Town still exists to this day. I love life and love sharing my zany take on humor on whatever subject that perks my interest. Those that know me in real life know there is always a gleam in my eye and horribly fun to be around. I refuse to grow up and I think I should have my own tv show!!!! Yes!! Oh wait.. nah.. I would have to dress up or something. Bleah.. Never mind!


You were very active and helpful during the beta testing process - was it a good experience for you overall?
It was an amazing experience. Not only did I learn quite a few things in the Beta, but met some amazing creators and worked on quite a few things all the while sharing tips and tricks we had picked up and discovered. Quite a few things I am doing now, I am not sure I would have those skills, or thought to even attempt some of the zany stuff I have come up with recently.

And finally, I find that my partner is my biggest fan and my harshest critic! Is it the same scenario in the jww household?
Oh no.. not THE QUESTION! Actually TheCountessZ is my best friend, as well as the love of my life. I depend on her opinion and hearing "Oh that looks cool!" helps out quite a bit! She not only is a huge fan, but a very good council for feedback and I wouldn't call her harsh at all. She is an alternate perspective that I value highly. She also has a great and zany sense of humor as well as a really great creator in her own right. Her architecture is superb and hopefully someday soon we will all get a chance to play one of her levels!

Thanks so much MrsSpookyBuz!! This has been truly an honor as well as quite a bit of fun. See ya everyone! Oh... ummm, could you untie the ropes now please? Thanks!!

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Fowl play? A hilarious scene in jwwphotos's classic, "Space Escape".

Our Conclusions

jwwphotos is a bright pearl in a sea of deepest blue. His considerate nature, his patience and his utterly charming, quirky humour is a complete joy. They say laughter and fun are contagious, and this is so true when chatting or playing with him. You may have played Space Escape or Baja Racing, but I compel you to play Adventure in Tiny Town, if you haven't already. I literally forgot how old I was, and felt like that little girl who gazed in wonder at the huge world around me. Also, his hard work on Beta testing and here on LBPC is testament to how important he is to many people. The word 'special' doesn't cover it. jwwphotos is a blessing, and knowing him I feel very blessed.

[Morgana25]

Yay jww!!!!!!!

So happy for you!

[comphermc]

Haha... fowl play! Nice. Thanks for this, whever you are, Spooky!

Also, congrats to J-dubs on the interview.

[RockSauron]

Well, guess this will be the last post Spooky ill ever make D:

Anyway, congratz jww... yesh... you RAWK. Yeah. Not just cause you managed to film my trailer. /runs

[Duffluc]

Congrats, Jww, much deserved! I still can't get those hilarious electric mops from Space Escape II out of my head. They will haunt me forever...

[TheCountessZ•]

Wow! What a really cool and thoughtful interview. And jw really is "a bright pearl in a sea of deepest blue". Thank you MrsSpookyBuz!

[comphermc]

What!? I wasn't mentioned!? *-1 PSN friend*

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Next time we meet up, I'll need to show you how to copy and paste pistons so you can check one of the items off of your list.

[TheFirstAvenger]

So happy for you! glad you got your own Spotlight man, you of all people deserve it.

[jwwphotos]

LOL!! Thanks everyone! Really appreciate the kind words. I'm not sure I can ever express how much this means to me. Thanks so much to all of you! ...and a very special thanks to MrsSpookyBuz for such a great honor in a Creator Spotlight. Wow..

Yikes... I didn't mention Compher? Oops.. sorry!! I meant to!! I knew I would screw that up somehow!!! I guess you need to leave two or three duckies in my next level! I will take you up on that piston trick for sure.

[Gravel•]

Going out on a high note! Congrats JWW!

[Phosphorus15]

Congrats JWW!

[CyberSora]

Congrads jww! Well deserved Spotlight!

And thank you very much MrsSpooky. Of course, I don't think you're going to read this, but heh, it's good to post it anyways.

[dajdaj03]

A fun and interesting interview of a great and always modest creator!

Congratulations JWW, this is really well deserved!

[xkappax•]

Congrats, jww. Morgana forced me to play your levels at gunpoint a few months ago, and they were really great. Well deserved spotlight indeed! ^__^

[Incinerator22•]

You're a very great person, jww, and I wish I knew you better. I'll be sure to check out your levels too!