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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/hawkshaw1024 on 2024-01-29 14:57:24.
Original Title: [Game Development/Forum Culture] This city calls me Oceanspirit Dennis: A story in which dozens of indie devs make 50 games over 5 years, trying to mock a teenage anime, but accidentally creating a gay icon in the process
Alright, so. You might be familiar with the story of Joe_Cracker and the Light of Courage. This was a sprawling, chaotic, and incoherent series of fan(?) movies, created to make fun of the guy who wrote the script.
I have a similar story for you today. It deals with one Oceanspirit Dennis, mighty pirate. He's the protagonist of a sprawling, chaotic, and incoherent series of fan(?) games, created to make fun of a forum user with an intense anime obsession. Then things went weird.
Before we start, three quick disclaimers:
- This story happened more than a decade ago, and everyone has long since moved on. Don't heckle any of the people involved in this, alright?
- My post is full of rude words for reproductive anatomy. Sorry.
- Along the way, this story blends into some homophobia-by-implication and gay male misogyny around the edges. So be warned. It never gets particularly heavy and the ending is nice, though.
Finally, I'm very sorry for the length of this post. I hope it's at least halfway readable. At least nobody's going to accuse me of "low-effort" posts.
(0): So what's an AGS, anyway? (1997)
Today's story takes place on the Adventure Game Studio forums. I've written about the community before, but in short: AGS is a free game engine, intended primarily to let you make point-and-click adventure games, but flexible and powerful enough to support all kinds of project. It's not as powerful as Godot or Unity, or as popular as RPGMaker, but it has its charms. There were a few breakout hits that made it outside the adventure gaming bubble, like Cart Life or the Chzo Mythos.
AGS also has a number of community resources, including official web forums. They aren't as active as they used to be, but back in the early 2010s, they were a genuine hotspot for discussing indie games.
So what's the community like? Well, this is an obsolete medium, dedicated to the discussion of an obscure game engine, which is used to make games in a dead genre. This was all true in 2010 as well. In short: These people are passionate weirdos, and I mean this as a compliment.
(1): The Pub Master Quest saga (2009)
Now, one thing that happens in creative spaces (especially game-related ones) is that people just sort of... wander in. All sorts of people, at that. Many people experience the Divine Urge to Create, but don't have the skill-set required to do so. Or much in the way of social graces.
In August of 2009, one such user appeared on the AGS forums. He went through a few different names, but I'll call him "Studio3" here, because I don't want this thread to pollute search results for the other nicknames. (He's still active under some of the other nicknames he used.) Studio3 made his introduction by starting a series of nearly incomprehensible threads, usually announcing game projects of some kind. Here's a small selection.
Studio3: the game takes place in a pub with a boy named dave(currently useing my voice) he want to become a pubmaster some day but he must take on a lot of task (p.s. game will have a lot of updates as time goes on if ags let's me the update will come out then the old game will have 5 days on shelvs then (#) deleted :'(
Darth Mandarb: Please read the forum rules.
Studio3: For some time now I have been working on pmq1 gold hits now I have made up my mine to start on part 2 but I don't want it to be a demo so I am going to make it into 3-4 chapters frist off since my game was really ff.xiii I will be making chap 1:ifrit's crystal + and the game will be in a ps1 ff7-9 like world so I am making the players 3d like.
Snake: Shouldn't you have learned something from the first time?
Studio3: it has been a year & i thought that i was never gonna make any more chapters but i found a way to work it out. sorry...well this game takes place a year later in a world were the towns & city's from the first chap of nnt have become corrupt files and can only be restored by going to the M.C.P2 in the core tower. it falls way off from the first nnt or twewy , but the story will make since as to why it does later on in the game.
Darth Mandarb: I'm not sure why "my computer crashed" feels like a good reason for not posting properly. Especially since you've now posted 5 more times in this thread without making the needed updates to the original post/screenshots.
We could keep going, but you get the idea. Recurring themes included pubs, Square Enix mashups, a unique approach to posting, and not meeting the screenshot requirements for a Games in Production thread.
Now, the AGS forums have always been reluctant to actually ban people. People who were Bad at Posting were simply yelled at and told to shape up. Studio3 seemed to be immune to social shaming tactics, but he never crossed the line into outright troll territory, so this stand-off continued for several months.
(2): The RPG template incident (2010)
Eventually, through sheer trial and error, our hero managed to create a thread that complied with forum rules. In it, he requested help with an RPG template project, which was then available for download on the official AGS website.
Studio3: um...hey guy's i was thinking about put a type of rpg in one of my games but the coding is difficult because the example code is for a older version of ags & i cant work with it, now what i will do is make templet of the game & post it up for download but if you are interested let me no..cause i don't have the spair time to really do make this but i really do need the help
See? That's an actual question, and everything up to the first comma is actually coherent. I remember trying to use that template myself, and... yeah, the project just didn't work.
People tried to explain this, and pointed out that AGS wasn't really the best engine for RPGs. Yeah, you could use it, but why not consider RPGMaker? You really should consider RPGMaker.
Darth Mandarb: I second (third/fourth) the RPGMaker option. Not only is it a far superior program to AGS, it's vastly more simple to use. Also, I know you'll find a happy home on their forums as well. The people there are far nicer than the people here on the AGS boards. For example; when you completely ignore their rules, they don't care! When you repeatedly ask for help and then totally disregard every bit of advice that is offered, they love it! When you are told not to do something (12 times) and then do it anyway (over and over and over...), they laugh and pat you on the back!
Darth Mandarb, incidentally, won a Lifetime Achievement Award for his moderation work.
Studio3 would thank the other users for their advice, but decided to tough it out with AGS for now, to the delight of everyone.
Studio3: I'll even make a small game with ags to show my version FF.XIII
Atelier: No. You have a twisted obsession with Square Enix and Final Fantasy. Plan your own, original game.
Studio3: That is some what true but If I come up with a game then 3 year's later decide this is going know then I change the name but keep the name! - there for proving that I did make my own game I just changed the name (ah-ha take that! |:]
Atelier: I. Didn't. Understand. A. Word.
He also shared some concept art for his games, apparently trying to explain the connection between Final Fantasy 13 and Pub Master Quest.
Studio3: here is the 2005 vs 2009 version of Dave(main & first character)
The image is gone, but it showed a male character from Final Fantasy 13 (I'm not gonna look up his name) next to the protagonist of some entry in the PubMaster Quest saga. They looked exactly the same but with different hair, and the PMQ character was named "Dave." This finally broke the users.
Snake: The only thing I have a problem with is his signature and his inability to type and take advice and actually use it. I think it's perfectly plausible tha...
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