What have you created with ZZT, or related to ZZT?

Todd's Adventure - My first full game. Not particularly ambitious, but pretty charming, I just wanted to get a game out to coincide with joining the ZZT community.

War-Torn - My bigass RPG. The dialog can be pretty laughable at times (hey, I was in 8th grade), but the RPG battle system works very nicely. Basically, I saw how popular Rhygar was and figured I could do better.

Burger Joint - By far my most popular game, it was inspired by the 1997 PC game The Last Express, in which the player is confined to a small train quarters for the entirety of the adventure.

NextGame 33 - My attempt to do a massive Code Red-style game. Way too much lame humor, and I only got it 1/3 complete, hence the 33.


War-Torn
When you think about ZZT, what games come to your mind and why?

Code Red for being so popular and huge, Ned the Knight since it's my favorite ZZT game, and of course... Town of ZZT.

Have you created any games outside of ZZT?

I created the graphic adventure game AfterShocked!, which was released in 2002. My next game will be out very soon--an Out of This World-style action adventure called Between Heaven and Hell.

Do you have any artistic pursuits other than making games?

Nope, I pretty much just like making games, though that includes all aspects, including art and music.

What are you up to, lately (in life, generally)?

I'm getting my bachelor's of computer science from the University of Southern California next week. It looks like I'll soon have the lowest job in the games industry totem pole: QA Tester. But hey, I gotta start somewhere.

Has your experience with ZZT or the ZZT scene made any sort of lasting impact on your life?

Though I'd goofed around with various game creation utilities before, ZZT was where I started making some really decent pieces of work that I could be proud of. I'd say it was the real start of my game design "career". The ZZT community was the first real online community that I was a part of, and though I can't say it had a massive impact on my life, I remember that period very fondly.

What works of non-ZZT art have inspired you the most?

I've drawn inspiration from a number of sources, notably the old Lucasarts adventure games, overblown dramatic cheesy action movies (at least for Between Heaven and Hell), the newer Final Fantasy games, Fallout, etc.

Do you have any interesting stories to relate about ZZT or the ZZT scene?

Tough to remember many interesting specifics, sorry...

Do you plan to create any games in the future, with or without ZZT?

Yep, I plan to work in the industry--and MAYBE do some more stuff in my free time, but we'll see...

Anything else you'd like to add?

Uh.. agh, more dobermans. No wait, that's someone else's catchphrase.

- May 2006