If it's a music idea, I'll hum it into a voice recorder. Whenever I have a game, story, visual or any kind of "cool thing" idea, regardless of how flawed it might be, I'll put it in a notebook. I just played through it and really enjoy the concept. Let's turn out attention to your Ludum Dare entry World Collector now. I am also inspired by Romantic era composers such as Holst, Saint-Saëns and Rimsky Korsakov, for their mastery of story and emotion. In film, I'm a great fan of the work of John Debney and Danny Elfman. Nobuo Umatsu comes to mind, not only for his emotive and diverse style, but because he is an exemplar of how one can truly excel at something while being self-taught. Is there anyone that inspired you in that area? When I was younger, I looked up to various video game composers. Music has such a close connection to our emotions, and is something I often prioritise when making a game-even in jams-as doing it early helps to define the tone of the game. As with art, a significant motivation to study music was so that I could make games with it, but is also something I came to love in its own right. I play guitar and a little keyboard for MIDI input. I also want to make the most of the fact that we have unprecedented access to resources for learning new skills thanks to the internet. But generally I love to create and share things with other people. I was trying to make games in my early teens and I didn't have anyone else to do assets, so I had to learn to do it myself. What motivated you to become proficient in both crafts? It is often said that a good developer is a bad artist, but in your case that's clearly not true. I especially love to create my own effects and routines. I'm also a close-up magician, which is something I did part-time through university and continue to do as a hobby. We later collaborated on Werewolf Tycoon, which seemed to benefit greatly from a simultaneous release on mobile and web, as the web release made it very accessible to Youtubers. Sam raised my attention to Haxe as a good option for getting up and running quickly in future jams, with the option to migrate existing AS3 projects, while also being cross platform for larger projects. Over the last couple of years I've done a lot of work for Kongregate and most recently I'm doing art for the cyberpunk JRPG, Jack Move.ĭuring my Computer Science degree I took part in a few game jams, including one with my good friend Sam Twidale using FlashPunk. I'm a game developer from Bristol, UK, mainly doing freelance pixel art, occasionally programming and audio, alongside working on my own projects. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found out about Haxe originally. I'm really over the moon just to have finally finished one again! In one case my laptop keyboard stopped working mid-jam. Other times I hit a run of blocking bugs which took the entire jam to resolve. A couple of times I had just been too ambitious with very technically challenging ideas. Thank you! I'd been finishing Ludum Dare consistently up until a few years ago, but for various reasons I hit a run of misses. Hey Joe, thank you for doing this interview and congratulations on your Ludum Dare success! I read your tweet about the many unfinished attempts in the past, so this must feel great. I had the opportunity to talk to Joe Williamson, a long-time Haxe user and the winner of Ludum Dare 45, about himself, his game World Collector and, of course, Haxe. But there are always a few gems, and being crowned the Ludum Dare winner after creating one of those is a prestigious honor. Many don't make it, many more end up creating something which can best be described (usually by their own admission) as mediocre. They get a theme and 48 hours, and then proceed to develop a game under these constraints. Three times a year, game developers across the world lock themselves into their rooms, basements, offices or sheds in order to participate in the Ludum Dare game jam. Interview with Ludum Dare 45 winner Joe Williamson
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