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Member of the Month - November 2017 - featuring our Boy ft029

First of all, gotta apologize for the delay! We had a bit of discussion on who to choose and who would interview. does this mean the end of the 3am show with impetus??? #wario{-_-?}
Without further ado, here is the interview. Read all of it or I'll personally kamikaze you in person.

Erik: are u ready
ft029: yes
Erik: alright

Erik: This month ft029 has been The Chosen One by the PR Dudes to be our member of the month, due to his impressive help with judging not only one, but the latest two Kaizo LDCs. Apart from that, he's an impressive hacker, usually showing off some interesting levels in the SMWC Discord's #showoff channel, as well as usually being an active member in its #kaizo channel. How's everything going?
ft029: everything is
Erik: Nice to hear!

Erik: You have judged the latest two Kaizo contests. What's your experience with those? Would you like to join them as a participant someday?
ft029: The quality of entries from the kaizo contests is extremely high. I enjoyed playing through most of the entries (especially this year-- the top levels were outstanding in design, creativity, and aesthetics), and even the bad ones didn't make me extremely angry. Streaming the entries was also great fun. Since I'll be fairly busy next summer, I will participate and make a level. But first, I have to make the judge level for the kldc compilation that may or may not be happening.
Erik: That's the spirit! If given the opportunity, what other contests would you judge (if any)?
ft029: I think 24hosmw (although the previous "make a nintendo fortress" contest must have been very difficult to judge appropriately) or CLDC would be interesting to judge. Also, they have a lower workload than the VLDC
Erik: Nice. Hope you get the chance to judge one of those.

Erik: Anyway, with the contest topic aside, let's speak Kaizo in general. How did you come across the marvelous world of Kaizo hacking?
ft029: Back in 2008, I went to my friend's house one day. He showed me Kaizo Mario World, and we spent the entire day playing through all of the levels (with savestates of course). Intrigued, I tried out the regular SMW, Kaizo Mario World 2, and SMWCP (all with savestates). My friend gave me Lunar Magic over a flash drive, and I made some levels on an unedited overworld. They were essentially muncher mazes with some vines, glitched spinies, falling platforms, etc. I gave up after world 4 or so, and I took a long hiatus from SMW. Then, in 2015, I found a video of Panga beating SMW blindfolded. I decided to watch some of his streams, and he was playing Banzai Mario World at the time. I then watched other streamers play his sadistic hack, Super Dram World. For some reason I thought that he had to be punished for allowing others to suffer like this, so I downloaded Lunar Magic again and created Super Responsible World. I released the first version in late 2015, but it was awful. The holy Sixcorby rejected it, and I decided to revamp it. At about the same time, Janked Up Mario Party was released. I took some inspiration from that, although when I finally finished the product at the very start of 2016, I had still not beaten a single level without savestates. I had next to zero patience.
Erik: Woah, didn't expect you to be in the scene since so long. Sounds super cool to be introduced to Super Mario World hacks by a friend, too!
Erik: You mentioned Super Responsible World. What's the main design philosophy behind that hack, and how's the revamp going?
ft029: The main purpose of the hack was to make Panga suffer as much as possible. Therefore there were invisible coin blocks everywhere (now, I think they should be used sparingly in order to evoke laughter from the player rather than frustration). The traps were also unforgiving and extremely sadistic. Recently, I did a very quick update because Linkdeadx2, who was not meant to play my atrocity of a hack, was banging his head against levels for hours. Therefore, I basically carpet bombed the hack with nerfs without much effort, as I didn't have the time to redesign every single level. Besides, I'd rather have people play my new hacks when they come out.
Erik: What a Bad Boy. It's good to hear you have changed the way you make them levels now.
Erik: Speaking of levels, I'm pretty sure some of our users have seen your hack, Bridge to Kaizo. I think it's super cool, but for those whomst haven't heard of it, would you mind telling us what sparked the idea for it and your progress on it?
ft029: My idea behind Bridge to Kaizo is to prepare players that are too frustrated by the difficulty of other kaizo hacks. It also teaches certain tricks and applies them, such as running across one-tile gaps, shell jumps, etc. It is ironic that I myself hadn't even beaten a single level from Kaizo Mario World 1 without savestates at the time (early 2016), as I didn't even try. The hack has been under development for almost 2 years, and I can tell an endless story of its history. But in brief, I have created 70 levels so far, and I have went back and redesigned many of the levels that I made early on that were either too hard or not creative enough for my current standard. There are still a few levels that might be too hard, but they have very interesting tricks, such as avoiding fireballs from jumping piranha plants in a vertical balloon level. I don't expect the hack to be done soon, as I still have more ideas, and the overworld has not been made yet.
Erik: Good to see you want to help players to get introduced to the Kaizo Arts. I personally am more surprised due to the fact you have managed 70 levels and are planning to make even more! I wish you good luck.

Erik: Which also brings me to another SMW-related topic: those who frequent #showoff will see the stuff you post, which most of the time involve clever vanilla gimmicks. How do you get into finding these, and how do you go about implementing them in a level?
ft029: I'm really not sure where my creativity comes from. For example, I came up with the gimmick of using a key as safe ground with layer 2 while walking home from my bus stop. For another level, I saw a gif of two mechakoopas jiggling next to each other, and I did some experimentation and found that mechakoopas can get stuck inside walls, yet Mario can still jump on them if he hugs the wall. For other levels, I just think of a general theme or combination of elements. (Fuzzies and vines, bony beetles falling on your head, etc.) Actually implementing them in a level comes naturally to me. Sometimes I start with simple setups and add layers of complexity. Other times, I just do whatever pops into my head at the time, which tends to satisfy me more for some reason. I see many people that put all the ground and ledges down first and then add sprites to fill up space; I prefer making individual setups or placing sprites in such a way that the level encourages simply "flowing" through the level.
Erik: Ha, yeah I guess describing the origin of the creativity would be hard for anyone.
Erik: And on that subject, JUMP 1/2. I know you have partaken with some levels here and there. What got you interested in participating on it? And what's your views on the hack overall?
ft029: Obviously I really enjoyed JUMP. In fact, I liked it so much that I did many speedruns of it (not anymore though). I wanted to contribute to my main inspiration to hack SMW. Along with that, I found raocow's playthrough of JUMP and watched it (especially appreciating raocow's reaction to morsel/morceau's levels) with gusto. That's when I found the talkhaus; I don't really interact with most of the people there, but I did check out the JUMP1/2 subforum and eventually got invited to the discord chat. Initially, many of my levels were rejected because aterraformer could not beat them. After all, this was basically my first serious attempt to create normal levels. But now, I have contributed several levels, some multiperson rooms, and many ideas. The hack's levels are extremely fun, although I somewhat miss the unforgiving style of some JUMP levels such as Gourmet Hindrance, Chains of Atrophy, Manky Bridge, Shattered Dreams, etc. The overworld is coming along great right now, and we're basically just wrapping up ASM and some level polishing now. But of course, ASM is scary, and beta testing will take a while.
Erik: Being an ASMer myself I can relate to being scared by it. I'll be looking forward to the finished product!

Erik: Alright, with that out of the way, now it's time to switch the topic more in general to this website: how did you find out about SMWCentral?
ft029: I don't remember. I think that same friend showed me it when we downloaded SMWCP. I didn't have an account, and I didn't really have a reason to go there except to download hacks.
ft029: I guess when I came back to it in 2015, I used smwcentral to share my hack. I also used it to praise JUMP and stuff; I think my activity only really increased with the advent of vldc9.
Erik: I see.

Erik: Well, you mentioned VLDC and that made me remember: do you like entering the contests we host on the site? What has been your experience with them?
ft029: Yes, I really enjoy spending time with the level design contests. Each one of them has taught me how to improve in one way or another, and they all contain fantastic entries each year that I can play dozens of times. Sadly, level design is my only specialty; haven't tried out the ExGFX or idol contests, although I have downloaded the top entries of the previous idol contest, and they sound amazing.
Erik: Good to see you get some fun, and also skills, from them.

Erik: anyway it's The Time. The Time for the random questions. Are you ready?
ft029: more ready than I am for vldcx scores
Erik: dam
Erik: Favorite fast food restaurant?
ft029: Chick-fil-a
Erik: Coke or Pepsi? nooooooo "i dont drink either" you have to answer one of those
ft029: never touched them in my entire life
ft029: I'm not kidding
ft029: the only soda I ever drank was sprite
Erik: wew
Erik: when will the internationally recognized consortium of hackers that go by the alias of "jump team" drop the newest installment in the widely acclaimed series "Yump"?
ft029: If worldpeace were able to clone himself, then maybe winter c3. But sadly we don't know how to do that.
Erik: sad news
Erik: if you were staff, what name color would you choose?
ft029: purple
ft029: indigo???
ft029: just remembered that purple is a propaganda term created by crayola or something
Erik: Nice, too bad it's not the time for conspiracies.
Erik: here's the last random question. what school subject do you hate the most?
ft029: health
Erik: yeah that sounds unfun
Erik: Alright, just before finishing. Any extra words you wish to add to this Fine interview?
ft029: :shrugio:
Erik: Same!
Erik: Anyways thanks for your time answering this interview! It was a fun experience for me, and I hope it was for you too.
ft029: thanks erik


Your welcome. And thanks to you guys for reading it! i hope i didn't fuck up this is my first interview
👌 It's a good interview. But it doesn't top my interview with idol sadly
maybe,,, just by a bit


It was a good read. ft is a good boy.
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
fucktitties029
Thanks for taking over 👌

That was an interesting read. Congrats!
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
Happy birthday to fruittoe029!
You just doomed yourself to be made a 24ho judge, congrats!
Your layout has been removed.
Congrats for the MotM

I can't believe ft029 is a bigot thanks to eating the tainted bigot chicken of Chick Fil A. Sad!
Switch: SW-2766-9108-9399Twitter: @Vine_STYouTube: that ivy guy
frt is now the moment of the month? what next,,,, frozenquills?

congratulations on your interview and new color / title, but dont let it get to your head, "mr member ;) "
ask me if i give a f*ck...
Congrats ft.

Interesting to read about your inspiraions.








Originally posted by leod
You just doomed yourself to be made a 24ho judge, congrats!

Enjoy the torches and pitchforks when people don't agree with how you handled it!
Congratulations ft029 ! Hope to see more of your judging skills and great creativity in the future ! :)
congrats, morsel!
Congrats! #smw{-_-}