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Member of the Month ~ December 2018 ~ forum resident darolac

haha look we finally finished interviewing the discord mods
Erik: Welcome everyone to the last member of the month interview for this year of 2018. Joining me here is Darolac, who's being very active around the SMW Hacking forums, as well as a rising ASM person. How are you today?
Darolac: I'm doing great, thanks!
Erik: That's good to hear.

Erik: Starting up regarding hacking. How did you find out about SMW Hacking and SMWCentral?
Darolac: I was always interested in making my own Mario games. In 2010 I discovered SMW Central and Lunar Magic. I downloaded it but I couldn't get the hang of it. After that, I started toying around with SMBX, and I even made a game out of it. It was fully packed with cutoff, GFX clash, level emptiness and a lot of other problems, but I was proud of it at that time.
Darolac: After that, I started to make several other hacks. I tried to make a Wario Land 3 hack, a Fire Emblem hack... but never finished them. After a failed NSMB hack attempt, I decided to give Lunar Magic another try, this time finally getting some levels finished and gradually learning map16, palette edition, music and sprites insertion and so on. I registered on the site a few months later, after a problem with a Hammer Bro sprite. And here we are.
Erik: I personally could never get the hang of SMBX lol.
Erik: When it comes to the forums you seem to be one of the most active - if not the most active - individual there. What would you attribute this to?
Darolac: Well, I love helping other people out, both answering questions or giving feedback to WIP hacks. Right now I'm working full time and you would think I don't have that many time to be on the site, but I try to pass by at least once daily to check if I can help someone. Also, I think the best way to learn about something (in this case SMW hacking) is by teaching it to others.
Erik: Do you prefer the forum system to more instant media such as a Discord server? Or do you just happen to be interested in both?
Darolac: I prefer the forums for one reason: the big activity of discord usually forces you to stay more time in it, since otherwise your answer/question will be buried in lots of messages. On the other hand, I feel the forums are more organized. I also use discord, but sparingly (mainly when I have more free time, or when I need quick feedback).
Erik: I see.
Erik: If you could suggest anything to increase forum participation, what would it be?
Darolac: I think we need to have more low-profile contests along the year
Darolac: Even if it's at the cost of reducing the scope of the big ones, it will get more people enganged.
Darolac: I know it takes a lot of work to organise an event, but its a pity that for example ASM ones only get organised from time to time.
Erik: I promise y'all the PR team has something regarding events in the works. ;)

Erik: Now I think that wraps up the forum stuff. When it comes to ASM, what got you into programming in general and into ASM?
Darolac: I started learning ASM this summer because I didn't want to depend on other s in order to make custom stuff for my hack
Darolac: In order to get started, I downloaded the two ASM tutorials of Ersiano. Those gave me the basis to work with, alongside Iceguy's and MFG sprite-making tutorials on the site.
Darolac: I got into making sprites shortly after
Darolac: I also want to give a message to the community: ASM is not that hard; it may have a steep learning curve, but its just a matter of practice. So don't be afraid of it.
Erik: It's good to see you had the determination to start coding.
Erik: How would you describe your current skills and coding abilities?
Darolac: I think that I have pretty solid grounds, but I really need to improve in code optimization
Darolac: Since starting with ASM, I coded a total of 10 sprites (including one boss), one patch and two blocks, some of them to get them included in my hack and some others just because I felt like making them
Darolac: The problem is that a lot of that asm is really, really unoptimised and messy
Darolac: I hope to get them into a release status for the next C3
Erik: I'll look forward to their release.

Erik: Regarding SMW hacks now, can you tell us about your current projects?
Darolac: Im in a big-scope hack for around a year now, with custom asm, gfx and music but not completely chocolate.
Darolac: I have completed only two worlds, so its going to be a long way since I want to have a completely new custom boss for every world
Darolac: Its a hack created to be played by a special person in my life, so I don't care that much about other people's feedback since I am tailoring the hack specially for that person.
Darolac: Thats the reason I have decided to not make a thread for the hack, at least for now
Erik: That's understandable.

Erik: Anything you want to add?
Darolac: I just want to give the community a big "thank you" for the help and resources that has been giving to me since registering and even before.
Erik: And a thanks to you for your help you've been providing to our users in the forum.
Erik: With that I wrap up this interview. Thank you for your time, and to the audience, I look forward to conducting another interview. Thank you once again!
Congrats :) seems well deserved!
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
Congrats! I agree that there should be more low-profile contests, I love contests more contests please...