October November 2013
Lind LunchPolice
It's... Quackbillion!
This is the Member of the Month; an interview that I do at the end of each month. It's a fun way of finding out about respected members of the community.
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
LunchPolice: Thank you, it's an honour to be considered the 41st most important member on Ace Attorney Online.
Tap: You're welcome.
LunchPolice: After finishing JFA (my first AA game) I was searching for an alternative to MechaBowser's authentic but incomplete case maker. As for why I joined... well I tend to join forums wily-nily but I can say I was probably most influenced to stay by how nice and welcoming the community seemed to be, especially Dypo. Dypo is a newb's best friend. Thanks for that dude, my life would probably be fairly different if I didn't stick to what ended up being my favourite internet community.
Tap: For those that don't know, could you tell us about your first sprites?
LunchPolice: First sprites, huh? Well, that depends on your definition of first. If that definition happens to be "first" rather than "however far back is least embarrassing for LP", then I suppose we're talking classic Sonic the Hedgehog recolours.
Yikes. I don't think I progressed all that much/at all during this period of my life but it was a simpler time. A kinder time. A far more embarrassing time, too. Nowadays I know about hue shifts and proper use of contrast and... good taste, I guess. My first sprites on AAO were olympic swimmer Payne and defense attorney Ryu. While they were amateur at best, working on custom stuff like Ryu was a good learning experience. My advice to spriters is to spend more time doing customs; even if you're not confident in your drawing ability and want to burn the final product, you'll at least get better at some fundamentals which should apply to your frankensprites. Or, you could end up like me and make pretty much exclusively custom stuff. You'll feel way cooler
Tap: How did your talent for spriting start?
LunchPolice: While most of my hobbies just come from wanting to mimmic an older brother, I was always much more of a spriter than good ol' Sallytheking/Joelcalibur/whatever (he's still better than me ). Basically I just joined this forum where everyone made sprite comics and pretty much every member had their own spriteset - although at that stage IDK if I'd call it "talent". That's where the aforementioned red sonic came from.
Tap: Are there any other sprite artists in AAO that you like or inspire you?
LunchPolice: Hmm... that's a hard one, there are tonnes of talented spriters on AAO. Rajin is an easy one, his AJ and DD lawyer sprites of Phoenix are super cool. Lind, because he can make frankens look totally original. Dypo made that real popular prosecutor sprite back in the early days of the Random Characters topic. And lastly... Dave. You're awesome man.
Tap: Let's not forget you also developed the sprites for Glase Canon. How did you come up with his appearance? Did BB have an image of what he'd look like, or did you go wild?
LunchPolice: Haha, I'm not sure "wild" is entirely appropriate. Let's not forget we're talking about Phoenix with Edgeworth's cravat and skull. Oh, and a little smirk. I don't think BB ever envisioned his characters making use of custom sprites, actually. Back then, custom sprites in trials were a bit of a rarity iirc. I just liked his case and happened to be experimenting with frankenspriting at the time so I out of the blue asked if he wanted a whole set. Since Canon is just an extreme parody of Phoenix, BB had no problem allowing such a minor edit to represent him (back then you probably wanted any differentiation you could get anyway). Seriously, I didn't even recolour the back of his hair to match the front of his hair!
Tap: And who could forget the Tomato Making Pizza... thingy.
LunchPolice: Haha, of course. It was one of the first threads I ever posted in. I don't think I could ever do the legend justice, so if you're reading this, check out the Tomato Making a Pizza thread here: http://aceattorney.sparklin.org/forum/v ... 79#p124279. Make your own and wear the userbar with pride!
LunchPolice: Because roleplaying is awesome (when the RP is good, anyway) and there's nothing else quite like it. It's especially awesome if you're like me and you enjoy writing characters and stories but you don't want to commit to some huge project like a trial series or a novel. You can just bring your ideas to life without worrying about the overall themes or plot structure or anything. The setting and basic plot are already in place, so you can just get started with the fun part.
There's also a lot to be said for focussing solely on a character and how that's great practice for if you DO want to leap into your own project. You might feel as if you're just writing in somebody else's story, but that's actually not the case. The other players work off of your input just as much as you do theirs. That's the beauty of it; RPing is the only medium in which you can be both writing a story and reading to see what's gonna happen next. And unlike other interactive media like video games, what can happen in an RP isn't restricted to development costs but to the imagination of the RPers involved. It's a truly dynamic experience and if you're playing in a good RP with good RPers you're gonna have a great time. I really do need to get back into it one of these days.
LunchPolice: I don't currently plan on it but maybe one day. A couple of my ideas were kind of upstaged by superior versions in Dual Destinies, but there's still a few up my sleeve. We'll see.
LunchPolice: Geez it's hard to say considering I barely play them. I think I'm most attached to BB's old Raymond Hope series which he sorta threw into the furnace a while back. Maybe I should play some new age AAO trials, huh? Especially now that I've played all the games so I can't get spoiled. What are some good ones?
Tap: Aha... Now that's a tough question. I think I'll leave that to our members to judge. ^^
LunchPolice: Well, I was pretty socially awkward and quiet for like, the first half of it. I grew up with Thomas the Tank Engine, Dragon Ball Z, Homestar Runner and terrible Sonic the Hedgehog recolours. I spent a lot of time on the internet which has coloured a lot of my opinions and sense of humour, probably. Thankfully I ended up having an actual friend circle by the time I was like, nine. Otherwise I'd probably be some sarcastic, snarky husk of a human being. I turned out all right... right?
LunchPolice: Well... let's just say my life isn't getting a film adaptation any time soon. Let's see... I attempt to get up at 7. I eat a mildly interesting breakfast cereal. I spend about an hour on the bus to school. I draw my comic series during class time, have a band practice at lunchtime, go home, check the internets, and MAYBE make a sprite or something. Then I just have to put on my various creams for my screwed up unidentified skin condition and go to bed. Oh, and get super annoyed with how badly drawn the Street Fighter poster on my wall is.
LunchPolice: Uh... short-term: finish the current storyline of my comic before next year, finish my new Game Grumps animation. Long-term? Not entirely sure, to be honest. I'm not going to any kind of high-level schooling after, well, school. I don't know. I don't really mind how my life turns out as long as I'm always in a position to keep being creative and honing my skills. Maybe cultivate a successful animation channel on Youtube? I also want to put out at least one super cool respected work of fiction in my life. That would be pretty sweet.
LunchPolice: This might be a little controversial, but Apollo Justice. PW1 screwed up too many key events in the AA continuity for it to be my favourite, though case 4 is some of the best the series has to offer. JFA is my first AA game so it's a little hard for me to judge but I'm pretty sure it's the most consistent of the original games (lacks the awesome arc-ending material of later games though). T&T is definitely the best of the originals but it also contains my least favourite case in the entire series, Recipe for Turnabout. Apollo Justice to me is a good game to introduce people to AA. It all feels polished and there's no huge dip in quality anywhere. Plus, Phoenix is a badass. DD WOULD be my favourite one but I feel they sorta dropped the ball with Phoenix's characterisation. Otherwise it's great, especially the NPCs. DD NPCs are the best in the series.
LunchPolice: The Super Smash Brothers series is my favourite series of all time. Mass Effect and Street Fighter are up there, and to a lesser extent Sonic and Mario. I pretty much just enjoy any fighting game or any game with a good story/atmosphere... and platformers. On the more obscure side, The Last Blade 2 is a classic. Seriously, buy it on Wii Virtual Console. So good. Looking forward to Super Mario 3D World!
LunchPolice: I don't remember if my first console was an N64 or a Dreamcast, because I know we got both when I was younger, so... I'm not sure. Either Mario 64 or Sonic Adventure 1.
LunchPolice: Outside of spriting and RPing? Sure! As you guys may already know I'm into drawing. I write a comic called... *sigh* Gollystogibop(I named it when I was younger, ok?) that I might upload one day. 2D animation is a passion of mine, too. It's a load of fun if you have the dedication. I also sing in a band called Beanie Reef, I can show you guys some footage if you want!
LunchPolice: I have to say I'm actually indifferent because pavlova is the most mediocre desert of all time. I have not visited Australia but I will in a few weeks! Perhaps we can not recognise each other while I'm there!
Tap: Indeed...
Tap:[/b] Before we conclude this interview, do you have anything else you'd like to say?
LunchPolice: Hmm... I guess I'd just like to say that AAO is a sweet website. This is my first and only forum where I feel like I know the regulars and don't feel like a nobody, most of you are super nice... it's a great community for sure. I hope I can get back into RPing at some point. Also I'm making a Game Grumps Animated so look forward to that. There. Now that I've announced it I can't back out