<Sepharos> Josh, you are known online as BikdipOnABus, a Let's Player on YouTube; how did you discover LPs and what your initial impression of the idea?
<BikdipOnABus> I was first introduced to video-making in general with the Super Mario 64 video quiz hosted on GameFAQs. Before that, I already had plans to record a speedrun of Bikdip's Adventure 2 (one of the games I made, which I'm sure will be explained later on), so finding a program to do it with was definitely appealing to me. For my first year or so on youtube, I made various videos about games without any sort of voiceover. It wasn't until I did the popular I Wanna Be The Guy playthrough that I was eventually contacted by someone asking if I ever thought about doing LPs, and this was the first time I ever even heard of the term. So from what I remember, I watched a couple, thought "this might be interesting to try", and so started out with the NES Metroid video to test the waters. I thought it turned out pretty good, so I kept going with it.
<Sepharos> Was there anything you wanted to accomplish or specifically practice in your first LP?
<BikdipOnABus> If by "first LP" you mean the Metroid video, it was basically just to see how I'd be able to handle playing the game while talking about it at the same time. I was worried that it would be too hard to focus on playing well and giving a consistent narration. After that, I decided on Metroid 2: Return of Samus as my first real project (For some reason, I had plans to do all the Metroid games, but soon realized how boring that would be, so I abandoned the idea). I mainly wanted to show off the game, because it's probably the least appreciated in the series, and I managed to learn the layout of the game pretty well from previous playthroughs.
<Sepharos> How did your Let's Play of Metroid 2: Return of Samus turn out, in your opinion?
<BikdipOnABus> Looking back at it, it definitely isn't that great. I have this sort of attitude that "making a reference to something = instant humor". I've continued to do that sort of thing even in more recent LPs, but I handle it a bit better, and don't do it quite as often. Then there's the matter of part 3 of that LP, where I go through the entire video pretending that Tristan from Yu-gi-oh the Abridged Series is playing the game with me. It was a very odd concept, and led to a few funny moments, but I never did anything like that again because it was very hard to keep up the illusion (what little of an illusion there was), and is kind of a hokey idea in general.
<Sepharos> Josh, you've done several challenge runs for different games you've LP'd; could you elaborate on which you think was your most difficult, why, and which is your favourite?
<BikdipOnABus> The most difficult could probably be one of two things - the Metroid Prime 23% run, and the Mario Sunshine coinless run. Prime was difficult simply because it's a difficult challenge. I had done it before, but some of the tricks are really hard to pull off, and surviving with such little health is also a problem. Sunshine coinless was a different matter entirely, because I went into that challenge not even knowing if it was possible. I figured that I'd probably drop the restriction at some point, but as it turned out, nearly every mission in the game could be completed without collecting any coins - the Red Coin Fish in Noki Bay was especially terrible, and the fact that I managed to pull it off (in only 7 or 8 attempts, if I remember correctly) still amazes me. I have quite a few other challenge runs, but I think those two were definitely the ones that pushed me the hardest, unless I'm forgetting a major one somewhere. Mario 64 coinless wasn't actually that bad aside from a couple stars that I saved for the end. So if I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with Prime, if only because that's one of my favorite games, and it was my first console LP, which I think went really well.
<Sepharos> How do you decide what games you're going to LP and do you take recommendations?
<BikdipOnABus> I mainly pick games that I'm quite familiar with and have some sort of personal connection to, so that way I'll have lots of stuff to talk about. I try to stay away from uber-popular games unless I have a unique restriction that makes my playthrough of it stand out from all the others. But I haven't played that many obscure games, so I still usually do stuff that most gamers have at least heard of. Another thing I liked to do was pick a game that I had played and beaten at some point, but not anytime recently, so that I could go into the game not already having the entire map memorized, but not going in blind either. I think my first actual blind LP was Wario Land 4 (I'm probably forgetting something though - not counting Oracle of Seasons because it was dropped early on), and those sorts of playthroughs are a bit of a mixed bag. I like discovering things, but I don't like worrying about taking too long and annoying people who know the game very well. I do ocassionally listen to recommendations, but very rarely will I take one person's suggestion and run with it, unless it was the winner of a contest or something like that. I think the only times I've truly caved in to demands were Mario Galaxy and Gex 3 (which I ditched).
<Sepharos> Are there any particular games you'd like to LP in the future?
<BikdipOnABus> I have a list on my website, actually:
http://bikdiponabus....t.html#Upcoming The ones I'm looking forward to the most are Mario Galaxy 2 (coinless, as tradition demands), and Ocarina of Time (where you never get the Master Sword and play through as much of the game as possible as Young Link, using a myriad of glitches). Right now I'm just hoping that I get back into the swing of things, because in the past few Pokemon Emerald segments I've recorded, I seem to have problems with providing interesting commentary. Hopefully I've just been out of practice for too long.
<Sepharos> How much planning and pracitce goes into any Let's Play that you do?
<BikdipOnABus> It really depends on the game. For LPs like Banjo-Tooie, where I'm already very familiar with the game and I'm not doing anything extreme with it, I don't need to plan anything, really. For games that I know well but want to do a challenge for, it sort of depends on my mood and what is coming up. If it's something really hard, I'll probably practice it a couple times before I record it. With some of the challenges (including the upcoming Galaxy 2 and Ocarina of Time LPs), I've already completed the challenge at some point, just unrecorded. But with some like Mario Sunshine, like I said earlier, I just go into it blind and hope for the best. Overall there isn't much of a trend, it just depends on how I'm feeling and how hard it's going to be.
<Sepharos> You've done several co-commentaries before in your LP's, notably with Brynna and your Pikmin 2 LP; how do you decide what games to have a co-commentator and how do you decide who's right for the job?
<BikdipOnABus> With Majora's Mask, I decided on a whim to ask Brynna to co-commentate with me because I wasn't sure how interesting I'd be able to make the LP on my own, and I had just watched her Master Quest LP. (Keep in mind that we actually met through the Majora's Mask LP - if not for that, we wouldn't be a couple right now). She's been included in other LPs since then whenever I feel that a second person is necessary. For Pikmin 2, I had sort of the same approach, and would have most likely not even recorded any of the footage if Fiona (a friend I met online, who incidently I really need to get back into contact with) hadn't agreed to be in it. Eventually she abandoned ship, so I replaced her with a fan who knew a lot about the game and was eager to be in some videos. Other than those, the only other co-commentor I've had is Tim, who I don't think has actually been in any of my personal LPs yet, but will be in a couple upcoming ones. He's just another fan, and we get along well, so it seemed natural. Currently, I don't have any plans to include any other co-commentators for future videos.
<Sepharos> Prior to beginning LP'ing, was there any Let's Player you looked up to? Who do you look up to today?
<BikdipOnABus> As I said earlier, I wasn't aware of other LPers before I started doing it. I know I watched a few videos to grasp the concept of narrating over games, but I can't actually remember what I watched. So when I started doing it myself, the only people I could really compare to were reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd and Spoony. Not much has really changed since then. I do watch other LPs from time to time, but none of the big-name people like chuggaaconroy or NintendoCapriSun. I watch most of Datai's videos and sometimes unintentially start copying his way of doing things, plus he was a bit of inspiration for my FireRed Omega playthrough. Overall I wouldn't say I look up to anyone in particular, but I have had some influences here and there.
<Sepharos> What would you say has been your favourite LP of another Let's Player?
<BikdipOnABus> This might sound like a strange choice, but the first thing that comes to mind was Shadowgate done by madamluna and DeceasedCrab. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing that special about it, but it's absolutely hilarious. There's been other LPs that I really enjoyed, such as the one of Sonic 2006 by the pokecapn crew and various ridiculous Mario hacks by various people (such as ProtonJonSA and AzureBlade49), but honestly, as short and nonprofessional as the Shadowgate one was, I'm going to go with my gut and not second-guess myself. That thing was pure gold.
<Sepharos> Do you have a favourite LP that you've done?
<BikdipOnABus> Not really. The ones that the fans like (Metroid Prime, Mario Sunshine, FireRed Omega) probably top my list, but I don't have a definite favorite. I do think that Kaizo Mario 64 turned out really good though, and is better than any of the LPs that I've made since then. All the LPs of the games that I made (Mitch and the two Bikdip's Adventure games) are all pretty good. I definitely liked being able to advertise those games and get people interested in them, which I would have never been able to do without my LPing fanbase. And even without that, I had more to say about those games than any other, since I had lots of stories about the development process, and I was able to poke fun at my own terrible level design in parts.
<Sepharos> What do you believe makes you unique compared to other Let's Players?
<BikdipOnABus> To put it simply, I have a dry sense of humor. Most LPs I've watched are done by someone who's a lot more lively with their commentary. And this seems to be the accepted standard, because the most common negative comments I get are from people telling me I need to stop being so boring and monotone-sounding. I'm not that way though. The best way I can describe it is by comparing Spongebob to Squidward. The other LPers might sound a lot more energetic than me, but I'm fine just being my sarcastic, snarky self. I do get compared to Squidward pretty often, and while I don't think my voice really sounds like his, I don't entirely mind the comparision. He's my favorite character on the show for a reason.
<Sepharos> What do you enjoy most about being a Let's Player?
<BikdipOnABus> I guess my favorite thing about it is being able to show off my skill at certain games, and letting more people know about some of the insane glitches that are in these classic games. Honestly, I think glitches are probably the most fun part of a lot of games, as long as they're not the kind that make it unbeatable. There's also a sense of pride to have so many people listening to what I have to say, and genuinely being interested in it. It's a concept that I never really got used to, and even though I do take it for granted sometimes, every once in a while someone will consider me to be famous or well-known, and while the truth in that is debatable, the fact that they might think that is a pretty cool feeling.
<Sepharos> On the other side of the same coin, why do you dislike about being a Let's Player?
<BikdipOnABus> There's two things I could say I don't like about it - haters, and commitment. Haters are self-explanitory, really. There's the kind who just swoop in, call me a douche, and leave, who are annoying, but ultimately not that bad. But then there's repeated offenders who seem to have a problem with everything I do, and sometimes target other people I care about, which is unacceptable. Commitment isn't as much of an issue, but it does give sort of a looming shadow of worry at times. By that, I basically mean that if I start to stray from my usual upload schedule, or take a break from it (the really long break I just got done with, especially), I start to feel like I'm letting everyone down, and NEED to make videos again quickly, and apologize for the downtime. When honestly, I do this because I enjoy it, and I have no real reason to stick to a strict schedule. What is important to me needs to come before what the fans want, and sometimes I don't realize that.
<Sepharos> Josh, how did you come up with your YouTube username, "BikdipOnABus?"
<BikdipOnABus> My original username that I would use for everything was "Jish", a name that somebody called me like, once or twice in like, 5th grade. Somehow I ended up sticking with it. I think the first time I ever needed a username longer than four characters was for the online game Gunbound, so I came up with BikdipOnABus, and have used that in most places since. Bikdip is a character from a series of terrible stories that I wrote along with my friend Harrison when we were in junior high. It's the yellow smily face with three eyes that's in my youtube icon and is the star of two of my games. The stupid part about all this is that the stories were called "Bargo the Bikdip", and indeed, Bikdip is only the name of the species, and Bargo is his actual name. But I pretty much use them interchangably. The "on a bus" part was a random addition that I came up with due to the fact that Jonah, one of my brothers, was strangely obsessed with buses when he was younger. It sounded funny, so I used it, and the name stuck.
<Sepharos> What is your general setup or programs you use whilst recording and editing LP videos?
<BikdipOnABus> With my oldest setup, I'd use Camstudio and pretty much nothing else. After having many problems with audio sync, I would extract the audio from the AVI file and insert breaks in it every time they went out of sync, so that ultimately it would be lined up properly. It was a massive pain in the ass, and eventually I discovered that running Audacity along with Camstudio (the latter of which I would set to not record audio) would actually eliminate this problem. All the editing was done in Windows Movie Maker. This setup stayed with me for a very long time, with the exception of Zelda Classic LPs, where I would use Camtasia to both record and edit. It worked well with that program, but seemed to cause problems with other emulators. Then one day I found out that it ... actually did work with other emulators. So I started using that instead, since Camstudio eventually started crapping out on me. I also replaced Audacity with a program called "Fee Hi-Q Recorder" once Audacity also started crapping out on me. As for console games, I've always used a Dazzle DVC100. Up until the last few parts of Pikmin 2, I had horrendous video quality because I recorded through Movie Maker with really bad settings. The only reason I didn't use Pinnacle Studio was because I couldn't get it to work. Then one day, with some help, I got Pinnacle to work, and it was actually not very hard at all. So yeah, all the terrible quality present before that could have been very easily avoided.
<Sepharos> Have you ever considered leaving behind LP'ing?
<BikdipOnABus> Sort of. There's been numerous times when technical problems (usually computers dying) prevented me from making any videos, but most of the time, I would get right back to it once I was able to. In summer 2011, following the Autism Speaks charity stream and official death of my laptop (and shortly after that, Brynna's laptop too), I went through a long period of not wanting to record anything because of the general suckiness of the other computer I had access to. In addition to that, Brynna wanted to move out, and I definitely needed to find a job, so I used that as an excuse to not record anything for a long period of time, even though I barely did anything during all those months. Basically, I just reached a point where I didn't want to go back to videomaking because I knew that if I did, it would be hard for me to focus on anything else. But I think I've finally reached a point where I can balance life with LPing fairly well. As long as I can continue to make material that I'm happy with, I have no immediate plans to stop.
<Sepharos> What's the name of the laptop you recently showed in your appartment tour video?
<BikdipOnABus> I call that the Tandy, named after Strong Bad's first computer, which was a collossal piece of crap that somehow managed to survive expoding, which is pretty close to what mine has done. I plan on going into great detail on that thing in my next video, actually, but basically, it's every bit as terrible as it looks. In addition to the screen hanging on by a thread and the missing spacebar, it also has a completely non-working battery, and about 30 or so stripes on the screen. The thing that eventually killed it was bad connections with the AC adaptor (the same thing that killed my second laptop, except then that one started randomly blacking out too). If I was able to fix that problem, the Tandy would probably still work.
<Sepharos> What are your goals as a Let's Player?
<BikdipOnABus> I can't say I really have any goals. I want to continue making LPs until I run out of games that I have anything worthwhile to talk about. Other than that though, there's no specific games that I MUST do, and I don't have a target number of subscribers to hit, so really, it's just something that I'll do until it becomes uninteresting.
<Sepharos> How has being a Let's Player affected your life?
<BikdipOnABus> It's given me somewhat of a sense of purpose. That sounds a bit overly dramatic, but it's pretty much true - after graduating high school, I didn't have any actual goals. I was accepted to a college, but wasn't able to go due to financial issues, and eventually I fell into a rut of babysitting my brothers and not having any sort of a life. I can't say that making LP videos has directly changed this fact, but it did give me something to do, and if nothing else, distracted me even further from getting some sort of entry-level job and sticking with it, but never really advancing in any way. If it wasn't for the LPing hobby, I would have never met Brynna, and thus wouldn't have been able to move away from my family and establish my own life. Which is not to say that I've actually done that yet, but now at least the possibility of it happening exists. Even if I never do go back to school and/or get a career that I truly enjoy, I'll at least be able to start a new family.
<Sepharos> Josh, how did you first become a gamer?
<BikdipOnABus> I've been raised with video games my entire life. My parents had an NES and I think an Atari 2600 from before I was born, and so I pretty much grew up with a controller in my hand. I've always stuck with Nintendo because that's what I grew up with as a kid, and I've never had a legitimate reason to stop supporting them. Lately, I've become less of a gamer and more of an internet lurker, spending the majority of my time on message boards or youtube rather than playing games, but it's not something that I can ever picture myself giving up on. I look forward to the Wii U and seeing what it is capable of, and what games it will have to expand the classic franchises.
<Sepharos> Do you remember what your first video game was?
<BikdipOnABus> Not completely, but I've said in a few videos that the first game that I can distinctly remember playing was Rainbow Islands on NES. Unless you count that terrible Fisher-Price Firetruck game, which was most likely before that. I talk about that a bit in my 10,000 subscriber special. But memory aside, the first game I ever played was most likely Super Mario Bros. I can imagine myself trying, and failing, to play that when I was barely old enough to walk.
<Sepharos> What did you enjoy most about video games when you were younger?
<BikdipOnABus> *shrug* They've always just been the most interesting thing to play with. You've got normal toys, board games, and video games. Video games have always been the most entertaining, because they have the most ... content? I guess that's what you'd call it? That's not to say that I didn't play with other stuff as a kid, because I know that I did, especially when I started getting into Legos. But I've always preferred games over tv, because it's something you get to interact with, not just look at. Sort of the same reason why I've never had an interest in music - that's something you enjoy with only one sense, while most other things have something else to go along with the sound. But I'm probably just weird that way.
<Sepharos> What would you say your favourite video game series is and why?
<BikdipOnABus> That's a hard thing to pinpoint, because the Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon series all have things that I enjoy in different ways. Out of those four, Mario is definitely the one I was aware of the earliest, as I didn't get into Zelda until after Pokemon was created (which was when I was about 10), and my first Metroid game was Prime. I guess overall I'd have to go with the Mario series. The core games in the series have been more consistently good than Metroid, more varied (and fast-paced) than Pokemon, and they appeal to me a lot more than half of the Zelda series, where I don't enjoy most of the 2D games. It is somewhat of a close call though between the four, and there's definitely other game franchises that I'm interested in, but those are the biggest.
<Sepharos> An even greater and specific question, what would you say your favourite game of all time is and why?
<BikdipOnABus> Once again it sort of comes down to the same four series, except Pokemon doesn't have one specific game that I loved more than any of the others, so I'm counting that one out. If I had to choose between Mario 64, Metroid Prime, and Majora's Mask ... I honestly don't know which I'd choose. Probably not Majora's Mask, because although it is my favorite Zelda game, it's not as replayable as the other two. It's also hard to choose between them because I've played both so many times and become familiar with so many of the tricks and exploits, that I can barely even remember a time when I played them the normal way. Sorry that I couldn't give a definite answer, but if I choose one, I think of a dozen reasons why the other should win. Random shoutouts to Kirby Superstar, Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, Pikmin 2, and Super Smash Bros Melee/Brawl for also being among my all-time favorites.
<Sepharos> What is most important, according to you, within a video game?
<BikdipOnABus> I've always put gameplay over anything else. If a game isn't fun, then I don't care how beautiful it looks or how interesting the story is. With the three examples I game in the last question, I have a platformer/collectathon, a first-person adventure/shooter, and an action-adventure. Mario 64 has the worst graphics of the three and basically no story to speak of, but it's so fun to play and learn new methods of getting to each star, that you can overlook those things. I think the perfect video game has to be set up with an environment that sucks you in and a backstory that gets you truly invested. With a lot of RPGs, the backstory is laid out in front of you in the form of "in the past, so-and-so defeated so-and-so of the whatever kingdom, and then the blah blah race of insert city here were freed from his evil ways". It might be well-thought out, but it's nothing really original, and it's just throwing a bunch of new names and concepts at you that you probably don't care about. The reason I love Majora's Mask is because the threat is extremely apparent, and you can learn how people's lives are being affected by it just by getting involved in their daily routines and learning what these people are like. It's the backbone of the game, not just a story that exists to make you fight the villain. Sorry, I kind of went on a tangent there. But basically, the perfect game should have gameplay that is easy to learn but hard to master, with tricks that you can learn years after first playing it. But it should also have an environment that makes you actually care about what you're doing.
<Sepharos> I suppose this is a bit more specific than the previous question, but how would you rank these in terms of importance within a video game: graphics, music, story, and gameplay?
<BikdipOnABus> Gameplay comes first, no questions. Story is the second most important. A game can be good without one, but a good story makes a game better, and a bad story makes a game worse. Just look at what happened with Metroid: Other M. Music is next, because it's an experience from the game that you can take with you. When you're on a long car ride after playing a game for a long time, you can't really remember specific graphical details, but you can definitely remember a tune that gets stuck in your head. Graphics are the least important. There do exist games that are hampered by bad graphics, but I don't believe any of them would have been good games even if they looked beautiful. As long as the graphics can get you immersed into the world the game makes for you, it doesn't matter how hi-res they are. N64 graphics are dated, but the two Zeldas on that system still have memorable locations. Even 8-bit games can pull this off if done correctly.
<Sepharos> What game genres are you most interested in and why?
<BikdipOnABus> I don't really have a favorite genre. During the N64 era, I would have said collectathons. Before that, platformers. Currently, I play a pretty wide variety of games, and none scream "best" to me. The genres I'm LEAST interested in are typical first-person shooters and fantasy RPGs. That and sports, as I don't care about those games in the slightest. Or realistic racing games. Those do nothing for me. Even with Mario Kart, I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it, otherwise I just get frustrated or bored.s
<Sepharos> Earlier you mentioned that you're a Pokemon fan; which generation would you say is your favourite and why?
<BikdipOnABus> I'd probably have to go with Gen 4 (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and HeartGold/SoulSilver), but Gen 5 could easily surpass it once it gets more games. I trust that Black and White 2 will be good games. Pokemon really is a series that keeps getting better though, despite what old-school fans may claim. Nostalgia is a strong thing. For a few years, I considered my precious Silver version to be leagues better than Ruby and Sapphire, due to the things they took out. But now that I'm older and some time has passed, I see exactly why they took those things out, and respect the decision - especially since they knew that some fans would revolt, but they did it anyway for the good of the series. Other than the transition from GBC to GBA causing some problems, the series has never really taken a step back. Sometimes some features will be left out only to return in later games, and this is probably a bad example of only caring about profit (if they put it back in the next game, people will buy that one too after learning it was taken out of the one they just bought!). But this is a minor issue that gets overblown by the fanbase. Hoenn (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) is my favorite region, and has my favorite set of Pokemon. But Gen 3 isn't my favorite, because Gen 4 upgraded the mechanics, in addition to introducing more Pokemon and a new region, which are at least satisfactory. At the very least, they didn't make the experience any worse, especially not to the extent where I could consider a set of games that is clearly inferior (they have less content and less polished battling mechanics) to be better.
<Sepharos> How do you decide what Pokemon to have on your roster?
<BikdipOnABus> With the older games, I would basically just play through and use stuff that stood out to me. I'm not really sure how I ended up with the teams that I did. Starting with Pearl though, I have a tendency to plan out the team far in advance using information gathered from the Japanese release. Basically, I try to get a team that hits all the types I consider staples (Grass, Fire, Water, Electric, Psychic, Ground, Flying, with anything else being a nice bonus), while also avoiding Pokemon that don't appeal to me very much or have really bad stats and/or movepools. I usually have no problem with this, but I originally wanted to use a Wormadam, until I learned that it doesn't get any good moves. It's a very unexact science that usually requires a lot of tweaking. Using a team of 12, as I've done recently, solves the problem somewhat, but introduces more problems because by having a larger goal, my standards for what to sift out have gone down considerably.
<Sepharos> What would you say is your favourite Pokemon, if you have one?
<BikdipOnABus> I've claimed that my favorite is Bellossom for a pretty long time, without any actual reasoning behind this choice. I used one in Silver (and again in Emerald 386), and I definitely like the way it looks, but there are other grass types that can do pretty much everything that it can, sometimes better. With that said, I don't really have a favorite. I definitely have a group of favorites, but this group probably contains at least 20 different Pokemon, and it changes from time to time, so it's not really worth bringing up.
<Sepharos> Earlier you had mentioned "Bargo the Bikdip's Adventure," a game of your creation; could you elaborate on this?
<BikdipOnABus> Actually that's a combination of two things - Bargo the Bikdip was a series of three stories, of which I wrote half the chapters. It really is terrible and I don't recommend reading it, but people still continue to do so. Oh well, you were warned. Bikdip's Adventure is a game that I made in Zelda Classic, which is a program that basically recreated the original 1986 Legend of Zelda game, along with an editor. Current versions of the program can do extremely advanced things and may not even resemble Zelda when finished, but the older versions (the ones I use) can pretty much only make games with the Zelda engine. Bikdip's Adventure was the first game I made with it. It isn't the worst game ever made - I've seen far worse - but it's not that great either. I basically made it as I was testing out the program to see what it could do. My overall goal was to make something playable with a full overworld and 9 levels, and I succeeded in that sense, but it has a lot of design flaws. My second game was called Mitch (that's it, just "Mitch"), and doesn't feature Bargo the Bikdip in it at all. In this one, I decided to stray from the usual formula a bit, so I made a system where you have to buy upgrades to your sword, shield, etc, after grinding for rupees in "battle screens", which are basically random encounters, but not really random. It also has a buttload of hidden heart pieces and other secrets. I consider this game to be at least decent. My latest game is Bikdip's Adventure 2, which reuses the same overworld of the first BA, but with a lot of changes, and with totally different levels. This was the first time I made levels that weren't in the standard "grid of rectangular rooms with doors that sometimes require keys or killing all enemies to open" formula. It also contains somewhat of a story, which wasn't the case for the other two games. It isn't perfect, but I'm still quite happy with the way it came out. I would suggest that people try it out, but the program is notoriously hard to get running on modern computers, and the difficulty curve is pretty high. If you haven't checked out my LP of this game though, then definitely go do that.
<Sepharos> How closely, if at all, do you follow gaming news?
<BikdipOnABus> Not much, unless it's Pokemon news, which I always read as soon as it's released, and then read all the information I can about the game once it's released in Japan. I have no problem with spoilers for that series. Same goes for Smash Bros, actually. I love speculating over what characters are going to be included, and following Brawl's Dojo (a website that updated with information daily) was a really fun experience. With other games, I usually become aware of their existence through youtube comments ("Have you heard about Super Mario Bros 4????"), but other than that, I either don't care to look up anything else, or I specifically go out of my way to avoid news. I like to be totally surprised by new games, unless they happen to be Pokemon or Smash Bros games.
<Sepharos> You had mentioned earlier that prior to being a Let's Player, you did something invovling video quizes; what was this about?
<BikdipOnABus> On GameFAQs, there was a contest called the video quiz running on the Super Mario 64 board. Basically, the person running it would post a task, and everyone interested would try to complete the task, and record it for visual proof. Some of the tasks were timed, and for those, only the first and second place winners would get points. For non-timed tasks, everyone who did it would get points. By the time it ended, I was actually in first place, because I was able to complete the majority of the tasks. Then there was a final set of 5 really difficult timed tasks for the top 5 people in the competition. I did my best and came out in second place. Considering the fact that the person in first place is actually the holder of the world-record speedrun, I have no shame in this.
<Sepharos> Have you ever created your own video quiz?
<BikdipOnABus> That's a specific question, it's almost as if you know the answer!
Sakurai: [laughs]
But anyway, yes, I made a quiz for Banjo-Kazooie, hosted on the RareWitchProject forums. It got a fair amount of attention, but eventually died off due to disinterest. I blame a combination of the game being too hard to perform tasks in, since it auto-saves, the type of tasks I came up with (usually some weird barely-possible climbing crap), and the fact that I submiited to my own quiz and usually won. That probably upset most of the other players, but nobody called me out on it.
<Sepharos> Would you ever consider making another video quiz?
<BikdipOnABus> I thought about doing another one for Mario 64 after the first one ended, but I was having computer issues at the time, and eventually let someone else take over. I competed in that one for a little while and then gave up, because somehow the competition got a lot harder, and I was upset that I very rarely even got in the top 5 for the timed tasks. I don't have any plans to run another one at this time. Brynna and I amused the idea of doing one for Ocarina of Time, but it never went anywhere.
<Sepharos> How has gaming affected your life?
<BikdipOnABus> I wouldn't really say that it has, but that's because I've grown up with it, and can't imagine my life without it. I've never had any sort of a social life, and while it's not fair to blame video games or the internet for that, they definitely are the reason that I never actively tried to have one. Other than that, all I can really say is it led me to LPing, which led me to meeting Brynna, and that's a subject I already talked about.
<Sepharos> Besides gaming an LP'ing, what other hobbies or interests do you have?
<BikdipOnABus> That's a very short list. When I was in school, I played trombone in the band from 5th grade up until the first few months of my Junior year in high school. This wasn't something that I would do outside of school, but it did involve playing at concerts and at football or basketball games, so it at least counts as an extracurricular. Right now, I have an interest in cross-stitching. It's just something to do while watching videos, tv, or movies, and the end result is a cool little thing that you can frame and show off, so it's a nice little hobby. I also started playing Dungeons and Dragons at a game store last winter, but due to the recent move, I'm unable to keep going to the games. I might be able to go to a few eventually, but I don't think it's something I'll be able to do regularly. I've thought about participating in or even running games over Skype, but haven't started planning how I would do this. Other than that, I pretty much just spend my time lurking on the internet. It's not an exciting life, but it's what I enjoy doing, so bollocks to whoever says I should go out and do something else. Also I should probably note that I do have vague plans to make another Zelda Classic quest, but it's unclear if this will ever go anywhere.
<Sepharos> Could you take us through a day in the life of JoshTheBikdipOnABus?
<BikdipOnABus>- Get up later than most people usually would
- Do a bunch of nothing
- Maybe record something if I feel like it
- Apply to a couple jobs if I can motivate myself to do it
- Go to bed after doing a bunch of nothing
<Sepharos> What career choices would you be interested in?
<BikdipOnABus> I used to be very interested in game design, and the college I applied to (and got accepted to) did have a course on that. When things didn't work out, I kind of gave up on that goal. From what I've heard from various sources, that's not really the best way to get into that field anyway. Granted, I'm not sure what the best way actually IS, but whatever. I'm still somewhat interested in that, but I'm not currently pursuing it. The other career I've thought about is being an elementary school teacher. I know right now that fans are going to be like "wait, what?", especially given my less-than-stellar attitude towards Justin and Joey in my videos, but teaching is something I've always wanted to do, and I despise teenagers, so it would have to be for younger students. In addition to the classes I'd have to take on teaching, I assume I'd also need to learn better anger management, since I don't react well to people who don't understand things I consider simple. That's definitely something I'd have to work on.
<Sepharos> Do you currently have a lifelong dream or goal?
<BikdipOnABus> Can't say that I do. Other than the two career choices I just mentioned, the only thing that comes to mind is marriage. Which, yes, is definitely a thought in my and Brynna's heads, but I don't want to rush into things. Getting a job and having an income is more important for now.
<Sepharos> Where do you hope to be in life ten years from now?
<BikdipOnABus> Not gonna lie - I have no idea. My life became sort of unpredictable after my family got screwed over in 2005 and we lost our house, so since then I've been living in the moment, not entirely concerned with what's going to happen a month from now. In an ideal situation, I would be married, possibly with a child, and at some point, I would have gotten some sort of tertiary education and then found an enjoyable job. I don't think any of these are unreasonable goals (I'm not asking to be rich, just comfortable), but like I've already said, I haven't been doing anything to make it happen.
<Sepharos> Lastly, is there anything you'd like to say to the readers or your fanbase?
<BikdipOnABus> All I can ask my fanbase is to be intelligent and think before you comment. Way too often do I get a comment that clearly didn't have any thought behind it, and then I get mad, and things turn around and make me into the bad guy. I hate to yell at the fans, but I don't have much tolerance for stupidity. The majority of you are fine, I'm only talking to a small amount of posters who ask questions that shouldn't need to be asked, and often show extremely poor spelling and grammar while doing so. But as for the majority, just enjoy my videos, and don't be afraid to give feedback (even if it's negative, as long as it's constructive - let me know if I'm doing something that I need to change). And continue to be patient with infrequent uploads, because while I do have plenty of material I want to put out, I can't guarantee that it will come out very quickly. Other than that, I can't ask for much.
