Long before casual gamers dismissed the current indie gaming scene, they dismissed another independent gaming scene: homemade RPGs. Produced by individuals or small teams on software of questionable legality, advertised by word of mouth, and distributed through online forums, these games pick up the creative and emotional slack that was dropped by studios.
Like many gamers, I felt something come awake inside my soul when I played Final Fantasy IV and VI, and mistakenly assumed that the future of gaming would see an increase in emotional complexity. I thought that the medium would grow up with me.
It did not. Creativity was derailed. The emotional center of gaming did not hold. I was disappointed - but I wasnt alone. In the mid 90s or thereabouts, RPG making programs started popping up on the internet. In theory, anyone could learn how to use these tools and make their own RPG. Fortunately, a few heroes did... and still do.
Many of these homemade RPGs lack polish, but some brave titles contain a level of artistry long unseen in the creative vacuum of establishment gaming. One controversial title, The Way created by Luke Wacholtz, not only stood out as an underground great but, more importantly, became one of my favorite games of all time.
Wacholtz, better known by his alias Lun Calsari, spent three and a half years on the six episodes that make up his magnum opus, The Way. Greater minds than me have tried to describe The Way. Its like a fantasy world penned by Jodorowsky or David Lynch, or a dream painted with pixels, or a message from the distant future made with the tools left over from our apocalypse and sent back to us, neither warning nor greeting. An experience far beyond the norm.
Many underground RPGs are made by teams of people, and while Wacholtz was given some songs, character portraits, and animated sprites by other gaming enthusiasts, The Way is mostly the work of Wacholtz alone, a veritable Howard Roark of independent game creation. I cornered and questioned him about his experiences with the indie gaming scene, his thoughts on The Way, on making complicated protagonists like Rhue, and the controversy surrounding the release of the final episode of The Way.
Kyle B. Stiff: Were you familiar with the RPG Maker community before you started down the path of game creation? If so, what did you think of the community? If not, was there a rude awakening when you released some of your early games?
Luke Wacholtz: I discovered RPG Maker 95 (RM95) and the Rpg Maker Community in 1998. RM95 was like something out of a dream. The community around it was composed mostly of hardcore RPG addicts who had long fantasized about creating their own game. There was a lot of excitement and even RPG Maker games that would come off as old and hackneyed today had something of a brand new feel.
When I was first starting out, I held a mild reverence for the regulars. Some people came off a bit pretentious, but it was good fun as far as I was concerned. And while I was very familiar with the RPG Maker community, no one was really familiar with me because I was just a lurker on the boards, though I did review a few games that I liked. If I commented on the boards, it was mostly just to compliment someone on something I thought they did well in their game. Still, it wasn't until I released Crestfallen: Inception that the name Lun Calsari meant anything to anybody. And even then, I'm not saying it meant a lot.
There was no rude awakening upon releasing my first game. Crestfallen: Inception met instant acclaim. The mini-games and puzzles pushed RM95 beyond what many had thought were the program's limits.
One thing that set Crestfallen: Inception apart were the elaborate cut scenes. Some reviewers even noted that several of these were just as if not more impressive than many professional RPGs of the near past. One reviewer even gave the game a 100% score which sparked a large controversy in the tiny RM community.
The RPG Maker community really began to grow with the release of RM2K [RPG Maker 2000]. Mega sites like Gaming Ground Zero, Gaming World, and Rpg2knet were soon larger and more active than any of the sites I frequented in 1998. I have no hard statistics, but I would wager from my experiences that the average age of the community began to drop. There were more barely playable, unfinished games than before, but there were more good games also. Overall, the talent pool of the community seemed to increase tremendously.
During the summer of 2000 I began work on The Way. The first episode was officially released in early 2002. By that time I was well into making Episode 4.
Episode 1 was generally well received despite some of its shortcomings, and a few people even remembered my name from the RM95 days. I think the main thing that got people to initially give the game a try were the 3D rendered backgrounds. It immediately set the game apart from everything else on the scene.
(cont...)
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