Journalism Interview: Tayoko
Interviewed by GameMakingDude
GMD: What made you to get into pixel art?
Tayoko: I used to play Runscape when I was younger, in the forums I would hang out at some kids where making avatars using a "buddy set" and selling them for Runescape gold. I started toying with them in paint to the point where I could make my own completely from scratch. Later I find out what I was doing was called Pixel Art.
GMD: How did you find BYOND?
Tayoko: Probably like most. A friend of a friend was playing an anime fan game and got us all into it. We played Strai's Heroes United for a while among others before I decided to start my own project.
GMD: So you started off with an anime game?
Tayoko: Yup ^_^
GMD: How long have you been doing pixel art for?
Tayoko: Ehhh, not entirely sure? I've been doing it on and off since probably around 06. Didn't start taking it seriously until about a year ago.
GMD: Any thoughts on getting back together with Vermolius and doing another project?
Tayoko: Verm is fun to work with, he's pretty smart but doesn't seem to get much credit or attention. Unfortunately I can't handle anything on top of my already busy schedule, school/work leave me with little energies to spare. We've got a ton of neat ideas, once things slow down for me I'll likely try and get the band back together.
GMD: What happened to the other project that you announced in January "Codename CQ"?
Tayoko: Codename CQ ended up being called Scorn Earth. It was decided to be a Advance War/Civilization type game. The idea came from some personal studies I did on the development of the Spanish empire; we had a lot of fun with the idea. Not sure how the project was cancelled, it was likely due to me not being able to output artwork fast enough to keep motivation high.
GMD: What do you do in your free time?
Tayoko: I've recently picked up playing the guitar and I've made a habit of always spending some of my free time studying topics I find interesting.
GMD:What type of music are you learning to play on guitar?
Tayoko: I'm still learning the basics. Right now i'm trying to get accustomed to some pentatonic scales. Eventually I want to end up learning to play Spanish sounding type stuff (think Espada from bleach) and, of course, Video game music [:
GMD:What kind of video games are you into at the moment?
Tayoko: Currently Pokemon: Soulsilver, Torchlight, and Chess - don't get much time to play, though.
GMD: You said earlier in the interview you started off with an anime. What kind of animes do you like?
Tayoko: Not many, actually. But some include: Now then, here and there, Samurai Champloo, and, uhhh, Naruto. haha.I like death note, too, that was good. And I really keep coming back to the Naruto soundtrack, it's some awesome music. My favorite being sadness and sorrow.
GMD: If you wanted to work with a Game developer who would it be?
Tayoko: Good question. Probably Eric Zimmerman, he's like Plato of the game world. haha. Or maybe Chris Crawford, seems friendly - and I love his stuff on interactive stories.
GMD: What did you do long before BYOND?
Tayoko: That was so long ago; probably just being a kid. Runescape, Ragnarok, Pokemon, Drawing, School. Stuff like that.
GMD: What was your earliest BYOND memory?
Tayoko: I remember being so strong in one of the Heroes United servers I could kill anyone with one hit - loads of fun.
GMD: What is your favourite BYOND Game and if you wanted from each genre?
Tayoko: Tomb Explorer was addicting, genuine fun. Hats off to Foomer. I also liked Plunder Gnome. Efencea wasn't so bad either, the original.
GMD: Have you ever considered on expanding Efencea?
Tayoko: Yes, a ton. A small Canadian gaming company wanted to pick up the title and expand it into a full fledged game on several platforms. There was some issues with the contracts and that kinda flopped. We're also always talking about how we could polish the game, it's always on our mind.
GMD: Basically, your game could have been sold all around the world, if there were no problems?
Tayoko: Hard to predict what could of happened. It's was our first released game - I like to think it did well for being an improvised project, even if our players and its developers have given up on it for the time being. haha.
GMD: What is your recent pixel art job you're doing?
Tayoko: Working on a project called storm weavers. It's very much like RPG maker, huge difference being how it can output flash/android/some other notable binary.
GMD: Got any more information about storm weavers?
Tayoko: Storm Weavers
GMD: What would you add to the BYOND's icon editor?
Tayoko: I don't know. Don't ever use it. It's frustrating. When I tried to suggest how it could improve a long while back - I was shut down pretty harshly by folks on the BYOND dev forums - so I gave up on it.
GMD: What is your opinion on games with ripped graphics?
Tayoko: It has its place. Making art for a game is pretty challenging stuff, I wouldn't blame a programmer for ripping stuff and getting on with his project until the time appropriate. I'm not too fond of dishonesty, these developers should at the very least give credit and keep the project personal. There are plenty of free resources online, like http://opengameart.org/ that gave people no reason to steal artwork, though.
GMD: How long does it take you to make a 32x32 piece of pixel art?
Tayoko: A 32x32 Piece of pixel art usually takes me 5-10 mins.
GMD: Thanks for your time. Any closing comments?
Tayoko: Thanks for the interview, it was fun. Also, people of BYOND - remember silk is an entertainer, a pro troll. Ignore him, get along, and get something done! So annoying watching people get so fired up over one dude with an ego, heh.
As I recall, we came to the realization that you were too busy to do pixel art at a rate acceptable to development. Personally, I felt further development would be a strain on your evanescent time. That and it seemed that once we got passed the design phase you would continue designing some other game idea rather than staying consistent.