1. What got you into SMW hacking?
Since i started playing games, i wanted to create my own. But never knew how. until the day i found a kaizo hack video on youtube. I asked myself how it was created, and soon found the "SMW Hack" keyword, googled it and i'm here. SMWCentral was always a good place to me, i've met some really nice users, and it changed my life, really, it can sound silly, but it made me have a different vision of games, and helped me to develop a stronger affection to them. It also made me notice that i have to work with games, that's why i'm coursing a game course at an university nearby.

2. Are you working on a SMW hacking project right now? If so, please tell us a bit about it.
Yep, i'm working on one. Eternal Oblivion's the name, it was called Pacheco Project back then, although it never gone far from the planning states. I plan to make this rather unique in the gameplay field, and have some nice little new moves for the main character, Pacheco. Another point i got some thinking around is the plot, that i think it's turning out pretty good, i also plan on using this plot with much more content to the GAME itself. I also will have the help of some great hackers on this one, 1UpDudes, GN and Underway formed a team with me. Hopefully we will start doing something soon ;)

3. Why did you decided to specialize in GFX creation?
The first GFX i ever made was the frames for Pacheco, After that, i wanted to make my works more unique and tryed my hands at a grassland tileset, I am working with graphics since then.
I've got fascinated with Pixel art in general, and i've learned tons with tutorials over the net. i still want to grow much more in this field. What can i say? I love to make those little .bins :3

4. Apart from drawing GFX, you seem to have skills in drawing. Can you describe your experience with drawing in general?
Well, to create is an art that i appreciate a lot, and so i found that drawing is a good way to do that, so i decided to draw, and i liked that. I've never took any classes, just books and tutorials helped me improving my work. I still think i'm not that good in this area, even though my friends say i'm good at drawing. I also find some difficulties into picking my ideas and put them on paper, they never appear as i planned them. Rarely i make something look right, but yeah, living and learning, i'll soon be better at this.

5. Part of your activity seems to be focused on SMWCP2. Tell me about your experience with the project.
I'm having a good time with it, even though i dropped my activity on this to almost 0% this past weeks. People seem to be working hard for it to be a good hack in the end, and i like to see this kind of teamwork. The leading of the project seem to be on the right track since the begining too. Can't tell much more since i lost activity on this, but i wish i could finish everything i said i would be doing for this project, but it seems it will not be done anytime soon :/

6. I can see, by your activity in contest and collabs, that you have an interest for level designing. What are your thoughts about level design in general, and how do you define it?
Level design have to be fun. Simple as that, actually, simple is the word. A level don't need to have tons of information on screen at the same time, it dont have to be overfilled with details and sprites, it have to be simple and have an natural simetry of shapes in the landmasses, i can point -Super "Mario" World- as a true example of good level design, it's simple, and it's impossible to stop playing it when you start it. When i first started doing levels, lot's of users told me it was hard, it had interesting concepts, but it was hard. At first i was ignoring those things, but with time i learned to listem to them and improve my level design. Its not yet perfect, but i'm working on that.

1. How did you first discover SMWC, and what prompted you to stay?
A couple of 'events' linked together caused me to discover SMWCentral.

When I was little, in my early childhood, Super Mario World was my favourite game. Whenever I would stay sick home, I'd start the SNES and play Super Mario World. I discovered most of the secrets in SMW amongst my family (including Soda Lake), and also a glitch in that final Forest of Illusion level (with the enemies encapsulated in bubbles). Of course, I was curious if there were other glitches around, so I started looking around youtube. That's where I found a video of a hack with Lunar Magic applied on it. At first I didn't know what was going on, but after reading the comments which were all like "LUNAR MAGIC!! FAEK", I decided to look it up.

I was amazed when I saw Lunar Magic and its screenshots. "Being able to make levels for my favourite game? Awesome!" I happened to have a SMW ROM lying around, and downloaded Lunar Magic from FuSoYa's site. I made suckish levels at first of course (lava mixed with water tiles, woo), but I was curious in this "ExGFX", so I looked it up. I ended up at Megaman765's ExGFX video tutorial, and from there I ended up at SMWCentral ("Download ExGFX from SMWCentral etc etc blah blah").

When I visited SMWCentral I was like... I don't remember actually but I'm sure I was infatuated. SMW hacking became my main activity during my free time.

Super Mario All-Stars was also my favourite game, especially Super Mario Bros. 3. After discovering that SMB3 music patch and ExGFX, I decided to make a SMB3-themed hack (old thread). I came across a problem where the keyhole was playing the doomship theme. That made me join SMWCentral, to ask a question about it. I think Bad Luck Man was the very first person ever to help me. :D

I decided to stay mainly because I liked hacking, but that has slowly changed over the past few years. Now I stay mainly because of my friends. Shame that my first closest friends have disappeared (except for 2 of them or so), though.

2. You have had around four years of experience on staff, and one year as an Administrator. How have you enjoyed your time as a leader on SMWC?
When I first became a staff member, it was because of that "staff application" event. I first decided to go for a "global moderator" and got over 50 votes, but I decided to stay local after all. 50 votes is admin-worthy, by the way. Also, I've been considered a local mod -before- the staff applications (when smkdan, FPI and Mattrizzle were promoted), heheh.

I decided to bring Advanced SMW Hacking (now ASM & Related Topics) in shape, and do section moderation. I started off with a few sections, then slowly added a few more sections to my duty. Eventually I got promoted to global moderator. I forgot how, or why. Was it because I bugged SNN? I forgot. At that point, I was slowly getting tired of section moderation.

Then after quite some time, I finally became an administrator. I don't have much to say about adminship. I guess the main thing I've done as an admin is IP ban people. Also, I stopped section moderating after becoming an admin, I left it up to the other mods. I am involved in some way though - I tell the staff members to hurry up when I notice a section is piling up.

I also feel responsible for keeping the staff team together. I don't like getting involved in other people's business, but sometimes I just feel obligated to solve 'internal' problems (which is very rare but still occurs). In that case I just tell them to contact me whenever there's something up. I guess you could say my job is mainly behind-the-scenes stuff.

Kieran once offered me a position higher than an Administrator, but I refused, thinking I wasn't competent enough.

I've enjoyed being a staff member on the Central. It really felt like I was contributing to the site directly. I also had cases where I befriend people who I warned for breaking the rules before.

3. I notice that you are on Skype often. How much would you say you enjoy talking with site members? Are there people on SMWC whom you would consider 'friends'?
I'm on skype often, yeah. I chat with my friends on the central often, but not only on skype. I'm also frequently on MSN and IRC. I barely have a vocal conversation with SMWC members on skype though. I guess the people I've talked to a lot are Crystal King, Aqualakitu and Blackeagle766. I'm pretty shy, you know? :P

I usually don't message Centralites on MSN or skype, unless they're a very close friend of mine. I probably give off an impression of "idling forever". I barely start conversations. Conversations only start when people talk to me first.

On IRC I usually join some discussions, or just slap people (my friends) with a music. Whenever I'm conversing, I'm generally friendly unless someone's deliberately trying to provoke me, or is simply being stupid. I don't bite people when they talk to me for the first time~

There are many people on the Central who I consider friends, and I have a few close friends as well. My conversations with my closest friends get to the point of getting really personal with no regards to privacy at all. That's how much I trust them.

4. What is your fascination with Munchers? You have created two Muncher-centered hacks and make a lot of Muncher jokes. What is it about those things that you like so much?
I'm not that fascinated with munchers, really. I like munchers, but I'm not like "They are the most kawaii hUnk creatures of the Mario Universe". I barely make muncher-jokes as well. I guess me liking munchers became some sort of a stereotype now. Then again, everyone has their favourite Mario enemy, right?

I guess it's something which started as a result of hack moderation. People found munchers ugly and all because of crappy hacks which abused them. When I was playing through SMB3 for the 283734th time, I realized that World 7-7 was using munchers as that level's gimmick, so I decided to take that idea and make it into a hack. It was a success, apparently. Heh. I find munchers very easy to work with for some reason.

Only muncher joke I make is tossing munchers at random people on the IRC, although that's rare.

5. Overall, what are your feelings on your future here at SMWC? Will you stay on as Administrator, or do you forsee real life becoming more time-consuming?
I'm not sure how long I will stay as an administrator. Sometimes I feel the need to take a break. If I ever plan to take a break from adminship, I guess you could replace "break" with "resigning".

I'm pretty sure life will catch up at some point. Undoubtly, I'll have to leave SMWC someday, either because of life, or because of me getting tired of it. I can't see the latter happening anytime soon, though.

Life will be pretty busy, because I'm studying in a college now. I have to say, I both hate and love college. Love, because I'm pretty much building my future there. Hate, because it's taking up so much time and is my #1 cause of stress. After next week, I'll start working on a 10-week college project. I wonder how it will affect my activity.

Sometimes I simply wonder what it is like to be a normal member again.