User:Artisticdude

-Who and/or what am I?

I am a student in high school who found BfW back in early 2009. Ironically, I downloaded one of the 0.x versions instead of the more recent ones, partially because I was unaware of how much the game had progressed, but mostly because the more recent versions were so much larger. After playing Wesnoth for a while, I decided to try writing my own campaign. Therefore I was determined to learn WML. *cue drum roll*

It was a long and difficult process, but I finally succeeded in creating a 14 scenario campaign that actually worked, which I called The Traitor. It was, of course, very much a newb campaign as far as map design went (nine leaders, all but the player's recruiting level 2's and 3's on a gigantic map), but in some respects it was rather advanced. I varied the objectives, and used some fairly difficult coding for a beginner (it was a pain to get right, but I did finally manage it). The storyline was poorly planned, and it kind of fell apart after the first couple scenarios. But I still thought it was something else, and even now I am still surprised that I got it working. Sadly, due to a computer crash, a dying motherboard, and other similar problems, the campaign died in its sleep, entombed forevermore on a dead Windows computer. Luckily I still had an earlier version, which I promptly fixed up when I got my mac. Yet somehow it wouldn't work... it gave the dreaded 'unknown scenario' error, despite all the id tags matching perfectly. Someday I might pick that campaign up and redo it, but until then I'll let it take up space on my hard drive, waiting for its hour to come.

It was during this period I joined the Wesnoth community. I am currently creating Vix, my new sp campaign, as well as developing an RPG campaign with customized systems. The latter is on hold due to the difficulty I was having with juggling too many projects, so now I'm working on finishing Vix. Once that is done, I'll be free to devote my entire time to my RPG.

As an artist, I was nothing before I joined the Wesnoth forums. I've been here for 5 or six months now, and, even though I am nowhere near mainline, I have improved my artistic skills vastly compared to what they were when I first joined up. I have created art for several eras and campaigns, although most of them are now abandoned.

-What are my favorite games?

I have broad tastes, and enjoy a wide range of games on the computer as well as in reality. Among my favorite 'real' games are Risk, Heroscape, Scrabble, and Bingo (I was going to say hide-and-seek, especially since I was a world-renowned champion in that particular game once, but...). A few of my favorite computer games (besides BfW, which is a given), are Battlefield 1942, The Geneforge series, the Avernum Series, Eschalon: Book 1, Frogatto, The Tradewinds series, Mad Skills Motocross, and Lux, just to name a few.

-What equipment do I use in my BfW projects?

I use a Mac Mini computer running OS X 10.6, and occasionally an HP laptop running Windows Vista. My other hardware consists of a Wacom tablet, mouse and pen, and a pair of headphones. Adobe Photoshop handles most of my art projects, but I use GIMP for utilities such as creating .GIF's, Artrage for concept art, and Paintbrush when I want to use a simple, uncluttered program. I also practice orchestral composing using Garageband, Logic Express 9, the Orchestral Jampack, and a variety of free soundfonts, although it's going to be a very long time before I can even begin contemplating making an attempt at mainline in this area. For coding WML I mainly use TextEdit, which, despite it's constant crashing, serves its purpose. I do also occasionally use KATE to program WML, and I'm thinking of switching to KATE for all my coding projects.

-What is my favorite genre of music?"

Orchestral and Soundtrack. Classical music is okay, but it's not really my thing. Country music can be good, but a lot of it isn't. Rock and pop rarely have much going for them in my mind. Jazz is fine, but rather boring. Every other genre out there doesn't really have much going for it for me, so I'm mainly a fan of orchestral and soundtrack music (think LoTR, Indiana Jones, etc.).

-What is my favorite academic subject?

English and writing, hands down.

What projects am I currently involved in/working on?

Currently I have two ongoing personal projects, the Dark Dagger Wars (http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29117), an ambitious Wesnoth RPG, and Vix (http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=28516), a complex campaign aiming at non-linear objectives and scenarios, also featuring saurians as the player's side. In addition to these two projects I am always creating more art for various 'employers', personal use, or just for fun. I am also contemplating creating a Wesnoth version of the popular Tradewinds games, but I haven't really committed myself to the idea yet. so we'll see.

Some of the projects I've been Involved in:

-The War of Terrador

Graphics and WML assistance, balancing suggestions. Currently under development.

-Fossil: The Great Journey

Graphics, WML assistance. Currently under development.

-Brent

Graphics, code suggestions. Currently abandoned due to the disappearance of the author. My art never even made it in. :(

-Vix (personal project)

Creation, coding, balancing, story... okay, pretty much everything except some recall code that Gambit created for me. Currently under development.

-The Dark Dagger Wars (personal project)

Creation, coding, balancing, story... in short, everything. Currently on hiatus due to my inability to juggle multiple projects at once.

-The Traitor: Resurrection (personal project)

Everything. Currently on hiatus for the same reason as above.

Need art for your user-made campaign/faction/era?

If you have an interesting or unusual project that needs some artwork (sprites, terrain, scenery, objects, or attack icons- I'm not yet comfortable doing large-scale art such as portraits or campaign images), feel free to PM me with a link the the project development thread and tell me what you need. I can't guarantee that I'll be available for work, and sometimes a project just won't interest me, but I'm always ready to try something new. If I am able and willing to help you out, I'll send you a PM with my acceptance of the 'employment'. If you'd like to see some of my work, consider visiting my gallery: http://wesnoth.dbzer0.com/blog/wpg2?g2_itemId=10628 or my art thread in the Wesnoth forums: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28143

Miscellaneous links and further reading

My Blog: http://thehallofego.blogspot.com/

My Gallery: http://wesnoth.dbzer0.com/blog/wpg2?g2_itemId=10628

My Art Thread in the Wesnoth Forums: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28143

Clipboard- the place of all sorts of Wesnoth-related odds and ends

I was browsing through the oldest posts in the Art Contributions forum (yes, some of us do occasionally venture into those desolate reaches of cyberspace), and I came across an interesting description of orcs, copied exactly as the author wrote it:

Orc is not guy who read books and gets smart, goto school, is sentimental and buys rose for his gf and lits romantic candles and who eat steak and fries.

Orc is stupid guy who never take a bath, he burp and fart and eat rats and snakes, he shout and yell.

Here's the thread: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6346&hilit=orcs+with+two+swords%3F&sid=34a85c41f9194ebf576b2edd0b3d4ae8

I'll think up some more useless information about myself later, but for now this will have to do. I update this page regularly, so be sure to come back again soon for more of my egotistical ramblings... if you dare. :P