Category:Ciro Durán
A game developer and professor at UCAB, who used Game-Maker between 1995 and 1997, roughly.
I lost the software and my games [a] long time ago. I used the software maybe between 1995 and 1997, and produced one or two platform games, with graphics done with paint shop pro. I remember using a cracked version.
I bought the software from some guys that sold pirated software in floppy disks (this was before CDs were popular). IIRC, Game Maker asked for a word from the manual, but it already came cracked, so you could put anything there.
I bought the software because I was very interested in making games, and I had no guidance on how to make games with a programming language and a compiler. Game Maker provided me with a more advanced tool than GWBASIC, Logo or QBASIC, to make attractive games.
I remember designing a top down game where you had to guide a prisoner out of a prison. I also designed a Pac-man derivative, called unsurprisingly Pac-mania, which incorporated scrolling and some other powerups to the original game. The RSD's tools provided the whole framework to work with tilemaps, such as today's Flixel FlxTileMap does. I remember that you character could have the height of one block or two, so you could do games that were a bit 2.5D.
I designed my games alone. I don't remember using other tools. I think MIDI was not still very popular, and MOD tracking was far too advanced for my capabilities, so I think my games did not have sound effects or music.
I remember downloading in the early Internet a game that I'm very sure was made with Game Maker, because of its features. It was called Shoplifter, and it was about a thief inside a store that had to get items while running away from security. It had a popular classical piece on MIDI as its musical background.
Although I have some experience now with making games (I do it professionally), I'm still very inclined to make 2D games (to the annoyance of my colleagues). Because of the speed of development, 2D games are suitable for making quick games that comment on current issues, which is my biggest interest right now.
— Ciro Durán, Email conversation
Background[edit]
From an interview about his career:
Since childhood videogames captivated me because interaction with them is always a surprise. I started with a PC and QBASIC, with a rudimentary text system. Later as a teenager I had in my hands Game Maker made by Recreational Software Designs (unlike the current and modern, maintained by Yoyo Games), with which I could make platformers, of which I do not keep anything.
— Ciro Durán, Team Hardware Venezuela
From another interview:
Since childhood I was interested in the games. Not only to play them -- to enjoy their stories and feel "in the game" through their mechanics -- but also to know what was behind them, how they worked, what could I do. That led me to learn to program, at first primitive languages like BASIC or Logo, or with programs that helped to make games (Recreational Software Designs' Game-Maker, for MS-DOS). Then in my teens I dedicated myself to other interests, but by the time I was in college my interest in games came back to me, so I chose to study something related and Computer Engineering was the next logical step. I learned many things unrelated to video games, and at the same time, I learned that there were many things related to video games that was not going to see there, that I had to learn for myself. Since then I have been dedicated to making games, even though for a long time I held a very different kind of job. I worked nights until I could finally achieve day work as a freelancer for developing companies.
— Ciro Durán, El Techado
Later, after learning of Game-Maker's source release:
During the 90s I had used a tool to make games called Game-Maker from Recreational Software Design[s], not related to its modern namesake from YoYo Games, which allowed to make tile-based games for DOS and VGA graphics. This thing was quite fun to use, and it fell into obscurity when the Internet came around.
Well, I just found out that in July this year the lead developer released the source code and executables of this fine piece of software
A part of my childhood just said hi
— Ciro Durán
Links[edit]
Sites[edit]
Articles / Interviews[edit]
- Team Hardware Venezuela interview
- El Techado interview (archive.org mirror)
Social Media[edit]
Pages in category "Ciro Durán"
The following 3 pages are in this category, out of 3 total.
