Another Wednesday, another interview.
This one comes straight from our resident programmer and bears a special significance as he will soon be joining me here, writing his slightly long-winded yet greatly humorous thoughts on all matters gaming and ForTheWin. Check him out, get to know him, memorize his answers, stalk him if you must, but whatever you do be prepared because you just might be quizzed at the end of this. Let’s make him feel welcomed here at the blog as he is an instrumental part of the ForTheWin team with his extensive programming skills and hilarious, yet somehow telling car analogies.
Without further delay I present to you Chris, our technical wizard.
Name:
Chris Byler (Diniden)
Position held at ForTheWin:
Head/Lead/led/unfed Programmer
And what exactly does that mean?
It means I basically program games while playing follow the leader with others following me, while not eating.
Well in all seriousness, it means I develop the functionality of the game. My colleagues state something they would like to be able to do, then I sit and stare off into the vast void of dimensions within my head and tell them ‘sure’ or I make up a bunch of confusing terms to explain to them why it’s not feasible for the project. Then if it’s feasible, I make it happen.
So in even more broken down form, when you pick up the controller, the fact that stuff happens on the screen when you hit buttons is primarily my fault. Sorry I had to interfere with your life that way! ;~;
One last implication of my title is that I get underlings. Yes. This sounds a lot like zerglings so I will use this to my advantage. I take my cursor (phone), select (call) my zergling (underling), then command (vocally) them to attack (work on) a Protoss pylon (work I have no time to attend to myself such as AI scripts). Once they attack (work on) the pylon (my work) it makes the Protoss (problems in general) send units to destroy (thwart) my zergling (underling). Sometimes my zergling (underling) gets killed (the job encounters some massive errors beyond the abilities of my underling or there was a problem with my strategy in attacking the problem, or there was an error in the main section of the engine I wrote). But sometimes my zergling (underling) destroys (completes) the pylon (yay I now have a new AI script to make the game better).
How did you get into game development, and more specifically working here at ForTheWin Games?
I have been working on games since I was about 5-7 years old. Of course back then they were paper games. I once developed one that had a 72 page document of rules on how to play. No one played it with me to my dismay, but it taught me a lot on how to not overwhelm the user.
Beyond that, I have been involved with the Flash development community since I was a junior in high school. Due to the lack of animators at my disposal I did not actually produce many completed games, but I did actively train individuals in game development quite often.
I made my first monetary gain from a game my sophomore year of college and got it sponsored by Free World Group. This game was N-Tech: Battlegrounds, a sequel to a game I had made my junior year of high school.
I came into ForTheWin Games upon request. The Creative Director said they needed a programmer, and ironically I just happened to be one. So here I am 
Do you have a life outside of game development?
This is insulting…OF COURSE I HAVE A LIFE!!!! Really…I do… >_> ……the fact I use ASCII faces in my writing really does not reflect on my character… Well actually I am currently working on my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at UT Dallas, so I am not granted the privilege of having a life. I guess that ends this here.
What’s your all-time favorite game?
I’m a hardcore SNES fan. Like HARDCORE. Like, if our games could be made using those graphics I’d do it in a heart beat. Some top titles that come to mind:
Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan…to us Americans it will always be III though)
Chrono Trigger
Super Castlevania
Zelda
Super Metroid
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Kirby Superstar
Ok. The question asked for all-time. But really? How can I go and be so biased against any of these classics?
What’s the longest you’ve ever sat playing a game, and what game was it?
Probably Pokemon Silver version. I had caught the flu and just got the new Gameboy color, and I now had this long RPG-type game with over 300+ creatures to catch. What else to do but sit and play for 3 sick days?
What’s the hardest or most frustrating game, or moment while playing a game, you’ve ever had?
Battle Toads for SNES was impossible. I won’t even acknowledge that I ever played the game. Besides that I have played too many games that make you want to eat your guts out because they’re so hard. Some of the more frustrating times may have come from the Contra series, but no RPG has ever frustrated me. Those are lax chill games.
What genre of game is your favorite, and what genre are you the worst at?
I love games that have good traveling aspects to them and a good sense of exploration while using your head. Typically this falls more into the RPG realm, but there are a lot of RPG’s I detest. Zelda has held up for what I like to see available in a game – good travel structure, nice fighting, decent puzzles, and I have the desire to explore all of the ‘nooks and crannies’ in the game.
Really specifying a favorite genre is very tricky indeed so I won’t go and make you think potential lies about myself for specifying one.
If it comes down to what I’m terrible at, I’d say sports are at the bottom of some bottomless depth. I’m not terrible at everything, but if it came down to deciding a sweep formation in golf or going for a touchdown in basketball, I’m a failure. Hopefully you understand why.
Competitive sports weren’t my thing. I was raised climbing mountains, swimming rivers, and being at one with nature or some silly floofy like that. Divisive competition never sat well with me.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when working on a game?
Chill music. Jars of Clay or Dispatch will help my mind put on the brakes and keep me from typing 1000 errors per second since I tend to get ahead of myself.
What shoes are you currently wearing?
Nine times out of ten I won’t be in shoes. Such as now, I’m in socks. And if there is an issue with this reply, please contact my producer and he will help sort out any problems you may have with my character.
Think back… what’s your favorite children’s book?
I read The Chronicles of Narnia about three times before I was nine or ten. I’d say that whole series is way up there, and within the series The Magician’s Nephew and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader were definitely on top.
Horde or Alliance?
I don’t horde things and all I have regarding alliances is a class file that I wrote for our project to define who can hit who. So there.
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