Profile

Hi. My name's David. Dave is preferred if you feel comfortable enough to call me such. Otherwise, please call me Van or Vandaeron, I'd rather keep it concise toward my username (if you already do call me Dave don't feel obligated to change, if I didn't want you to call me something I would say so.)

Anyway, I spend a lot of my time playing video games and listening to music. I always tell myself that eventually I'll be really awesome at whatever game I'm on, and I'll eventually like record me kicking ass and choreograph it to some song. But I likely will never be that awesome OR put a video together.

For the most part I play older games, NES, SNES, Genesis, but not really anything newer than that until PSX and PS2. Handhelds have always been a constant, though. I like platformers, beat-em-ups, shmups (bullet hell is a boring gimmick, don't get me started on all these "more bullets means more difficulty" games, that's not good game design and you know it,) and many styles of RPG, action, turn based, strategy, etc etc. Some fighting games interest me, but it's a really narrow selection.

For the largest part, though, what matters most in a game, to me, is cooperative play. I'm gonna be the guy who plays the characters who are like, almost full-on tanks, but not quite tough enough to count as a main damage dealer. Support elements are a major plus to me, too. Basically the idea is to have a simple offense, and a complicated defense. Sometimes I focus on using various protective or healing skills to keep myself and others alive, other times I'll take a heavily evasive style and just distract enemies to give others an opening, taking whatever shots I can safely make.

My ideal allies in a team are a back-row heavy blaster such as a mage, who can take all the setup time they require to deal their damage with no pressure, or a forward attacker that may be a little frail, who would be whittled down over the course of a long battle without my protection.

That aside, by profession I am a programmer. I use the term "profession" lightly, as i have never actually done it as a job, but by my education I am fairly proficient with various programming languages. It's a major aspiration of mine to design my own video games, that would have a retro feel, without like purposely doing things that scream "I AM TRYING TO BE RETRO, LOOK AT MY 8 BIT GRAPHICS AND ATARI-LIKE MUSIC, PLEASE LIKE ME."

I'm looking to make a game that people at any point on the spectrum of difficulty can climb into and enjoy. A game you can feel interested in the story of, while not filling in game length with extensive dialog. If people come in for action or exploration, they should get more of it than not.

Anyway I guess I'm done with the blah blah. As you were.