Interview with Jack Harvest from Meowmix about my Winters stage texture.

Our first spotlight of the season. For those who are new to the MeowMix Spotlight (hey, that’s everybody!), we search carefully for those ideas and details that impress us the most that are not from MeowMix.

This week, we present to you Winters; a stage design built after Earthbound, in a winter-esque setting. It was designed by BigSharkZ at Elite Smash Hackers. Truly epic, but there are a lot of things you may not know about the stage that you may find interesting.

We held an interview with BigSharkZ on the MeowMix Live IRC Channel to get the goods. The results were interesting…

<Jack H.> [interview]

<Jack H.> So, we’re in love with your recent stage texture entitled “Winters”

<Jack H.> Can you tell us a little more about it? Perhaps something the average user doesn’t know?

<BigSharkZ> Thanks, I appreciate it. Earthbound is one of my favorite video games and it needed more love.

<BigSharkZ> I still have plenty of Earthbound ideas for textures, too.

<Jack H.> Indeed, we here at MeowMix have dear respects for the Earthbound title.

<BigSharkZ> Yeah, props to Nintendo for making a twisted and crazy, yet amazing piece of art.

<Jack H.> What exactly gave you the idea to transform the entire stage into a Winter Wonderland?

<BigSharkZ> Well, to be honest, I think of ideas everyday. I have about, 500 texture ideas in a text document. Like many people say, I do have a lot of imagination and can think of crazy ideas. So, I kind of thought about making Winters randomly.

<BigSharkZ> But, it is also for all the Earthbound fans, including me.

<Jack H.> Why the Cave Man and Mad Duck?

<Jack H.> A couple of users around MeowMix have been wondering.

<BigSharkZ> Well, in Winters, those are two enemies you can encounter so I decided to add them.

<BigSharkZ> There is also this animal enemy (I do not recall his name) and the UFO in the stage.

<Jack H.> I see. Would you consider this your best stage texture? It’s known around MeowMix staffers as “ESH’s Peach’s Castle”.

<BigSharkZ> *Looks at his stages* Hmm. I cannot decide between Winters and Giygas Destination.

<BigSharkZ> Both really amazed me more than I would have expected it.

<Jack H.> Massive change is always the most difficult to create, but it yields massive results. A smaller question… what compelled you to keep the grass that pokes up out of the ground green?

<BigSharkZ> Well, in Winters, you can see some patches of grass so I decided to let some grass in the stage.

<Jack H.> Were the flowers a transparentable object?

<BigSharkZ> The ones in the flower pots? Yeah, they are. I removed them because normally, there are no flowers in the winter season, nor in Winters.

<Jack H.> What innovation! Your “sky view” screenshot really brings the whole thing into perspective. For those that haven’t edited Onett before, was the grass difficult to edit? Or was it a “one change changes all” kind of deal?

<BigSharkZ> Thanks! Also, for the grass, if you’re talking about the grass on the floor, well it was a little bit complicated because they are all the same but with different shades of colors. After a while, I understood what was what and made them like I wanted them to be.

<BigSharkZ> I had to use the Unrestricted Camera code on the stage to see what grass would be applied where.

<Jack H.> Interesting. Obviously, every stage hacker always comes across an extremely annoying-to-edit area. What was it for Winters?

<BigSharkZ> Hmm

<BigSharkZ> I think it was the buildings.

<Jack H.> Do they share textures?

<BigSharkZ> Since it was my first Onett texture, I didn’t know how the buildings work. And some do [share textures].

<BigSharkZ> Now I do understand how it works, as you can see in my Pacifidlog Town texture.

<BigSharkZ> It’s basically a texture that “spams” on the house models.

<BigSharkZ> I could not figure what was what because the colors were “old-ish”. Like, instead of being a bright and colorful yellow, it looked like a pale yellow/white color.

<BigSharkZ> Also, something that I edited many times was the Drug Store’s door.

<Jack H.> Really? What was up with that door?

<BigSharkZ> The door shares the same texture as the windows and I didn’t know that so in the first result, you would see a part of the door on the windows.

<BigSharkZ> So, I removed the door knob and made it look more like a window. That was the best I could do.

<Jack H.> Sounds like a similar problem we ran into on Luigi’s Mansion. We currently have Toad['s head] hanging over the Well, as it shares textures with the tombstones.

<Jack H.> How odd! Did you ever run into any “unfixable” flaws during the editing period of Winters?

<BigSharkZ> Haha. Well, beside the door, I do not think there was any problems with Winters. I also forgot to mention that a texture that was kind of hard to do was the tents.

<Jack H.> Indeed! I can’t even recall what they were to begin with. How did you do it?

<BigSharkZ> I tried to mix the 3D Environment with the 2D sprites, and I think I have suceeded in doing that. About the tents, I had to edit the original sprites so they could be angled like the original house sprites were. I remember when Paint.Net crashed and I was mad because I had to restart everything.

<Jack H.> Any last details you’re willing to brag about? I’m sure there are multiple under-appreciated things you could list.

<BigSharkZ> Hmm, well, there’s not many things to talk about, beside the fact that this stage was kind of long to do because I started texture hacking stages and I had to know what was what. I also had to test it a lot because of minor mistakes.

<BigSharkZ> Also, to be honest, I am proud of what I am doing right now. Back in the days, I was not a really good texture hacker. I had to learn how to hex and at that time, I met this amazing friend, XeroForever, and we decided to create a team, Elite Smash Hackers. That was in December, when Syntax Error was still alive. Now, where am I? I have lots of amazing team members that make our team what we are now. I am really happy about that.

<Jack H.> Can we expect to see a greater team effort in the future from ESH? Rumor has it that it’s being labeled a “one man show” because of your incredible efforts.

<BigSharkZ> Well, back in the days, I was pretty much the only one updating.

<BigSharkZ> Everyone had excuses or didn’t feel like updating.

<BigSharkZ> But now, we have changed roles. The other members are updating a lot.

<Jack H.> Glad that you didn’t let that stop you. You refused to be one of those “little places that gets started and then dies” – right?

<BigSharkZ> Yeah, exactly. Also, unlike many texture hackers, I think I am the only person who listens to the fans the most. I try my best to look at the suggestions page and do the suggested ideas (I have some coming), I talk and help them, etc. Just to tell you, I have helped more than a hundred people on YouTube. That is why I have about, 2500 private messages. I do my best to help them and that is why many people made videos of the

<BigSharkZ> One more thing, I am really glad that people love what I do. I make textures not only for myself, but for the fans. Also, I got to know about texture hacking randomly. I was visiting MASTERLINKX’s channel and saw a video in his favorites called “Dry Bowser vs. Mr.L vs. Shadow Mario”. That was when I got amazed and went “fangirl” on ]EE[. I would look at their updates each day, like in Smash Bros. Dojo. The good days.

<Jack H.> Excellent. We here and MeowMix hope to see more talent-focused work from everyone, everywhere. May those that read take special note from BigSharkZ, and learn that quality is key.

<Jack H.> Thanks for participating in the MeowMix Spotlight Review!

<BigSharkZ> Thanks, and long live Earthbound!

<Jack H.> [/Interview]