----- Original Message -----Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2016 5:55 AMSubject: [LaserTank] To Aqui's LaserTank life storyHello all LaserTank players! I hope this message finds you in good standing.
I feel like I'd like to share my LaserTank story.
I have submitted slightly less than a thousand levels (though mostly of "questionable" quality) as "To Aqui". While I'm not "into" this game anymore, I always end up coming back to play some levels every once in a while.
I found version 3.1 while browsing some website for freeware games when I was 9 years old. I found the game fun, but it was the level editor that got me hooked.
After getting acquainted with the mechanics, I immediately jumped right into the level editor and made my first level, "Lab Irinto" (Challenge-II#0563). I'm still proud of it for what it is.
I started to make more and more levels, I just really had a lot of fun just putting things together and seeing it work.
A number of months later, I found out about version 4.0, which, most importantly, added ice, thin ice and tunnels. That pretty much sealed the deal for me to be addicted to the game :D
I would often make several levels a day, though I was not even 10, so naturally they didn't come out very good. Inspiration could come from the most mundane sources, which is reflected in the level names and hints in form of inside jokes and random life events.
Eventually (about one year later?) I had about 400 levels and the thought of submitting them was lingering on my mind, but there were a few issues (besides the levels being mostly terrible for my current standards). I was shy, the levels were mostly not in English and I didn't have the playbacks for all of them.
So, over the next months, I was making more levels... and working on "translating" (with broken English), getting playbacks for all levels I already had, and I think I was also dividing them between Challenge/Beginner/Special.
Then, I got close to level #500 and decided that it was time. I sent the files to Donald.
Even though there were 500 levels, there aren't many of which I'm particularly proud of, from today's perspective.
Some of the best ones out of these in my opinion are:
"Give Peace A Chance" (Challenge-II#0612) - I feel like I implemented the "not killing" theme pretty well and the level flows nicely.
"A Knight's Journey" (Challenge-II#0711) - Pretty much the peak of my capabilities at the time. One thing I regret is adding the useless tankmovers and stuff as visual clutter, it was "the cool thing" at the time :p
In Challenge-III you can see me maturing a little bit. The batch of levels starting on Aqualiss (Challenge-III#0381) was mostly fine, though a few levels still were uninspired.
What I really want to be remembered for is my work since Cara Card (Challenge-III#0481). I was about 13 years old then, but as the hint for Falenas says, I started to take my level creating "more seriously" starting from that batch. I'm happy with how all levels from 481 to 501 turned out (my levels at 1200+ are actually from an older batch).
My levels in Challenge-IV (#0984 to #0992) actually have an interesting story. I made them when I was 14, but for some reason I didn't submit them right away. My time and interest in the game were starting to fade, so I never got to make more content and these levels were sitting in my HD for literally years.
Eventually I figured that I was not going to make more levels anytime soon and should just send them in before I lost the HD or something, and so I did. I'm still proud of these levels and would recommend them.
So, am I ever going to make more levels? It's been more than 10 years since I last made a level, so I guess I could do even better.
However, it's sad that the community isn't as active anymore, and I feel completely outclassed by the currently active level creators, they really know how to use everything LaserTank has to offer and their levels are mostly really interesting.
In any case, this game has really been a big part of my childhood and it has a very special place in my heart. I apologize for the bad uninteresting levels by very young me. :P
Best regards and keep up the good work!
To Aqui
Re: To Aqui's LaserTank life story
From Donald Drouin (Lasertank) at 2016-04-12 06:58:51
Thank you very much To
Aqui
I hope that you and many other
players that were very active with Lasertank will come back to play or create
levels.
My best regards
Donald