The Sunday N

The Sunday N
by Alex Kurcharski, featuring Tanner Rogalsky and Matt Blaylock

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The Daily Rundown
May 6th to May 12th

May 6th

This guy's really been making a lot of maps lately. And I mean a lot. This is one of the better ones.

I like open spaces in my races.

May 7th

Almost a racial slur. Almost.

May 9th

Take it fast, says the author. That can be interpretted in a number of ways. You know mine's buttsex.

Maps of the Week

News

Level Packs

Omg who is it.

The Songs I Listened To, As I Wrote This

Stars of the Lid - The Mouthchew, from the 2007 album And Their Refinement of the Decline
Stars of the Lid - December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface, from the 2007 album And Their Refinement of the Decline

Artist Commentary of the Third Kind

Say herro to RittleRiking!

Mups

Last Hope: This is actually one of the first maps I finished. Not the very first, but it was in the first batch. Even today, I like the look of it. My earliest maps were pretty disgustingly ugly, as you'd expect from a new mapmaker (especially so early in Numa), but this one really looks good.

Don't Blink: "It went like this: The buildings tumbled in on themselves. Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble and pulled out their hair. The skyline was beautiful on fire; All twisted metal stretching upwards, everything washed in a thin orange haze. I said, 'Kiss me, you're beautiful. These are truly the last days.' You grabbed my hand and we fell into it. Like a daydream or a fever."

Interpretation: I'm proud of the rocket interaction in this level. I think this is one of my best levels because of that. Any time you see a rocket turret in a new map of mine, I'm really just trying to emulate this map.

Inticed: One of my highest-rated maps since the early days. I was Top Rated for a long time when the rating system was introduced, and then I slowly fell to the likes of formica, tktktk, nevermore, and eventually Clovic. This map held the number 1 spot for the longest since those days.

Intact: This is one of my favorite tilesets. Detailed and stylish. It's like those good tilesets that everyone but me does while I continue to do blocky shapes.

LV 00-0: blob seeds: The LV Chronicles started a trend of episodes and episodic maps in the N community. After this, everyone was doing episodes and trying to figure out how to make a map "episodic." No one has the answer yet, sadly. The closest you can get is "Just copy the LV Chronicles."

LV 02-3: ebol-aid: One of my favorite teleporter maps, which I am at least partially responsible for. This is also one of the popular favorites from the LV Chronicles pack, along with LV 02-4: in soviet russia, baby eats you! This is another tileset that I like a lot.

Circumference: Vent map! Vent maps are made on Ventrilo, the voice chat program. Vent maps started as a creation of the usual Vent crew: KinGAleX, krusch, Kablizzy, blue_tetris and me, along with guests like Clovic, maximo, LouDog and spect. The idea is that everyone gives vague instructions about what to add to a level, everyone follows the instructions, and a pack of different maps comes out of it. It's fun, and it's interesting.

Coffee: The most bizarre of all the bizarre Vent map games. If I remember it all, we had blue_tetris reading us a Wikipedia article. At the same time, he had a song playing in the background. We had to recognize what article he was reading, what song was playing, and find what thing linked those two together. After we found what we thought the link was, we had to make an N map based on the theme before the song ended. (That gave us maybe two minutes, up to four if we found the link quickly.) The link for this one ended up being breakfast drinks.

Artificial Intelligence: My claim to fame. This is the map that made "littleviking001" a household word around these parts. It's got a nice amount of challenges, without being too empty or too packed. It's divided into sections without having sharp transitions. I like the colors. Good minefield, good eccentricity, nice big shapes. Big shapes are important. You can quote me on that.

Nterviewed

By Matt Blaylock

G'd evening, Nterviewed fans. This week, I have the pleasure and the honour of bringing you a man whom I call kindred. Not in the real sense, but in the sense that he identifies as readily with rabbits as I do. Please welcome my fellow bunny-man, the Icy Bunny Mage himself - Blizzard! Sit down, relax, and enjoy the battle of the Blizzes.

Kablizzy: Salutations, Blizzard. How are you doing this fine evening?
Blizzard: I'm doin' well, you?

Kablizzy: I'm fantastic, thanks. Now, first things first. You've been around the forums a whole lot longer than people give you credit for. Everyone in the community seems to know you, but you seem to stay so well outside of the spotlight. What's your secret?
Blizzard: It most likely stems from my activity in certain parts of the community. Most people know me because I visit the IRC daily, although me posting on the forums is rare. I've been here for over a year, and just recently reached 100 posts, which is what people usually look at when determining "activity".

Kablizzy: Yeah, well, IRC brings us together, that's for sure. You've made a rather large impact upon the community, despite only having that hundred-and-change number of posts on the forums, and only a handful of maps on NUMA. What initially drew you further in to the community, and what keeps you around, where others have gone on to other things?
Blizzard: I'm definetly the kind of person who likes hanging out with friends, be it online or in real life. The internet is home to a huge variety of people, and the community here at Metanet are exactly the kind of people that it's fun to hang out with. Being able to talk about pretty much anything without having to hear "lol" half the time is a side benefit, aswell. Besides, this community is initially what got me into using good grammar in the first place, so I feel like I owe something back.

Kablizzy: I agree wholeheartedly. I attribute a lot of the community being well-behaved for guys like you. So, on another tangent, Rabbit-to-Rabbit, How'd the whole bunny thing get started for you?
Blizzard: It all started a couple years ago. I had always liked animals, but I was never that much into rabbits. I noticed a rabbit in the pet store window as I walked by, and he kinda seemed to "call out" to me. I decided to get him as a pet, and we had a swell time. On the interesting side, we seemed to be able to comprehend what the other was tryin' to say. I'd get deeper into it, but it's a rather long story. Although he ain't around anymore, since then i've been very much so into rabbits.

Kablizzy: That's awesome. I'm sure our readers would love to hear the story, if you have the time.
Blizzard: Sure. Our ability to communicate on a near-human-to-human level gave us the opportunity to have more of a friend-friend relationship then a person-pet relationship. He would hang out in my room, and often sleep in my bed on the pillow next to mine. Although i'm not much for movies nowadays, whenever I watched one, he would usually sit and watch them with me. I remember this well, 'cuz he'd always hop over to me from the other side of the couch to steal popcorn from me. Unfortunatly, one day, he just kinda dissapeared. We have no idea where he went. I just woke up one morning, and he was gone. I still miss him even today...

Kablizzy: Aw, man. I'm sorry to hear that. That's an endearing story, though. To switch gears a bit, tell me - What's the attraction of Maple Story? I've never understood it, and I figured there would be no better person to clear this up than you, considering that you seem to be quite active in the game.
Blizzard: Well, there's many differences between the different languages. I play on the Japanese servers, as they are known for their kind community. I have a good amount of friends on there, and i've learned a bit of japanese to get along with the other players. I suppose what keeps me going is knowing there's always a goal right around the corner if I work at it. The game gets more fun the deeper you play into it, which is the main part of why I enjoy playing it.

Kablizzy: Interesting. You began a webcomic, quite a while ago, and the response seemed quite fantastic. Are there any plans to continue or revive your comic for us?
Blizzard: I'm afraid not. I was experimenting with an idea that a comic could be made with each comic simply stemming from the last one, but I quickly realized that not having a set-in storyline from the beginning really harmed the path that it was going on. I do have ideas for another webcomic, but it wouldn't be N based, and it would be drawn. The story behind it is still in the making, although I do have a bit of it ready.

Kablizzy: Well, I, for one, would love to see that. You and I used to work at Gunbound Classic together. How are things going there since I last visited?
Blizzard: Schoolwork has been taking up a lot of my time recently, and i've had to take somewhat of a break from GBC. I left only about a week after you, so there's not much that I know that you don't. I'll be going back there to be active in June or so, so i'll be able to update you then.

Kablizzy: Excellent. As an aside, something I've always wondered - Your alternate nickname "Burizado," is this a reference to Diablo II, and the Unique Item, 'Buriza-Do Kyanon?'
Blizzard: Nope. "Burizado" is the japanese pronunciation of "Blizzard". I used this nickname for only about a month, because at the time I was bored of my current alternate name, and I couldn't think of any other. I don't use "Burizado" nowadays.

Kablizzy: Ahhhh, I see. As the winner of the first InsomNicon, and the runner-up to InsomNicon II, are you planning on participating in InsomNicon III to reclaim your title?
Blizzard: Yep. Insomnicon has always been a fun competition, and I enjoy participating in it very much. I see that nowadays, the competition is much more fierce, but i'm confident that I'll do well.

Kablizzy: Excellent, I hope you do well next time around. So, I hear you're an artist, but I've only seen a small bit of your work. Mind telling our readers a bit more about your sketches, and a bit more about what you do?
Blizzard: Sure. I draw art in my spare time, usually just for fun. The majority of my art are anthropomorphic characters. Recently, it's been chibi art, due to the fact that i'm not quite skilled yet with drawing proper bodies, but i'm learning quickly. Once i'm as skilled as I need to be, I'm planning on possibly drawing a webcomic. I have a real life friend who is a brilliant artist for her age, so she's always there to teach me what I don't know. If I ever do get started on that webcomic, i'll be sure to let ya'll know.

Kablizzy: Exquisite. I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to that. The community's most recent gaming vice, Quadradius, has been taking things by proverbial storm. Will you be participating in the upcoming tournament?
Blizzard: No. I've seen Quadradius, and I know most of the community likes it quite a bit, but the game just isn't quite my cup of tea. I prefer old-fashtioned strategy games, like chess.

Kablizzy: Fair enough. Have you heard of Lugaru? It seems like something you'd be intrigued by.
Blizzard: I noticed a member post about it in the "Other Games" section, but no, i've never played it, nor do I plan to. Maybe in the future, but as of now, no.

Kablizzy: Ah, it's pretty fun, you should check it out. On the topic of mapping, your maps are really exquisite, but you don't make them often. Why haven't you made more maps than you have?
Blizzard: I actually have made a few more maps. I haven't had access to my NUMA account recently, due to an account error, so I haven't really been able to release them. Besides, I often need inspiration to make a good map, which I haven't had much of recently.

Kablizzy: Most folk have either released their own map-pack, or participated in a group effort to release one. Considering that you don't have access to NUMA, do you have any plans for putting one out sometime in the future?
Blizzard: I once had an idea for a mappack, but it didn't turn out as well as I had expected. I don't think i'm quite cut out to make mappacks, so no, I don't plan to.

Kablizzy: And finally, I've got a hankering for some Burger King. Howabout you?
Blizzard: Not particularly. They've got some darn good Icee's, though.

Kablizzy: Hahahah, so they do. Thanks so much for your time, Bunny-man, it's been a pleasure. Anything you'd like to say to our readers before we depart?
Blizzard: ...People are reading this?

Kablizzy: Hahahahah. Very good, sir. Thanks again!
Blizzard: No prob'. Thanks for interviewin' me.

Get your rocket-pants strapped on tight, kids, because next week, we have ourselves a Legend on our hands. Who, you ask? Why, if I told you, I'd have to kill you. But rest assured that your face will be stuck in the upright position.