... A Diver Down Log.
======================= 18th oct 2003

    It's funny to be writing this, because it's essentially a
farewell note to Diver Down. I've been with it since I was..
what? 15? And now I'm 18 and things have changed plenty. And
Diver Down is finally coming to completion.
    This is long, and I don't deserve this much space but I
hope Gren grants me this opportunity to speak. *hint hint* :)

    When I joined Gren in his project my pixel art was horrible.
I look back and I'm shocked that he accepted me as a member of
the project despite my poor ability, but now I realise why:

    Gren had a vision; but more importantly, the will and
consistency to do it. Countless of hyped Verge games have fallen
and left the community biting dust. Artists who flaunt their
artwork have long left the scene, and lofty ambitions have been
humbled by the actual work needed to COMPLETE a game, not start it.

    I am honored to be part of Gren's team, and the Diver Down
project. Although my pixel art has visibly improved, it remains
limited in scope and variety, and is perhaps the weakest element in
the three-person DD team. Here's a tribute to the twin talents:

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    GRENIDEER. I only began to see his unfailing determination and
patience one, two years after I joined. Despite my periodic and long
absences from the project, he never stopped contacting me to inform
me about DD's progress. I am also sometimes unable to complete the
work he assigns to me, and at other times they're simply not suitable
for DD. He doesn't tell me, but somehow both of us know. ^_^
    The bleakest moment of my life almost made me abandon the DD
project, and completely out of contact with Gren for maybe around
half a year. That is a LONG time in game production. Even when I
apologised and asked to re-join and work, Gren welcomed me. I sincerely
believe that Gren has a great future ahead of him, given his potential,
and that his ability to recognise and go for real work rather than a
dream is key to his success and leadership.

    Gren, thank you for this opportunity. :)
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    METRO, the main artist, is ... ...incredible. All the wow!-wow!
art is produced by him, and you can really see his genius. He just
shows how much detail you can squeeze with pixel art, and also
defies the limits of a set palette of 256 colors. Just look at
all the cut scenes and attempt to convince yourself that all of them
are made from a common palette. I myself couldn't.
    I think I owe a great deal to him because he inspired me to climb
to greater heights, especially with his demonstration of superb skill in
the realm of pixel art. His cut-scene art is surely of professional
quality, and is near-comparable to the skill of great pixel artists
of Square and Atlus. I worship his magic.

    Patrick, here's to you :)
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    And me? I just worked sparingly on the speech portraits and the
occassional monster CHR, like the final boss CHR and the various menu/
speech portraits of 'that' style (Metro's and mine are vastly different).
    My fond memories of working for DD are the 5-6 hour marathons
attempting to perfect a single pixel portrait. The hardest was the
Emil town scene, which killed me, clocking over 10 hours (That's why
I didn't do more: I work -pixel by pixel-). Still, those periods of
trance-like concentration allowed me to escape my 10-hour school days.

    I love it. :)
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    Diver Down is probably the first complete Verge RPG. It won't
be the last, I believe, because Diver Down can inspire people to be
realistic and put in actual work. Others like McGrue's SotS are
continually worked on(I hope). The Verge scene is not short on talent,
but perhaps short on mature foresight. An indie game can never have the
production resources of a professional one, and Gren recognised that.
His aim to complete DD will leave a lasting legacy, and also help in
his programming portfolio, so game companies: keep an eye out for him :)

    I will probably never get to work on another game in my life. My
previous projects always faded, and the project leader would cease
contact, only to re-appear a year later. We never work together again.
I could never devote myself to something that could never be more
than a dream. The indie game scene is about passion, AND about making
a story, a vision, come alive. At least, that's my opinion.


...a last word

    I've taken more space than I deserve. I really am a bit-part player
in the team in comparison with Gren and Metro, the pillars of the project.
They deserve the applause, and the praise. Please give them their deserved
recognition guys, they earned it :) And again, thank you, gren, metro. :)

    Thank you for reading my last entry, last word about my experience
with DD. It might sound stupid, or even be worthless to some, but then
again ten years down the road, I can look back upon it, and people who
discover DD only then, would savor this bit of personal touch.

    I hope you will enjoy, or enjoyed Diver Down. It is the fruit of
Gren's five year labour, and it bears a print of my participation. It
is in Gren's word, his baby. But at least I've watched his boy grow up,
and made some contribution myself. Thank you for reading this, and
thank you for playing Diver Down. I'm almost.. reluctant to see the DD
project end, because it gave me a purpose. But I delight in its
completion. The dream has been lived. Cheers, everyone!

                                         -->  Arias (Hendrick Sukardi)
                                           littlemanheaven@hotmail.com


p.s. Gren, Metro, I hope we stay in touch. :)
