Let’s Interview; The Lonely Goomba!

With well over 130,000 subscribers and many hundreds of thousands of views per video, The Lonely Goomba is one of the most popular Nintendo focused channels on YouTube. And well, with recent collab videos and crossovers with such other stars as Gaijin Goomba, Haedox, Guru Larry and the folk at GameXplain, his popularity is only getting better from here.

So let’s interview him! Here is our exclusive interview with the Lonely Goomba!

1. So a personal question to start with. Who are you? Who is the Lonely Goomba when he’s not making YouTube videos?

I’m just a guy who lives in the middle of nowhere. I try to keep my identity secret, since there’s a lot of crazy people out there. So I shall leave it as that.

2. And how did you get into this YouTube thing anyway?

Well, I hated my job. Working nights in a crappy factory. So I saved up a ton of money over the years, left my job, and decided to give Youtube a try whilst living off my savings. I guess it was a “all or nothing” kind of thing. If it failed, I’d be at step one working a crappy job again.

Had nothing to lose really. I don’t fully recommend doing that approach though, I just got lucky it worked out.

3. What about video games? What’s your history with Nintendo and their franchises?

I’ve pretty much been playing Nintendo games my entire life. Starting with the SNES, been hooked pretty much. Since then I’ve owned every Nintendo system, even the incredibly shit Virtual Boy.

These days I still mostly stick to Nintendo, which is probably why I never play games anymore. Make more games Nintendo!

4. For that matter, what are your favourite games and series? Do you have any?

I think my favourite series is probably Kirby. There hasn’t been a single bad Kirby game, and they’re still getting better. Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, they’ve all had bad titles, I don’t get excited for them anymore.

But when a new Kirby game is announced, there’s no worry of “Will it be good? Will they mess it up?”, it’s gonna be good, so don’t worry about it.

5. Oh, and what games are you playing at the moment by the way?

Some obscure JRPG that never came out in my country. Radiant Historia. It’s pretty good, but I’ve made the rookie mistake of leaving it alone for a few weeks and now I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

So, that might be the pre-mature end of my Radiant Historia adventure.

6. Onto channel stuff now. Why did you choose the Lonely Goomba as your username? It’s not a common word used in critic names…

It’s just a name I randomly made to join a gaming forum many years ago. I guess I thought the premise of a Goomba feeling loneliness was interesting. So yeah, it was just a username at first. Then I thought the premise could work as a YouTube channel.

7. How about the concept? What inspired the idea of an average Goomba giving his opinions about games from a random Mario level?

Well the concept changed a lot. It started off as a lets play channel (the videos were never made public), but I sucked at it. I was so nervous I got drunk just to talk in front of the mic. So that was pretty much a disaster.

So then I decided to make it scripted, but the original script and Goomba was a positive happy review. But again, I sucked at it. I realized, I’m a pretty grumpy person, and re-wrote the script, ripping into the game and only focusing on the negatives. It was much more fun to write and record.

So I wrote it, recorded it, and made the entire video in a day. Probably an hour or so, and then I made the second video immediately after on the same day. And thus is the story of Lonely Goomba.

8. Heck, how do you choose games to cover? Because there’s quite an assortment of random titles you’ve made videos about by this point.

Most of them are games I played as a kid. So I just go through my backlog of actual games and see if they work as a video. Other than that, I usually just browse gaming lists or watch videos of bad DS games and see if any ideas come into mind before playing it fully.

So if say, there’s a licensed game that I know people will enjoy watching, or is relevant at the time. (Like SpongeBob or Powerpuff girls) I’ll try to pick one of those games. But more often than not, just a random game that pops into my mind.

9. You also seem to have a fair few guests in your videos too, with Haedox, Guru Larry and Gaijin Goomba all appearing in videos. How do you choose who to work with?

Well, it’s hard to just randomly go up to someone you’ve never talked to before and ask to guest star on a video. So, I usually approach people I’ve either talked to before, or we both like each other’s work. I don’t tend to collab for the sake of it, only when it seems like a natural fit for the video.

10. In recent years, it seems you’ve said a fair about the repetitive themes in modern Mario games. Are you a bit tired of the series and the New Super Mario Bros inspired direction it seems to be going in?

Honestly, I’m completely done with the Mario series at the moment. Like I say in my videos, they’re fun games but there’s nothing to get excited about, just some decent platforming and then it’s over. I’m worried Mario has pretty much reached it’s peak and there’s nowhere left to go or innovate with.

Noticing the new Mario on the Nintendo Switch looks more promising though, but not getting my hopes up.

11. However, you also seem to quite like Paper Mario Color Splash, which surprised a few people. What made you grow to like that game more after actually playing it?

Well, it’s not easy defending a game a ton of people hate (without actually playing it). I went in expecting to hate it, and rip into it. I planned to do a video about that game. But I cannot call a game bad, when it’s very well made.

I understand Sticker Star is hated, and for good reason, it’s a fundamentally bad game. Color Splash fixed every single issue with the game, it’s funny, perfect pacing, fun, more creative levels and scenarios… it really got the spirit of Paper Mario back.

It’s just a shame Sticker Star was so bad, no one wants to give the franchise a fair chance.

12. And how was it being in that GameXplain episode with Arlo and Josh Thomas?

I was so nervous to be honest. I live in a noisy house so I had to make sure there would be no noises / talking in the background. That and the planned recording time kept changing.

And then I was with Josh Thomas, who’s very very vocal and opinionated. It was pretty hard to get a word in I’ve gotta say. But, despite that, was a ton of fun. It goes so fast, I had a lot more to say but the topic changes before you get a chance to say.

Still, I enjoyed it so much I’d like to be invited back one day.

13. On a less game specific note, how does it feel to have reached more than 130,000 subscribers on YouTube? Did you expect to get such an incredible number of subscribers?

Feels good man. Although I haven’t been counting them much lately. I somewhat miss the days of when every new sub was a massive achievement, now it’s impossible to keep track of it.

But I also appreciate more people like my videos, so, the more subs the better really.

14. How about the monetary side? Is the channel your full time job now?

Well, at the moment I’m living off Youtube and still the money I saved up from my previous job (I saved up a ton so it’s still there).

I’m in the process of moving out so, we shall see what happens. If I need a real job to survive, I’ll still make videos. If I can survive off Youtube, I’ll probably make twice as many videos in order to keep the channel sustainable.

So, I’m just clinging on basically.

15. I’ve also noticed that (unlike a few YouTubers), there’s no Patreon for your channel. Is that something you don’t have any interest in having?

I have a Patreon, I just don’t like promoting it much. Patreon has such a bad rep due to it being misused by certain people so I feel self conscious and nervous asking for money.

16. How about an official website? Because there isn’t one of those linked from your YouTube page either.

No one really uses websites to view videos. Sites like Normal Boots and Hidden Block, people just watch it straight from Youtube these days. So, wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

17. And have you ever considered partnering with other YouTubers as part of a group? Because I know Gaijin Goomba joined the Game Theorists, JonTron used to be part of Game Grumps and other video makers have joined Channel Awesome. Have you ever thought of getting involved in something like that?

I’ve thought about it. My dream team is Arlo, ItsaDogandGame and me. The super trio of animated characters.

18. On a similar note, what other YouTube channels do you watch on a regular basis?

I’ve kinda got bored of Youtube lately, especially gaming channels. (Which I used to exclusively watch). So now I watch H3H3 Productions and RedLetterMedia, and that’s about it. Always on the search for something new though.

19. Do you have any interesting future plans? Like games you want to make a video based on, or non video related projects you might be interested in starting at some point?

Well, an idea I’ve had in my head for a while, and I’d say is quite likely to happen, is to introduce serial elements to each episode. I have a story arc planned out, with each episodes ending leading onto the next video. The only issue I have is how to find an excuse to play DS games during each episode.

But yeah, that is the likely evolution of the channel.

20. Finally, what advice would you give new YouTubers who want to run a successful channel?

Just make a video. Everyone’s first video will be terrible so just get it over with. I started Youtube with no animation or video editing skills. I had no idea what I was doing (and it shows), but if you just keep at it, and try to improve something each video, you’ll end up with a pretty swanky channel by the end of it.
And that concludes another interview. It was an interesting one for us (especially in regards to stuff like a story arc in Lonely Goomba videos), but what about you? Are you a fan of the Lonely Goomba’s YouTube channel? Did you find the interview interesting to read?

Post your thoughts on the matter at the Gaming Reinvented forums or on social media today! And if you want to see more from the Lonely Goomba, go ahead and subscribe to his channel too! It’s well worth it!

Let’s Interview; Mors of Super Mario Flashback!

Yesterday, we had a slightly ‘different’ interview on Gaming Reinvented. Why? Because it was with Shesez about his Boundary Break videos rather than a fan game or ROM hack. What’s more, it was a deliberate choice, since we’re trying to move away from offering mostly fan game and ROM hack interviews.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t offer any fan game interviews at all. And today, we’ve got a new one. This time, with Super Mario Flashback developer Mors!

So what’s Super Mario Flashback? Well, to put it simply, it’s a 2D collectathon Mario platformer that has Mario going through past eras and collecting stars from worlds like 1-1, Donut Plains and Cool Cool Mountain in the process. Think Sonic Generations, except Mario based. And well, entirely 2D instead of partially 3D.

Here’s a trailer for it in case you haven’t heard of the game before:

But enough background details for a moment. Let’s get to the actual interview!

1. Well, let’s start this interview off in the normal way then. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hmm… I don’t really like talking about myself, but I guess I gotta do it.

I’m 18 years old, I’m from Turkey and I’m currently studying game design. That’s really it.

2. How about your interest in the Mario series? What games made you interested in this franchise?

When I was very little I had a Famiclone with a 10000-in-1 cartridge. It didn’t have too many great games, but it had the original Super Mario Bros., and that’s how I learned about Mario. Later I learned about emulators and played the rest of the games, and I loved them. The one I enjoyed most has to be Super Mario 64, I just love that game.

3. And what about fan games? How did you discover MFGG or Mario fan games in general?

When I was about 8 or 9 one of my dad’s friends gave me a program called Game Maker 5.0. Since I was pretty young, I couldn’t really do much with it. I think about a year later I learned about YoyoGames Sandbox and I started to spend most of my time there, downloading games and making bad edits of existing examples. I also came across several Mario fangames there, and some of them were made by a guy called Hello. If I remember correctly one of his games had a link to MFGG. I liked MFGG and decided to submit a fangame I made with one of Hello’s engines. It was pretty terrible, and it got terrible reviews, but I didn’t give up. 2 years later, at 2012, I decided to join the forums and it was one of the best choices I’ve ever made. I learned a lot about both fangames and general game design and met some great people.

4. So what inspired you to start making Super Mario Flashback?

It was Sonic Generations. One day I thought it would be cool if Mario visited the levels from the other Mario games, and decided to make a little fangame based on that idea. But this fangame wasn’t actually Flashback. Instead, it was a completely different SMB1 styled fangame. But I scrapped it quickly after starting.

A year later, while I was still working on my old fangame Mario & Luigi’s Coin Chaos, I decided to start working on a side project that played like Super Mario 3D World and other 3D Mario games, but in 2D. But the main gameplay twist was going to be the metroidvania elements. I started working on it and made some decent progress, but then I realized it was too hard for me to execute a concept like that right. But instead of scrapping it, I decided to reuse the engine for a different fangame. I decided to give that “Mario Generations” idea another shot, but now with modern Mario. And that’s how Super Mario Flashback was born.

5. In said game, each level seems to be based on one level from each main series Mario platformer. Like 1-1, Donut Plains, Cool Cool Mountain, etc. Why did you choose these levels rather than others from the same games?

I wanted to be sure the game had at least 1 level from each popular Mario level trope, while also having some of the most memorable levels from the original games.

6. What about the star collecting concept? Where did you get the idea to mix Super Mario 64’s missions with the level design of the 2D Mario titles?

Making a 2D fangame with Power Stars was and idea I had for years. But I can’t say I remember how I got that idea.

7. How about the story? Is Bowser involved in this plot? Is there a final boss battle with him at the end?

Maybe… I can’t say more than that. 😉

8. A few people have complained about some missions being a tad hard. Do you plan to tone down any of them for the final game?

When you play something over and over again it becomes harder to tell if what you’re playing is hard or not. It was the same case for me. Since I play tested the third star of Mushroom Kingdom way too much, I became really good at it and I couldn’t tell if the race was hard or not. But after getting some feedback I toned it down a bit. But if it’s still too hard, I can tone it down even more.

9. Moving away from the game’s content for a bit, the art style gets a lot of praise here for how nice and clean the custom graphics look. How did you get all the sprites to look like they’re in one style?

When I first started developing Flashback, MFGG was full of SMA4 styled games and most people were sick of the style. So I wanted to make the game more unique than other Mario fangames, and started using Mit’s Super Mario Big Five-Oh oh style and the sprites he made in that style. When the fangame got bigger I realized I couldn’t sprite everything I need alone, so I decided to get some spriters such as Neweegee, Cruise Elroy, and Q-Nova. Without them, the game wouldn’t look as good and consistent as now.

10. Is the style of the game trying to look like it’s from a certain generation? Like say, as if it’s a GBA game, or late SNES game, or DS game with sprite graphics?

At first, I was aiming for GBA level of graphics with a higher resolution, but later I decided to not limiting myself with trying to fit a console’s style.

11. What’s in Extras? It just says it’s not available yet, so does that mean it’s going to be something interesting in the finished game?

It will have some extra DLC levels after the game’s release. These levels won’t have new art of music, but just new level designs. I’m planning to ask other fangame devs to make DLC levels too, kinda like what VVVVV did.

12. You can also seemingly send a tweet after finishing any mission. Is that part of a new strategy to promote the game on social media?

I did that once recently, but believe or not that was just an accident. Before that, I only tweeted my score to showcase the tweeting feature.

13. How about the ‘lab’ in this game? The pause screen has a disabled option to ‘return to the lab’. Does this mean E Gadd is in the game?

Yep. That’s the hub world of the game, and E. Gadd has a very big role in the game. But I don’t wanna give more spoilers.

14. I also noticed while playing that the new demo is very different from the old one in terms of levels, with the last one in Yoshi’s Island being completely changed. Was this in response to feedback that it was a bit confusing?

It got some negative feedback but that’s not the reason I changed it. I simply thought it wasn’t good enough.

15. And what happened to online mode? That’s in the MFGG demo, but not the SAGE one. Did you change your mind about it?

At first, I was planning to make Luigi and Toad available from the start in the online mode, but later I decided to make them only playable for those who unlock them. To do that I had to make it only accessible from E. Gadd’s Lab. Since the lab is not finished yet there’s no way to see it for now.

16. Yeah, I know this is probably getting silly now, but what’s with the ‘Tusk Buck’ stuff here? Will the game feature Microtransactions?

Tusk Buck is a type of currency that can be shared between several different fangames. It’s based on an April 1st joke on MFGG and it was supposed to be used in several different fangames. I’m saying supposed to be because I haven’t heard much from the other fangames that were going to use Tusk Bucks.

17. Moving on from features and changes, what was it like having your game shown at a Sonic fan game convention? Cause it seems like Flashback was one of the few Mario related games shown there overall. How much did the SAGE viewers like it?

People liked it much more than I expected, but I also think it was a bit overlooked. That’s expected, though, you can’t force every Sonic fan to play a Mario game right?

18. Over the years, you’ve submitted quite a few games to Mario Fan Games Galaxy, with the later ones getting much better reviews than the first. What interesting things did you learn about game design and development during each of these projects?

I learned about the importance of planning. I used to just make games without thinking about the concept properly and come up with core gameplay ideas at the middle of the development. It seems like that doesn’t work at all.

19. And talking of progress and getting better, what are your plans for after Super Mario Flashback? Do you have any plans for even better games? Are you interested in fan games for different franchises? What about indie titles?

After finishing Flashback I’m planning to stop making fangames and start making indie games. Well, I actually already started working on one. It’s still very early in the development, but designing the core gameplay elements and the main character design is pretty much done. But of course, I’m not alone on this project. Character design, story and most of the graphics will be done by my friend Cake, and just like in Flashback Can of Nothing will compose all (or maybe most of the) music.

Other than that, I’ve always wanted to make a Sonic fangame, but I just can’t get any good ideas that can make it more unique than other Sonic fangames out there.

20. Finally, as a game developer, what advice would you give someone else wanting to try making their own fan game (or heck, just any game in general)?

I’m not an expert when it comes to giving advice, but please don’t rely on premade engines too much if you’re new to fangame development. When people do that, the result is usually a very typical fangame that has nothing makes it stand out. Instead, make your own engine or try to change things in the engine you’re using. Give people a reason to play your fangame.

And that’s advice everyone should follow, regardless of whether they’re making a fan game, indie game or setting up a non game related startup in general. Do something new and interesting, not just what everyone else is offering.

So that concludes our interview. Did you like it? Did you find out anything interesting about Super Mario Flashback after reading it? If so, post your thoughts here or on social media today.

You can also find out more about the game on Mors’ social media channels here:

• Mors on YouTube
• Mors Games on Twitter
• Super Mario Flashback Official Website