This month we’re spotlighting a young man who I have known his whole life 🙂 He’s a talented 15-year-old who is truly passionate about video games. Not only does he play them, he creates them! Ike has played video games since he was three years old and beat his first game at four. Thanks to Ike for being this month’s artist spotlight!

Be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel at Ike Petro.

2. What inspires you to create new stories and games?  Nothing in particular, really. I just have a very creative mind. My friends sometimes make me think about something, but that’s about it.

3. What are your goals when creating games?  I don’t have much experience yet, just my RPG Maker DX. It’s hard to figure out where to set up grinds and side-quests. My main goal is to learn more and more from this software to eventually create a full-fledged game, complete with challenging bosses, creative stages, and great characters. I haven’t done it in a while, mainly playing games with friends in the meantime.

4. What are your favorite games and why?  My favorite game of all time is Dragon Quest 8 — Journey of the Cursed King. I love turn-based RPGs and always will. This game is challenging, has a great world to explore, has great side-quests (Love the Monster Arena personally).

5. Why do you want to be a game designer/programmer?  People always say do what you love, and if you don’t play video games, where does that lead you? Possibly to some random job down the street you don’t enjoy doing. I’ve loved video games all of my life (People, I started when I was 3), and I’ve loved them ever since. So, I’m sticking with what I love to do, and that’s fact.

6. What makes a good video game?  People have very different opinions about this. I think what makes a good game is if you enjoy it. Sure, it might not be the best, but if you like it, don’t let anyone make you think differently. I personally like some challenge (aka, not a ball-busting game or Kirby’s Epic Yarn, for the matter), has an ok at least story(i don’t care that much anyways bout the story, it just helps), and it has to be fun.

7. What makes a bad video game?  Where to start? Start with the opposite of what I said previously — not fun, too easy [Kirby’s Epic Yarn (cough)] or too hard. Story, as I said, I don’t care much for, but it’s ok with me. A lot of people hate bad voice actors or bad writing. It can be annoying, but I don’t think that aspect itself makes or breaks a game. It doesn’t change how the game itself plays at all; that’s why I have no problem with it. Now, the main reason … bad gameplay. If this is bad, the game is BAD. There’s nothing changing this, not a great story, scenery, etc. If you screw up on this part, it isn’t going to be good. Who likes a game you can’t play? While glitches are usually a problem, I mostly laugh at them. If they screw up a quest or objective, yeah, then that’s bad (looking at you Skyrim).