General Chat / Kumba's Interview with John

Because Kumba made some really retarded "bet", he is banned for all of November I guess, so I get the honor of posting his interview with me. How fortunate for you all.

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Kumba – First off, I know you live in Nebraska. What is it like living there? Is it boring and what do you do for fun?

John – Living in Nebraska isn’t really as bad as I make it out to be, actually. We have close to 500,000 people in the Omaha metro area, enough to be “living” but not insane like other places I’ve been to: Boston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Houston, and Los Angeles. Although Nebraska is basically a large cornfield (I am literally blocks away from the middle of nowhere), Omaha is fairly large. 180th street is about where civilization ends here.

For fun there are area malls that have great stores, we go see movies, go down to the not-so-far-away Kansas City for concerts (though, we now have our own arena), and just hang out at peoples’ houses. The only thing that I really resent about Omaha is the fact that there is NO amusement park. With the amusement industry being something I love, it’s a pain to have to drive 4 hours to Kansas City for a decent park, hence I feel Omaha is “boring”. I do, however, love Omaha for its local music, never-congested freeways (MUCH different from that of Los Angeles ), and “small-but-big city” atmosphere.

Kumba – Was there any reason you took the numbers (4911) out of your name?

John – No reason in particular, just the fact that I wanted my real name to be known throughout the community rather than my name and numbers attached. The numbers became an annoyance to me, something that I didn’t need or want associated with me.

Kumba – I read a topic at NE that you went to a new high school and that you had trouble fitting in. How are things now and have you made any friends?

John – The first couple weeks of high school were a little “hard” to find people when they stuck to friends they knew, not really reaching out to new people. I have made friends in my classes and in architecture club. You really get to know some great people once they open up. The toughest part was becoming used to my teachers, the gigantic environment (going from a junior high of around 200 to a high school of 1021), and getting to know people without anyone to fall back on. Before I had known everyone for around 10 years, it was really weird jumping into a place where I didn’t know anyone.

Kumba – Recently, I saw a post by Iris where he named you as the number one non-NE parkmaker. How did this make you feel and do you think you are worthy of this title? If not, who do you think is?

John – I was very surprised and delighted at the fact that iris likes my work! Back in August, he had placed me “On the Radar”... the “list” was posted in September sometime and I hadn’t shown much work, so I thought my OtR position was in jeopardy. It was very nice to learn I had earned as high a position as I had. I would hope that I am worthy of the position but it really isn’t my place to say as there are so many different people with great talents. Iris does have an eye for talent, so I’ll just let him be the judge.

Kumba – How did you come up with the style of park making you do? I find it very unique and it looks difficult to do.

John - My parkmaking style (to me) is really a mesh of several different parkmakers that I adore. Those parkmakers being: Corkscrewed, Foozycoaster, PyroPenguin, ToonTowner, and x-sector. If you study my architecture, you can take out specific elements inspired by or are similar to that of those parkmakers. I usually start with a very basic structure and build up (I’ve been told I have really tall architecture) and add little details that count a lot toward creativity, IMO. If you look at Linoma Woods you can pick out a Corkscrewed influence. After that I began to experiment with textures and quarter tile objects because of Foozy, Pyro, and ToonTowner. Then x-sector came along and the more detailed-ness came into play. My NE Pro Tour entry sees a definite mix of all five of them.

Kumba – You recently won the first NE Pro Tour Contest for having the best hotel. Do you think you won fairly and is there anything you'd like to say about the hotel?

John – I would say that my entry was nice, although I would bet the judging was pretty damn hard to do. The varying styles of architecture made it virtually impossible to choose between things so different. I do, however, feel that deanosrs’s entry was a very, very surprising one. Had it been bigger, I think it could have easily won over mine. The Imperial Riyadh Resort didn’t come out exactly as planned. There was supposed to be a shopping center on the small entry island with some amusement rides. Time just got the best of me and some things led to others and the shopping center had to be omitted so that I could make the deadline.

Kumba – Your new park, Disneyland Resort Rome, is looking beautiful. What can you tell us about this park that we may not know and how is it progressing right now?

John – Although I have stated before, this park has been restarted numerous times (ten or eleven) because I have either been stumped for ideas or ended up hating my work. This current version will see a large 410x410 tile total (spread through 3 maps) resort. The entire idea encompasses a Magic Kingdom park, a DisneySea park, and 3 hotels: Disney’s Hollywood Tower Hotel, Disney’s Lion King Lodge, and another hotel that I want to be a surprise. There’s also a Downtown Disney-esque shopping center called Disney Village.

I don’t think anyone realized that I completely restarted the entertainment map, the Mediterrea Seas Hotel is gone and my NE Pro Tour entry was the theme I would have used for the Arabian Sands Hotel (it turned out MUCH different though). Not much was done with the Hollywood Tower Hotel so restarting wasn’t a huge heartbreak. Things are turning out great and I had room to add the Disney Village.

Kumba – You recently joined Raven's new club SDI. How are things going there and how is your departure from RCTU:P been received?

John – Things in SDI are great. I have some really awesome up-and-coming parkmakers that I get to work with like sloB, sircursealot, and Raven. Our first group venture, Ineuro, will have a guest appearance by the number one parkmaker of all time, making it something to look out for. Ineuro, if you didn’t quite catch the name, will feature areas themed to European countries. I will be creating an area based upon Spain.

I think my departure from RCTU:P was taken well, although I heard gymkid dude was sorry for the fact he didn’t move me up to RCTU before Glitchwolf snagged me . RCTU:P collapsed (activity wise) long before I left, it was just the final shot and then Aérôglòbe was moved up, there wasn’t anything left of it. RCTU seems to be doing fine without me though.

Kumba – In your opinion, who are the top ten RCT1 and RCT2 parkmakers?

John –
RCT2
1. sacoasterfreak – Rivers of Babylon is just lovely (and I haven't seen it "in person"!)… what else has to be said?
2. Corkscrewed – Not much else needs to be said, I absolutely LOVE Walt Disney’s Escape!!!
3. ToonTowner – His IoA project is looking amazing, and without his scenery, we’d all be screwed.
4. Foozycoaster – Haven’t seen too much from him lately, but damn, so much detail!!!
5. PyroPenguin – His work has a nice classy realistic look, I want to see more soon…
6. x-sector – I just love his style, it is part of my inspiration…
7. Meretrix – I like but, do something OTHER than Disney.
8. Butterfinger – I don’t really like the repetitiveness, but the shear size of Euroscape and the ideas in his Hi Rollers were amazing.
9. aero21 – Wasn’t fond of Wormwood, but his new Disney screenshots have captivated me…
10. VooDoo – URE is one of my anxiously-awaiting parks, and after seeing what he would have entered in Hi Rollers, it is no wonder why he’s OtR.

With regards to RCT1, I really am not “with it” as far as who’s hot now, so I really cannot judge who’s better but some of my favorites are: Fatha’ Grinch, x-sector, OZONE, and Natelox.

I also have a new screenshot to present with this interview. Pictured is the Mainstreet Station on Mainstreet, U.S.A. for the Ferrovia di Roma di Disneyland.

Sweet screen, it has a very "unique" feel that somehow still seems "gawnty" enough to be Disney. Very nice there.

The interview is great too. Good long, detailed replies which are much more enjoyable by the one-sentence-ers that way too many people use.

ride6

Awwww, I've already seen that screen

Nice one Kumba and good answers John. Thanks for the shout out

Question for John,
Will you do space mountain in your disney park?

Hm... the red and browns in that screen actually don't look Main Stree American enough. They have more of a tropical or spicy flare to them that would better suite a romantic European park look. Change the colors. Also, the architecture itself seems to be your regular architecture with some 1890s scenery added on and does not look convincingly "main street."

Of course, my Main Street train station looks like crap too, but you're using custom scenery. And you're good.


Nice interview, Cornhusker.

Nice interview Kumba & John. The questions are always good and I like the way the interviewees go beyond the question in answering it. And wow you crazy Americans have a club for everything!

I like the screen, putting aside any misgivings other people seem to have about the Disney-ness. I say keep it like it is cos it looks beautiful.

Nice interview, Cornhusker. 

Husker fan + me = no ... BC all the way baby!!! And... they beat Notre Dame!!!

Corky, the colors are deep and rich because of a America-meets-Old World charm feel I am going for.
Sorry if you don't really like it, hopefully I can snag ya' with the next screens.

rctfan: There will be a Space Mountain in the Disneyland park. How COULD you make a Disneyland without it?

Love that screen (except for the blue/purple flowers), am flattered that I made your top 10, and will be doing something other than Disney very soon (just need to get this park out of my system), and have been a little busy (drawing warrior goddesses with enormous breasts in armor) with GemQuest.

Anyway, nice interview. BTW, what did Kumba do to get banned? I can't be bothered to look for it on the boards...

and I quote...

ok

Iris if VT beats Miami take away my posting power for a month.

thats how sure i am UM will beat them....again

Hurricanes All the Way This Year.

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH C-A-N-E-S CANES