Ben Croshaw

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Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is the British-born but currently Brisbane-based author of adventure games created using AGS software. He also writes articles for Australia's Hyper Magazine, a major games publication. He also maintains weekly dark humour articles on his home page, along with a large number of humorous essays, at least two complete novels entitled Articulate Jim: The Search for Something and Fog Juice, and a smattering of webcomics including Yahtzee Takes On The World and his most recent, Chris & Trilby. Additional games, short stories, and articles by him are scattered across the internet.

He became known in the AGS community after creating The Rob Blanc Trilogy. Since then, he has created games such as The Trials of Odysseus Kent, 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, the 1213 series, and Trilby's Notes.

1213 and Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment are different from his other AGS works in that he is experimenting with the AGS engine to create games in different genres than which AGS was intended for, that being the point-and-click adventure game mold, yet these "experimental" games still remain within the confines of previously existing gaming genres nontheless.

1213 plays similarly to games such as Another World and Flashback. However, since 1213 was developed using AGS as opposed to Game Maker or MultiMedia Fusion, its controls are not fluid or intuitive as one would need for an adequate action title.

AitGoFW plays like a cross between Sierra's Space Quest: The Next Mutation, and space simulator titles such as Elite or Privateer, with turn-based space combat, resource trading and space exploration being necessary gameplay mechanisms for completion; though in a much simpler context than the games which influenced its creation. AitGoFW is both a parody of and tribute to science fiction games and movies, a major plot point being, for instance, the 'forced recruitment' (i.e. kidnapping) of Redshirts (an obvious homage to Star Trek's disposable red shirted crew members), who are used as cannon fodder when the situation planet-side is deemed too dangerous for the ship's crew, or when the crew simply cannot be bothered to go themselves. The easily replaceable Redshirts die often in gruesome and often darkly comic ways.

1 The Days Series
2 Special Editions
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] The Days Series

5 Days, 7 Days and Trilby's Notes, often cited as Ben's truly redeeming works, are three parts of an ongoing story arc. 5 Days story details the involvement of, amongst others, the shady cat burglar and later government agent Trilby versus the tortured and murderous soul of John DeFoe. 7 Days, on the other hand, followed the events of a space crew finding the metal coffin of John DeFoe inexplicably floating in space, four hundred years after the events of the first game. Trilby's Notes, goes back to explain and flesh out the mythology of the DeFoe household and the African idol that John's soul is contained within, as well as how he ends up in space in the first place. Currently, a final game in the series to complete the story is being developed, which would make the Days series ultimately a "quartology". Or if Trilby's Notes is considered a gaiden, than a trilogy after all.

Croshaw constructs his games using AGS. He also creates their graphics and animation using Photoshop and writes all of their dialogue, though up until Trilby's Notes he relied upon RPG Maker's included MIDI files for musical accompaniment. These fantasy themed songs didn't mesh well with horror or science fiction games and drew criticism from the AGS community. As a response to the RPG Maker ripped-music related negativity, he enlisted outside help for the music in Trilby's Notes. The original soundtrack composed by a well-known member of the AGS community was received warmly by the series fans and newcomers alike.

[edit] Special Editions

While all the FullyRambomatic games may be downloaded for free, Special Editions are available for most of the later games for a donation of US$5 to Croshaw's PayPal account, as an incentive. These Special Editions contain commentary, extra music and occasionally gameplay, but none of these things by their non-inclusion from the standard games detract fundamentally from their playability.

[edit] Trivia

Croshaw was the first person to write a game for the Reality-on-the-Norm series: Lunchtime of the Damned.

Croshaw really likes the actor Bruce Campbell.

Apparently, Ben enjoys a rowsing game of Yahtzee.

He also endorses eating lions.

He might tell you something funny about his hatred of the Spice Girls if you ask him.

He is currently a contributor to a Australian gaming magazine called Hyper. He wrote a very interesting article about the Human Race being doomed due to the coming apocalypse known as VR, or Virtual Reality.