Interview of a JetPunker #29 - Insaniot

Hi Insaniot!

[Message about the French translation of Super Mario 64 Power Stars: Jolly Roger Bay.]

Oh, and a last thing: would you like to be my 29th interviewee...?

[Answer to the message about the French translation of Super Mario 64 Power Stars: Jolly Roger Bay.]

Also, I would love to be the 29th interviewee!

Glad to read it! So let’s start this interview! First, could you present yourself on JetPunk quickly for our readers who don’t know you?

Hello readers on JetPunk!! My name is Insaniot, though in real life people tend to call me Matthew. I’ve been using JetPunk since September of 2017 and started making quizzes October of the same year. Almost all of my quizzes are about video games, since I love playing video games, though I oftentimes make quizzes about other things that interest me. I also run a blog series called the Quiz Creation Challenge (but I’m sure everyone reading this interview already knew that). 

As you just said, most of our readers probably know you for your successful QCC blog series. How did you get the idea for this series? After almost three years of existence, do you plan to continue it?

Yeah I’m sure most people do haha. When I found out that my blogs were NOT being uploaded to my personal blog page, but instead the very public RUB, I realized that I should probably make blogs that the JetPunk community would like instead of more personal updates. I was inspired by the YouTube channel SiIvaGunner and their tournament King for a Day, which I thought would be cool to replicate on JetPunk, but when I made a blog announcing it nobody really seemed to understand what I was doing here. I decided to scrap that idea and take the “prize” - a day of quizzes themed around a certain topic - and turn that into its own thing. I took some inspiration from various Game Jams, where they would give out a certain topic and have people make games about said topic, and adapted that structure into something more JetPunk friendly: the Quiz Creation Challenge (or QCC for short). People ended up taking to the idea so I continued making more. I still want to continue the series but after 3 years it’s starting to feel like I used up all of the good ideas for themes already. It’s not officially over, just currently on a temporary hiatus induced by artist’s block.

I am sure that we all ant to see the series continuing, so in the name of the blogging community, I wish you good luck!

By the way, several quizzes initially created for your QCCs finally got featured (1980s Movie Silhouettes or even Singers Spinning in a Vinyl Record Player, for example). How do you feel about it? More generally, do you think that these blogs reached their objective of raising up creativity for the participants?

The ones I noticed were featured were all the ones by overtired which I’m pretty sure were featured as soon as they were uploaded, so I feel like ‘finally’ isn’t the best word to use here, but I’m glad to hear that yours got featured! It was very good :) I’m happy whenever a QCC quiz gets any sort of recognition, whether it’s a feature, spotlight, or even just a few nice comments. Part of me sees that and is like: “I did that. That was all me.” More seriously, when picking a theme for a QCC I do try and pick ones that people probably don’t already make tons and tons of quizzes about, so that they have to think about how they can adapt it to their current quiz-making style (or a style befitting of their idea), and that often leads to some of the most creative quizzes I’ve seen on the site. So to answer your question, yes, I do feel that these blogs reached their objective of raising up creativity for the particpants. 

At least in my own case, I can say that, thanks to your blogs, I published quizzes that I would have never thought about without, so thank you for that!

You are also well-known for your video game, and more specifically Nintendo quizzes. Are you a fan of this company? What is your favourite Nintendo franchise? And what about your favourite console?

I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of the company, but I do enjoy the many quality games they create. The business side is evil, but you can tell that the development side is really passionate about what they do and it’s flowing out of every project they made. 
I think my favourite Nintendo franchise would have to be Mario or Super Smash Bros.. I make a LOT of Smash Bros. quizzes so it may seem crazy that I would even consider another game to be on the same level as it, but I actually don’t play Smash very much lol. I’m moreso a fan of the design side of things, why they made certain decisions and the history behind all the different franchises in the game. Mario, on the other hand, is a game series I can get behind. Nearly everything about it is perfect, from the characters to the games themselves. Like seriously, name another game series where the popularity of the regular enemies are on par or even sometimes eclipse the popularity of the main cast! If you say your favourite Mario character is a Dry Bones no one bats an eye, but if your favourite Zelda character is a Dodongo then everyone kind of looks at you funny. And the games themselves are almost always some of the best in the genre. Platformers and kart-racers are an obvious lock for the plumber, but even some other genres like party games, golf, soccer, etc., Mario is at least in the running for the best. Some of the games are a little bland, particularly the ones from the 2010s and from recent years, but those are the exception. Overall, Mario is very good. My favourite Mario game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but all Mario Kart is very good.

My favourite console is the 3DS. Huge library of games plus the already huge DS library it’s compatible with, very nice looking, and a healthy dose of nostalgia to push it over the edge. I’m still working my way through the Ace Attorney trilogy, and A Link Between Worlds, both are very good. Did you know it’s really easy to mod a 3DS? I did it in about 20 minutes ;)

I personally knew since that's your Discord status. I actually completely understand you, since my dear Nintendo 3DS is also my favourite console.

For several months now, you are regularly publishing quizzes with beautiful SVGs, mostly about Mario games worlds and levels. Was it challenging to make these maps JetPunk-compatible? Did you get any help, from the SVG Guide or even from other JetPunk users?

Glad you think they look nice :) To be completely honest, beyond the initial confusion of learning how SVGs work there really wasn’t much challenge in creating a map. Only once did I have to go back and reduce the file size, and that was because I had used images to auto-generate the SVG and there were a ton of answers, so it added up quickly. Most game maps are intentionally simple, and if they’re complex in any way then I’ll simplify them because I’m bored and don’t want to draw all that detail ;P I used the SVG guide as a reference for my first few maps, but aside from a handful of bizarre occurrences in Inkscape I haven’t had to ask for help much. I generally try to keep stuff simple, because I’m lazy and don’t want to overwhelm myself. 

Haha! It seems that this behaviour gives very good results, looking at the quality of these quizzes.

Now it's time for the most important question of this interview: what do you think of the inclusion of the Honey Queen in Mario Kart 7?

I think Honey Queen was a good addition, with the caveat that it shouldn’t have been at the expense of Waluigi. Characters like Honey Queen are fun because they aren’t the type of characters you’d expect to see playable in a Mario game ever, and many fan favourite characters (most notably the regular enemies) have the same sort of appeal. They are cool as a bonus to the main cast, but should never replace any of them. Except maybe Bowser Jr., that kid’s on thin ice.

That's right, we should talk to his father about it...

What is your own quiz you are the proudest of?

I think it’s a tie between Nintendo Amiibo and Mario Characters by Emblem. I’m a big fan of the art I made for the latter quiz, I think most of them turned out very nice (the Goomba one is a little scuffed though 👀) and gives the quiz a very nice aesthetic. The former quiz is much less creative, being just a list of all amiibo figures, but that’s not why I’m proud of it. Because of the large size of the quiz (200+ answers!) as well as the general popularity of amiibo, this has been a very popular quiz for people to grind out and try and get all the answers. Throughout 2021 I regularly received comments from people telling me that they got a new best time or they finally managed to name them all and it’s one of my favourite JetPunk memories. It feels like just yesterday… such is the passage of time.

And I would like to add that you are doing an excellent work with this quiz by always updating it on time. Well done, and congrats for these quizzes!

Do you have big projects of quizzes or blogs in preparation?

I actually do, yes. I’m currently working on finishing up my Mario 64 Power Stars series (thanks again for the translations btw), and I’m eternally finishing the Super Smash Bros. Fighters series (over halfway but still so many left 🥲). I’ve also got a giga-quiz with over 1000 answers in the works, but I don’t wanna say too much about it so that way nobody gets their hopes up for it releasing.

Haha! Good luck, then, I guess. It seems to be a lot of work. And you're welcome for the trannslations: it was a true pleasure, and well-deserved for quuizzes like these ones.

What is the most important event in your life of JetPunker?

This isn’t really a specific event per se, but I think the most important thing in terms of how I make my quizzes is that a lot of the ones I was making were bad. Not in the sense that the quizzes were poorly designed or unfair, but just that the actual idea for the quiz was bad. At the time I was trying to upload a quiz everyday, so the stuff I was making was just whatever came to mind first that could be done in about 20 minutes. When they weren’t getting takes, I realized that they just weren’t very interesting. Like, why would anyone take First Three Pokémon by Letter? What does that title even mean? My philosophy for making quizzes nowadays has shifted to just make stuff I’m interested in, so even if a quiz only gets a handful of takes I’m still proud of the work I’ve done.

If you had to resume your JetPunk adventure in one word, what would it be?

This isn’t really one word, rather three words that convey one concept, but I think ‘trial and error’ is an OK way to summarize my JetPunk adventure. I’ve had alot of experimental ideas, many of which have been locked away in the Insaniot vault for years, others have had mixed results, and some have been met with praise (like the QCC!), though throughout it all I’ve had alot of fun. To be completely honest I don’t think that there’s really a good word to describe my whole JetPunk adventure, since picking one word would ignore a non-negligible amount of it, but I think this is the best way to sum up the most memorable parts. 

Would you change something to tour JetPunk adventure, if it was possible?

Aside from giving myself a few featured quizzes here, and a couple million takes there, I think I’m happy with how it turned out (mostly).

Haha! So then a bit more than the "handful of takes" evoked before.

If you had to choose just three JetPunker for their quizzes, who will it be?

Hmmm, well I don’t take a whole lot of non-QCC quizzes, but I’d probably pick overtired because obviously, you because you make alot of good video game quizzes and non-game quizzes (even if most are in French and I can’t read them), and Snowman13 cause he’s cool 😎

Thank you, I am honoured! Also, I have to admit that I know Snowman only for his many comments under your quizzes, but on your advise, I'll have a look.

And what about bloggers?

I read even less blogs then I take quizzes, but I’d pick you because I like reading your interviews and playing WITJ, Stewart because it’s always fun to read an update blog, and uhhhhhhhh… myself, I guess because I think it would be cool to take part in a QCC myself.

Haha! Thank you again. And yeah, it must be hard to not be able to participate... I knew that with interviews, until Stewart nicely offered to interview me. So what about a special QCC held by someone else, in the which you can participate? ;-)

What are your passions in life, excepting JetPunk?

My one true passion is JetPunk, but if I had to pick a runner-up I’d say playing video games, mainly Nintendo though I also like playing a variety of games on my PS3. BUT but if I had to pick something interesting for the sake of an interview I think my passions would be photography and playing music. I like walking around my neighbourhood and taking pictures of whatever catches my eye, trying to find the perfect angle. Most of my pictures stay trapped on my computer, but sometimes I’ll upload a handful to my private Instagram. Music on the other hand is almost solely a ‘me’ thing these days. Back in high school I was in my school’s wind orchestra and jazz band which was a fun group experience, especially when we would play concerts for the school and out families. Now that I’m graduated I just look up sheet music for random songs I like and play by myself.

You are on the JetPunk Discord server, and are one of its Honorable Member. What do you think of this server?

I think it’s a nice place. I don’t understand alot of what people talk about, since it’s typically some super obscure geography thing, but I love that it just feels like a place for JetPunk fans to hangout and didn’t fall victim to the typical Disocrd-serverification many others go through.

What do you hope for JetPunk development in the next months?

Personally I’d like to see more options for making quizzes, particularly the non-text quiz types. Something as simple as letting users change the colours of these quizzes would go a long way, though really addition to these types would be a massive improvement. As they are now, every click quiz, multiple choice quiz, etc., they all feel a bit same-y at the moment.

Do you have a message to pass to the whole JetPunk community (or at least to the few users reading these blogs…)?

Don’t give up! Don’t you give up! Why are you quitting there? Just try a little bit harder! No, no, no! Don’t give up! Think of all the people around you and the people cheering you on! You’re almost there! Look at me, I’m making video game quizzes on the internet FOR FREE! You just have to try! You will surely accomplish your goal! That’s why you should… Never Give Up!!

Haha! Probably one of the clearest messages passed in an interview. As you probably understood, it was the last question of this interview. It was a very pleasant one, thank you for your implication!

Glad you liked it!

It was a true pleasure, thank you again for this moment!