About

Hi, Rion here (as in ‘Suzune’), a Sydneysider since I was born.

Me

I have interests in game design, creative writing, tech, visual design/media, and weeb literature/illustrations – which, when you think about it, is quite a typical combination.

Back in School Certificate days, I spun up a free server and WP blog to share my notes since it got a bit of praise from friends who’ve asked for copies. The site found its way across enough high schools such that it was blacklisted on the education department’s government filters as “educational/cheating material” (what an achievement!). I missed that webmaster experience, and thought I’d relive the days of putting stuff out there.

🧪
No, it’s not a Pokémon reference. The idea is to smush together the pronunciation of Ag2SO4 into one word – ‘cos, y’know, high school me thought a chemically sounding verb like word was cool back then.Nowadays, I prefer to use silph or silphy for convenience reasons.

Games

Single-player campaign and co-op (i.e. not competitive) games cover most of the content I play, covering a wide range of genres. The most dominant ones by far are rhythm and visual novels, but I also enjoy FPS/TPS, shoot/beat ‘em ups, driving, and real-time RPGs (as opposed to turn-based).

I’ve been playing games since the Mega Joy II Famiclone (specifically, white joystick, yellow D-pad + XYAB, purple buttons, first two games are math games). I was a Star Force main and autofire cheater in Track & Field.

consoles and first games played

  • Game Boy Color (2000) • Donkey Kong Land 3
  • MS-DOS PC (2001) • Space Invaders, arcade port
  • Upgrade to Windows 98 (2001) • Pac-Man: Adventures in Time
  • Upgrade to Windows XP (2003) • Need for Speed: Underground
  • Namco Plug and Play (2004) • Bosconian (only)
  • Game Boy Advance SP (2004) • Pokémon Sapphire
  • PlayStation 2 (2006) • Tekken 5
  • iPod Touch 2nd Gen (2009) • Boost 3D
  • Windows 7 PC (2009) • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • PlayStation 3 (2009) • Tekken 6
  • PlayStation Portable (2010) • DJMax Portable 2
  • iPad 2 (2011) • Jubeat Plus
  • Windows 8.1 PC (2014) • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
  • Quest 2 (2020) • Superhot VR

There’s others too, but they’re either ones that I don’t play games on (e.g. mobile phones, laptop), or they’re already covered.

I also did a game dev course at university, and post internship co-founded a games company who’s showcased at PAX Aus and SMASH!.

Arcade Rhythm Games

I’ve owned, for a short time, the ITG cab at Koko 505 George Street, which I’ve since sold to them. I also used to maintain the SN2 converted cab, which now lives at iPlay Edmonson Park. You can read up on the history of my involvement in the last section on the appropriately named 505’s ITG Guide.

first arcade rg experiences

  • DDR (2002) • DDRMAX on soft pad at a friend’s place, PlayStation 2.
  • Arcade (~2004) • DDR Extreme at Galaxy World Market City (GWMC).
  • StepMania 3.9 (2005) • Arch0wl’s eponymous AAA Quasar 1.5× rate video was the clip that inspired me to play pad charts on keyboard.
  • DJMax Technika (2009) • what started the community.
  • DJMax Portable (2010) • I bought a fat PSP specifically for this.
  • Jubeat Plus (2011) • I bought an iPad specifically for this.

Timezone George Street (TZGS) was the arcade that brought me into today’s rhythm game scene. A friend I met at the arcade, and later became a workmate, was my role model for DDR (X) in 2009. Most of the games that I play today were heavily influenced by classmates and arcade goers around that time, and I’m grateful to them for shaping me to be where I am today.

Tech

My “first” programming language was BASIC – though, at three years old, all I really did was copy the textbook’s contents without knowing what I was doing. Around late primary school, a family friend taught me QuickBASIC as an accompaniment to learning algebra.

Unity3D development dictated C# as my go-to language for handling everyday repetitive tasks. I did go through a Java (Android 4 dev, Processing) and C++ (data structures) phase in university.

It was actually a design elective I studied in uni that got me into the fancier kinds of interactive web development. Working on projects at my previous workplace has helped me make stuff like StepMania’s score tracker that I use for my streams, and a Beat Saber layout with lots of stats and lookable graphs[1] for serious gamers.

Anime Culture

I’ve helped some mates release fansubs in the late 00’s.

I’m an illustration kinda guy, so most of the content I pick up are less well known to others unless they happen to be a fellow browser of Pixiv, etc.

These days between what little free time I have, I read novels (web, light, visual) as a way to get a bit of Japanese study in.

[1] That’s a Nickelback reference.