An Interview With The Podunkian

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: April 11th, 2007

Here’s another Planet Freeplay interview, this time with Arthur ‘The Podunkian’ Lee, seductive creator of The Underside. In the interview, he attempts to clear up the whole Cave Story debacle, talks about his history as a game developer, and name-drops quite a few heroes of the Klik scene, Derek included. Reminding us that, wow, Klik games truly are a vital piece of the indie gaming world. As much now as they were then.

Skimming through again just now, I realize this isn’t exactly the best interview out there… And some of the views expressed make me go, “Huh?” while others are a tad insulting (to Derek, hah). But I’m convinced Mr. Lee is an okay guy, and I don’t think it’d be a bad idea to send more encouragement his way. In fact:

Keep it up, man! The game really is looking good. I cannot wait to play the whole thing!

YOU CAN DO IT, CHAMP

Posted in Interviews | Tags: ThePodunkian

Radix

Pod seems to tone himself way down when it comes to things like this. A more casual interview would probably make for more interesting reading, in this case.
Derek

Is he Korean or Chinese? These things are important.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Maybe to you! :P

He looks Korean to me.
http://tigsource.com Karim Abdul Paula

This guy (The Podunkian) is a clown, I admit he’s got some talent, yet, it seems he’s not a very nice person, he loves to shove a lame joke or an insult on your face every time he finds the worst moment to do it. Just visit total-klik.net and you will know what I’m talking about. A frustrated comedian more than anything else.
http://tigsource.com Karim Abdul Paula

^and by job I meant JOKE, but that’s alright, a comedian’s job is to make jokes, bah, where’s the preview button on this blog? WHERE?!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Next to submit. :P

But I’ll fix it for ya. :)
Shih Tzu

His last name is Lee, and my dad’s first name is Lee (casually), so based on this evidence I conclude he is Welsh. Or whatever the hell my dad is.
Eric

Podunkian is an insane faggot and I hate him but the game looks pretty goof.
Derek

Total Klik, more like Total Dick, amirite?!

No, but seriously…
Anthony Flack

Oh man, I come down on something for being too derivative, and then I find out he’s just a young fella. It’s perfectly normal to be in the shadow of your influences when you’re that age. I wish he’d start using capital letters properly though; kids these days eh?
axel

He’s Korean, according to himself, uh:

http://www.superfundungeonrun.com
http://ptoing.net ptoing

ZOMG, he is born on the same day as me. Only 7 years later :0
Anthony Flack

Oh dear, didn’t you guys say that The Underside was supposed to be quite funny? So what is up with that blog, then?
http://ptoing.net ptoing

Anthony, you raise a valid point. After reading that blog for a bit I have to conclude that it is painfully unfunny.
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

To be fair, I think the blog is pretty funny in places. I guess it depends on what your sense of humour is like.
Radix

The only time I remember reading it he talked about something bad happening to his car… is it supposed to be comedic, or is just, you know, a blog?
http://josephkingworks.blogspot.com/ Joseph

I don’t know, I thought his blog was kinda funny in a psychotic way, which appeals to my sensibilities for some reason…
Evil-Ville

I thought some things in the blog were funny too. Just the kind of pointless rambling I like to read late at night.
!CE-9

I wonder when will “different” stop meaning “worse/inferior” to you guys.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Vonnegut died yesterday.
http://josephkingworks.blogspot.com/ Joseph

Damn, Vonnegut was da man.
deadeye

Geez Pod you sure seem to make a lot of people mad.

Oh well :)
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

@Anthony: No excuses! _I’m_ not under the shadow of my influences…

@deadeye: Heh, yeah, what’s that about? I said “encouragement” people!

I still think he’s allllllright. ;)
The Podunkian

haha, i really don’t understand why people are in an uproar about this. i don’t think any part of the interview was insulting/meant to be insulting in any way (the part about “derek yu not for his games but for his pixel art” had more to do with my appreciation of his pixel art and wasn’t supposed to have any sort of “i do not like his games” senitiment”).

the interview is a little rough around the edges because it was done via email, and so i was pretty much answering disjoint questions that never really led to any other questions that might’ve let me delve more into the guts of the game besides “yeah, people say it looks like cave story.”

with that said, i don’t see why people get so worked up about every single thing i do, haha.
The Podunkian

p.s. i’m korean :)
Derek

You’re controversial. Be proud. :)
The Podunkian

i think a lot of people are getting upset because of things i’ve done/said in the past when i was a wee lad of 12/13, which i mean is understandable, but i think people should move on.

as for the total-klik, i didn’t start the thing, it was started by chris ‘clanhorse’ davis (who made spud’s quest), who was nortorious for hacking other klik-sites and plastering goatse everywhere, which was reflected in the style of the website when it was started almost a decade ago. which is to say it was full of childish goatse humor etc.

i think it was two years ago when i got fed up with the only klik related website worth going to being the daily click, which is even more full of passive aggressive assholes (look at any major game release and you’ll see people saying stuff like “IT WAS FUN but your help file had a typo voted thumbs down”), and pretty much no real content filter, meaning that it was difficult to pick out the wheat from the chaff. so i decided to re-start the total-klik, working for days fixing a lot of chris’s terribly copy-and-pasted code, and adding my own enhancements.

it would have been silly to re-create the TK without the nuances of the old TK, and so i resumed posting in the good old, “controversial”, and completely opinionated TK style, assuming people would eventually understand the gimmick behind the site and accept it, and a lot of people did, but certain people didn’t and they made a big deal out of it and they jumped to conclusions, and i guess that’s why people are always in an uproar about it.

with that said, you guys have to really learn to look past whatever preconcieved notions you have of me, because a lot of them are based in the past when i was admittedly a big asshole on the internet. the changes i’ve made to the TK are intended to allow people to participate in a community, and i’ve restrained myself from being an overt asshole in all of my recent postings. i’m admitting outright that i was an asshole in the past, but it would be nice if people could get over it already.
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

You have a past? The first time I heard of you was when you realised Merry Gear Solid a couple of months ago :)
Chris Davis

nigguh i never copy pasted asp code, YOU DIRTY KOREAN! And me being clanhorse was never proven :D

DOWN WITH YOU.

PS: good interview
Radix

He’s referring to klik community drama.
Anthony Flack

Still no capital letters though! Gah!
http://www.planetfreeplay.com moshboy

Can’t say my interviewing techniques are all that expert but I thought I did an reasonable job considering (aside from asking for a release date lol). Dunno what else to ask since I’m not really a coder. Would’ve happily done it over msn tho.
http://josephkingworks.blogspot.com Joseph

they don’t teach “capital letters” in school anymore…
Rz.

IT’S AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRIGHT~!
Rz.

in related news, i present podunkian with two options:

[ ] TITS

[ ] GTFO

or for a C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

[ ] FINISH TU YOU RAT BASTARD ;_;_;_;
dumb

i also didn’t know pod had a past. the only reason i know of his existence is because of his cave story rip-off. you can say pixel made pod famous.
someloser

I knew of him from his silly hl1 mod. I think I’m one out of 10 people who thinks it’s the GREATEST GAME EVER.