Our Chief Interviewer Vaskituh spent some time talking to Lick who is the hand behind the great DS developments such as DSLiveWeather, LoveLite, DSLiveFTP and the libcartreset library. Lick spoke about his new music player application he is working on and also gave insight into a new application that he is also planning to release soon.
DS-Scene.net: what do you think of Nintendo´s latest actions on the Game world? Do you think a change is needed?
Lick: It's amazing! They're really doing something new and fresh. That's what this industry has been crrying for the last couple of years. Even though some people will not appreciate the fact that they're hitting new targets like girls, grown-ups and even the elderly, I think it's kind of cool that games will be more commonly accepted because of products like the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii.
DS-Scene.net: What about graphics, do you think Nintendo are making a mistake?
Lick: I can understand why they're not focusing on the graphics, it's simply much cheaper for them and other game developers. Look at the production costs of the next-gen games. It's not just the hardware and the technologies, but also the creative side of things. It's crazy how much time and money goes to creating 3D worlds, characters and the textures that are applied to them. Don't get me wrong, I like juicy graphics too, but when development costs rise, the retail prices rise as well. That's something I don't want, I'm sure many people will agree with me. So back to Nintendo, I think they have all the reasons to keep the graphics behind the gameplay. I wouldn't mind it if they had at least make the DS 3D hardware a bit stronger though. Sometimes when I look at screenshots of 3D games for the DS, they really make me puke. *Laughs* Lack of texture filters suck.
DS-Scene.net: Why did you choose to code for the DS above any other console?
Lick: The touchscreen. I had a history of programming for the GameBoy Advance but in the end I stopped because I wasn't able to buy homebrew hardware. When I purchased my first DS Lite (the one that got broken), it really surprised me as the touchscreen was so incredibly easy and fun to use. Ideas for games and applications just flew into my head and I decided to develop for the DS.
DS-Scene.net: Can you tell us more about your history of programming for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance?
Lick: Oh, I never got farther than dovoto and gbajunkie's tutorials on the 2D hardware. I had lost interest because the GBA didn't really have any special features like the DS has. I went back to developing for the PC. If I think about it, that short period of GBA programming really helped me when I was learning how to program for the DS.
DS-Scene.net: When did you start to developing for the Nintendo DS?
Lick: I kind of explained it already but alright, I was playing some games on my DS Lite and suddenly I just wondered why Nintendo doesn't use the hardware fully by making applications like Moonshell, DSOrganize and DSLiveWeather? *Laughs* I mean, the DS has wi-fi, a microphone and a touchscreen! It could have many useful applications, instead of just games. That's when I searched for ds homebrew and found out about the amazing work that has already been made and I decided to make some more.
DS-Scene.net: What are the projects you are working on, or have worked on for the Nintendo DS?
Lick: DSLiveWeather which is an application that can be used to check the current and forecasted weather and Lite. This application lets you set the brightness of the backlight without booting back to the original firmware. It's useful for people who haved flashed their DSes and want to quickly set the brightness before playing games and do other stuff.
DS-Scene.net: We have heard of a DS Hot-Spot-Finder that you are working on, can you tell us any more?
Lick: It will be called DSLiveHotSpot, this application was meant to be an alternative to the official Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Setup that you see in wifi games. Development has been ceased because I began to wonder how useful it really would be.
DS-Scene.net: We think it would be great because there is no other nice way to search for an hotspot other than using a WiFi game..
Lick: I'd like to announce that I'm working on an music player. It will visually look and work like an iPod. It's far from done, but you can already check out the preview version.
DS-Scene.net: We have already posted the preview version for you *Laughs* Is there anything else?
Lick: Perhaps I'll FINALLY continue development of DSLiveFTP, but I don't have that much time so I really doubt it will happen soon. Oh and I HAVE A SECRET! I was planning to do DSLiveCalendar. It's an application that has several calendar modules including a finance module to keep track of the days that you spent or received money. With graphs and other visual aids, it would be perfect for money-spenders to manage their money. Other modules like birthdays, events and school grades are also something I would like to add. I hope to be able to work on DSLiveCalendar but currently the mp3 player is my main focus
DS-Scene.net: I know that alot of people use DSOrganize because of calendar, browser, Irc, etc. Have you thought of creating a Multi-App instead of making separate ones?
Lick: There's no real difference if you ask me. With the creation of libcartreset, I can make my software reset to the bootmenu (of the SLOT-2 device). For me, this is just as convenient as having all the applications in one project.
DS-Scene.net: What do you think, in general, is your best coding achievement for the DS and why?
Lick: Personally, I am really proud of libcartreset which is a development library that allows any homebrew programmer to reset to the SLOT-2 device bootmenu with just a few simple calls! Unfortunately, many developers haven't added it to their software yet.
DS-Scene.net: What do you think is the best coding achievement for the DS?
Lick: I would have to vote for DSWifi. Steven Stair (sgstair) has really done a great job on DSWifi and he allowed many coders including me to make some nifty applications. Like I said before, network connection is one of the DS' strongest points.
DS-Scene.net: Have you had any development problems that have been hard to overcome and how did you do this?
Lick: Not really. My biggest issue is time. It takes a long amount of time to finish a big project. I don't think anyone can overcome the problem of having too little time and too much to work on.
DS-Scene.net: We can understand that. Which homebrew applications or games do you use yourself and which is your favourite?
Lick: I use DSLiveWeather and Lite the most, and I'm NOT kidding! That's all I use.
DS-Scene.net: Well, here at DS-Scene we would like to thank you for your work on the DS do you have any last thoughts to say to our readers?
As you can see, Lick has alot to offer for the community and his new music player is really strarting to look nice. You can check out Lick's projects at his blog below or in the downloads section.
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Mon, December 4th, 2006 at 15:28
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