May 2011
Jean Of mArc
![Image](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/605908/pirate.jpg)
Aaaaarrrr, me'harty!
I personally select each month's Member of the Month. People are picked based on their contributions to the community, whether they are: making excellent trials, providing comic relief or just being a brilliant person. The next Member of the Month could be you!
If you have any questions about the Member of the Month system, please PM me.
Jean created a very original trial called "The Omnicent Game", which is an exciting trivia gameshow set in the courtroom.
Jean Of mArc: Thanks! It's an honour to be chosen for such a prestigious award! I can't believe I get to meet the legendary Meph text-to-text.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Meph: Awwww. Thanks.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Meph: Tell us about how you found AAO, and what made you want to join.
Jean Of mArc: Ever since I was old enough to have an active imagination, I've had one. I've always enjoyed programs with "maker" or "creator" in the name. I would save up to get most of the ones I came across, especially if they involved writing scripts (like the now-defunct "Hollywood") or creating games (I made probably over 100 games using "Klik & Play" back in the day).
The trend has followed me even into adulthood; as I was playing the Phoenix Wright games a few years ago, I did a search to see if there were any creators. The closest thing I found was a program that supposedly let you modify the AA games on the Nintendo DS, but it didn't seem to work for me. So, I figured there were none out there, and as a project with a great friend of mine in University, we thought about making our own engine in JAVA as a project for our degree.
The specs of the creator changed pretty quickly, though, and instead it ended up being more like an overhead Zelda game creator. However, the scripting ability remained intact, so you could interact with the NPCs that way too.
A few years later (i.e. now-a-days), my wife and I decide to finally get around to playing the third Ace Attorney game, and again my interest in AA engines picked up. I did a search and found the most recent engines (PyWright etc), however "Ace Attorney Online" seemed to me to be the most active and accessible of the bunch. I was impressed how many cases were already posted on the site, ready to play in any browser with no downloading. I joined and have really enjoyed the community and collaborative effort to make great, custom-made cases in the style of the real games.
Meph: I think we all know by now that you live in the Land of the Rising Sun. Where abouts in Japan do you live, and what's it like to live there?
Jean Of mArc: I've been living in Aomori, Japan for the past two years in a city called Hirosaki, which is famous world-wide for its apples ("Fuji" apples come from up here!). I'm an English teacher at a high-academic high school, and have really been enjoying teaching the students, usually through games or role-playing.
My wife Solveig and I really enjoy it up here because it is not so crowded, pretty laid-back, and you can get around faster on a bicycle than by car, which is great because we love biking, and everyone here does it. The language barrier has of course caused some difficulty, but I have a conversational level of Japanese, and we both have many friends (both foreign and Japanese) that we see on a regular basis at both at school and at church events.
The Japanese people are extremely kind and polite, are obsessed with cute things, and are very hard-working. It has made for many interesting cultural comparisons.
Meph: Since me and my family are all massive Disney Park fans, it's imperative that I ask you this: Have you ever been to Tokyo Disneyland?
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Jean Of mArc: Haha, no I haven't been there. If we had kids, we might have! But I HAVE been to Disney World in Orlando 3 times in my life... so I know what it's like.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: If you don't mind me asking, how did you and your wife meet? How long have you both been married?
Jean Of mArc: I don't mind at all! She entered as a frosh (freshman) in University while I was going into my fourth year. I was a welcome center leader, so I met a lot of new students. I met my wife because her and her friend had been at a toga party that the university was hosting, but they decided to wander and found the welcome center. In other words, the first thing I remember about her was that she was wearing her toga. The first thing she remembers about me is my trying to explain to her how to properly pronounce my name (a common issue). We hit it off pretty quickly, and developed a very solid relationship that lasted. We actually just got married on September 4, 2010 on the same campus... 4 years to the day since we had met, and at the same location.
Meph: Where are both originally from?
Jean Of mArc: I'm from Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia), and she is from Western Canada (Alberta). Distance-wise, that may as well be a few countries away. However, she has always loved the Maritimes, which is what brought her out East, lucky for me!
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: What was your childhood like?
Jean Of mArc: I was the oldest, so I had a certain amount of leadership to take on as a child. However, I was sort of a "black sheep" in my family; most of my family is interested in golf, hockey, travelling, business... that kind of thing. I was more interested in music, art, computers and video games during a time when that was NOT a cool or popular thing for anyone to be spending time doing. I would say a lot of my childhood was spent using my imagination. I didn't have a ton of friends, but we were pretty creative together. We would use creation programs and tape recorders to make our own games, shows and music... and we played a lot of games. Overall, I had a pretty good and stable childhood. My parents couldn't always relate to me or understand me, but they were always good about letting me do my own thing, since I was never a problem child, had friends and my grades were fine.
Meph: What's your daily life in Japan like?
Jean Of mArc: My wife and I get up at 7:00 AM. While I am getting ready, she makes a lunch for me (she loves being a house-wife). I bike about 20 minutes to get to the school. In Japan, the school has a morning meeting every day with the whole staff for about 10 minutes. I then spend time at my desk while I am not teaching classes. During this time I either prepare lessons or other materials, or I am free to do other kinds of work, such as studying Japanese. I teach 3 classes in a day, and they are usually the same lesson with different students. Then at the end of the day I bike home, my wife and I have supper either together or with a guest, and then we usually do some sort of evening activity or have a visit with some people. If not, I spend some time working on The Omniscient Game or playing League of Legends. Then I go to bed at 12:00 or so and repeat the process 5 times a week.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: Now obviously you've been through a lot of hardship lately with the horrific earthquake a few months ago. If it's OK, tell us about your experience.
Jean Of mArc: Fortunately, the city I live in did not suffer too much damage from the earthquake/tsunami. We definitely felt it, but there was no major structural damage to be found. The thing is, the power went out right away, so we had no way of knowing the magnitude of what had just happened. The rest of the world found out about the scope of destruction before we did! When we watched the news 24 hours later, we couldn't believe what had just happened on the coast only a few hundred kilometres away! We noticed the effect right away though; everyone in the country was understandably shaken, there were food and fuel shortages, and the after-shocks sent us under tables and desks.
A lot of missionary organizations were quick to respond, getting people to help out in whatever way they could as soon as possible. My wife and I took some trips down to the devastated areas to deliver relief goods to the shelters people were staying at. In fact, she is at one this very evening! Also, during a one-week holiday, we got the chance to go into the shelter in Fukushima, where the people who were evacuated from the power plant are now homeless, not being able to go to their houses for the next 20-100 years. There were we did emotional support, but I tell you, the whole situation doesn't become real until you see it for yourself.
Japan still needs help, but they are getting back on their feet. Most people are just going on with life as usual, if possible... because really, after you have mourned appropriately, that's all there is left to do; keep going on.
Meph: It must be very hard for you all, but thanks for sharing that with us and good luck with your relief efforts!
Jean Of mArc: Thanks.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Meph: On a lighter note, tell us about how you came up with your first trial: The Omniscient Game?
Jean Of mArc: I figured there'd be a question about that in here somewhere, haha.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Like many people who discover AAO for the first time, I was eager to get in there and start using the engine. I had a case idea, however I knew that in order for it to be good at all, it would need to be carefully planned out. Mysteries without planning usually end up with plot holes, which I wanted to avoid.
So while I was busy thinking of ideas and planning a "true" trial, I started thinking of ways in which the current engine could be used to make a completely different kind of game.
I figured that a game show could be made out of it, considering that it allowed you to ask questions. But that was too boring and had little drama. Then I figured, what if you had to go through a bunch of statements about some real-world topic, and find a lie? The idea was that the contestant must be "all-knowing" (omniscient) and that if there were any problems with their statements, they were eliminated from the game.
However, this made for very short gameplay: you find the one wrong statement, point it out, and the round was over, so I changed it to the system that the AAO crowd are now used to.
I wasn't sure how it would be received. I thought it might just get one or two plays, and I'd get a few "welcome, and thanks for sharing" posts, and that would be about it.
However, people on the forums were VERY encouraging, and I would say it was the words of Phantom that really told me that I ought to be working on the second round already. Not only that, but my wife loved the way that Gumshoe, Maya, the Judge and Payne were integrated into it as a storyline, and was very interested to see what would happen.
From there, I've had tons of fun making new rounds and getting feedback. For Rounds 4 and the up-coming Round 6, flitchard has been a huge help in giving me some ideas and in adding some of his own scripting and humour elements. He's really great to bounce ideas off of, and is very enthusiastic about its progress.
I'm very grateful to all AAO members for their encouragement and support in the continuation of the game, and hope that I can make these last 3 rounds just as interesting for you all!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Meph: What's your favourite fan trial on AAO?
Jean Of mArc: Well, I must be honest about something; I haven't played a whole lot of them. This is mostly because I haven't yet played AAI or Apollo Justice, and I really want to avoid spoilers as much as possible.
That being said, I have played a few, and there are some very talented writers out there. E.D.Revolution's Mia Fey trial was lots of fun and emotional. Ryu Ushiromiya's Justice and Truth was very challenging and unique. My favourite fan trial so far (and I'm not trying to win brownie points here) is Meph's "Turnabout Carjack". I really liked that it wasn't even a murder trial, yet still had a very solid trial and emotional story. It was the first AAO trial I've ever played, and I still have fond memories of it, as if it were the first trial of an actual, new AA game.
Meph: Really? Thanks!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Jean Of mArc: Yes!! I always need something to keep local track of my POST data! (Sorry, that's a geek joke.) If we are talking baking, oatmeal-raisin are my favourite.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: Darn! How did you know that I was referring to Internet cookies!?
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
Meph: Since you're in Japan, you're lucky enough to be able to play 逆転検事2, unlike the rest of us in the Western world. Do you plan on getting it?
Jean Of mArc: Oh... I thought that game had already been released in the West! Shows how out-of-touch I am...
Meph: Actually, Gyakuten Kenji 2 is never going to be released in the west.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Jean Of mArc: In that case, I'd better pick up a copy while I'm still here! However, as I haven't yet played the previous games (AAI & AJ), I would like to play those first before getting into the newest ones. Not to mention my wife can't really read Japanese (though her speaking/listening is going well), so it'd be a bummer not to be able to play them with her.
Meph: But out of the AA games that you have, which one is your favourite and why?
Jean Of mArc: That's a really hard call; they are all top-quality, in my opinion. The first game was a fantastic introduction to the series, had fun characters and went beyond what most people were expecting of it. Justice For All was the first AA game I ever played, and it totally blew me away from start to finish. I loved the last trial in particular, and loved the characters of "Turnabout Big Top". Trials and Tribulations was the best at making connections between the trials, jumped to different points in time, and was overall the most dramatic of the bunch. I would say that even though the first was great, JFA and T&T both were as good as I could ever have hoped for them to be.
Meph: What other games do you really like?
Jean Of mArc: I won't waste time writing them all, as I don't want AAO to get shut-down from excessive bandwidth consumption.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Meph: What was the first video game you played?
Jean Of mArc: That's easy to remember: Super Mario Bros on the NES. It came out the year I was born, though I first played it at my cousin's house, when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was totally engrossed in it for days. The fact that the fate of the cartoon character on the screen was in my hands was revolutionary to me, and I wanted to see them succeed. Sounds a bit melodramatic, but as a kid I thought the imaginative power of video games, and the ability to interact within them, was amazing. Add to that the discovery of hidden objects and worlds, and the ability for friends to join you in your quest... It's what is so fascinating about games.
Meph: Last question, now. Do you have any other interests?
Jean Of mArc: Certainly do! My first degree was in Music Education, so music, especially drums and composing, is a definite hobby and interest of mine. I love teaching and learning; often the subject matter isn't even as important as the way in which the subject is taught. I'm a big fan of animals, especially dogs, and I'm pretty active in roles in community and church activities, whether in Canada or Japan.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Meph: Do you have anything you'd like to say before we conclude?
Jean Of mArc: Just that I think that AAO has one of the finest online communities I've ever seen! Everyone is very supportive of each other, respectful, and everyone seems quite intelligent to boot. I think it has gone this far, and held on this long because of the great people that inhabit its forms and the shared pursuit of creativity. And of course, a special thanks to Unas for spending so much of his time building the editor and player, and to you, Meph, for doing such a fabulous job at moderating the whole thing, and having "special features" such as the one we have just had.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Pictures!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/605908/pirate.jpg