Welcome to the fourth edition of the Gandi IDE Creators Interview series. We have invited Putera as our guest for this interview.
Putera is a highly imaginative and creative creator. While you won't find complex programming techniques or flashy character designs in his works, his creation of the Putera character and the development of new IPs stand out uniquely within the community. His SpriteStar series showcases his rich imagination and innovative spirit. I'm glad to have had some meaningful exchanges with him. Through his stories, I've come to appreciate the value of pursuing what you love, and I hope you can find inspiration from them too.
Interview Content
Brokenstrings: Can you introduce yourself?
Putera: Hello. I'm PuteraEverything, you can call me Putera. I'm 15 and I'm just a weird guy lol. I own the studio "SpriteStars" and I'm in charge of the SpriteStars(@SpriteStar) account in Cocrea. I'm more active in the Gandi IDE Community Server.
Brokenstrings: What are your hobbies? How did you get into Scratch programming?
Putera: My hobby is probably just doing game development (coding, art and all that). I can say what got me into Scratch was when there was a computer science campaign held in my school when I got into secondary school and my science teacher decided to invite me to it because he saw potential in me. (Special thanks to him). In the program, there was a course about Scratch and I attended it. Little do I know I got attached to programming. I even went and made a Scratch account after I got back from school.
Brokenstrings: How much time do you usually spend on programming? How do you allocate your time?
Putera: Omg. It was crazy a lot. Heck, even I just spent all my weekend just doing programming rather than doing my homework haha. Basically it was just like my whole thing. I don't care about time either. If you see me up at midnight, I might be either doing art for a game of mine or just programming in general. Even with all that time, I still haven't mastered my coding skills yet lol.
Brokenstrings: The best teacher is interest, finding what you love is crucial. You have left a deep impression on me, not only because you were one of the earliest users to join the Gandi community but also because your creations always revolve around Putera. I remember Putera originated from one of your dreams. Could you share this story with the community?
Putera: Thank you very much! Honestly the early community members there are what made me stay until today! Yes my creation is always about Putera because he's basically the mascot of SpriteStars and also represents me. Even tho he's based on me, his characteristics are more based around my imagination and dreams. Let me tell you, Kid me used to be obsessed with cartoons and games crossovers. Like the Kingdom Hearts type of crossover where Sora meets Final Fantasy and Disney characters. However I wasn't aware of Kingdom Hearts at that time. But Putera as a character was basically (coincidentally) Sora, just travelling through all kinds of cartoon universes. I have a dream where I was able to see Putera as a cartoon character going into Oggy's home (Oggy is a character from the show "Oggy and The Cockroaches") and having fun with Oggy. However that is the only dream I had of him. I tried to replicate his appearance back, I don't know why but if the dreams are interesting I can have good memories about it. However with all that, I can't really draw at that time so after numerous attempts, I decided to give up. I did manage to create his appearance on Scratch Game Jam 2 as it was actually supposed to be a placeholder before I can refine him. Now I look back, the current design kinda does look like the one in my dreams.
Brokenstrings: Wow, quite an interesting story! What does Putera mean to you? What role will he play in your life in the future? Will your future creations continue to revolve around him?
Putera: Well he's just me as a character. Some people might call that egotistical, but I try my best to make him more logical and not a bias. Again, he's just me as a character, influenced by me. My future creations still revolve around Putera. I'm actually making a reboot for his series now titled "StarTales".
Brokenstrings: I'm really looking forward to seeing your new series! What is the work you are most proud of? What makes it special?
Putera: Hmm.. The Best game I did yet is probably "I'm Friendly!" & "Who The Sequel". While its both is a rushed game. I did manage to mostly finish it and it's story. I can say it has more gameplay content than the others. But the one I'm proud of? Probably the Putera series, which expanded my taste in game development. Putera as a character can basically fit into every category. Especially in "Parallel Bonds" where I thought the concept of the future world and decided to put Putera in and just go crazy. Parallel Bonds was actually a testing ground for future uses. Who knows, maybe I can reuse the key elements that were included in Parallel Bonds into my future titles?
Brokenstrings: You have participated in 9 Scratch Game Jams. Can you talk about why you are interested in such creative activities? What important things have you gained from them?
Putera: About to be 10. I'm interested in these things because well, they're creative, and I like creative things! I like the concept of jam in general because you need to make the game based on the theme and it can unleash some unique works based on it! The important thing I gained from it is probably a lesson. I learn that don't plan the game before the theme was revealed. Plan the game when it's revealed. Doing new IPs for the jam might be easier and original. My Example is "I'm Friendly" & "CCE Color Coded Elements". They're both an entirely new IP made for the jam and its theme. Thanks to the host's demand in SGJ15, you need to do basically what I mentioned earlier, making new IPs!
Brokenstrings: Scratch Game Jam is a time-limited creative competition. How do you overcome difficulties during the creation process? How do you ensure you produce work within the limited time?
Putera: Old me would say to just cut the arts and get onto gameplay to avoid struggles. It was done successfully in "Who The Sequel". But at most times, it wouldn't. One of my newer titles "I'm Friendly" is basically Quality Quantity. The game was just a normal top-down RPG and Quest game but the art is what added the charm into it! The characters and building is what got people into playing it. I mostly struggle with time on my jam game. But I will try as hard as I can to put contents in. If the time is done, then it's a wrap. I do put in minor updates sometimes during the voting period, but even now and then it's just mostly squishing the bugs.
Brokenstrings: Why did you choose Gandi IDE as your creative platform? How does it influence your creations?
Putera: It started way back at ScratchTools Community Server. After I won their 2023 Game Jam, one of Gandi's team members advertises their jam on the server. I refused at first because I was supposed to be done with game jams. However I still thought there was something missing about me. So I joined in. Again, the same case as the Putera series, it expanded my taste in game development. I decided to join more after that. It even created a bunch of my new IPs, such as Putera, Ahmad Fighter, Chopsticks and more after that! Idk if I will join any future jams from now on since it's basically about to be the 10th time I did. But if I do, I'd probably be creating more new IPs for it!
Brokenstrings: I noticed that on your Cocrea profile, you recommend subscribing to some friends' accounts. How did you build good friendships with them?
Putera: Yes I did. These guys are probably what I consider my friends. (Some are not included. Probably because I've not updated the list for a while). I pretty much just did a small talk with them, if I do run to them often, we just became friends! Some of their works influence a few of my creations too! Mostly Outrunfungus43 and Man-O-Valor!
Brokenstrings: Which users in the Gandi community do you most want to recommend and why?
Putera: I have so many. But it'll be going over the top 4. These guys have been there for me since I joined the community. Outrunfungus43, he's the type of person you can refer to! Although he may be egotistical at some point, he's not a stingy type of guy to share his coding techniques among members in the community! One of my future creations is gonna be influenced by his "Dealing With Dice" game that he did with Kasairo.
Next is Man-o-Valor, he's pretty humorous and I admire his works in the game jam such as Flood Tower and Ruby Temple. Although his game is fairly simple most of the time, the pixel art is what added to it. And I think that is kinda why I shifted my ways from Quantity Quality to vice-versa. Really the type of person to refer to. Though, he is kinda inactive in the community but you will run into him at any time.
Next is Kaplin86, I like his creativity and the way he cameos some characters that were in jam in his games from now and then. I think he's pretty similar to me tbh. I tend to try making references to old scratch game jam games and even doing fan arts for some of the games that were featured in scratch game jam. Aside from the crossover thing, Kaplin is pretty much a guy I can refer to because some of the key elements in his creations influenced some of my creations too! Especially Block & Bot! His creations are good I recommend him.
Next up is Fath11, He might look like just an extension maker to some. But he's really funny to talk with. He's turtle obsessive too XD. He's more like an advisor to me. He helps in my game development journey sometimes. Did I mention we live in the same country Malaysia? Yes yes we do lol. Overall he's just a fun guy to be around. I recommend him if you're bored in the community server. He's basically online most of the time.
These 4 guys really impacted my stay in the community server. Honourable mentions go to SavaUA, Kasairo, Trafficloud, Coriander and Papichi05.
Brokenstrings: They are all great guys, I really love them. Thank you very much for accepting my interview. Do you have anything you would like to say to the community users?
Putera: I'd like to say just don't regret everything you did and maybe improve something out of it. Even though that isn't related to what's on here. Just wanna give an advice. Also, I have a small yet special announcement about my upcoming titles somewhere around June / July besides
StarTales. Stay Tuned and thank you for reading!
Putera's representative creations
Putera’s YouTube Channel
Upcoming Title for the Putera's Series Reboot "StarTales.
