Kumba: I know you live in Missouri, in the St. Louis area, and work at a Walgreens. Can you tell us a bit about that and yourself?

PyroPenguin: Lets see, for anyone who knows the St Louis area I live in West County, that’s the rapidly growing suburban area. There is a whole lot of nothing to do around here so most of my weekends are spent at parties or just hanging out and friend’s houses. As for me, I would like to think I can basically be described as easy going and funny. Problem is, I’m a little too easy going, have about no work ethic when it comes to school… and that’s not helping my AP Physics grade too much at this point.

Kumba: Two other great parkmakers live in your area, Ozone and Aviator. I understand, not too long ago, you guys met at Six Flags St. Louis. What was it like meeting them and are you guys still in contact?

PyroPenguin: Yeah, Ozone had told me all along they were going to be coming up so I figured that would be a nice opportunity to meet him since we talked a lot online. It was kind of difficult trying to meet up with two people who you didn’t have a clue what they looked like… but the meeting spot worked well enough that it worked out alright. Basically it was a fun day spent talking about just about everything but RCT, seems too weird tossing around internet names and park names in real life.

Kumba: Over the last summer, you went on a trip to Germany. What was it like there and how were you able to get on-line and stay in touch from a foreign country?

PyroPenguin: Germany was amazing, or more so the trip. I went in with a lot of doubts because I am not exactly fluent, or for that mater competent, with the German language and didn’t really know anyone else who was going that well, but it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had. Besides Germany being a beautiful country and me getting three weeks off of school the legal drinking age is 16, so that about made the trip. I came out of it with three really good friends who also went which has really made this year more interesting so far. Staying in touch with people back home was easy because two of the three weeks I was there I was living with a German family and the girl who was my host had a laptop, so I would get enough time to send an e-mail home and chat with a few friends each day, though those the chats normally turned into everyone telling me to try to get some from the host girl.

Kumba: Recently, you were in hot water with a lot of the people who entered the High Roller Contest, because of the harshness of your judging on their parks. How do you justify that and do you think the right park won?

PyroPenguin: - I don’t think that I was harsh with my ratings, I just used a different scale than most people. My ratings basically said that 5 was average, so my scores generally ran lower than everyone else. The only one I can think of it really hurt was Nate’s, which I just flat out didn’t like. I think Mala’s park definitely deserved to be up in the top few of all the park’s, but I don’t think it was the best. Escalante shinned in parts with some amazing detail, but overall I thought it came up short of the quality of a few other entries. For the win I thought it was a toss up between Corkscrewed’s because of the incredible atmosphere, and X’s because of the shear quality of it.

Kumba: It's a well known fact in the community that none of your full solo parks have ever not won a spotlight contest of some sort. How does that make you feel and do you think all the parks were worthy of that recognition?

PyroPenguin: It’s really a nice thing when you have won some form of a spotlight for all of your parks. The attention a park gets when it wins an award always makes me feel like it was worth it to build. The only one I don’t think deserved anything was Mythos. While that was a major milestone for me in improving over my old work the park truly did suck on so many levels its scary. I did a few things right with a couple of decent ideas, but the architecture was horrible and repetitive… and Zeus is bad enough to ruin any park.

Kumba: How did you come up with the name PyroPenguin and was your name really Pyro at one point?

PyroPenguin: I think the name came from a weird idea discussed over a fire drill one day in seventh grade of a red eyed penguin sporting one of those massive furry Russian hats with the hammer and sickle on it in addition to be armed with a flamethrower. It stuck because I’m way too lazy to change all the accounts I have then let everyone know.

Kumba: A lot of people, including me, feel that Aurora Bay is the greatest park ever. Where did you get ideas for the Terra Labs and other themes; and is there anything that you wish you had added to the park or that you wish you could change now?

PyroPenguin: All the ideas for Auroras Bay aka Project Moose came during the final stages of Disney Dreams. When I planned Disney Dreams there were originally supposed to be two more parks, one dedicated to classic Disney animated movies and then a Disneyland type park. These were both dropped because I got too eager to release the park. The main reason I wanted to do a Disneyland was for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a ride I’m still itching to do. Terras slowly formed out of ideas for that ride and started around the premise of a raft ride through labs taken over my genetic experiments gone wrong. Castaway Quay came from the basic concept for Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon look wise, just with a slightly different story behind it. Drachenshire is the carry over from a Warcraft III campaign story I wrote but dropped because it was way too time consuming to try to make a campaign and build in RCT. I am extremely pleased with the planning that went into these areas, but not the last two. Quality took a dive in the last half of the map because school started and I ran out of steam. Nahatuka Oasis was a lot better of a concept than I built it to be, and Kalakahuna Ruins was basically filler because I didn’t have any better ideas. I wish I would have put in my El Dorado idea then, but I guess it might be just as well that I saved it for Goat Milk.

Kumba: Can you tell us about any future projects you have coming up, Like Disney's Hawaiian Resort and Project Goat Milk?

PyroPenguin: Disney’s Hawaiian Resort is dropped until I finish a park, and then I might pick it up again depending on how I’m feeling at that time. Goat Milk is just getting under way and I’m very happy with the results so far. I am still working on planning most of the park, but the entrance so far is one of my more developed themes so far. I am hoping to continue to improve with this park and the early work already shows a lot of progress.

Kumba: I'm sure you are overjoyed about your H2H2 Team winning the championship this year. Now that it's over, what can you tell us about the season from the point of view of being on the winning team?

PyroPenguin: I still feel horrible for how I was as a member of the team. El Dorado was a rush job that should not have won its round, my partner did a great job of getting the park finished after I had put it off until the last minute and had to go to work. Then in my park with Cork we let it sit forever and I did a whole one building on it before having him finish it after talking to Iris. In that same talk I dropped out of the park with Fooz that was never needed because of the early win. After all that I don’t really feel like part of the team at all. Congrats to the rest of you guys though, you earned it.

Kumba: Who are your top ten favorite parkmakers in RCT1 and RCT2?

PyroPenguin: Damn, a list question… I was doing good up til this. I follow RCT a lot more than RCT2 with the exception of a few parkmakers.

RCT:

-Coaster Ed- Definitely the most creative, has such a unique style and never stops pushing the game further.

- X Sector- He has always been one of my favorites, but ever since he started coming up with his own stuff and not mooching a little too much from other people’s ideas he has become one of the definite greats.

- Fatha Grinch- Pure and simple quality every single time. Port of Call is damn impressive and SLR is even better so far.

- Mantis- From WOMB alone Mantis can beat out a lot of established parkmakers, willing to do something new and it always comes out interesting.

- SAC- Classic work, Legends West and Crystal Horizons are still two of my favorite parks. Nobody can beat him on atmosphere.

- Posix- Incredible at switching between the newer styles of parkmaking and the more classic, simplistic looks. Just great form, though needs some work on brining it all together, with that he would be higher.

- OZONE- Really coming on lately with High Rollers and DreamWorks, reminds me a lot of me after making DD.

- Natelox- DDI is still one of the best, if not the best, Disney parks ever made for RCT. Not a huge fan of some of the newer stuff in High Rollers and the aborted (I think) RCT2 park, but older parks are classic. Awesome unique look with quality layouts and great rides.

- RRP- Would be a lot higher if he built something once in awhile. SWA would have been one of the greatest parks if he could have kept the inspiration that shows in the first few areas.

- RoomRaider- Amazing with hacks, nobody can match the rides he comes up with. His parks are always extremely unique and I can spend hours looking at them and still find new stuff.

RCT2:

- Foozy- Don’t need to explain this one, he is simply in a level all by himself.

- ToonTowner- Besides being God with scenery and basically saving RCT2 as far as I’m concerned Toon is damn good at building himself. His IOA looks extremely impressive.

- SAC- RoB alone got me to waste more time trying to get something going in RCT2, perfect atmosphere and great use of RCT2’s capabilities to produce interesting architecture. Theming and coaster design are still what separates him from everyone else.

- Corkscrewed- For not using much custom scenery Cork has shown he can still make RCT2 look good, and that’s a feat in and of itself. With the full potential of the game he is even better.

- Meretrix- He probably understands Disney’s style better than the people who actually make the parks. Looking at photos alone of Titled Acres was enough to fall in love with the park. And now that he switched over to the good side I’m expecting great things.

- Mala- Escalante showed what Mala can do with the new capabilities of RCT2, and should we ever see any full work from him it is sure to be mind blowing.

- John- Great use of detail and complex structures to create some really interesting work.

- Butterfinger- I hated Euroscape with a passion, but the High Roller entry showed a lot of potential with much improved architecture and atmosphere.

- Aero21- Always one of the best and most unique parkmakers, his style looks even better in RCT2.

- Scarface- His latest solo looks amazing, not to mention a strong, if not slightly grey, high rollers entry. Has a lot of potential with future work

*Kumba- One last question. I have noticed Miami fell flat on their faces this year under the brilliant leadership of Brock Berlin. Coincidentally, OU seems to be holding the number one ranking securely with a dominating undefeated regular season. What are your feelings on this?

PyroPenguin- Well, anytime OU is doing well you know I’m feeling good, but to see Miami get smacked by Virginia Tech and Tennessee, that was the highlight of the season. Miami got exposed as the choke team they are, not to mention proved without a doubt that Kellen Winslow is quite possibly the biggest asshole college football has ever seen. But moving right along (the BCS is doing it), when the season started I was worried about what the season would hold for the Sooners. They didn’t look so hot at the Alabama game and the North Texas game was iffy. But after that Texas game I knew we were in for a good year. 65-13, and I have watched it four times now. All I can say is bring on Corky’s Trojans.

*= May not have been said by Kumba