Line #26 Creator/BenCroshaw


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6	->''"... but as I sat in my office waiting for the phone to ring, miserably holding it in, it occurred to me that the whole reason I became an artist was to take all of my inner pains and miseries and force the rest of the world to share them. It's something I have in common with spree killers."''
7	-->-- '''''Yahtzee's Dev Diary''','' Episode 17
8
9	Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British-born and US (formerly Australian)-residing comedic writer, author, video game journalist, podcaster, and video game developer. He is perhaps best known for ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'', but he does have a bit more on his conscience internet-wise.
10
11	Besides being a video game critic, Yahtzee also has experience in the field of writing and game design. Most of this work (and a bit more) can be accessed through his personal site: [[http://www.fullyramblomatic.com Fully Ramblomatic.com.]] In addition, he did a LetsPlay series in his spare time called ''LetsPlay/LetsDrownOut'', which can be found on his Website/YouTube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/yahtzee19 here.]] The series has since ended due to Yahtzee's move to America, with the final episode having been uploaded on August 27, 2016.
12
13	He was also one of the founders of the ''Mana Bar'', a place where people can drink and play games. After initial success in UsefulNotes/{{Brisbane}}, Mana Bar UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}} had its grand opening on July 16, 2011, a success that saw a line to get in that ran around the block. The bar unfortunately closed its doors on May 24, 2015.
14
15	After being a part of Website/TheEscapist for 16 years, Yahtzee resigned from the site on November 2023 (along with every other video producer on the site) in protest to the sudden firing of then-editor-in-chief Nick Calandra. Almost immediately afterwards, Yahtzee and Calandra announced they were co-launching a new creator-owned channel, Creator/SecondWind, [[CreatorDrivenSuccessor as a platform for former Escapist creators to continue their work independently through viewer support]]. Following this shift, it was announced that -- [[GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld due to issues of IP ownership]] -- ''Zero Punctuation'' would come to a close, but its successor, returning to its very original title ''WebAnimation/FullyRamblomatic'', [[CreatorDrivenSuccessor would continue in its place]].
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17	Yahtzee also makes his own games, mostly adventure games. They include the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'', ''VideoGame/AdventuresInTheGalaxyOfFantabulousWonderment'', ''Videogame/TwelveThirteen'', and the Mythos' GaidenGame, ''VideoGame/TheArtOfTheft'', among others, and he is currently working on the upcoming game ''Starstruck Vagabond''. All of these can be found at Yahtzee's personal site/blog, [[http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/ Fully Ramblomatic.com]]
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19	He has also written several novels:
20	* ''Literature/{{Mogworld}}'' (released by [[Creator/DarkHorseComics Dark Horse Books]] in August 2010): Not a comic/graphic novel, as one might expect coming from Dark Horse, but a "[[BuffySpeak proper wordy thinky brainy book]]" and "an idea I've been kicking around ever since those dark, unproductive three months I spent playing ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. It's a bit of a cynical take on [=MMOs=] and the standard [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkienesque]] 'fantasy' setting." More info can be found [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95677-EXCLUSIVE-Dark-Horse-Books-Announces-Ben-Yahtzee-Croshaws-Debut-Novel-Mogworld here]].
21	* ''Literature/{{Jam}}'' (released in October 2012): In his words, the book is "about an apocalypse. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin With jam in it]]."
22	* ''[[Literature/JackMcKweon Jack McKweon]]''
23	** ''Literature/{{Will Save the Galaxy for Food}}'' (released in February 2017)
24	** ''Literature/WillDestroyTheGalaxyForCash'' (released in June 2020)
25	** ''[[Literature/WillLeaveTheGalaxyForGood Will Leave the Galaxy for Good]]'' (released in April 2024)
26	* ''Literature/DifferentlyMorphous'' (released on Audible in March 2018, with a paper release coming through Dark Horse in April 2019)
27	* ''Literature/ExistentiallyChallenged'' (released in December 2021)
28
29	He is not to be confused with the board game TabletopGame/{{Yahtzee}}. He also prefers the name "Yahtzee" to his real name, to the point that he often has to remind fans [[DoNotCallMePaul not to call him Ben]] since ''everybody'' in his personal life calls him Yahtzee except his parents. In ''Let's Drown Out'', he explained that he mostly stopped using his given name when he first moved to Australia, and local associates asked what he wanted to be called (Australian nicknaming conventions being what they are); he said that he associated being called "Ben" with unhappy childhood memories and difficult family relationships, so to him the handle of "Yahtzee" is associated with creative freedom and greater self-expression.
30	----
31	!!Works by Yahtzee:
32
33	!!!The inviable one:
34	* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' -- Started out as a couple of experimental video reviews, but it caught attention fast and was soon after picked up by ''Website/TheEscapist'' and became a permanent weekly serial. It was [[BreakthroughHit Yahtzee's ticket to mainstream fame]] and remains his most famous and discussed piece of work.
35
36	!!!Literature:
37	* ''Literature/{{Mogworld}}'' -- A novel published in collaboration with Creator/DarkHorseComics. It tells the tale of Jim, a student mage who has been resurrected in undead form after being dead for sixty years by a "rogue necromancer", and now he wants nothing more than to die again, which is not an easy task since a weird plague that causes immortality has infected a lot of people in the country, including himself. Unbeknownst to Jim, this is because he is actually a {{NPC}} in a popular MMORPG.
38	* "Exhaustion From Having Sex With a Minor", a short story printed in the ''Literature/MachineOfDeath'' anthology. A free audio version of the story, read by Yahtzee himself, is available [[http://machineofdeath.net/about/podcast here.]]
39	* ''Literature/{{Jam}}'' -- A post-apocalyptic novel, that follows a small group of survivors in a world where the remains of civilization has been covered in a weird, red, sticky substance that smells distinctly of strawberries.
40	* ''Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood'' -- the third novel to be published by Creator/DarkHorseComics, it tells the tale of a space explorer with unemployment hanging over his head after "some thoughtless bastards invent cheap, easy teleportation with limitless range, making all the heroic star pilots redundant".
41	* ''Literature/DifferentlyMorphous'' -- A fantasy novel, and Yahtzee's first to initially be released as an Audible exclusive; a paperback version was released in 2019. Follows a group of government agents attempting to hunt down a magical serial killer causing chaos in the English countryside.
42	* ''Literature/WillDestroyTheGalaxyForCash'' -- The sequel to ''Will Save the Galaxy for Food''.
43	* ''Literature/ExistentiallyChallenged'' -- The sequel to ''Differently Morphous''.
44
45	!!!Video Games:
46	* ''The Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy'' -- A series of {{Adventure Game}}s which features Arthur Yahtzee, a sort of a LifeEmbellished character of Yahtzee himself. The trilogy spans over the episodes ''Friday: Death to Arthur Yahtzee'', ''Saturday: Arthur's Odyssey'' and ''Yesterday: The D-Gate'', in which Yahtzee respectively fights mutants and time travelers and causes the destruction of TheMultiverse in order to defeat the BigBad.
47	* ''VideoGame/RealityOnTheNorm'' -- A collaborative community project, involving creating adventure games set in a SharedUniverse: a quirky CityOfAdventure. Yahtzee himself created the first game to be set in the universe, ''Lunchtime of the Damned'', but has since then only contributed one additional game, ''The Sorceror's Appraisal''.
48	* ''The Rob Blanc Trilogy'' -- The first games Yahtzee made in the Adventure Games Studio engine. The player takes control over [[TheEveryman everyman]] Rob Blanc, who finds himself randomly appointed Defender of the Universe by the so-called [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness High Ones]]. The series consists of ''Better Days of a Defender of the Universe'', ''Planet of the Pasteurised Pestilence'' and ''The Temporal Terrorists''. The games are essentially a tribute to {{Creator/Sierra}}'s classic Adventure Games such as ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest''.
49	* ''The Trials of Odysseus Kent'' -- An adventure game inspired by ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', and features Odysseus Kent, a weird [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation white skinned]] boy who searches for treasure in a provincial town where time never seem to pass.
50	* ''Poseidon 12'' -- An experiment with the AGS engine. It revolved around making ''VideoGame/TheSims-esque'' game on a space station. It apparently takes places AfterTheEnd in the same universe as YTOTW. It never got out of beta, and is absent from the game page on Fully Ramblomatic, which makes it an Orphaned Game. It is, however, still (more-or-less) playable, and it can be still found on the Fully Ramblomatic Forums [[http://www.chefelf.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2044 here.]]
51	* ''VideoGame/AdventuresInTheGalaxyOfFantabulousWonderment'' -- A hybrid between an Adventure Game and an Economic SimulationGame with elements of a WideOpenSandbox. And a good chunk of the gameplay consists of beaming down legions of {{Red Shirt}}s on planets for them to meet [[HaveANiceDeath a horrible and entertaining demise]]. Fun!
52	* ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' -- A series that started with the slasher inspired ''5 Days A Stranger'', and its RecycledInSpace sequel ''7 Days A Skeptic''. The third game, ''Trilby's Notes'', added in a larger plot with a EldritchAbomination and an evil cult, which was resolved in the final game, ''6 Days A Sacrifice''. It has its own article for those wishing to learn more.
53	* ''VideoGame/TwelveThirteen'' -- Another experiment with the AGS engine. This one revolved around creating a CinematicPlatformGame '' á la'' ''VideoGame/{{Flashback}}''.
54	* ''Trilby: VideoGame/TheArtOfTheft'' -- A GaidenGame to Chzo Mythos based on the code from Twelve-Thirteen. It evolves around Trilby traveling to the USA to steal from the rich and famous over there; he does, however, quickly run into trouble.
55	* ''VideoGame/{{Poacher}}'' -- A {{Metroidvania}} {{freeware}} game made in GameMaker, taking inspiration from games such as ''VideoGame/{{Cave Story}}''. The player takes on the role of Derek Badger, a simpleminded and {{stoic}} poacher from Yorkshire who ends up underground one foggy evening, and by unwittingly helping a spirit he gets entangled in an old war.
56	* ''VideoGame/TheConsumingShadow'' -- A [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] {{Roguelike}}, citing ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' and ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' as its main inspirations, in which a paranormal investigator frantically attempts to put together a ritual in 72 hours in order to stop [[EldritchAbomination a terrifying ancient god]] from entering our world, fighting both the god's hideous minions and [[SanitySlippage his own rapidly deteriorating sanity]] in the process. Released commercially.
57	* ''VideoGame/{{Hatfall}}'' -- It is, to use his own words, "the official WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation game for browsers and tablets designed by me and without a doubt [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative the greatest interactive hat putting on simulator called Hatfall]] ever devised by man!"
58	* ''Yahtzee's Dev Diary'' [[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/ projects]]:
59	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/preflightpanic Preflight Panic]]''
60	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/brtv BRTV]]''
61	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/upbeat Upbeat]]''
62	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/the-life-of-erich-zann The Life of Erich Zann]]''
63	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/hogpocalypse-sow Hogpocalpyse Sow]]''
64	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/the-cleaner The Cleaner]]''
65	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/the-button-that-ruins-everything The Button that Ruins Everything]]''
66	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/casey-joint Casey Joint]]''
67	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/hold-the-phone Hold the Phone!]]''
68	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/somethings-in-the-sea Something's in the Sea]]''
69	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/the-magic-poo-machine The Magic Poo Machine]]''
70	** ''[[https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/bunker-bustin Bunker Bustin']]''
71	* ''VideoGame/StarstruckVagabond'' -- A "feature-length" game he's had on the backburner since before the Dev Diary series. A cross between ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' and ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous.'' A daring space captain by the name of [[Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood Jaques McKeown]] accidentally puts themself in suspended animation for 2,000 years and takes up delivering crates as a day job.
72
73	!!!Webcomics:
74	* ''Yahtzee Takes On The World'' -- A webcomic which features Arthur Yahtzee as the main character, this time as a wannabe EvilGenius who struggles against governments and a MirrorUniverse to TakeOverTheWorld together with his loyal crew. The comic ended with Arthur Yahtzee and his team accidentally causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and forcing humanity and themselves to abandon Earth.
75	* ''The Adventures Of Angular Mike'' -- A rather surrealistic webcomic which, beside the titular character, features a talking drawer, Music/TheBeatles and an invisible hentai girl amongst others. Ended up as an OrphanedSeries.
76	* ''Cowboy Comics'' -- A series of cheap western-book-covers-cut-outs with added speech bubbles. Also the only part of Yahtzee's old work he himself considers "alright".
77	* ''Chris and Trilby'' -- A webcomic featuring the master thief Trilby and the dimwitted Chris Quinn on wacky and "[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial completely heterosexual]]" adventures. Also an Orphaned Series.
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79	!!!Web Video:
80	* ''LetsPlay/LetsDrownOut'' -- In March 2012, Yahtzee started a series of Let's Plays with his friend (the Nick Frost to his Creator/SimonPegg) Gabriel, featuring games from their collective childhoods on his [[https://www.youtube.com/user/yahtzee19/ YouTube channel]]. Yahtzee and Gabriel alternate [=LP=] duties each game, with Yahtzee starting it off with Fantasy World Dizzy. Prior to the VideoGame/{{Flashback}} video, they were pre-recorded and consisted of retro adventure games. Starting with ''VideoGame/{{Quake}} 2'', they were labeled as ''Let's Drown Out'', which starts as a standard Let's Play of a game that's uninteresting to look at before they get bored talking about the game and instead talk podcast-style topics, which is what some of their past videos turned into anyway. The games drowned out tend to be older games that haven't aged well more often than not, but they do sometimes play games they like [[SelfImposedChallenge played in such a way to make it boring to watch]].
81	* ''WebVideo/JimAndYahtzeesRhymedownSpectacular'' -- Another series for The Escapist where he and Jim Sterling (of the WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}) read poetry they wrote about video games. Followed by...
82	* ''Uncivil War'' -- A show from the Escapist, featuring Yahtzee and Jim Sterling going head-to-head in unconventional game challenges.
83	* ''WebVideo/JudgingByTheCover'' -- Yahtzee examines the cover of anything taking his fancy, be it videogame cases, movie posters etc. and gives his views on the first impressions that may or may not spring to mind. Its last upload was in October 2017 and both Yahtzee and an editor from the Escapist eventually confirmed separately that the series wouldn't be continuing.
84	* ''Yahtzee's Dev Diary'' -- Yahtzee, as a personal challenge and creative exercise, pledged to develop 12 small-scale games in 12 months. The episodes, published every other week, document the creation and development process of each game, as well as containing random bits of insight from Yahtzee's part on video game development and other topics. It has since been followed up with a second season, wherein Yahtzee explains the development process of his long-term game project with the WorkingTitle ''Space Game'', later retitled ''Starstruck Vagabond''.
85	* ''Slightly Civil War'' -- Based on ''Uncivil War'' (see above), it features Yahtzee and Jack Packard, who are randomly assigned a position on a contentious video game topic and head to battle to make their point.
86	* ''WebVideo/AdventureIsNigh'' -- An ActualPlay video series using the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' system. Co-starring alongside KC Nwosu, Amy Campbell, Jesse Galena, and Jack Packard, Yahtzee plays the role of Mortimer Rafflesworth Everwind-Smythe, a half-elf GentlemanThief.
87	* ''WebAnimation/FullyRamblomatic'' -- A CreatorDrivenSuccessor to ''Zero Punctuation''; created in the wake of Yahtzee's resignation from Escapist Magazine following the termination of editor-in-chief Nick Calandra. Named after Yahtzee's personal website.
88
89	!!!Other projects:
90	* ''Game Damage'' -- A television show in the making featuring Yahtzee as one of the hosts. The show's cast includes Yahtzee, Matt and Yug (the latter two the co-owners of australiangamer.com) commenting on various elements of the gaming world, including reviews and discussion of upcoming games. The show also features rant sections done by each of the hosts and sketch comedy influenced by the gaming community (such as Master Chief walking around a mall or the design team of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' sitting around bashing their heads against walls). Was ultimately not picked up for broadcast, and can be considered [[OrphanedSeries dead]].

Context Creator / BenCroshaw