About

SKL

Full Username	SuperKirbylover
Pronouns	She/He/They
Age	Adult
E-mail	skl@superkirbylover.me
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SKL, also known as SuperKirbylover is a queer, disabled artist. They hold a variety of skills and expertise in many different fields, making them a jack of all trades.

Their disabilities are mostly mental disorders. They are diagnosed with ADHD and autism, with private, minor physical disabilities.

History

They gained access to the Internet at a young age, being 7. They signed up to multiple websites, but only actively maintained a few accounts. They mainly got their start on two websites before branching out.

Scratch

On September 5th, 2010, they signed up for an account on Scratch. They started off by remixing (modifying) projects, games or animations by other users, and adding themselves into it. At the time, they represented themselves as Kirby. In early 2012, they created their representation of themselves, commonly called a "sona," with the name Sasafeir.^[1]

They slowly built up an audience and befriended many Scratch users (called Scratchers by the community). This growth continued until June 2014, where they got IP banned by the Scratch Team. They were not given a reason to why immediately, and they had to reach out via email to find out. There, they learned they were banned due to discussing their suicidal feelings, and would be unbanned if the Scratch Team were put into contact with an adult. However, due to personal circumstances, they did not have a good relationship with any adult in their lives, and were vastly uncomfortable with this idea. They informed their friends, who would spread this information on Scratch via projects. One project, titled Serious Time (yes, again) would recieve over 300 views before eventually being deleted by Scratch Team.^[2] Upon other users on the website learning of SKL's ban, a movement pushing to unban her spread throughout the website. In response, lead administrator of the time, Lightnin, responded on July 16th, claiming they need to be in contact with SKL's parents to ensure that SKL is getting help.^[3] However, this frustrated SKL and Scratchers alike. Eventually, the movement died out, as users collectively realized that Scratch Team would refuse to change their decision.

The ban deeply affected SKL's mental health. Personal circumstances made them struggle with depression and suicidal feelings, and being banned from the website where many of their friends resided devestated them. However, the support of the many Scratchers helped remind them that they were loved.

SKL was unbanned after emailing the Scratch Team on June 15th, 2018. They clarified that they are now mentally stable enough to make sure another incident does not take place on the website in the future. They occasionally made projects, but overall moved on from the platform by this point.

ROBLOX

Their account was created on September 25th, 2010, twenty days after their account was created on Scratch. They initially modeled their avatar (commonly called ROBLOXian) after Kirby, but this changed to reflect their sona in 2012. They were not very active in 2011, opting to use Scratch instead, but became active a year later. Their current sona design is based off of their ROBLOXian circa 2015, fully retiring their sona from Scratch.

Most of their time on ROBLOX was spent exploring games based off of franchises they enjoyed including but not limited to Pokemon, Super Mario, and Kirby. This often led them to roleplaying games, where the player can take on the role of a character and create stories with other players. Two of their favorite roleplaying games, Mario & Luigi Superstar RP and The Ultimate Crossover RPG, created by users Dogon and asuperluigifan respectively, highly inspired them. This pushed SKL to create their own roleplaying game.

On October 15th, 2012, they created the first version of The Epic Crossover (TEC).^[4] TEC was a crossover roleplaying game, where users who join may choose to roleplay as different characters from a varieties of franchises and series. It initially did not get many visits from ROBLOX players, but few that joined often befriended SKL through roleplaying. This version used "free models," which were models and objects created by other players on ROBLOX. As SKL became more acustomed and skilled using ROBLOX Studio, the development software for ROBLOX games, they recreated the game a year later.^[5]

This version of the game exploded in popularity, totalling to over three million visits. It managed to reach the front page occasionally during the first two years of its creation. Initially being a solo project, they began to bring friends they met through TEC to help maintain the game and construct further versions of the map. While SKL participated in construction of the map and leading the development, they primarily scripted for the game. The game had multiple iterations of its map throughout its lifespan, with the map from 2015 lasting the longest.

The game exploding in popularity took a toll on the development team. Being comprised of children, SKL included, nobody knew how to handle the sudden influx of players and the community surrounding TEC. A Discord server was created to foster community interaction, but this led to a lot of conflict between the developers and community members. The game initially was discontinued for a period of time due to the conflict, but in 2016, the development team and SKL agreed to develop a sequel, appropriately titled TEC 2.^[6]

Development for TEC 2 was incredibly rocky. The developers and SKL commonly suffered from burnout, and the poor relationship with the community often dragged down their motivation. Progress was slow, and eventually haulted when SKL privately coming out about their experiences with one of the developers, LuckTron, sexually grooming them. Eventually, a public announcement was made officially cancelling TEC 2, but it did not mention specific reasons why other than burnout.

Around 2018, SKL was outed from the TEC community due to a mixture of immaturity on their end, harassment from the community, and burnout. They gave the game to their friend, Harley, who took over managing and maintaining the Discord and game. However, ROBLOX would take the game down in 2020, preventing any user from playing it. Upon the game's forced closure, the Discord server announced its own pending closure and deletion that year. SKL privately provided the game contents to those who asked, and eventually would host it on their website in 2023 upon popular request.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are a list of questions often asked to SKL, and their responses to them.

1. How did you learn to ...?

   Long story short, I would just search for tutorials, ask people for help, and experiment. I often learned by doing things on my own, often through hands-on experiences. I would have benefited from classes, but for one reason or another, I couldn't take any.

   If you have a curiosity or interest in something, research it and try your hand at doing it! Worst that will happen is you struggle. It's how I learned about a lot of my own passions.

2. How did you get to work for/with ...?

   It depends. I don't have a very good answer, as it mainly just boils down to this:

   • I asked
   • I'm friends with the relevant people
   • I applied through e-mail

   My best tip is to just don't force these interactions. People can tell if you're trying to befriend or talk to them just to get something. Not to mention, a lot of these things also happen out of luck... so it really just comes down to letting it all happen!

3. Can you draw ...?

   If my commissions are open! It's not free.

4. Can we be friends?

   Remember question 2? Don't force it. Chances are, I don't know you!! I'm just some guy at the end of the day. Unless we already know each other (i.e. mutuals), no.

5. What software do you use?

   Generally depends! Here's a list of software that I use for various things:

   • Adobe Animate, previously Flash CS6, for animation
   • Aseprite for pixel art
   • Blender for 3d modeling
   • Drawpile for art
   • Microsoft Paint for art
   • Notepad++ for programming
   • Paint Tool Sai 2 for art (comes with Paint Tool Sai 1)

   I personally don't care about how you get most software, but please please purchase Paint Tool Sai if you end up wanting it. It's developed by a single Japanese guy, Koji Komatsu, who almost gave up developing the software due to how many people pirated his work. It's a one-time purchase that's incredibly cheap, too, going for just $60 USD.

References

1. MAI NEW AND FINNAL CHARACTER, SuperKirbylover. Published on Scratch, 11 April, 2012.
2. Serious Time (yes, again), bballluke13. Published on Scratch, 18 June 2014. Archived.
3. SuperKirbylover's profile. Published on Scratch, 16 July 2014. Comment left by Lightnin. "Hey everyone! We'd love to unblock this account, but in cases where people make projects or comments about stuff that's *way too intense* for a site for ages 8 and up, we need to know that they are getting the help they need first. Once we speak to an adult, we can unblock the account - but not before. This is a hard and fast rule, because it's our only way to be sure a Scratcher who is having a hard time is getting the help they need." Archived. Image.
4. The Epic Crossover (2012), SuperKirbylover. Published on 15 October 2012.
5. The Epic Crossover: Crossing Over Worlds (2013), SuperKirbylover. Published on ROBLOX, May 15 2013.
6. tec 2, SuperKirbylover. Published on ROBLOX, 23 April 2016.