DJ Coco

DJ Coco
Former & Other Groups
Profile
Aliases:	DJane Coco, Lightning the Hedgehog, dj trackmania, sonic-maker, TM, Super Thunder Dimentio, Caramelldancer Konakona
Real name:	Monika Kneringer
Interests:	Game Maker, Fangames, Anime, Team Dimensional

DJ Coco, formerly known as DJane Coco, is an Austrian MFGGer who joined on May 10, 2008. She currently uses Game Maker Studio to make 2-D fangames, but has started using Unity for 3-D development in 2015. Coco has also used various older versions of GM for previous fangames. DJ Coco has finished a number of fangames and is also working on various indie projects. She was a member of Team Dimensional and is working on a team project she plans on selling, too.

Member History

When DJ Coco first joined the forums, she wanted to create a game with the Ultramario Engine and asked the forums for help her implement the Super Leaf power-up. This way she got to know Tsuka (known as Latia back then and later as Miaxis), who was willing to help out. DJ Coco declined all advice she could get and even turned down code snippets, claiming that she would just want someone to implement all the stuff for her and upload it afterwards. Tsuka programmed the leaf for her, but somehow it did not work on her computer. Around that time she came up with thousands of concepts for fangames and always asked the forums for help. Even when she was helped, she made no progress though and all those concepts went to waste without even an alpha version of any game having come to exist. People have told her that she can't just ask for help all the time and that she needed to learn to code herself, but she refused to. She then actually started a project with the help of some tutorials and Miaxis called Blocky, but it got scrapped due to lack of motivation. Until recently, DJ Coco was somewhat infamous for starting lots of projects and never finishing them.

Many other projects followed, and even though she did not intend to learn code, she began to understand the code by copypasting single snippets and gradually became more interested. By now, she's really experienced with Game Maker already and also has her own Mario engine, which she claims plays as awesome as Super Mario World. It will be featured in her game Super Mario Adventure, also known as The Super Mario Bros. 5 Project, an indirect sequel to Super Mario World which she always wished received a direct sequel. The game is paused until her other projects get finished. She was in a relationship with Tsuka.

Fangames

The first two games she actually completed were "Super Mario - Quest for the Purple Coins" and Super Mario Phone, both of which were made entries into Minigame Competitions. Super Mario Phone scored 3rd place. As soon as the forums got updated, she kind of left but she came back to lurk around the forums again, posting infrequently.

In February 2013 she posted another game called Super Mario Bros. - The Next Levels, which is vastly superior to her other early Mario fangames. It also won the Game of the Month for February 2013. At this point, she had three other fangames planned fangames. One of them is "Luigi's Adventure - Fairytale of Crystallica", a fangame featuring graphics by DJ Coco herself and Jake Von that takes inspiration from "Super Luigi Dreams" and Psycho Waluigi. However, Jake Von got fired from the project, but remains as a character in the game. The other one is Super Mario Country, a Gameboy-styled Super Mario Land 2 fangame which also features custom graphics made by DJ Coco herself. This one had been completed, and won a Game of The Month Award. She had started work on a fangame known as Super Mario Blackout, a game inspired by Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, but with an electrical theme. However, that was scrapped, and she went on to create Paper Mario 3D Land. Sadly, she lost interest in fangaming during this game's development, which led to a lower-quality release (this did not, however, keep the game from receiving a huge amount of praise).

After playing a good amount of Toadette Strikes, she got back into fangaming and continued working on Super Mario Blackout. She also continued working on Sonic Hexacide, and managed to finish it. DJ Coco released the 3-D Mario Kart fangame Mario Kart: Speed Strife in June 2015. Speed Strife was widely hailed as an impressive technical achievement but sometimes criticized for its unusual mechanics.

The Super Mario Bros. 5 Project

One of her more noticeable fangames is Super Mario Adventure, which she also refers to as The Super Mario Bros. 5 project, as it's supposed to be an indirect sequel to Super Mario World. Basically she wants it to be as official as possible, so she tries to imitate Nintendo's style. The game is supposed to feature lots of new elements and act like Super Mario World did compared to Super Mario Bros. 3. The game is still in a very early stage and not going to be finished any time soon, as she wants to take her time to make sure this game will be perfect. All sprites and music will be custom made specifically for this game. Chaoxys is the lead spriter of this project. The game has been cancelled due to lack of interest and knowledge of Nintendo's game design philosophies.

Other Games

DJ Coco also likes to code lots of original games. Unfortunately, only two of them have been finished so far, being Space Case and a Super Mario 64-inspired game named The Underground Hotel that she made in just 8 days for her brother's birthday. Currently she's working on a team project called Codename 008: Cliax Chaos. There's lots of other games lying around her HDD too, which are either currently paused or scrapped. After Paper Mario 3D Land's completion, she began work on two indie games, one inspired by F-Zero, and one by Charlie The Duck.

Cliax Games

Cliax Games is a company DJ Coco intends on founding in the future that specializes in selling indie games for a low price. She's still trying to recruit members for it to help with various design aspects, such as C# programming, 3D animation and music composing.

Cliax Games is named after its main project of focus, Cliax Codec, a TPS/TDS hybrid that also involves platformer and puzzle elements. It will be made in Unity. The name Cliax is derived from 'Cliaxium', a fictional element in the Cliax Codec franchise.

So far the only games that have been released under the name of Cliax Games are Nulldrifters and Soaring Shuttle, but there's more in development, such as Slimy Smiley, a game starring VinnyVideo's alter ego, Vibs Ball.

Working as Site Staffer

On April 17, 2013, she got promoted to be part of the MFGG site staff. As she has lots of free time, she is willing to help out in the queue, speeding up the process quite a bit. She doesn't accept everything that works, though, also considering the quality. Effortless works are getting declined by her. It is rumored she got the position in the site staff by bribing VinnyVideo with the Austrian delicacy Leberkäse, but these rumors are unsubstantiated. Maybe.

Acquiring a Global Moderator status

On July 11, 2013, DJ Coco was promoted to become one of the new global moderators, alongside Fujiko and Gameboy. DJ Coco was promoted to Administrator on both the forums and mainsite on February 16, 2015.

Trivia

• DJ Coco has the most Game of the Month awards, which is six.