Run Everyone, It's Mother's Day!

Uh-oh it's that day of the year again.

Just like any other good son (who wanna save money), I cooked dinner for my mom! Felt like cooking some Japanese food. The greatest challenge was that my mom couldn't eat raw fish, so I couldn't get away with just sushi and sashimi. Drat!

Had to go to Isetan KLCC to get one important thing: Dashi stock, a basic fish broth found in a whole lot of Japanese food. There, I also took the chance to buy some fresh Sanma, damn hard to find this fish in a typical supermarket.

Once I reached home, the cooking began! Being a guy, I couldn't multi-task, so I cooked the dishes one at a time :P It took a whole one and a half hours!



This was my mom's favourite dish! I'm sure you've eaten this in some Japanese restaurant before. It's salt-grilled Sanma fish. Referred to a recipe online, and found out that it's super easy to make! Just marinate the fish with salt, grill it, and makan!



Then I cooked some layered omelet. My sisters ate this before, but this time I added the Dashi stock to the whole mix, can't really taste the difference though (maybe I didn't add enough!).



And this was my favourite :D I'm particularly proud of this one, coz the beef was tender and the potatoes were really soft. Also added dashi stock to this one, and this time there's a difference, a delicious one at that! :9

And how did the food fare...?

*drumroll*



Yay my 2nd seal of approval! She really loved the fish, too bad the fish are a bit on the expensive side. Overall, she's one happy mother!

But mother's day or not, my mom cleaned the mess :P I cannot lah, headache when I see the aftermath. X( Sorry Mama!

Happy mother's day to mothers all around the world! Man, father's day is coming. What should I cook next...

Osu!

Who here likes the DS music game Ouendan and EBA? *ME!* *ME!* Well, your prayers have been answered, with Osu!, the downloadable version of the game! And yup, you guessed it, you can download from a huge list of songs (called beatmaps) created by the Osu! community!

This is not just a simple music game emulator, mind you. Unlike Mixwaver and Drummania DTX, this game has a slick interface and, if you register with their forums, you'll be able to compete online, post to a global scoreboard and even see online replays of other experts!

So whatcha waiting for? Click here to go to the Osu! website!

OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN!

Of videogames and interviews

First off, big congrats to (if )interactive for winning the Webby People's Voice awards! The win goes to Discovery Channel's I, Videogame project, an edutainment website that talks about videogames for the past 4 decades. Just for your info, the Webby Awards is a leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet (ripped off from the website :D).

I'm proud to say that I was part of the (if )interactive team working on that project! Man, so nostalgic, the times when I was in (if ).

*sob* Anyway, here are the links to the announcement and the actual site:
Webby: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12
I, Videogame: http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/ivideogame/



On an unrelated note, I was interviewed by Tim W of the Indiegames blog. Tim had Jay of Jayisgames to publish it on his site. Click here to read the interview.

Tim has a great story to tell as well. He was a programmer for 10 years or so, got tired of it and opened his own setup. The people at San Francisco noticed his great skill in journalism and had him to be the editor and writer of the Indiegames blog. And guess what? We met through the Internet and all, and he just lives near my house! Can't believe I'm living near an international blog superstar. XD

Anyway, thanks Tim! Next time, two Frappuccinos, my treat!

Kakireka Talk

I'll be giving my 2nd talk for the Kakireka event this Friday (May 9). I'll be showcasing a behind-the-scenes look at Ballistic Wars and The Last Canopy. For those who have already attended the IGDA talk, don't bother, coz I'll be using the same slides (shhh don't tell them). Of course, it'll be a little more centric to the art community.

It's in Ole Cafe @ Changkat Bukit Bintang (the inner road besides the corner KFC across BB Plaza). Everyone's invited, of course. It starts at 8 pm, but I'll be late as usual... just kidding, Kenneth! Really, I'm kidding!

Here's the link (look at the sidebar there for the Ole Cafe map):

http://kakireka.blogspot.com/2008/05/smalltalk-09-may-2008.html

See you there!

A Cup of 3-in-1 Goodness

It's been a while eh? A little girl told me that I should put three great posts into one; her name is Sheerlay Z. Ness.

(EDIT: Sidebar updated to reflect my latest anime and games!)

Seeds now online!



The Last Canopy had some great enemy ship designs eh? Well the artist not only can draw stuff, he can write as well!

My cousin Aidi has just released the first part of his very first novel online, titled Seeds. My simple mind could only process 5 pages of words without looking at a single graphic, but I read his novel up to the 9th page last night. That had to account for something!

So far, I like the story. Though the prologue held a lot of historical events, the first chapter captured my attention, with a girl being fascinated with a simple dandelion. Go ahead everyone, give it a read. Click here to read Aidi G.V.'s post, then download the Prologue and Chapter 1 of Seeds.

Easy Only! Games official website now online!



FINALLY! When you're so busy with games and lectures, how do you find time for your own webbie right? We now have a cutesy animated website for Easy Only! Games, and the designer is none other than the great Leenyin (thanks mui!).

Sounds and more sections are on the to-do list, but meanwhile please visit the site and lemme know what you think @ http://www.easyonlygames.com!

The Informal IGDA Meetup



This was the 2nd slide of my presentation. I was invited to give a talk and showcase Ballistic Wars and The Last Canopy at a recent meetup by the International Game Design Association Malaysia Chapter. Met a bunch of great people there. A few young'uns told me that they were inspired by my initiative, I was so very touched. Buzz was great too, and his game Vyrus even more so. Can't wait to play the game!

Click here to find out more about the meetup. A phrase there might draw your attention: "...Hazmer was late,..." Bangsar was jammed, honest! _orz

Dead Fantasy I & II

If you're into 3D fighting games, Final Fantasy or... hell, just watch this video! It's AWESOME, and you won't regret it!



Isn't that the craziest and awesomest fan video ever?!

Just look at that 3D goodness! Monty Oum is a genius. He managed to make the video epic like Advent Children but having the mood and ambience of the in-game experience usually found in 3D fighting games and RPGs: the fighting stances, the character voices, the sound effects, the world and the camera angles. It all syncs in fan service perfection.

Super thanks to Yu San for sharing this vid. My life is now more complete.

Oh yea, Rikku, Tifa and Ayane FTW!

Thanks for playing The Last Canopy!

Here's a little picture tribute to all those who have played and supported The Last Canopy:



My cousin Dzaid on the left was the illustrator and background designer for the game, also the character designer of the fairy. My cousin Aidi on the right was the enemy ship designer. Three of us would like to thank everyone for supporting The Last Canopy, and hope that you continue your support with the various versions of TLC in the future!

I also sent a thank you email to Jayisgames, and they were so touched that they published it on the site! A little deja vu, eh? :) Here's the link:

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2008/04/a_message_from_easy_only_games.php

My next game involves a collaboration with my two sisters, Nyin and Yean, and it involves pizza! Sounds yummy doesn't it? :9

JayisGames Review of The Last Canopy

"A good shoot'em-up is like a symphony. The enemies are the musicians, the bullets the notes. And the player is the soloist at center stage, riffing a melody over the chaos, flirting with death, performing miracles. Wan Hazmer is the conductor, who must have a deep understanding of the rhythms that bind everything together.

And The Last Canopy is just awesome."

Click here to read the rest of JayisGames' awesome review!

Penny Arcade praises Ballistic Wars!

In a rather surprising turn of events, Kunal Joshi of the Jayisgames community mentioned about Penny Arcade speaking highly of Ballistic Wars! Yes, it's THAT Penny Arcade, the super popular video game web comic.

Here's the original article: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/02/25/

The article was published a month back though, and I didn't know anything about it!

Yea the guy has a point, how come I didn't propose it to be retailed instead? Now I'm quite motivated to come up with the actual proposal. Its sequel (!) is gonna come out soon, so watch out for it.

If you dunno anything about Ballistic Wars, it was the first official creation I made under my company Easy Only! Games, together with Daim and Nyin. You can still play the game! Click here to hit some balls.

If you are into video games and you dunno Penny Arcade, shame on you.

The First Canopy!!

Oh wow, I'm still in a huge state of disbelief :o

Was very anxious about the result last night, so I didn't sleep well at all! Then at 12 noon today, the voting closed and the page refreshing began! *refresh* *refresh* Keep refreshing for 3 whole hours! No announcements =_= Then I gave up, and went to the Registry Office to get my birth cert. Then Dzaid texted me...

"Have you seen it?"

Man, my heart skipped a beat! I called him and he told me the great news :D

I still can't believe it, but yes, The Last Canopy won FIRST PLACE in the Jayis Game Design Competition #5! Thanks to your votes, it has also won the audience award for having the highest amount of votes! w00t!!! \^o^/

Here's the competition result page: http://jayisgames.com/archives/2008/04/cgdc5_results.php

The game would be nothing without all of you playing the game, so really big thanks for enjoying the game. And super duper thanks to those who voted! The donation shall be used to buy a PS3 create more games in the future!

In fact, three games are already in the pipeline. To give you some hints, the games will be about pizza, knight rider and wayang kulit! Keywords, keywords...

Of course, without my cousins, The Last Canopy would be about a box shooting a bunch of boxes, and that would be so uncool. Aidi, Dzaid - this is our win!!!

EDIT: Whoa, looks like we're not the only ones celebrating!



Out of 1,300 or more fan submissions, only 163 were chosen to be included in Udon's Street Fighter Tribute Artwork, and Daim's artwork is one of them! I have seen him draw SF tributes since the beginning of time, so he truly deserves this honour.

Btw, Udon here is not only that noodle thingy k, they're the official comic artists licensed by Capcom! Congrats dude! A round of applause for Daim! You can check out his BLOG: http://www.daimation.com.

Go Spytech! (personal joke, feel free to ignore)