Big Move Announcement #3: We won the MSC pitch!

Level up! My team has just won the MSC IP Creator's Challenge pitch. We have been awarded a grant of RM 50,000 to create a game within 6 months, along with two other winning teams. That's seriously the first time I received a freaking big cheque lol, size-wise and finance-wise.

More photos of the pitch are available at http://cmc.msc.com.my/event_detail.php?ID=242. Man I look so stupid in the first photo :S Thanks to Sora for the link!

The team celebrated in Chilis One Utama. You have no idea how hard it was to hide that cheque while walking towards the restaurant. Not something you wanna show to the crowd you know. Though after dinner, Nyin waved the cheque all over the place :S

(L - R)

My close sisters, Leeyean (Interface Designer) and Leenyin (Art Director). Nyin was the interface designer for Ballistic Wars (except the crappy main menu, done by yours truly :P). Yean is the artist for the upcoming Puzzerella Pizza game, which is coming out... uhh, soon *sweat*

Beside them is one cool guy.

Daim (Character Designer) couldn't make it for obvious reasons, so we connected to his hologram projection unit in Tokyo. He created those ball-ish characters in Ballistic Wars.

The one showing the thumbs up in style is Aidi (3D Modeler and Animator). He has the word "future" written all over. He also created the enemy ships in The Last Canopy.

And Adrian (Lead Programmer) is new to the team, so everyone say hi! He's my good friend whom I've known since college days. And he just continued WoW! Hooray!



Let's talk a little about the game. No Straight Roads is an arcade shooter that was inspired by arcade titles such as Rail Chase and House of the Dead. Basically we will spoon-feed the action for you. We'll change the camera angle and add rich visual narrative to the playing experience.

All you do is just move the mouse to shoot and drive. You only do one of the two at any given time. No matter how intense the action or point-of-view is, you just need to use your mouse to shoot and drive. That's what makes the game casual enough for everyone to play.

The game is also inspired by Gurren Lagann and Speed Racer. In other words, it's gonna be an AWESOME experience. The car is gonna skid on the walls, its movements are clumsy and we will have crazy boss battles that needs your wit to defeat them.

No Straight Roads will be in 3D, with the characters being 2D (billboard images in 3D space). It will be downloadable on the PC. I have a partnership link with a New York-based publisher at the moment, so I will use that to propose this game as a console downloadable as well, on PSN, XBLA or WiiWare.

The screenshot above is done by Leenyin. She did a great job compiling everyone's work to create such a vibrant and exciting scene.



The story is set in a future post-apocalyptic world where an evil company reigns to take advantage of the situation. They are called Straight Roads Inc. Hence the game name.

Ayola (the girl on the right) is part of the rebel force (hmmmm this is starting to sound familiar...) that opposes the company. One day, she fought them on her bike, but lost completely. Trying to run away, she hailed a taxi that belonged to Marty (the guy on the left). Reluctantly, he let her in, and drove the taxi out of the city. The game starts here!

Of course, Daim did the character designs, which are excellent as usual :)



And this is the futuristic taxi that Aidi built. His sense of how the future looks like never fails to amaze me, and he has put a lot of thoughts to come up with such a sleek-looking car. Kudos!

I still haven't figured a name for the car yet. Anyone have any ideas?



And this is the logo of No Straight Roads, done again by expert visualizer Nyin.



Nyin has also done an amazing job with the pitch document, taking everyone's drawings and my writing, then montaging them nicely into a great page layout. This is a one-page preview of the pitch document, and no doubt it has helped a lot to win the hearts of the judges.

So yea that's the game. I couldn't have done it without this team chock full of talent and dedication. Ah to be surrounded by geniuses, I'm so blessed. :) Thank you so much, team! We have finally done it, though the true work starts now! Korekara mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu. (I shall depend on you guys even from now.)

Oh speaking of which, Daim with a beanie reminds me of a game character...

Big Move Announcement #1: Feenaa is now Level 70!

My wonderful curvy female draenei frost mage named Feenaa has just reached Level 70 last Sunday! She has frost-nova-ed and blizzard-ed her way through many regions, and died just as many times. I guess intelligent people can't wear heavy armour in RPGs. Oh well.

In my total 2 years of playing World of Warcraft (dropped, picked it up, dropped again...), this is the first time I reached the level cap TT_TT I'm so happy! /dance /cheer

If you still think that a guy can't use a female avatar, get over it. Being more of a J-RPG fan, I'm just not used to oversized/muscular male leads!

To commemorate such an EXTREMELY rare and auspicious event, let's look at some memoirs from Feenaa's past! (also known as Program Files/World of Warcraft/Screenshots).



Come on, who hasn't climbed to the highest point of the SW fountain and summoned a mount?



I just love the graphical glitches in WoW!



This is my wonderful guild called MAD. Adrian said it stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. Uh-huh. (And seriously Adrian, where are you?!) Oh, if there are 5 or more people logged in at the same time, you can buy a lottery ticket.

Come to think of it, everyone in the above picture are my cousins XD hahahahha so lame...

(L - R)
Racquel = Human Rogue = Dzaid
Hizriad = Human Paladin = Daim
Devilette = Human Warlock = Dina
Gallinago = Dwarf Hunter = Aidi

As you can see, we have no warriors and priests. A very... unique team. :)



The MAD guild going for a costume party. Speaking of costumes...



...Feenaa in her red outfits!



My guild members can be quite lame. They either make stupid jokes...



...or make weird requests.



And we love to abuse the raid warning message :P



Yes yes I'm dead, I know...



The great Knight-Lieutenant Diven joined us in one of our dungeon runs! He's none other than Randolph, the great guild leader of Sanctioned Insanity, also friend and APIIT colleague as well.

Luckily he didn't switch on his Macros, else he could see how n00bish I played :D

"Eh Hazmer, your DPS quite low leh..."



The guild went back in time and fixed a glitch in the space-time continuum! We helped younger Thrall to escape and kicked some ass along the way.



My favourite pic :) Took this when Feenaa got her epic mount for the first time.

Alright then, Lich King, here I come!

The Last Canopy on YouTube!

You know what makes a game designer really happy? It's when you have fans posting up video walkthroughs of your game on YouTube!

I dunno who this Pseani is, but damn s/he's good! Even though I know the game in and out, s/he's so much better than me! On the hardest mode (You're nuts mode), Pseani could make it through the first 3 levels with 14 lives left :O The fairy was hit only once! Nuts!

I don't think I ever won You're Nuts mode before, kakakaka. Yup, I can't beat my own game :P

Because of the 10 minute limit, Pseani posted 4 videos for the Hard mode walkthrough, and another 4 for You're Nuts. Here's the video of the last level in the hardest mode:

Walkthrough of Final Stage (You're Nuts mode)



Whoever you are, Pseani, thanks for posting the awesome vid. You got some mad skillz there!

If you don't even have a fraction of Pseani's skill, how about hacking it instead? I dunno what software is used, but your life could be reset to 999! Look at the vid below.

Hacking The Last Canopy



And on a related note, The Last Canopy is chosen as the Friday game of the Buried Treasure week on Kongregate. Get over there and earn some badges while you're at it! The comments there are interesting to read too, coz it's obvious that they either love it or hate it. It's hard to strike a balance when the casual community is massive. Go to http://www.kongregate.com/games/ahbonk/the-last-canopy.

Busy busy busy

Yikes, been awhile since I've been here!

My baby vaio (figuratively; I didn't give birth to it!) died on me a week ago. Things just had to happen when you have a deadline to meet. Thank god it's ok now, and it's even faster than before coz I installed Windows XP. Wahaha finally! Vista suxxxxxx...

I'm so terribly busy with all the game-making, which is a good thing. Tiring, but good. Here are the latest game projects I'm working on:



We have contacts in New York who's interested in publishing the new Ballistic Wars. It's to be more centric on strategy rather than puzzle, so it has resource collecting and the ability to build new units!



This is Puzzerella Pizza (Puzzle + Mozzarella! Get it? Get it?!), a Match-3 game featuring yummy pizza toppings! Nyin and Yean have finished the designs already, but I haven't polished up the programming yet (Sorry muis!). Its production will be back on track after the MSC IP Creator's Challenge.



Working with Chen Li aka Ms. Mangkuk on this one. A collaborative game with Jayisgames.com called Casually Killed. A point-and-click game where you have to investigate a mansion to solve a murder case. Comes with quirky characters and many tributes to casual games out there!



This ain't your typical Sunday Drive! No Straight Roads is the latest arcade shooter we're working on, and due this coming Thursday for the MSC IP Creator's Challenge. Together with Nyin, Yean, Aidi, Daim and Adrian, you know it's gonna be a blast! Am gonna lose sleep these few days for this game!



And finally, a game that I can't reveal much. Basically it's a casual MMOG that features mechanics for cooperation and lesser time commitments. This is the main reason why the New York publisher contacted me. Will be working on its pitch document the whole of next month.

And there you have it! Now you know why I'm busy right? Juggling all this with my lecturing job... wooohooooo. So I won't be blogging till earliest this weekend, if I can survive, that is.

Blizzard answered my second prayer

Has any game company made you reach orgasm twice in such a short time? Not counting the games that literally do that. *ahem*

Today is the day many macho guys (including me... hey I'm macho too) giggle like little girls, as Blizzard officially announces freaking Diablo III. HELL YEAH!



Among the features announced during the 2008 Worldwide Invitational today:

• Isometric gameplay in yummy 3D goodness :9
  
• Physics engine powered by Havok; environment now destructible and can be used against your foes!
• Dungeon layout is random as always, but now with random scripted events... whoa.
  
• Greater level of character specialization, so everyone can be different
• Coop gameplay over Battle.net to be massive and epic
• Five character classes, announced so far are the barbarian and a new one: witch doctor!
• Now you don't have to stare at a muscled guy throughout the entire game, coz you can choose the gender for every class!
  

Just like Starcraft II, Blizzard launches a website that matches the game in its epic-winness: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3.



Go ahead, watch the below gameplay footage in all its glory. You know you want to. Just don't forget to change your pants after that.



Damn, how I missed those red and blue orbs.

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)

Can't Multitask? Play TLC!

Got this from NST today. Told you to play The Last Canopy more often...



Man, the competition results are gonna come out in around 12 hours time. I'm seriously too nervous... Wish us all the best!

(p.s. friends link list in the sidebar has been updated... finally!)

TLC reached 150,000 hits! Also Runner-up in Kongregate!And vote before the week ends!

(If you still haven't played the game yet, click the above banner.)

That's right! As reported via MochiAds (the advert before the game starts), The Last Canopy has reached 150k hits! I dunno if this is enough to win the Viral awards, but I'm so happy that so many people are playing the game!

Another great news is that The Last Canopy was the runner-up for the highest-rated Flash game of the week in Kongregate, and our team has a great jump-start prize money of 150 US dollars! You all should check out Kongregate, a whole bunch of awesome games there: http://www.kongregate.com

Thanks to everyone for playing the game, and super thanks to those who voted ;)

And with my powerful Google skills, I found several blogs/review sites talking about the game, among them are:

• All Cool Kids Kongregate Review (9 out of 10!)
• the2bears.com
• Kotaro269, a japanese game blog
• Flash Game na Hibi, another japanese game blog
• Games.blog.nl, a Netherlands game blog
  

And this is the final week before the results are announced. I can only hope for the best! And to those who have not played or voted the game yet, please do so before the week ends! The link again is: http://jayisgames.com/cgdc5/?gameID=5

Also for those of you who wants to advertise The Last Canopy on your blogs, you can use the following graphics. Thanks!!

Vote for The Last Canopy!

With Kamina voted for the Parliament seat, let's vote for the State seat!

Thanks to everyone for your feedback! They're mostly positive, so the team is really glad that we made this game :D Really appreciate your support and encouragement!

If you like our creation The Last Canopy, please vote for it! To assure genuine votes, each voter needs to donate a minimum of 1 US dollar via paypal/credit card. The money will go to our team, of course, to make better games in the future! :D

Votes are counted per head, not by amount of donation. But of course if you wanna donate more, please go ahead! (please please please please please...)

The link to the voting is the same as the game, which is:
http://jayisgames.com/cgdc5/?gameID=5

As requested by some of our interested supporters (yay!), here are instructions on how to vote with your paypal/credit card:

When you click on the link above, wait for the *FUPIAK!* gimme5games logo to disappear, as well as the other sponsors.



Then you will see a VOTE FOR THIS GAME button like the above pic. Click it, and you'll be brought to the Paypal page.



Key in the amount that you want to donate in the above textbox. The number 100 there is just an example, but SUPER encouraged! XD



Then click on the UPDATE TOTAL button. The amount window would then be minimized.



If you wanna use your credit card and you don't have a Paypal account, or you don't even know what that is, click on the Continue button near the bottom of the page. If you have a Paypal account, just log in using the login panel.



For those who don't have a paypal account, you will see the above page. Make sure you select Malaysia first, then wait for the form to refresh itself. Key in all your details, and click Agree and Continue button.

After that, I shall say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

Of course if you still haven't played the game, please do so and let us know what you think! Here's the link again: http://jayisgames.com/cgdc5/?gameID=5.

Results will be announced next Sunday (a week after this coming Sunday). So wish us all the best, and we hope that you continue to support our games!

The Last Canopy

I'll blog about Seven Force later (the answer to the previous puzzle!).

Before that, I have an important announcement to make. The Last Canopy, an entry for the Jayis Casual Game Design Competition #5, is finally finished!!! *faints*



*gets back up* I've always wanted to make a Flash shmup, so after considering the given "upgrade" competition theme, I knew it was the best genre to make.

In this game, you control a fairy that initially has lousy firepower, so you absorb the enemy's attack and use it on them! Comes in 4 difficulties, including the 99-lives mode, for those who are not familiar with the genre.

Really big thank you to Aidi and Dzaid for the superb work! For everyone's info, Aidi was the vehicle designer and Dzaid was the illustrator. Couldn't have done it without their tremendous effort. Amidst the super rush, Dzaid's email subjects have been a constant form of entertainment ("Cloud Strife City", "Fairy Bogard", "BG (backgrounds, not battlegrounds)", among others) XD

Also, thanks to Daim for earlier discussions on how to make the game great.

I'll be creating a website just for the game, meanwhile click the picture above or click here to play the game! Leave a comment, and send the link to your friends! Also try the other games while you're there.

Ok I need my sleep now, thank you. *faints*

Raku-Job Event

The job situation in Japan is dire, especially due to the recent plunge in the US economy. To answer this urgent call, an NGO has set up Raku-Job, an event where many passionate but jobless Tokyo-ites could look for jobs in the anime, manga and game industry.

Among the employers involved were Gonzo, Production IG, Toho Animation, Koudansha and Hobby Japan. Dunno which game companies were there, I'm guessing it's those anime-game companies that make dating sims and visual novels.

Just like the line for the PS3 and Wii, many potential employees lined up all the way to the outside of the building. Itulah passion Japan.



To give a great first impression, everyone wore a snappy business suit/dress. Of course there were exceptions.



At least he won't be hot under the sun. But it's kinda the edge of winter there, so...

You can go to their website @ http://raku-job.jp/blog/. I like the way they represented the game, anime and manga industry as 3 characters.

Maybe one day I'll be part of the line? :3

Audiosurf: Ride Your Music

I lied. I can't resist blogging about this. I have to tell the world how great this game is.

It's a game that I've always dreamed of creating. A game where you can take in an MP3, CD music or WMA, and generate some sort of gameplay based on it. Of course, I'm completely inspired by games like Vib Ribbon and Rez.

Now someone beat me to it, with Audiosurf, released by Invisible Handlebar. It became the IGF 2008 Seumas McNally Grand Prize finalist. Just bought it online yesterday for 10 bucks. Clearly, the best investment I've made this year.



It's a beautiful game where you choose a music track in your hard drive, then a superb psychedelic racing track will be generated. The slow parts of the song will be smooth and uphill (you can see what's coming), whereas the fast parts of the song will be bumpier and downhill.

The objective of the game is to collect blocks based on colour. The more of the same colours, the more points. The cool thing is that the incoming blocks follow the rhythm of the music. Such is the complexity of the audio analyser of the game.

It runs on the Steam engine. Whether you like it or not, it allows for more community-based services. It compares your score with others who played the same mp3 (based on ID3 tag) to see how well you did.

It's a great game, and it's truly meant for everyone who enjoys music. I had a whole lot of fun playing Audiosurf with the tons of game and anime music in my hard drive. And I hardly even played one eighth of it! What a BIG distraction from my work!

Here are some sample tracks I found on YouTube:

Bleach - Asterisk



Blur - Song 2



Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Kusou Rumba



Go buy it coz it's worth every sen! And support independent game developers! Go to http://www.audio-surf.com.

Damn, have to get back to work. Wait, one more song...

You Are Guilty as Picked!

Ever found yourself hating something distasteful, but you indulge in it over and over? Keep complaining about that movie, but you watch it a few times still? Disgusted at an anime panty shot, and you can't help but smile?

Don't worry, you're not alone.

All of us (I think) get into something that we think we shouldn't enjoy. It could either be against our personal values ("Nono I shouldn't watch... OOOH BOOBIES!") or the possibility of other people's reaction ("Hey everyone, he likes Barney! What a wuss!").

Call it anything you want, but the anime community calls this...

The Guilty Pick.

Whenever a new season comes, someone would list down all the upcoming animes in some forum. A few titles seemed like they were directed by some low-life uneducated pervert.

Still, some of us would not want to think too much about what we watch. We'd want something mindless, fun and, uh, mindless. And so one guy would go "Heh heh my guilty pick this season is...". Others would write "WTF you retard!", but secretly rewinds to that exclusive one-second panty shot!

Guilty picks are not only limited to anime. Here are some of my very own guilty picks:

Guilty Pick: Food = Chicken Rice



Why guilty? Freaking easy to cook! Why pay for something that you can cook yourself, rite? Even so, most of the time the rice is dry and there's little to no sauce for the chicken, except for SS2, Jalan Gasing and the "Wedding Place" (TOA students should know!).

Even worse if you order it off some stall that also sells Tomyam, Daging Merah and all that other Malay/Thai lauk-pauk, yuck! Oh, and the ad in the cinema is not the worst thing The Chicken Rice Shop has to offer!

Why pick? Steamed chicken FTW! Man I love simple food, it's just chicken + rice! That's all! Also, it's simple to tarpau, simple to eat and simple to throw. No fuss. I order it whenever I have the chance, and I don't mind if the chicken rice sucks. After all it's still chicken and rice! By far my 2nd favourite food of all time!

Guilty Pick: Hangout = Berjaya Times Square



Why guilty? Here's a very common sight: A group of teen+preteen delinquents making a lot of noise, dancing like hooligans and dressed up like some cool gothic/punk dude-wannabes. It's a BIG place, but with *little* people (in terms of quantity AND height).

It also features a VERY ORANGE amusement park that no one goes to, and when someone did go there, she fell down from the roller coaster (no joke, i saw the aftermath!). Luckily she just fainted after falling down on a higher elevation (the roller coaster flies above much lower elevations!!!). She was just injured. Her mom at the scene seemed more hurt than her daughter, though.

All in all, Times Square can be summed up in 3 words: AHBENG, AHLIAN and DANGEROUS.

Why pick? The games in the arcade center are the latest in Malaysia, and it's the only one with a Pop'n Music machine. Also inclined towards the anime fan's needs, with Anime Tech, XL shop (friendlier than the one in Mid Valley) and another figure shop on the 7th floor. Nice to hangout in Starbucks too, with all the latest books at your disposal in the biggest bookstore in Malaysia. Yea, just ask the assistant to open the plastic wrapping for you! *evil grin* And apparently Ah Bengs and Ah Lians don't read books XD

Guilty Pick: Anime = Hayate no Gotoku



Why guilty? Parodies, parodies, parodies. That's all it takes to make an episode in Hayate no Gotoku. Without them, it would just be an empty shell with some leftover scrap of lame jokes and slapstick comedy. Sometimes the characters' over-reactions slap a big WHAT THE HECK on your face.

How come Hayate no Gotoku goes into season 2? Easy, it's a secret technique copied from the anime production of Naruto: FILLERS. The episodes sometimes make you wonder if you could have spent the last 20 minutes doing something more productive, you know, like watching Azumanga Daioh episodes over and over. Some of the episodes are really too ridiculous, even by my standards (yes, it's THAT ridiculous!)

Why pick? Because of the parodies, of course! They're fan service in the purest form (as opposed to the "unpure" panty shots, fufufu) Amazingly, I get most of the jokes, so when I laugh I feel like I'm rewarded for knowing my stuff! It's similar to watching Lucky Star, just in a lamer premise. And let's not forget the girls, who span across many anime girl stereotypes! Maria and Hinagiku are the community's favourite (non-guilty) picks, and I couldn't agree more. And we also have a big talking white tiger that walks on two legs, and the narration is done by Wakamoto Norio (voice of Chiyo-chan's feline father). Fillers or not, mindless is as mindless does!

Guilty Pick: Game = Sonic the Hedgehog Series



Why guilty? Here's Sonic Team's brainstorming session: "Hey guys we're having this new Sonic game, so let's start by thinking of new animals to add to the endless list of Sonic's friends". Man, Sonic is SO likeable! The next game might as well be called "Sonic and his new shitty friends" (credit goes to NeoGAF :D)

Alright alright, the gameplay should at least be great, right? WRONG! With exception of the early 2D Sonic games, the guys who did the level design and physics engine should be killed on the spot. As if the extremely bad camera view and platforms being SO far apart aren't punishing enough, they had to put some lovely bugs into the game. Like how Sonic fell down from a tunnel that never had a hole! Or pressing right to grind on the next rail inconsistently results in Sonic MISSING the rail entirely! Sonic just *loves* the chasm of doom.

Hey that's a great idea for the next Sonic sequel right? "Hey look guys, it's my long-time buddy, the chasm of doom!"

And don't get me started on Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Riders......... though I finished the games! =_=;; What the hell was I thinking?!

Why pick? The level design (the positions of the platforms, the auto camera trick crap, etc) might suck, but the art of the world itself is quite interesting. I always want to know what the next world would look like, so I (stupidly) brave all those crazy bugs and chasms. The soundtrack for each level is not bad either (except for those vocal soundtracks, just shut up already!) And there are a few good Sonic games as of late, like Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic Rush. There's still a little speck of hope in my little Sega fanboy heart!


So what's YOUR guilty pick? Maybe you enjoy watching little girls singing those CNY karaoke songs? XD

The Perplexity of Suzumiya Haruhi

31st January. A day where all Haruhism devotees rejoice. Especially if they have a PS2. If they don't, they sure as hell will buy one!

Milking further on Suzumiya Haruhi (nice), we have a new PS2 game called Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi, just released yesterday. She has been melancholic, sighing and promising.

Now she's perplex. And we all know how perplex she can be, right?

The story is that Haruhi is planning to make a new RPG to promote the SOS brigade. Of course as her dog, Kyon, you have to create the game. Your choices will determine the outcome of the final game.

Well, that's just the perfect excuse to have the cast in future fantasy costumes! Epic win!



King Tsuruya FTW!!!

Oh, it comes with a bonus disc too, full of fan service galore! What better fan service than Hare Hare Yukai in 3d cell-shaded fantasy costume goodness!



Looks like cosplayers will have a great time once again. Go, m'egumi!

Looking Forward: 2008

With the ahbonk.net anime awards done (which is freaking weeks ago), it's time to look forward in 2008. Only almost 3 weeks into the new year, there are some happening stuff going on already, such as:


The Unofficial New Year Party

What better way to start the new year than with your best friends right? Me, Sengkit and the Chen San-shimai (that's "three sisters" in Japanese) celebrated the New Year at One Utama.



First off, everyone, if you like Rakuzen, Sushi Zanmai or Zen, then you gotta go to Pasta Zanmai! (all of them are under the same company group). It's located at the row of shops in front of Fridays in One Utama. And you MUST try this dish! It's half-broiled salmon pasta. It's cooked on the outside, but inside it tastes like sashimi.... oishii yo!



Me and my close blood-unrelated sister, Nyin.



After some good food, we went to play pool...



...and bowling! I just noticed they're holding the ball that matched their sister's clothes. Too bad Yean couldn't find a red-striped bowling ball.



Me in :3 mode. Wanna know why? Just look where the ball is going (in case it's not obvious enough, the score stayed at 9).

Super thanks to Seng Kit for the above pics.


All-new Honey and Clover Drama Series



I watched the first episode. My life is finally complete.

You like the Nodame Cantabile drama? Based on my 2nd favourite anime of ALL TIME, this live action drama series is directed by the same geniuses behind the Nodame Cantabile drama! Oh man, this is like a really great fanboyish dream come true!!!

And guess who sings the insert songs for this show? Freaking HIRAI KEN! Need I say more?!!!

I assure you, this is much better than the 2006 live-action movie!


Kakireka Talk



I was invited to give a talk in the Kakireka party a week ago. Kakireka is an initiative started by Kenneth (who used to be the big AD of OgilvyOne) to nurture the design community in Malaysia. All the best Kenneth!

To suit the mindset of designers, I talked about emergent gameplay and how it further emphasizes the importance of art and community tools in games. In the picture above, we were watching videos for LittleBigPlanet. I covered it in a post a while back.

Been awhile since I gave my last talk (in The One, before I became a lecturer!). Quite a nice feeling. Hope I get invited more XD


Don't mind being single?

After my talk, the great Jo Kukathas came up and involved us in an acting workshop. It was very enjoyable, and I learnt a great deal on the gestures and space management during presentation.



She had us play this game called Unmusical Chairs (I think). Basically everyone is seated except for one person who stands in the center. That person asks a Yes/No question. If a player's answer is Yes, s/he is supposed to switch chairs with another player with a Yes answer. Of course, the standing person should take the chance and grab a chair.

Jo made us realize that to prepare for the chair switching, we leaned forward and had our feet ready to run, and that's how our body posture should be when we're presenting to clients, always ready at our feet.

Anyhow, one of the question asked was "Are you single?". Of course, my answer was yes, so I switched chairs. Then another question, "Are you looking for someone?". A few others moved.

Surprisingly I didn't move an inch.

My, how I changed since last year, eh? No more Mr. Desperado.


The Realisation

As Hilmy from GameBrains said, I'm a man of many hats. Too many hats, in fact. Maybe it's due to my nature of always wanting to create stuff.

I was wavering before, but I've recently reached a strong affirmation that I wanna be an independent game developer, working from home. With so many channels available, there's totally no excuse to not be able to make it, even if I'm in Malaysia.

No more 9-to-5 jobs for me. I wanna do what I do best.

Of course, I still enjoy teaching :) and I need my monthly salary anyway.


Urm... ART DIRECTOR?!

Last week, a guy from *beep* (hint: (if )'s former client) offered me the position of Art Director for his Web team. I went "WHAT?! You gotta be joking right?". He answered with a stern "No, I'm not joking". O_O This guy is nuts, coz it's a job that pays more than RM 5k!

Maybe I should show him my COMPUTING degree, or better yet send him my portfolio:



You got the mood to hire me now?!


I'm hooked to a freaking golf game!

What happens when you mix zany anime ideas and golf? You get Pangya for the Wii! Based on a Korean MMO Golf (yes, everything is MMO-ed nowadays), this game is a hit in Japan (from what I read online). It's so big that the Dead or Alive team of Tecmo took it upon themselves to create an offline version.

Seeing the intro is enough to tell you how anime-ish this golf game is:



One of the biggest draws of the game is the beautiful environment. Check out the trailer for the prequel, the courses are really damn crazy!



Really, what you see in the trailer above is exactly what you get. The graphics and effects are really the same, the course layout is the same, the obstacles really do exist and move exactly that way (seagulls, windmills, battleships, planes, floating egyptian UFO), and you can screw the ball so that it goes backwards when it lands on the green.

It's super duper lame, but it works! Still haven't unlocked the Kasumi, Ayane and Hayabusa costumes yet :3 (2 of them are in the trailer btw)

I'm so addicted to this freaking game. Must... stop... swinging.....


'Tis the season for Anime!

Looking through anime blogs and forums, I can't help but be unimpressed with the list of anime for the Winter Season.

Thank god I was proven wrong! ^_^



Tokyo Marble Chocolate - Romantic shows need not be overly dramatic to be great. This is a simple love story, with two OVA episodes, one from the guy's point of view, and the other from the girl's. You can watch them in any order since they're both based on the same situations (I watched the guy's one first).

Here are a few keywords to tell you how great this show is:

• Production I.G.
• Shiotani Naoyoshi as director (Spirited Away, xxxHolic)
• Asano Kyoji as animation director (Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Tsubasa Chronicles)
• Based on a manga by award-winning artist Tanikawa Fumiko
  
• Inspired by a song of Sukima Switch (Knew them thru Birdie, superb jazz+pop duo)
• Simple slice-of-life setting (reminds me H&C and Bokura ga Ita)
  
• Very nice art direction (japanese mixed with french, watercolourish)

To sum up the above: beautiful, in all sense of the word. Do yourself a favour and watch this.



Spice and Wolf - A show based on medieval times, minus sorcery and swords. And how can you not like a show that has a cute girl with foxy ears right?

Seriously though, as much as those ears seem fanservicy, this show is really down-to-earth, from the two main complex and realistic characters, Horo above and Lawrence, all the way to how a travelling merchant does business during medieval times. No cheap effects here.

The opening and ending sequences are fantastic, the production value is high and the characters are awesome. Based on a light novel that won silver in the Dengeki Novel Prize, this is a must watch.



Kimikiss has a new intro (same nice song)! Now it's closer to the director's roots of Honey and Clover. Dunno why, but I like the balloon and the off-screen kissing parts. The new ending song is sung by Suara (yup that's the name), and as usual it's great.

The main guy is still a spineless coward though. Oh well.



Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - That's right! The second season to Shaft's anime hit wonder. More zany random stuff. Man, I love this show!

Still waiting for Minami-ke Okawari episodes though =_=



True Tears - A real surprise hit for me. Thought it was another based-on-dating-sim anime, but after having watched the first two episodes, I have to say that the production value of this show is fantastic, with great animation and soundtrack. Had the same reaction when I watched Ef ~A tale of memories~.


Phew! 2008 went off to a great start! Keep the good stuff coming! Happy new year everyone!

A story of music and retro games

Once upon a time, there was a man named Jinja~ who lived in faraway place called Japan.

He was waiting for a package to arrive. He waited and waited. Finally, the postman arrived and gave him the package he truly longed for. Oh look, it's The Music Animation Machine!

The great Stephen of California wrote such a wonderful toy. He always thought that musical scores were hard to read. So he created a toy that enables you to compose music by setting an animated score. The position of the notes indicate the pitch and length, and each note lights up at the exact moment it sounds! Now even you and me can read the score!

Oh i'm sorry, let's go back to Jinja~. You see, he loves games so much, he wanted to express this interest by creating a retro game musical score using graphics. So he worked day and night to come up with a masterpiece.

"Finally fantasy, I finished!", he screamed with excitement. "Even if my listeners couldn't get the game the music comes from, they can always look at the graphical score!".

Hurriedly, he rushed through the jungle called the Internet and uploaded his toil and sweat on NicoNico Douga. Another guy picked up on his passion and posted his video on YouTube. Here's the result:



And that, my friend, was when a genius was born.