Thank You MDeC

I just did my pitch for Pizza Parlor 2 for the Game Design Competition yesterday by MDeC Malaysia but unfortunately didn't make the cut to win RM50k. Ah well, at least I didn't go home empty handed; I had the opportunity to learn from many great game concepts that were presented (and no doubt do something similar on my own later heheh), meet up with my contacts and industry people, and last but not least meet many new interesting and beautiful people. Heck, I even got treated dinner by one of the winners of the Comic competition. :D

All in all, it was a great experience, easily the biggest local game design centric event I've participated in so far. Kudos to MDeC for organising this event and bringing togather the people in the industry: newcomers, veterans and of course the press. I look forward to the next competition next year.

Can't say I'm not disappointed though... I had great plans for that RM50k. :D I guess now I'll just go back to my original plan and build up my assets one step at a time. :)

Happy Holidays Yall!

A New Beginning

Mighty sorry for the long delay in posting, but LOTS of things seemed to have happened last week. First of all, I was offered a partnership deal with a large conglomerate to head my very own Game Development Studio. Thats like.. BIG. For me at least.

And then my luck took a strange turn. I got very sick right after that. High fever, delirium, the works. Took most of the week to get myself back on my feet again. Good thing that didn't happen during my development cycle for Pizza Parlor :D

Anyways back to the main topic, the partnership deal, I just accepted the offer and the planning process has now began. With their help, I will need to prepare a business proposal and probably present it as well. Busy busy!

As for Pizza Parlor 2 (The Game Proposal for the MDeC Competition), I am actually working on a comprehensive design document for it, based on my experience designing Pizza Parlor 1. Work is progressing slowly but it is really shaping up to be quite a cool game. I hope I am able to develop it within next year somehow.

Ah yes, I also updated the Template for this Blog. Note how the Game Download links are gone. I've made a new Blog to accomodate my Game Projects here.

Season's Greetings.
Don't Drink and Drive!

Savor the Sweet Smell of Freedom

Yesssss.. Everything is done! Tomorrow I just need to bind the proposal and photocopy the concept art and after that submit the whole package to the MDeC HQ at Cyberjaya. I've been skipping almost all my animation classes to finish this proposal and I really do hope I get something out of it someday. Never really expected the proposal to take so long but the market research really took some time to compile and present in written form.

If you haven't tried Pizza Parlor yet, just download it from the link to the right under My Projects. I've received good feedback so far, apart from the minor little things like the difference between garlic and onions, I hope that you will like it.

Woohoo! I'm Free!

The Last Mile

This will be my first post using Blogger in Beta and so far it seems that it's just like the old blogger... except abit slower heh.

Anyways I'm proud to say that Pizza Parlor is now completed and ready for distribution. Its not much, but its just something I made to enter the 4 Elements 5 Competition over at GameDev.net. I can't seem to upload the setup file anywhere except at the 4E5 Competition forum at GameDev.net (Includes Source) and SaveFile.com (Kinda slow loading).

With the game done, I can now concentrate fully on doing the documentation for the Game Design Competition by MDeC. I just need to get the Game Design Doc, the Tech Sheet, and Business Proposal done and I should be able to submit it all by tommorow. After that I'm just gonna spend the whole month gaming. xD


Back to Work...
Ciaoz.

Expand or Die

Well, I have another 13 days to get my game done and another day to submit my game design proposal. The next 13 days will also be quite busy for me as I also have a game design workshop to go to as well as a IGDA meeting.

The good news though, is that Pizza Parlor is just about done and right now it is entering the Expansion phase, where the game mechanics are ironed out and implemented, and whats left to do is to put content into the game, including UI and Menu stuff. Considering my meager skills in creating graphics, I hope to be done with everything by the 25th.

Did I say the rest of the week is gonna be busy? I just hope I get through this month smooth sailing without any bumps on the road. Then I can spend December playing Nightfall and Neverwinter Nights 2. :D

Till next time...
Adios!

Crunch Time

Sorry everyone for the lack of updates, but I am quite busy finishing up Pizza Parlor. I'm pretty late on schedule due to many unexpected difficulty in the implementation part, but for now I just need to plonk down my images, do the UI, make some levels and finish it up with a main menu.

Part of why I'm slow is because of the influx of games this time around. I have to resist the urge of playing Final Fantasy 12 and NFS Carbon, and soon Neverwinter Nights 2... Note that I did not resist the urge successfully for quite alot of times already...

Anyhow, I also need to prepare the business+design+technical proposal for a Games Pitching competition by 1st December (Yay 1 day after 3E...). After all that I can enjoy my christmas holidays with some good ol gaming goodness.

Wish me luck!

Moved... Again.

Just moved to my old home on Friday. Can't say I don't miss the area, but the house itself is a mess, with lots of junk all over the place, not to mention some aesthetic flaws thanks to sloppy renovation work. All that moving just to be closer to Subang Jaya where I'll be spending my next six months learning animation. At least its gonna save me alot of time and money on transportation, from RM7.60 & 4 hours a day to RM1.00 & 2 hours a day. Quite the difference I must say.

I had to do some time-sharing with my sis for broadband connection as well. Plan to get a new phone line and a new streamyx account soon though.

CMC (Creative Multimedia Cluster) at MSC just launched a new Game Design competition, which I am planning to join. The good thing is that I only need to submit the game design documentations as well as a business proposal. But the bad news is that I need to submit it by 1st December. Which means I need to juggle between my animation work, Pizza Parlor, AND the game design for the CMC competition (which I haven't even started on yet).

I'm doubtful I can do it all, but I'm gonna try anyway. The sad thing is that I will be playing alot less games than I'm used to. :( Bad timing with NWN2 and GW:NF coming out so soon...

Wish me luck!

Back to School

Yep I'm back blogging again. I was kinda busy with programming Pizza Parlor. XD

Anyway, I just enrolled in a 6 month 2D/3D animation program. 1 week late. Furthermore, its all the way over at Subang Jaya. Thats like a 2 hour transit for me. Nasty.

Why? First, I only found out about it last week. Second, its FREE. Third, I get a monthly allowance of RM500. Fourth, it will help me tons in my game design process. :D

Well, if the transit gets too much for me, I would just have to move back over to Old Klang Road to save about 2 hours transit a day. Now I'm just worried whether I can catch up with whatever they've done on the first week though. >.<

Back to my busy schedule
Cheers

Breaking The Habit

So, last week, a day after I started the implementation phase, I came down with mild flu. Must have been my weakened resistances from the previous sickness. Anyway, it took me close to 5 days to recover from it. I pretty much spent the 5 days playing games and thinking about data structures for Pizza Parlor (without any actual programming).

Now that I'm ok again, I really need to start programming Pizza Parlor before my mind wanders off again. Oh yeah, I also found the time to update the blog to list the forums that I frequent. :P


Heres to my self discipline.
May the Force be with you.

Sick Days

Argh. I was feeling under the weather for the past few days and I wasn't able to do much on Pizza Parlor. Anyhow, I feel much better today, and hopefully I can be done with the scheduling today.

Also, I just joined the MIND community over at their newly launched site. I'll probably be going into developing on XNA for Vista and/or XBox360 next, after Pizza Parlor is done.

Time to get the show on the road.
TTYL.

Merdeka Number 49

Happy Independence Day, Malaysia! I wish I could be happier about it but it really saddens me to hear of all kinda of sad stuff happening around the country on this day. I wish people would respect our independence day more and not go crazy for whatever reason.

On a happier note, Pizza Parlor's Design stage is nearing to an end, I just need to finish up some concept work on the characters and after than I can start work on more managerial tasks like scheduling. Real Implementation Work should start next Monday.

Back to work.
Cheers.

Clear Winds

Well, its been 2 weeks since I've started off with the design work for Pizza Parlor and so far all is well, and I should be finished with it in another week or 2. After that starts the long long months of implementing the game, as well as various art assets.

Also, I just came back from an IGDA meeting where I met lots of familiar faces as well as many local industry veterans that shared their insights regarding the current state of the industry as well as their views on IGDA. This is my first time attending such a meeting and it was really cool meeting all these game developer dudes and learning from them. The next meeting is in another 3 months time and I will definitely look out for it and try to attend it again.

Its pretty late now and I hardly got any sleep today.

Time to get some z's...
Tata.

Many Apologies

Due to an oversight on my part, yesterday's Blanktris Reloaded release is unplayable. I forgot to test the game out after getting the game setup done and zipped up.

Also, SaveFile.com is upgrading their services, and I have not been able to find any alternate free file hosting services to use. I will update the new file as soon as I can.

Time to hide my face in shame.
My bad.

EDIT: Ok I got it uploaded through Rapidshare.de. Download it here.

EDIT2: I've recently just found out about the existance of GooglePages. I've uploaded the setup file there.

Graduation

A convocation is a really tiring affair. I not only had to endure hours of semi-monotonous speeches, I had to wade through throngs of people after the ceremony to get anywhere...

It's all worth it though, many old friendships were rekindled and current ones strengthened. Of course, the tons of dashing pictures of me in my graduation robes were good too :D I'll upload the best ones once I find the time to look through all of them. :)

Surprisingly, despite all the tiredness, I found time to actually add the finishing touch to the first beta version of Blanktris that is now available to download! Please send me all your feedback so that I can improve it and hopefully make a buck out of it later. :)

Anyhow, I only have a little more than 3 months to complete my game submission for the Four Elements game development competition. Therefore, I've decided to suspend the development of Blanktris Reloaded and start planning for my new project as soon as possible.

The title for my next project is: Pizza Parlor! (Yup, I think you can guess what kind of game is it)


Time to chill out for abit.
Laters.

Updates, Updates

Ah how time flies... Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I actually forgot I had a blog to maintain...

Anyway, I'm glad to report that Blanktris Reloaded has FINALLY finished its Alpha phase. With the alpha build done, I'm now finishing it up through BETA with some in house testing in the meanwhile. I know, this project has been delayed for way too long, and I apologise for my overextended hiatus (it was good for my soul though :)). With my renewed vigor, I assure you, you will see the beta version completed by the end of the week. After that, I will observe about a week of polish and bug fixing, and I will go straight into my next project: An entry for the famed Four Elements Contest by GameDev.Net. I'll tell you more about that after I'm done with Blanktris Reloaded :D.

Ah, and another thing. After months of forgetfulness, I've finally realised I have not updated my Gamasutra resume yet, and I'm glad to announce that I have just updated it. I had plenty of details to ammend, including my new address, new email address, new status, etc. You can check it out here. I've also updated my blog by adding a link to it at the side bar.

Lastly, my convocation ceremony will be held on this Saturday, 12 August 2006. I have to go get my rented robes tommorow and go for the rehearsal on Friday. I hope to do some networking there to jumpstart my freelancing career :).

I'm beat after doing lots of programming today. Thankfully theres only art assets left to go for the next few days.

Time to hit the sack.
Peace.

A Month Later

Sorry for the month of inactivity, I'm just too caught up with playing Guild Wars and Titan Quest. Man, games nowadays are quite addicting... I just couldn't stop playing them. I suppose thats a good thing (for the games).

So yeah, I spent almost all my time on gaming, and the Blanktris Reloaded project is still just about half done. Time to buckle up and finish it using the rest of the month so that I could at least finish it within my original schedule. I need to start fixing up my life... again.

Blanktris Reloaded Status: Implementing Blanktris Special Feature

Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan

Moved all my stuff to my Mom's 2 days before. Its true you never know how much stuff you have until you have to move it all...

I'm settling fine in my Mom's place for now, and other than her downloading habits, everything seems to be great! So right now I'm working on my game development portfolio, which as of now only includes 2 projects, a J2ME Mobile Game called Bunnies In Love using the Disney license which me and a team made during my internship with UnrealMinds, and the not-so-recently developed Blanktris I made about 6 months ago.

I do not have the source code for Bunnies In Love, so sadly I'm unable to improve it any further. In fact, I'm even considering removing it from my portfolio, if only I had more games to show...

Blanktris on the other hand, I can improve. I have a list of improvements to make with it and boy, its a long list. I was originally thinking of making a sequel, Blanktris 2, but after thinking about it for awhile, I feel that I have to be firm on my own policy of NEVER making any kind of sequels for any game (to make way for creativity). So.. I'm going to build Blanktris from the ground up again, bigger and better than the original, but I'll still be continueing the versioning. Since the 'final' version of Blanktris was v1.6, prepare to see the new and improved Blanktris at about v2.something.

Since Blanktris, at its initial form, took about 3 weeks to make, I'm expecting something similar for the new facelift, but I'm gonna do abit more planning and scheduling to make sure I do this right. I will try to include the status of the game after every blog post.


Blanktris Status: v1.6: PLANNING STAGE DAY 1

Thats All Folks!

Hey ho, finally got my finals all settled and I am now officially FREE! Now I can really do what I want to do: Develop Games (with a healthy dose of game playing of course). Life will be tough, but at least I'm into it full steam from now on. :D

Right. So next in my TODO list is to get a a girlfriend. Any takers?

On the Beaches of Paradise

Okay, so far everything has been smooth, assignments and projects all well taken cared of. Whats left is of course some written final exams, which I am absolutely certain I will ace.

Now I will just relax for a bit, study for the exams, then I can finally start on a brand new game project and embark on my new freelancing lifestyle. I am still abit uncertain of what my life would be like floating around as a freelancer, but I am willing to take the risk.

Definitely beats having to program something I don't like for someone in exchange for a paycheck!

Cruising on Hells Highway

Interesting week to say the least. The progress on the remaining 2 assignments is going good, although a slighty little abit rushed :P .

But you really don't want to hear any more about my academics, now would you? Just yesterday there was some kind of power outage + phone line disconnects going on in my neighbourhood. That left me internet-less for about 12 hours. Only now I realized how much my friends and I are dependant on the Internet. Let me tell you more...

At the first sign of the lack of connection, people were still calm and steady, thinking its just a minor, temporary disconnection. But as time goes by and the phone lines confirmed dead, people were just standing around as if they just lost their will to live. After it became evident that we had to spend the night senseless, we went around searching for things to do, like single player games. Anyone remember those?

Well, it wasn't that worse off for me, I still had to complete a programming assignment (I just had to mention it!), and other that, a PS2 and a bunch of games I've yet to even start playing yet (RE4 comes to mind...). And so ends Day 1.

Everyone was optimistic in the morning, thinking the previous night was just a nightmare, something that will end after waking up. Too bad. PS2 is a life saver.

Towards lunch time, to my delight, my phone line rose to life once more. I immediately start tasting the sweet sweet honey that is the Internet. I was tired, so I decided to queue up some downloads and go take an afternoon nap.

Only after I woke up, I realized that the rest of the house (which uses a saparate second phone line to go online) hasn't recovered their connection yet. o.O. Unfortunately, I didn't think of sharing mine AT THE TIME, thinking its just a matter of time before they get theirs back (Yeah I know, flawed logic, but Hey, I'm not a saint). Besides, they were on their way out to early dinner and didn't come back till late at night. So I just finished up my assignment, sent it to the right people, and played some Guild Wars :D.

But after they came back, and found out the connection on their side is still out, the pressure was on me to share my connection. And so everyone was happy. Except me, but only a little (can't download for god knows how many nights).

Wow that was a long story, hope you enjoyed hearing about how selfish I am. Cheers!

Threading the Edge of Chaos

Surprisingly, this week there has been a lull in the work load. Everything on my part has been done and all I need to do is to wait for my project partner to finish his side of the deal. After that, its just the matter of packaging it and shipping it to our supervisors. :)

The worse thing is, I'm stuck playing Random Arenas in Guild Wars for the week. Can't seem to find anything else interesting to do. I need to go get some new games like Kingdom Hearts 2 or something before I go nuts.

Yeah. I need a girlfriend.

Its the Final Countdown.

In another 2 weeks everything that's anything is going down and getting done. In this 2 weeks everything that has to be done is going to get done, no matter what.

Great.

Now I just hope I don't fall down and die one of these days.

Where is the Love?

So another week has passed. The Symbian 3D game engine is just about complete, only missing the sound component. The next hurdle to pass is a complete game demo that can show off its features. Good luck to me.

In other news, the Marketing website (one of my many assignments) is I might say is about 75% done, with me needing to finalize the shopping cart system as well as prepare a quick-order system.

I also need to prepare a Media Law presentation concerning whether Freedom of Expression should be absolute. Lotsa fun on that one.

Next in line would be a report on Internet Security as part of an assignment for my Professional Ethics subject. Hopefully I don't need to do much on it :P

There are 2 more programming assignments in my inbox that I haven't even started on, despite the initial design and whatnot decided on...

And thus, with all this in mind, all 6 jobs, I have to manage my stress level and plow on unmercilessly. Life really is unfair.

Wake me up when April Ends

In case you were wondering why I didn't update the blog for the past 2 weeks, I was actually hard at work completing the final year project, a Symbian 3D Game Engine, that needs to be done and fully documented by the end of April.

I only found time to blog now that I've just passed a major hurdle in the development of the engine, and hopefully things will be going smoother after this. I also have a Law exam tonight, so Good Luck to me I guess.

Live Long and Prosper.

Numbness in my arm

Me: ...
Nurse: Whats your name? *checking my particulars*
Me: Low... Jason Low.
Nurse: OK. *Tightens pressure on my right arm*
Me: ...
Nurse: *Takes out anesthetics needle* Do you need anesthetics?
Me: ... No?
Nurse: *Puts back anesthetics needle*
Me: (Gulp)
Nurse: *Takes out protective covering from the tip of the blood bag, revealing the thick needle*
Me: (Can I change my mind about the Aaarggghh.....)
Nurse: *Stabs me in the arm*
Me: (Hmm. That feels different...)
Nurse: *Looks at the bag and walks away*
Me: (Guess I don't need anesthetics after all.)

Recovery!

Been sick for the past 5 days or so. Don't you just hate the 'sick' feeling that seems to last for more than 3 days? It just lingers there making your life miserable.

Anyways I'm feeling better now. I got to continue with my final year stuff and assignments soon... before I go even more behind schedule.

The Layer Cake of Electronic Entertainment

Heres abit from Raph Koster himself, about the 4 layers of a game: Mechanical, Statistical Variation, Metaphor, Narrative. Quite an interesting read. Some successful games were built starting from the Mechanical level, while some were built from the Narrative level, and the rest from a healthy balance of the two. Personally, I prefer the balanced approach. :D

The Future of Software Engineering : Product Design

I just came across this very interesting article by Danc describing the Evolution of software development towards Product Design. I can't agree more with him. Programmers and Designers just didn't work well togather in the past. But now, I'm just not too sure. The new generation of programmers and designers are really bridging the gap. I guess the only way to know for sure is to wait and see. A nice illustration of the whole evolution process is well presented in his article as well. :)

Grflfphtdorf.

Gah I feel like an idiot. I finally got in contact with a girl I really like and I think I really fumbled it up. The conversation just died midway. I just can't seem to think straight. My hands start sweating and my heartbeat starts racing. I only felt like this one other time before and I thought it was love. Maybe I still do...

I can only hope I do better next time. IF theres a next time that is....

Japanese RPG Designs

A few days ago I attended a gathering of sorts about Games Design. They were coming up with great RPG story ideas, but nothing about the actual game design. They were like, writing a novel. Of course, the concensus of the party was that Game Writing should come before Game Design. I have no problems with that. This is what the Japanese RPG developers have been doing for years!

They might not have great writing experience nor training, but they came up with the Setting, the Theme, and even a Plot. Not bad for a bunch of 20+ year old game designer wanna-bes. They had to stop at the plot due to time constaints, and I have no doubt they will continue next week on the characters and later individual scenes (which will no doubt take alot more time).

Even with a good story, the game ain't made till the game design gets sorted out. And thats where the hard part REALLY begins.

Urban Renewal

After a week or 2 mulling over the state of my life, I've came up with a new plan (yeah, another one) to improve my lifestyle.

I realised I need to cut down on the electronic entertainment and start taking care of my health, my social life, and my projects (and my laundry). Suffice to say, its going to be quite a challenge limiting my gaming activities with some kickass games like Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. But I'm gonna try hard this time around.

By the way, I made strides in the Symbian Mobile 3D Game Engine project and at last I have a base to work on. I still have some chinks to work out though...

And on a happy note, I just found out from Jeremy, my housemate, that his sister is single! I guess its a better time than any to kickstart my turning over my new leaf. Wish me luck :)

Smooth Sailing (I think)

Nothing really interesting this week apart from meeting my housemate Paul's Japanese language lecturer, Shin, during our V-Day Buffet Dinner (Bad Idea). Quite an interesting fellow, reminds me of a typical 27 year old bum living in urban Tokyo. Heh.

On a totally different note, I finally figured out how to run those Symbian examples from the Nokia SDK for our final year project. Its only a matter of time before we complete our games engine.

And no. I still haven't found a girlfriend. But I have a good feeling I'll find one soon!

Sad and Lonely...

Well, was just done with the first week of the new semester, and all is well. Except that Valentines day is just around the corner and I'm unable to celebrate it... again. I always tell myself my time ain't here yet, yadda yadda, but its days like this that I feel un-loved somewhat. :(

The 15 days celebrations of the Lunar New Year is drawing to an end, and everything is normal in the world once again. Heres wishing a good year to all, may your aspirations come closer to reality and your dreams closer to ideas. As for me, I still have to complete my final year project before its too late.....

Happy Lunar New Year 2006

Yup thats why the blog hasn't been updated for the last 2 weeks or so... I'm busy enjoying my holidays :D . The Fire Dog year is upon us this time around and it seems like a pretty auspicious year for me. I hereby wish everyone a lucky and prosperous Chinese New Year!

As for my other endeavors, not much progress has been made.. yet. Right now I'm just chilling with Guild Wars and Battlefield 2, but as the new (and FINAL, I hope) semester of my university education starts next week, I reckon I'll be doing some serious business soon. So why not enjoy while I still can? Heheh.

A new year, a new fear

My string of presentation went through without a hitch and and is well again. Right now I only have a final paper and a final assignment to complete. Its all smooth sailing again.

I recently borrowed a book called "Creating Emotion In Games" by David Freeman from my local university library and it is proving to be quite a good read. I've really learnt much about game writing and design reading the book.

For the past week or so I've been playing Battlefield 2 and its expansion Special Forces almost every day. Often times when you get a good team and a good squad going on its a blast, but many times you can be stuck without one and you're pretty much rambo-ing the game + many deaths and respawns.

Happy New Year 2006

It just turned 1st January 2006 30 minutes ago. My new years resolution? To play more games of course. :D Now for some new years gaming goodness.....

Happy New Year!