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!

Yup, the biggest life-altering change has arrived: I have left (if ). A total shocker to almost anyone I know. Even Randolph said he wanted to buy lottery tickets!

It’s not really the end of my relationship with (if ); I just resigned my full-time post there, that’s all. The bosses are still interested to have me in their future plans and what not, so I still have some part-time stuff with them.

But it’s amazing, really. For three plus years, my life basically REVOLVED around (if ). I guess that’s exactly why I resigned from (if ), to get my life back on track. I was so committed to (if ) to the point that I hadn’t enough commitment for my own well-being.

Oh btw, I just finished one helluva project! What a way to end my job with a bang! Please visit this URL to have a look-see: http://www.discoverychannelasia.com/i_videogame.

Anyway, Sanyen told me that there’s gonna be a farewell party, so I’ll cover that in my later post. For now, it’s a good time to have a little reminiscence about my life in (if ), the life that I’ll be missing for months or possibly years to come:

This is Plaza Damas at 8:30 in the morning. When I took this pic, I slept in the office and woke up for some breakfast. Ah, what a life :D

This is the entrance to the office. We had only a very unimpressionable door as an entrance months ago, and now look at this cool see-through thing. A sign that (if ) has grown.

And it even comes with a security keypad! Hope they won’t change the combination number when I’m away :(

The (if ) lobby. We had quite a renovation towards the end of last year, so this is really the first time (if ) actually had a proper lobby (if you wanna call it that).

During Christmas, instead of that tall lamp you see above, we had a Christmas tree! We were quite resourceful; we actually used the 2005 Christmas tree for 2006. Haha.

We were designated a colleague to give a present to, and luckily I got Saiful. He loves cars, so I bought some car key chains. ;) Ho ho ho…

Last year, there was an attempted break-in into the office! Luckily for us, one of the locks could not be forced open. So the management decided to build in a security system.

Ah, I just love those moments when you press the “Exit” button, then you have to lock the doors and switch off some lights within 45 seconds before the office explodes (hey, sometimes you gotta assume stuff to make life more interesting!)

We have a punch card system, but I never really used it, much to the management’s dismay. Juniors, please don’t follow this senior’s footstep ok!

And just above the punch card machine are the big awards. Count ‘em all! 7 MC2 awards in 2005 and 6 Kancil awards won last year. Ah, good times, good times…

I have to say that I’m the one who uses the water cooler the least amount of times in (if ). Bad for my health, I know… but that long walk to the water cooler… ahhh, lazy…

This is where we store the stock water, besides the toilet! Sometimes (if )ians consume water way quicker than the management could restock. When that happens, it’s time to ask the “supermarket delegate” to buy you a drink! “Eh, one Season crysanthemum tea tin yea”, “eh… buy one M&Ms peanut…”, “Oh oh! Get me Hot Latte, Grande size” (ok no reward for guessing who ordered the Latte…)

The very rude toilet door :D Last time there were (if )ians who never closed the door after they used it, so Birdie took the initiative and printed out this “friendly notice”.

As if that wasn’t enough, we have more polite instructions below the rude one, in many languages! Now there’s no freaking excuse for you to leave that door open! Birdie: “Yea, in your face!”.

This is the main office space. I agree that it’s a little messy, but don’t you think it adds to the “homeliness” of the entire interior design? :P

This is Nyin’s monitor, full of cute pink stuff (ok, with one purple stuff and one tiny yellow stuff too).

We keep telling her that the doll on the extreme left is a bear, but she insists that it’s a panther (you know, pink panther… get it?). Jason had this knack of turning the panther backwards, then Nyin corrects it, then Jason turns it away again… and the cycle goes on. Just when you thought that the cycle stops as Jason leaves (if ), Saiful continues the tradition! :D

And the dog at the back is amazing… it’s entirely made of paper! There was this one project that had Nyin research into 3D paper crafts. The paper craft thingy was cancelled, but that didn’t stop Nyin from giving birth (ok that sounded so wrong…) to a paper dog named Scissors!

Nyin’s and Tsuqi’s teddy bears. With this, you can feel the presence of feminity in (if ). Tsuqi is really into her teddy bear and teddy dog, she even talks to them when they’re all alone. 0_0 freeeeaaakkkyyyy…

The poster above Alex’s table. He’s really a sportman. He’s really super fit, and he can do pushups down till a thumb’s length from the floor! A certain girl, please take note yea… ehek~

Sanyen’s lizard.

*Ow!*

ok ok, Sanyen’s bearded dragon!

Breaking a lot of people’s expectations, Sanyen’s pet has grown bigger and is healthy till this very day. Upon the first few weeks, the pet already had a broken finger, so Sanyen nicknamed him Four-Fingered Freddie. Michelle calls him Iggy, and Sanyen thinks that a magnificient beast does not deserve such a puny little name. What lah.

I like to rub its head once in a while, coz he closes his eyes when I do that. Seems like he enjoys my little rubbing! ^_^ Seems only lah, though, I really don’t know what that lizard is thinking.

*Ow!*

Bearded dragon, bearded dragon!

And finally, we have reached my place, full of anime figurines, anime magazines and a few mangas (only three titles though, “Aishiteruze Baby”, “Yotsubato” and “Genshiken”, all great titles, I assure you!).

You see that speaker over there? That’s right, it’s playing game and anime music! Man, I’m such a nerd :P Not pictured here (below the table) are the very symbols of working hard in (if ): a pillow and a sleeping bag :D.

Alright, enough of work. Let’s chill out…

…in the chill out room! Doesn’t it just look so comfy?! Don’t be deceived, folks, for the sofas have absorbed many of the (if )ians’ salivas! Eh, seriously Sanyen, it’s time to wash the sofa leh…

This is also where we have our client meetings and brainstorming sessions. Whatever ideas we come up with will end up on the glass board above. Imagine, this is where (if )’s core creativity gets manifested!

But of course, one must play to stay creative ;)

Games that (if )ians always play in a group (not everyone plays at the same time, of coz): Winning Eleven, Gradius V, Chu chu rocket, Soul Caliber III, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Bombastic, Puyo Puyo Pop, God of War, Twinkle Star Sprites, Gitaroo Man, Guitar Hero, Drummania and Guitar Freaks…

If you wanna join (if ), it’ll be quite a tough interview session. The management will pop in one of these games, and the interviewer will test your skill against his! (ok, kidding, kidding… don’t be scared, little one)

Ah who cares about the saliva on the sofa, at least half of them were mine! :P~ Well, it’s time to look out the window and bathe in the sunlight… and take a short nap… zzzz…

Man, I’m gonna miss (if )! All the people, the projects, the office, the games, everything! But this is a good opportunity to open up to new possibilities in my life. I think it’s about time that I experience new stuff.

So off I go, (if )ians. Even though I’m leaving the full-time post, I’ll still be working with guys, so it’s not the final farewell. All the best, (if )ians! Always make (if ) great!

And keep the office door opened for me yea, and don’t change the keypad combination lock! :D

I might feel like coming back in the future. Who knows… but until then…

Sayonara, (if )…