It’s also a nice idea brainstorming site where I introduce a theme and everyone contributes a game idea. Go have a look-see. And spread the word ;)

http://www.bonkify.com – Yes I even went as far as getting that domain name :3

Braid: The game I wish I created. Gameplay, level design and in-depth storytelling makes this game an indie gem.

The way I see it, both sides of the doujin world have their pros and cons. In the west gameplay is key, but the games tend to be a one-off thing. The universe is only exclusive to that game itself. You had a good time, but you won’t be seeing a Wiki about its game universe nor will you be joining a fan club of the characters in Facebook anytime soon.

But because the game designer hops from one game to the next, you see an evolution of game design techniques and experimentation. From Cloud to Flow to Flower, Jenova Chen of thatgamecompany continues to impress me and many others with every single game he comes up with. You can even see his innovative thought process in GDC 2010, where he came up with the concept of Heavenville. Every game is like a breath of fresh air.

Those who own a PS3, do yourself a favour and download Flower now. It’s cheap and it’s worth every single penny in your credit card bill.

Touhou: A shmup game series created by one guy, Zun, with its own expanded universe and extensive wiki pages. Plushies, a few indie animation shorts and thousands of Youtube videos were passionately created by his fans.

In Japan, however, they focus more on the game world. No doubt the games are fun, but being absorbed into the world and being able to mingle with the characters is a huge plus point for a Japanese. To an average Japanese doujin gamer, the Touhou universe (created by only one man) is similar to the Star Wars universe; the characters and world view are consistent throughout the series. Fans of the universe are everywhere throughout the world, in fact they have a fan convention for the Touhou universe itself few times a year.

You may check out Touhou’s extensive wiki database here, which includes pages of comprehensive info on the game’s 26 locations, 30 bestiary entries and 120 characters.

Touhou is not the only one that deserves this credit: Melty Blood, Fate/Stay Night, Naku Koro ni series and many more. So much so that a lot of demands made some of these series become commercialized. This phenomenon is something very rare in the western doujin world, though more common in western commercial works.

However, focusing on the universe also means that the game designer tends to stay on the safe side. The next game in the series will expand your view of the universe, not necessarily expand your fun. Maybe some slight changes in game mechanics, but rarely a major overhaul. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, they say.

As a game designer, I value both. I believe that a good game immerses you in two ways: a believable universe (story, characters, graphics) and good gameplay. This post is more about the latter, though the games don’t falter in the former either.

Comiket, a huge convention for any Japanese to open their own booth and sell their independent products; and the Independent Games Festival, a major target for indie game developers worldwide. Both pave way for superb talent.

In Japan, being able to express your skills by opening your own booth in conventions is the major motivation behind creating a doujin work. In the western world it’s all about contests, baby! Either way is great, as long as it opens paths for new-comers to show off their works. And impressive works, they are!

Let’s start with the recent 2010 Independent Games Festival. Some of the awesome winners:

Monaco, won Seamus McNally Grand Prize + Excellence in Design. Brings me back to the old days of my Atari computer, but the major keypoint here is the multiplayer feature. Looks fun!

Limbo, won Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence. It’s like Another World but with a darker touch.

Closure, won Excellence in Audio. I dunno why it just won in audio, I’d say the gameplay deserves an award for its outstanding innovation! Try it for yourself: click here.

Continuity, won Student Showcase Winner. Oooooh you should try this one. The level and puzzle design are amazing! This is my personal recommendation for those who haven’t tried it yet. You’ll regret not clicking here to play the game!

For a year plus, Epic Games has held the “Make Something Unreal” contest by letting participants use the Unreal engine to create something… uh, unreal. The results were finally announced recently, and they are amazing! Gotta love ‘em mods.

Grand Prize Winner: The Haunted.

2nd Prize: The Ball. My personal fave of the three.

3rd Prize: Angels Fall First.

As you can see, the doujin works in the West continue to impress us with their gameplay, and their universe design is far from stale. Way far. Long live the independent spirit of the world!

(Special thanks to Yuz of Simply Games! blog for the constant update on the scene)

Phew, finally some rest. Am waiting for the results from Squeenix. Also, I sorted out my Sapporo pics (at long last!) but am lazy to post them up for now :P  Meanwhile, enjoy the following two openings and hopefully they will unlock some fun memories for you as they did for me.

A truly underrated anime. Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora is a tragic but bittersweet story of two sick teenagers who met in a hospital. What I like about it is that almost the entire show is set in that hospital, so the imagery of being sick within a confined environment with bad news coming to you at any moment is conveyed rather powerfully.

On top of the OP’s great music, there are a lot of symbolic messages hidden in it as well. It may seem so normal, but the very image of the girl wearing a school uniform itself can be meaningful to those who have watched it. To those who prefer live action, there’s also the J-drama version.

One of the best PC game openings for me. My diploma multimedia project involved being in a make-believe company that makes game trailers, called Scream Interactive. The C is in a shape of a Pacman. Creative huh? Thief:The Dark Project was one of the team’s video editing demos.

Since then, I got hooked to the game. This is during the time when hiding-instead-of-attacking games were hot (MGS, anyone?). The game rocks too, both gameplay-wise and graphics-wise. Truly a masterpiece! Though, since my computer didn’t evolve at that time, I didn’t play the graphically-demanding sequels :P

I was thinking this blog gets a little lonely when I get busy. And indeed I’ve been busy these few days. So being the irresponsible blogger that I am, I do what I do best: share YouTube vids!

I came up with this ground-breaking idea with two intentions in mind:

+ To remind you of memorable anime and games that are not in your recent memory. Uh, you get what I mean right?

+ I encourage the whole lot of you who don’t know these anime and games to watch the OPs. It takes less than 5 minutes of your time. Judge them based on animation, pace, music, whatever… or just sit back and enjoy the show.

All in all, I’ll choose the more tasteful ones for everyone to enjoy. They’re not based on priority, just random picks, limited to the ones I actually watched and played.

One anime OP and game OP will be posted at least once a week, but I might do it more often. Who needs rules eh? Anyway, here we go!

Niea_7. A very unique slice-of-life setting of aliens living among humans in a laid-back rural neighbourhood. That’s the reason for its self-proclaimed “domestic poor animation” lol. Man, you gotta love that voice.

In my list of top 10 RPGs of all time. As normal as it may look, the scene at the very end where the 3 characters are overlooking a valley was one of my most memorable gaming moments ever.

You haven’t lived life till you write a game design proposal in Japanese!

Some game companies need applicants to write a 10-page game proposal (Square Enix needed 2 pages). So I quickly picked up a game design book in Japanese and randomly searched for game titles in the Japanese wiki to obtain some game tango. Words like:

仮想世界 (kasousekai) – Imaginary world
新たな領域 (aratanaryouiki, not zettai ryouiki ok!) – New territory
世界観は信じさせること (sekaikan wa shinjisaserukoto) – Immersed into the world
探索する (tansakusuru) – Explore/Go on a quest
ソーシャルダイナミクス (sousharudainamikusu) – Social dynamics
多人数同時参加型オンラインRPG (taninzuudoujisankakeionrain.R.P.G) – Massively Multiplayer Online RPG

Woo, what a mouthful. And not to forget レベルアップ (reberuappu) – Level up!

After that, it was off to Microsoft Word! I averaged three hours of sleep per day for the past week thanks to this bugger. But finally I’m done. I have to say, I’m proud of myself (ehek) coz when I asked the teacher to check the document, there were less mistakes than I expected. Pretty minor too. I seriously couldn’t believe that I could write a proper proposal in Japanese, but I did :)

Stuff like active and passive verbs still haunt me to this very day though.

Of course, nothing communicates better than drawings. My ugly drawings, that is ^^;;

At least I’m improving (I *think*). Following all my friends’ advice, I used my eyes to follow shapes instead of tracing. Whoa, I sound like an expert :P Greater emphasis on “sound like”.

I’m proposing a new MMORPG mechanism that’s categorically different from WoW, coz in the game design world, if you can’t beat ‘em DON’T join ‘em. Few of you might know what I’m talking about, but for the rest it’s a secret hehehe.

Now that I have patted myself on the back, let’s see whether game companies would pat my back as well. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, it’s time to get that much needed 8-hour sleep (maybe more?). Good night everyone.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Was busy compiling my portfolio, went to the gym and had dinner in Matsuya… alone. Yet another ronery Christmas for me.

The other thing I did in the past week was surfing Pixiv, YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, so I compiled all the awesome Christmas stuff I found from Japan and put them in this post. I am Santa and you’ve been a good kid.

The picture above was taken in Shinjuku station day before yesterday. If you’re a romance anime buff like me, I fully recommend Kimi ni Todoke from past autumn. It’s such a sweet warm anime that you can snuggle up to it on cold winter nights. Moreover, it’s animated by Production I.G and has Noto Mamiko’s voice. Ahhh, Sawako in that hoodie…

Let’s start first with some Pixiv fanart that I deem the best of the 2009 collection.

A nice warm scene drawn by BoniiFuto ボニー太.

When you can’t get a reindeer of your own. Nice colouring by Fuuta フータ.

Starry sky on a holy night. Created by Guma ぐま.

Haruhi is up to no good again. Won’t be receiving any presents this year either. By 9tori ９鳥.

The colour combo look great, somehow this gives me an idea to create my own rendition of such kind. Created by 87 (yea that’s his pixiv name).

Should I be overjoyed and greet him, or follow my instinct and chase him? Drawn by hrt.

Awwww, look at what Chibi-Miku got for Christmas. Created by luu.

Wish a Godzillion wonderful moments happen to you too, Miya (the artist).

Poor Miku, I guess that’s the problem with having green hair. Drawn by Saku さく.

A nice sinister rendition of Santa by TREIZE.

See, I told you to buy a house with a chimney. Drawn by Takefuto 岳太.

Random and childlike, very nice! Click here to see it in original size. Drawn by Uryu うりゅ.

Now we move on to the videos!

Ah, Ranma 1/2. My first true anime love. This is the ending of the second OVA christmas special. Used to download Quicktime movies of all the openings, endings and DoCo music videos back in 1997. Do you have any idea how long each download took at that time? Nothing can stop a Ranma fan!

Remember Love Hina, the show that defined harem anime in general? Its christmas special had one of the sweetest anisong I heard, Winter Wish. No PVs available, so you gotta settle for this equally beautiful guitar transition. You can listen to the original song here.

When I think of Christmas and games combined, the first thing that comes to mind is Christmas NiGHTs for the Sega Saturn. Back to when Sonic Team was good *sigh*. Just fly around and collect stuff; such simple gameplay yet the whole thing has a strong concept, at least for me. Skip to 3:50 if you wanna see the gameplay.

Speaking of Sega, they released this Christmas promotional video for their latest game, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. All was fine until the part the lady sang “Aaaannnddd a heeedgeehooog caaalled Sooooooniiiiiic”. So lame =_=;;

AND speaking of games, this was Sony’s greeting card to their business partners this year. Wish it snowed PS3 here. People might die but at least I’ll get a PS3 for free.

A beautiful short animation created by Mitsukawa Maboro. This guy does animation works (mainly in Flash) about a girl who’s very lonely. I dunno what the details are, but the video is definitely enough to stir up my emotions. Comes with Chopin’s beautiful music rendition too.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is one heck of a musician. He has made a name for himself by winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe award and a Grammy award. Talk about being greedy lol. His most popular piece has gotta be this one, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Needless to say, it’s beautiful. In YouTube and NicoNicoDouga you can find many fan-made remixes and renditions of the song, shows how influential this dude really is.

For you people who like a more youthful vibe (read: handsome young men), then you can listen to this one, Exile’s Holy Night. The A Capella version is nice too.

Hey look it’s Gackt *hears many girls screaming*. Alright then, this song needs no introduction, it’s simply one of his greatest hits, December Love Song.

Rewind back to the mid-80s where we had Yamashita Tatsuro sing “Christmas Eve”, which became an instant hit. To an average Japanese, this song is considered to be the standard Christmas song. JR used the song to advertise their Christmas CMs as well. I’m sure some of you have heard the English version, but this is the original one. You decide which one’s better!

Or if you think that’s too much of an oldie (how old are you anyway?!), then you can go for the rap version. Eh, not really my type, but at least it’s by Kick the Can Crew. Like their songs when I was first introduced to them in my previous office.

Another beautiful Christmas song, this time by B’z. Even if you’re not their fan, I’m sure you’ve heard it some time or another. Don’t you just love that husky singing voice?

Bump of Chicken don’t only sing One Piece songs ok! This is a new down-to-earth Christmas song by them this year. Very soothing. The original MTV had its embedding disabled *grumble* but if you wanna watch it, click here.

Ok enough of guys man, sheez! An energetic hip rendition of Last Christmas by Foxxi misQ. So which one do you wanna see under your christmas tree tonight? ;)

Komaneko is a little kid’s show for Cartoon Network Japan, and they had this seasonal ending theme up, sang by Solita. There’s just something about the French language that triples the romance of a song, don’t you agree?

Wanna kick it up a notch with the “mengada” (roughly translated to English, “ARGH”) factor? I present to you little boys group singing Winter Wonderland!

Watch all the stupidity and humour that is the Japanese commercial in this compilation, all for this year’s Christmas. Look out for Nodame and Tommy Lee Jones!

How about a cute computer-rendered voice singing Silent Night? You know I can’t escape Miku’s charms rite? :D The PVs well made too.

And to end the post, we have Osaka sing Jingle Bells. Or should I say arranged to make it *look* like she’s singing Jingle Bells. Tomo (who doesn’t believe in reindeers) and Chiyo-chan joins in the fun as well. Esukareta~ Erebeta~ Sataaa Andagiii~

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope you’re not all alone and writing a blog post on this merry day.

You know it was a matter of time before I make a Sonic-related post.

I have come to a hard-hitting conclusion that I cannot afford a PS3 for another year or so. I have therefore lived my pitiful existence by browsing through PS3 playthroughs on YouTube and *imagine* that I have a PS3. The Fullscreen-HD mode can do wonders to the mind!

It’s been a year since Sonic Unleashed, uh, unleashed. That time, hope started to glimmer. It soon faded out when Sonic became a werehog (facepalm) and Chip the irritating sidekick comes in (double facepalm), but let’s not talk about that ^^;;

As much as a lot of us hate the recent 3d makeovers, me included, we gotta admit that Sonic’s 2D to 3D transition is tricky business. Still, the day stages show that the developers really thought the whole Sonic gameplay over and gave him the speed that he deserved. Here are some improvements I noticed, based on my *ahem* imaginary playtests:

• The shoulder buttons are used to jump rail-to-rail or sidestep. In previous 3D games, it was more of  “ok here goes… NOOOOOO…!!”.
• Getting hit won’t disrupt most of your actions. Last time, getting hit while rail gliding means byebye rail and hello chasm of death!
• Level design comes with fixed camera angles most of the time, rather than free-roaming. Not quite, but close to 2D gameplay.
• A priority targeting display for your homing attacks, so you know where you’ll be going.
• View from the back or front gets skewered when you run fast enough. Also, the background music fades out, leaving only a simpler tune. All this giving you that illusion of speed.
• Of course, superb graphics.

Ok enough talk. Time for YouTube videos, yo! Ordered by level, and needless to say, spoiler alert.

A laid-back island theme, starting with a tutorial level. And yes, the appearance of Chip. Oh gawd. After that stewpid cutscene, have a look at the proper level. It’s beautiful, yet level design is straight-forward and easy. Then he changes to a werehog, the best part of Sonic Unleashed. [/sarcasm]

Next is an african theme. Check out the skidding! A change in the environment from time to time is a big plus. Although you can see few bugs popping out already, the gameplay is easily recoverable. Also check out the boss at the end.

The classic theme of ice. I love the song in this one, fits with the level and gives you positive energy during a gym workout! The whale and bobsled thingies are so gimmicky, but being gimmicky is what Sonic does best :P

This is Hunchback of Notredame on drugs. Apparently the popular favourite, this level balances out the scenery, the perspectives, keeps the action moving at all times and still maintains a certain level of difficulty. You gotta hand it to the developer; Sonic going into that seemingly decorative rows of houses in the background is awesome.

Ah, a chinese-level theme. If you’re traveling around the world in a game, you just gotta stop by China rite? Here, the background begins to show its true lushness. Is it just me, or those fireworks need a little more bang?

Sonic and the Secret Rings anyone? Don’t really like this level, too many objects and contraptions get in the way of feel-good moments.

Welcome to San Francisco! Sonic can climb buildings, there’s no stopping him! I actually love the part where Sonic passes in front the toll gates instead of running through it, this gave me the illusion that Sonic is moving around the space, not just going in a fixed direction.

Well well, ain’t this a surprise! A level with a South-East Asian theme? :D It is so reminiscent of my Bali trip. The song rocks too, in a traditional remix kind of way. Being the 2nd last day level, it has many difficult parts but still keeps the pace up to speed. The scenery is beautiful too. Just hate the laggy parts.

I’m not gonna show the last level, because it’s excruciatingly painful to watch. The cool part is that you switch from hedgehog to werehog and back DURING the level itself, but unfortunately there are more werehog parts =_=

Here’s hoping that future Sonic games bring back this essence of gameplay, minus the werehogs, comic reliefs, princesses and swords.

Even if you have no idea what Touhou is, watch it for the visuals. This has gotta be the most stylized and tastefully designed Touhou-related video I have ever seen. Features most of the popular characters in the Touhou universe.

Again, the power of doujin culture shines with bewildering creativity. Thanks, Zun.

Oh man, this dude played most of the PS1 games I played. And I finished a whole bunch of them!

I don’t agree with all of his opinions but it’s just great to see us both playing almost the same games. I even have that Lunar original limited edition box at the end! Still have that cloth map till this very day. We’re awesome :3 Should try out FF9 sometime.

Oh there are two vital differences. All of his stuff were original :P And I refuse to wear a Sephiroth T-shirt. I like the guy, but I ain’t putting him on my chest.

My first game was FF7. Didn’t know much about J-RPGs back then, so when they reached the Midgar highway climax, I thought it was over. That’s like less than 5% of the entire world! Whatever it is, it started my love for J-RPGs. Other games that I love in that list are:

• Lunar: Silver Star Story (PSP remake FTW)
• Brave Fencer Musashi (OH GOD I LOVE THIS GAME)
• Final Fantasy Tactics (Mathematician in the battlefield? Now we’re talking!)
• Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
• Vagrant Story (didn’t finish the game due to projects *sob*)
• Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2
• Thousand Arms (Dating sim + RPG? Why not!)
• Threads of Fate (nothing like a girl with hoops)
• Xenogears (didn’t finish this one due to disc problems, grrr)
• Legend of Mana

Hey where’s Grandia?! That was awesome too. Sorry, I don’t really like Chrono Cross and Suikoden 2, coz I hate games with many playable characters. Prefer Chrono Trigger to Cross anytime. Still, my favourite RPG is Skies of Arcadia and seems like it’ll be for a very very long time.

Sigh, college days. Was so free to play many RPGs. Someone, anyone, please create a time machine. And post it to my apartment. Thanx.

(Thanks to Iffah for the video!)

When I was writing my TGS post, I couldn’t find the FFXIII trailer that I watched in awe that day. Someone has finally uploaded it. Story, emotion, gameplay, music. Enjoy!