Some interesting links

Kevin Smith talks
Watch Kevin Smith giving a talk on his experience with Superman Returns before Bryan Singer got hold of it. Its pretty hilarious with stories about his screw up producer and Warner Bros execs.
Kevin Smith is a cool guy, I can't say I've watched his films but he's damn sarcastic in this interview that I liked him on the spot.
He would make a good writer for superman (LOLz)


Crescent Pale Mist
A pretty decent doujin game, have nice effects and can be made a reference for any would-be game developers. The simple special effects proves that you don't need super flashy effects to make a game look cool.


Stop The Press
A cool superman mini game, you as Jimmy Olsen, star reporter of the Daily Planet tries to capture the best picture of Superman for the front page.
Try it, its fun :D
Its a nicely made game, I really liked the simplicity and the theme fits really well.


Talking Tech
Mark Rosewater explaining the changes that goes thru Magic: the Gathering after 11 years. What makes the current design of MTG different from the older sets of 11 years ago and what they have learned from what the previous developers of MTG.
Its pretty much on the evolution of MTG and thats what draw me to it.
Any budding game developer should read it, to understand what kind of efforts one need to do to make a game successful.


Timmy, Johnny, and Spike Revisited
Mark Rosewater giving the low-down on the different types of players in MTG. Its kinda cool from a game developer's point of view because he went on to the details of these psychological profiles and the needs of these players. Fulfilling them is hard work, but you are able to ensure that the players are happy and your product sells.
Plus the article have a simple test on what type of gamer you are, MTG players should try it out.


Endurance Challenge! Mordred's Isle
OMG this is the most wicked take on reality television ever!!
A reality show in a Dungeon & Dragons setting, now THIS is a reality show that I'd watch!
I loved the character designs and the voice actors are really good in portraying the characters.
What I liked best is when the Orc complaining of double standards on his race.
"Human walks in an orc village, kills everyone, they're heroes. Orcs walks into a human village and kill everyone, and they're monsters!? Thats sounds fair to you?"
I can't stop myself laughing, IT SO TRUE!!!
I've definitely gonna watch the next episode.

oh ya, the shows are made by a studio called "Hatchlings Studios"
I think I've have to tell Key about it, now his company have to be called a different name.


Michael Moore says his Michigan film festival is not political
I'm a big Michael Moore fan, so the article caught my attention.
The article isn't much political, it just Michael Moore explaining about the Michigan Film Festival.
Its more about showing films, good film that never got a change to be show in major cinemas.
Its not about independent films or experimental films, the festival actually shows a number of good films that have little promotion and good foreign films that deserves attention.
I kinda like the concept and I wish MMU has this kind of festival too (T_T)
I'm a huge fan of good films, I don't care much about the popularity or 'blockbuster y' of the film, as long as it have a good and meaningful story and plot, Its on my list :D
I've might lobby for something like this festival with some clubs and societies when I get back to MMU, its worth a try.


( ._.)ø

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Quote of the week -H.P.Lovecraft

"
The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

-- H. P. Lovecraft

                             "

How true it is.... (evil grin)

I've renamed the segment to "Quote of the week", since I can't update the quotes on a daily basis.

( ._.)ø

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Quote of the day -GM without tools

"
well, then your boss is really a dick - what is a GM without the tools?
You guys are reduced to nothing more than spies, or make it uglier by putting it in the player's aspect, the company's underdogs.
--Jad [Alt] Kaizer
                             "


basically how my friend sums it up,
my situation in my company TT_TT


( ._.)ø

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I'm not suited to be a GM

*GM = Game Master


I'm cold-hearted and don't care about the feelings of other players,
as long as the ratings are correct and the matches goes smoothly,
I don't care how pissed off the players are at us.

I cant comment on what the other GMs on my team are doing,
being overly friendly with the players,
thats also the reason the players are walking all over them.

I hate being the bad guy, but someone have to put the foot down,
no more "nice" comments, no more abiding the players needs.

We know the tournament system is flawed, and there's players abusing the system,
whine all about it if you want, we're tied by certain laws to protect ALL of the players rights. Ever if those players cheat, as long as we can't get hold the proof of cheating,
those players are innocent, no matter how much other players complains, its the laws
protecting them that allows such things to happen.

Yesterday I got so fed up that I told one of them that "I care only about the rating system being correct and the matches going smoothly." The kid just log out after that.
I bet he hates me now :/

The people here are suppose to be following company rules, those who don't gets fired, one of the rules of the company is to to be trustworthy and fair to the players, we can screw up anyone else in life, but not while we're handling any e-arena work, so basically im a untrustworthy guy forcing to do trustworthy work.



( ._.)ø

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Quote of the day -Ask questions

"
Being reserved will get you no where,
no one will ask your questions for you.

life is all about survival,
for that you need to gain knowledge.

So ask a question today.
                               "

an original quote by the Psychotic EwA


( ._.)ø

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How people perceive me

I make more enemies than I make friends.

It could be that I like to speak my mind out LOUD...
than carefully plan out what I want to say, so that I don't hurt the feelings of people I talk to.

I never cared about the feelings of other people,
nor do I care about my relationships with them.

I tell the truth from the bottom of my heart,
(the truth that I believe in anyway)
So I always clashed with people with different opinions.
But I have a habit of saying sorry when my opinion is wrong :P
'If its wrong its wrong, you've learned a lesson today' thats how I live my life :)

Is this a valid reason for me to make more enemies?

My sister always commented on me saying that I need to be nice to people,
"in society, you can't live without other people's help" she says
She always nag me about "fitting in" with other people, that I should change myself to fit with others.
ya, right :P
I never listen :D nor do I do anything much to change myself so I can be friends with people around me.

I DO make friends, they are the people who accept me for who I am, and have the same interests as me.
I don't care if they're from different religion or race.
my belief in life is "Acceptance", if you accept others, others will accept you too.
I try not to discriminate against others, I treat everyone with the same respect and trust.
They are the people I can speak my mind to,
and they are the people who will tell me in my face things that I do wrong.


Somehow being picky about friends makes ones 'anti-social'(as they call me),
I don't care if I can't fit in your clique, I don't care if I can't join activities.
I rather be alone than be with snobs that reject anyone who are different.



( ._.) Ø

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Quote(s) of the day -Abraham Lincoln

"
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time
-- Abraham Lincoln
"


I want to thank coffee_ping for bringing it up :)
Abe Lincoln sure have a great insight into the mechanism of goverment
In my opinion, one of history's greatest leaders,
a supporter of equality, he spoke out agaisnt oppression and slavery.

My favorite quote from him is this:
"
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
-- Abraham Lincoln
"

Even though he's refering to his own country, the US of A;
it kind of applied to all countries, even Malaysia.
It is not outsiders that will destroy the country, but the people in it.
If we lose our self and abandon our own culture, our own people,
this country is as good as non-existent at all.
I know a few people who is like this =_="
they prefer staying in New Zealand than staying in this rotten country(they say, ceh)

Thats all fer now,
Jya ne

( ._.)ø

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Google SketchUp

I've been having problems conveying my concepts and views to the artists on the concept of my game maps. Its kinda hard telling people why certain objects are placed in in a map. People always have different views of how a place should be.
It doesn't matter if you think having piles of crates or warehouses is normal in factory/industrial area, they will argue with you that its "visually" doesn't suit the map, and changed the out door scene into an indoor (inside of factory) one.

In the end the artists always draws and modeled the things that they want and generaly screws all of my level designs. Just because they can't get what my original idea nad concept looks like.

Recently, my supervisor for the game dev project, Azfar introduced an interesting tool to me.
A simple program called Google SketchUp.

Its a really powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying simple 3D models.
With SketchUp, I'm able to convey what my vision looks like in full 3D, than just top down view layouts or lists of measurements of areas.


A sample I did, its more of a obstacle course and have no relation to the game my company is doing XD

Give it a try, it might help you in your game dev projects.

Jya ne

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Quote of the day -Freedom of Speech

"
the Psychotic Ewa supports the freedom of speech
he hates you and he is damn proud of it
                               "


an original quote by the Psychotic EwA


( ._.)ø

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Quote of the day

"
...So there was this guy at work today, who brought back a copy of Madden '06 because it wouldn't play in his son's Xbox.
He starts mumbling about how when he was young, he never had to worry about his baseball being compatable with his glove or his bat.
And before i can stop myself, i blurt out "true. but no one ever died chasing their Xbox into the street."
                               "


quoted from: bash.org


( ._.)ø

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Top Ten Video Game Weapons

It kinda caught my attention :P

Top Ten Video Game Weapons
1. Gravity Gun from Half-life 2
2.Red Turtle Shell from Mario Cart
3. BFG from Doom series
4.Ice Beam from Metroid
5.Energy Sword from Halo series
6.Laptop Gun from Perfect Dark series
7.Rail gun from Quake 2
8.Spread Gun from Contra series
9.Chainsaw from Doom series
10.Cerebral Bore from Turok series

the list compiled by gametrailers.com

you can view the video clip at Youtube


( ._.)ø

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Quote of the day

A: [wned
B: I like how you mistyped 'pwned' as [wned when pwned itself is an intentional reproduction of the common mistyping of owned
B: I have a feeling that in a few years people will be typing \wned without any shred of irony

quoted from Bash.org


( ._.)ø

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I'm an over-eager 'student'

I went to a meeting with a Japanese client today.
I'm suppose to be the assistant to the Game designer,
but somehow I'm screwing up by butting in with ideas without thinking about the limitations in the game.

I look like a damn "over-eager game student", as some game developers might call them.
even our client, Mr Akimoto seems to realized this,
but he's kind enough to help out by giving ideas while giving space for limitations.
A professional indeed :)

There's a phrase Mr Akimoto used while explaining what he thinks is important in designing a game map,
"Like planting a single flower in the middle and have everthing else revolves around it"
to put it more bluntly, the translator says:
"like putting in the Eiffel tower, and the players will think the area is Paris"

Another point Mr Akimoto sees as important is the harmony of the objects in the game map, instead of item filling the map, the items should be natural and balance out the feel of the map's theme.

I've learned a lot today. Now have to go back redesigning the game maps :p

Thats all for now :p
Jya ne

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Hirano Aya ...Kawaii~~desu

I'm a fan of Suzumiya Haruhi :p
so that makes me a fan of Hirano Aya, the seiyuu for Haruhi.
this clip really caught me, its amazing the way she can change her voice from cute(high pitch) to mature (low pitch).


Hirano Aya's real voice is soooooo much different from Haruhi!!! (in Hey Hey Hey Music Champ)

*translation of the interview with Hey Hey Hey Music Champ (by Omni)

Long Live Haruhism XD



-More of her interviews (with NTV)
-Interview with Anipara Guest Talk
-Interview with Hirano Aya in a recording studio

what are you waiting for?
convert to Haruhism now!!
Jya Ne :p

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I hate GDC....a random musing

GDC is the "Game Development Club" in my university that I joined.

I hate to say it, but the club is getting more problematic than what I've expected this year.
Without any enthusiasm or response from members, its slowly dying out.

From what I've heard from other people(since I cant go to the meetings in Cyberjaya), the new High Committee are comprised of people who don't want to join but are assigned posts by the last year's president, John. (Heard a rumor that the new president is John's girlfriend,but I'm not sure)

I cant say that John's move is bad (seeing that he wants to save the club from dying), but this creates an even bigger problem, letting go of the 'soul' of the club.

Not only choosing an entire High Committee without an open election is constitutionally wrong in the university's society and club rules, it beats the purpose of having a club or society.

A club or society is suppose to be a gathering of people of similar interest. Most of the clubs and societies in MMU fit this archetype. GDC is suppose to be the same.

We are not living FOR the club, but the club is suppose to live FOR us.

If there are less members or the current members are less enthusiastic about the club,

I say we should do what we can, promoting the club while holding activities to foster togetherness among club members. It doesn't matter if other people (non-club members) doesn't know our existance, as long as we're active with our own activies, it fulfill the purpose of the club.

When I help out ITS(IT SOCIETY) with their IT Blast events, I participate in Linux seminars, new technologies talk, held discussions with IT faculty. I basically enjoy myself being an IT student.

I always care about catering to the game dev community in the unversity. Our activities aren't suppose to be mainstream anyway :D

My last event that I organized for GDC, "The Masquerade" was suppose to foster game design (for those who participate as working committees and as side characters) and creativity by having a live-action RPG(role playing game) with players actually "role-play" their characters, its also to promote 'having fun together' within GDC members; instead most who joined weren't even GDC members and they're mostly friends of the working committees.

A total failure I must say. T_T

And the money in the club's bank account, it's keep adding up without being used.

I just hope it get used sooner or later, maybe to sponsor an event so that we don't have to keep charging people to join our events.

.................


I really do need to shut up, I never care much about the club anyway, the way things have been...
I've prioritize my studies more than actually being active with GDC.
for me GDC always is no. 2 , even thought I want to do a lot of game development activities,
assignments and exams always gets in my way T_T
well, just have to wait and see what will happen in the next AGM

well, enough screaming...
Jya Ne

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Transformers - they are still the IN-thing

Cant wait for the Transformers Live Action movie to come out?
well, feast your eyes on this cool clip XD

Optimus Prime Transforming

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