Musings of a Daydreaming Wanderer

Well, today is the last day of GameFest, and by far its the most “interactive” part of the festival - we had 2 playtests of 2 games, one is a boardgame, and the other is a alpha test of a soon-to-be-launched trading card game. I got a signed card (don’t know who signed on it though) which can be redeemed for a Starter set though. I’m not sure to eBay it or to get a Startet set, lol. Anyway, today we had someone from some company giving us a talk about financial literacy games, and we had a boardgame after his talk. A lawyer also gave a talk on intellectual property rights, something which is getting more important right now. We also had a security expert from some company telling us about hacking, phishing and malware, which are pretty much rampant nowadays, and a trainer from a local private school offering a diploma in games development talking to us about resource management in real life. Finally, the last one was a playtest session cum seminar of the trading card game. Overall, this was a much “relaxed” day compared to last Sunday’s mad stuck-in-lecture-room programme, as there were less speakers. One thing I noticed about the festival was the amount of kiddies. Hell, I’m 22 already, and most of the audience are polytechnic year 1/2 students studying diplomas in game development, or kids who are like, more than 10 years younger! I hope some day that a seminar could be targeted for working/soon-to-be-working adults like me, and not have to see kiddies the whole day… not that I’m biased, of course, but I don’t feel comfortable around them, that’s all. Really!

Well, today marks the end of the first 2 weekends of GameFest seminar & workshops - tiring as it is to go to Woodlands everyday and be stuck there from the morning till evening, its a worth it - the first day wasn’t so good, as the first day is dedicated to workshops, but the second day was more informative as they invited people working in the games industry to attend, and even an IGDA representative! Can’t wait till the 22nd for the final conference day.

Ok, I was pretty pissed at the start when I arrived before lunch to attend the workshops I like (since the morning workshops were not interesting to me) and the people at the registration counter told me to come back after lunch because there are people in the room, and the speaker is still speaking. I was wondering how they manage such an event, because if I were interested in only one workshop, I would have to waste half my Saturday at Woodlands Regional Library just for that one workshop. Trying to be nice, I decided to go off for lunch and came back after lunch. Thankfully, this time I was allowed to go in. Overall, it was interesting to listen to various people from different sides of the industry discuss about what they do (”stealing code”), and how they manage censorship (”you ridiculous little…”) I left halfway through the last workshop because the way they present themselves while they are speaking turns me off and there wasn’t anything much to learn from them (since they’re gaming clan members). Overall, not really good day, but a bit of information gleamed from the horses’ mouths, so to speak. Oh well, time to go to bed, gotta be there again tomorrow for seminars.

Back from a 7-day outfield exercise at Specialists’ Hill near Pasir Labar Camp. I didn’t know there was a place called BCTC (Basic Combat Training Centre) near it - the camp looks like SISPEC for NSmen. Bleh. The only good thing about this exercise is that you can rest and relax because you work on shifts, unlike BMT field camp, where you go “chiong sua” the entire day. Other than that, its a muddy, dusty, rocky, rainy, swealtering hot, mosquito-ridden, sweaty, tiring, sleep-depriving, exercise.

Read in a Digital Life newspaper (last week’s? or this week’s? can’t remember) there’s this guy who made a MMORPG and got into an international game design competition (I think). Heh. Ironic he had to be my clansmen (for the uninitiated and culturally deprived, people with same surnames used to live together in communal villages in china, hence the term 家乡and 乡人). Maybe it runs in the family? Lol.

There’s been a few games that I’m trying to complete - Act of War: Direct Action, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and The Sims 2. Argh! That’s alot of play time! Wish I could have more time to play these games, along with juggling watching anime. Gundam Seed Destiny still rocks.

Anyway, I’ve got to go now, I need my sleep.

Hey I just realized this whole week, Discovery Channel is showing programmes about computer games! Be sure to catch the series “Cyberwars”, everyday at 10pm!

Sigh, why is it that the best laid plans are always ruined? Time to re-plan…

20yrs old - Go NS, learn driving
21-22 - First commercial game
23 - start a company
24-27 - Get Degree education? Second and third commercial games
27-29/30 - Fulltime job at game programming or some other job I enjoy doing, fourth, fifth commercial game
29/30 - Settle down?
30 - Start planning to retire, celebrate being a middle-aged man with no wife/girlfriend

Darn, I have a blister on my thumb since yesterday while I was playing the Playstation 1 at my grandparent’s place. Sheesh.