Orientation days, 7 days compilation

Monday, 25 May 2009

Today was the start of the orientation day. We were supposed to assemble on the Screening Room at 10:00 AM. We were seated according to our newly allocated team. After a short introduction and welcome by Teo Chor Guan, we were then informed briefly about difference in the culture between US and Singapore.

Things were slightly more interesting in the afternoon as there is various ice breaking games for team bonding and to know each other better. Most of the games are fairly simple and yet unique like “baby” and the “bomb”. It was quite difficult to be explained in words, but a player is supposed to be a bomb, another is supposed to be a baby. The player are supposed to be the shield an intercept in such a way that the shield will always be in between the baby and the bomb. Neeraj ( my good friend and classmate from Moving Images [MOI]) and I found a way to exploit the games. If both of us choose the same baby and both of us were the bomb, we were pretty much able to remove anyone from the game. But, this game pretty much depends on integrity.

The last session of the game was perhaps our first approach in creating games. We were put in random groups. After that, each group was given random objects. Each team are then supposed to come up with a multiplayer game with that object in under 15 minutes discussion time. Shortly after, we were debriefed.

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Things are livelier today as it is pretty much an activity day. We had a short talk by Clara in the morning about Games Design. Clara had also emphasised the importance of play test and game mechanics in this talk. However after that in the afternoon, we have another activity which is really about designing games.

At the start we had to gather in our own team and then we have to create a board and card games for 2-4 players. Our team come up with a game using pipes (which is quite commonly used as there are other two teams beside us who are also using the same ideas). It was then followed by a review and critique session.

After that, we were allocated to a random group and this time had to come up with a card games for 2-4 players. However, there is a catch, as it is a card game, we had to choose an already existing video game for the idea. Our group had decided to use Mario Kart as the idea. It is quite fun activity as we discussed of the various power up cards which is adopted from the game itself. We play-tested it numerous times and personally out of the three games design I enjoyed this the most. It was then followed by another play-test.

Again, we were put into random team. This time we have to create a game that is able to describe our journey throughout the orientation until the departure day in Gambit. Our group had decided to use the idea of packing stuffs (mechanic) for our game. We combined various ideas like the weight limit, the size of stuffs and how heavy it is. The game is quite difficult to be described in words as it is quite complicated but yet it is funny in the same time as we put in various stuffs like packing a barbell, console games, or even pet and parents into the luggage. And yeah it was then followed by another review session. After that we were dismissed.

Thursday, 28 May 2009

As Wednesday was a day off, the schedule was continued again today. Today talk was mostly for producer/scrummaster. The first talk was basically a short overview and description of what producer is supposed to do and how he/she will lead and managed the team and talks to the client and so on. The talk lasted about two hours, however the content itself is quite repetitive as apparently the lecturer is trying to emphasise some of the points numerous times.

The afternoon talk was a short and brief description of three research topics that three teams will be in charge of at the summer camp. One of the most interesting one was the use of auto-rigging program (Pinocchio) in the project “everything comes to life”, I could not talk about it in great detail as I am under a contract but the rigging system was able to auto-rig any 3D objects and this program boast to say that children will also be able to animate using this program.

My team members’ topic was not there and Clara (the lecturer) said that Marleigh (another lecturer) will come by next week to talk about the remaining three topics. Coincidentally, Marleigh will also be embedded staff for our team. We were then dismissed. To sum it up, from now on until next Wednesday there will only be lectures and talks.

Friday, 29 May 2009

Today is the long awaited industry day. It started with a talk by Nabi Studios. Their topic was about strategy and business development. They used an example from their game, Tori Bash, which is frankly enough not quite appealing to me and many other audience. The strategy they used is quite common and not really unique by itself, in fact i found it quite lacking compared to many other games companies.

The next talk was slightly more interesting. The topic was about how to market your games by Microsoft Singapore. It was interesting as the talker brought an actual Xbox 360 for his presentation.

After the lunch break, there is a talk by Ubisoft. There are a lot of interesting topic, yet unfortunately I found the talker is unable to present and express himself well and clearly. The trailer shown is too brief and unable to really show anything to non-Ubisoft fans/followers.

The next talk was from LucasFilm Singapore. They showed a bit of behind the scenes, their works, and many others. It was one of the better talks for the day, sadly I was never a fans of Lucas Film, and never will (though I sill respect their efforts and works).

The last talk was by NVIDIA, and perhaps the one that was the least interesting talk of the day. To start with, the talker was never a good presenter, the trailer he shown was almost the same throughout (with slight changes and modification). I think the talk will suit programmer more, not for the others.

Monday , 1 June 2009

The day started with a short lecture about the usage of Perforce. It is a software to manage and gather all the files from respecting lead positions. This software is apparently to great importance to many, especially producer and programmer roles. The lecture also include basic commands, icons and definitions. There were many different icons and I hardly remember them, fortunately, there is a scroll over function to help new users.

The second talker was absent and thus it is a free time. Chor Guan used this opportunity for a Q&A session and also talk about various places in Boston.

The next lecture was about research topic for one of the particular teams. The lecturer introduced a software said will be able to help character designing. However, many artists including me (though I am not artists) agrees that the talk was very basic and not of great importance to many that already knew it.

The last talk as about audio by Lonce Wyse, a researcher from NUS. This topic is quite interesting as the speaker allowed us to hear many different tones with a utilised software and how to use that sfx in many different aspects. One example was the usage of dentist drilling machine for a car engine in a game.

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Today is another talk day. The first talk was about games testing by Ng Chin Ang. It was of great importance to me as a fellow QA lead. He said that a QA need to pay attention not to find the bugs and whether the game is fun but also to find the art and sound bugs. This seems to be very troublesome for me, I can only hope for the best when the time comes.

The second talk was about IP overview. Basically it is about legal issue. Due to this, I could not include many screenshots about my work. I also need to ask permission from the Mda if I wanted to use a part of this as my portfolio.

Marleigh (our embedded staff) came in the afternoon and joined us for lunch. After that, she gave a lecture about the remaining three topics. Our topic as about conversation. It is interesting but seems difficult apparently. Most games use dialogue branching but there are no games that really allow the player to converse in the games. Thus, our game is trying to create a breakthrough or at least a prototype for such games development.

The last talk of the day was by Allan Simonsen from IGDA (International Games Developers Association). The talk was mostly about the future of game producers in the world, and also the future aspects of each position (artist/QA/producer/etc). It was quite interesting even though the speaker has an accent that is quite unfamiliar for me.

Wednesday, 3 June 2009

The last day was supposedly for a Q&A session and Boston overview, thus all the previous years alumni have returned. Most of the people asked about the places in Boston, though some also asked for the roles and experiences. One of the funnier ones was about racism where some people in Boston may just threw water at you randomly just because we are Asians. There were actually nothing much going on today and we were debriefed after the Q&A session

That is the short summary for our orientation day, I will try to update again.... if I actually have the time for it...
Andreas mas'Oen