About Tachikawa

Ahaaaaa. Dudes! It’s been a while! How’s everyone doin’?

So, umm, yeah. I’ve pretty much been in non-gaming(small)ville (somebody saaaaave me? lol.) these days. Too busy with them darn school work. Well, enough about me. I’ve been noticing a pretty disturbing trend lately. Not disturbing as in disturbing. Disturbing as in disturbingly interesting. Whatever may it be?

Culture. Gaming Culture. In Singapore.

If many of you out there have not been living under that rock for the past few weeks (and I’ll give you guys the benefit of the doubt, hehe), most of you should have noticed an interesting trend; Video gaming is going more mainstream in Singapore. Let me list my observations:

-Local videogame developers have been given extra attention in the media these past few weeks;

-Video game reviews have been given the centrestage;

-Microsoft Singapore’s Domination Plan over Singapore. Apparently also part of Bill Gate’s ‘Lose the Money; Gain the Fanbase’ World Domination Plan;

-A Gaming Lab (?!) is going to be setup in the Nanyang Technological University;

-The Economic Development Board (EDB) has begun to;

a) Attract foreign game developing companies to Singapore;
b) Linking up with Japanese game developers to train up local talents in the art of game making (Sega, Koei);
c) Along with the Media Development Authority and the Infocom Development Authority; all 3 organizations have been setting up the basic infrastructure (i.e. regulations, etc), co-funding with foreign/local investors and basically giving local developers the support needed for their games to get out into the world market.

-The Singapore chapter of the International Game Developers Association have been given quite a lot of attention in the media in these recent months.

Please note that this isn’t an exhaustive list. And thank god it isn’t. The digital entertainment industry is worth billions, only second to the movie industry in North America, and Singapore wants a large slice of that pie. Lets hope Singapore gets that large slice. Along with seconds.

Tachi signin’ out.

P.S. Hey Kheldar, your sister’s pretty cute man. Intro? LOL!

My philosophy in life: Short Posts. XD

Damn! Cheng Kai! That post was…long! Baby steps CK, baby steps. Precise and concise. I found your post a little, how would I term it, wordy? No offense intended, just a little constructive criticism aye? ;)

So, anyways, wassup. Its the T kara otte junni ‘a c h i y’all (a lame BOA reference there, but what the heck. Lol). So, a gamer blog huh. That’s a cool. A day in the life of a gamer. I’ll spice it up a little aye? I’ll speak from the perspective of a game developer.

Just a small summary of what I’m gonna talk about in future posts;

Back in the old days (When I was 15, lol), I used to work with a few people from the now defunct ‘Tiberium-Halflife’ modding crew. A majority of them were from Germany, some were from the U.S. and a couple were from the U.K. My function? 3-D modelling. I did models of vehicles which were to be used in the game. It was a pretty cool concept, in fact. The whole idea of an RTS (Real-time strategy) game within a 3-D environment, giving you the ability to see the action from a first-person point of view was. Revolutionary. At that particular point. Heck, back then, Command & Conquer Commandos (presently known as ‘Command & Conquer: Renegade’) wasn’t even heard of in Westwood, the then creators of the Command & Conquer series of games.

First aspect of game developing: Team communication. We used ICQ, a pretty new form of keeping in touch back then. The seasoned veterans taught the new entrees tricks of the trade; the team leaders desseminated information to their team; members communicated with the team leaders, all through ICQ. Ideally, that is. Time zones made it all the more difficult. Members were not sure who were going to be online and at what time. We had great members; models were great, maps were comin’ along fine, 2-D sprites were PERFECT. Communication? Close to nada. The key to a successful game? Planning. Right down to time-zones. Meeting times are key to such an internationally-based project. Sadly, communication breakdown eventually lead to the downfall of the mod. It would have revolutionised Half-life. If only. *sigh*

Next Post: I’ll be talkin’ bout a little ‘Ingredients Contributing to a Successful Game Developing Collboration’ kinda topic. Stay tuned.