[FYPJ] It has begun

I realized I neglected to mention something in my blog recently:

My FYPJ has shifted forward a week with only 1/2 a day’s notice (courtesy of Leo). It definitely took everyone involved by surprised. I was hoping to probably delay it a little longer since I am already taking part in GCC. Then, I only thought Azman, BK and I were affected by this change.

Last Friday, I tried to message BK for any news since I could not get hold of Azman. Apparently something screwed his schedule up badly and suddenly he is no longer doing FYPJ. Instead, he will be having an attachment in China. Wow, that’s pretty messed up for him.

The conversation probably went something like:

Mr Lim: “BK, you are having attachment in China.”
BK: “But I from the 4th batch, I’m supposed to have my FYPJ now.”
Mr Lim: “omg ORLY?!”

Until this morning, I received no word of any delay, so I went to school at 8am(and exhaustedly) to start my FYPJ. The rooms were fairly empty, Mr Lim wasn’t in his office and there was no sign of Leo. I waited and waited, went to eat, returned, waited but to no avail.

Cursing under my breath, I took a train home and messaged Heber for Azman’s phone number, only to be advised to return back by a call from Azman himself (somehow, he has my number =/). So I returned, and paid the government another $1 for the ride back. By this time, I was already quite frustrated. It’s just damn stupid and irresponsible.

Outside the GCC room, I met up with Azman and WyeHuong. Apparently WyeHuong was affected by this too. It all makes sense now; there are 3 of us. I was thinking that it would be strange if there were only 2 programmers in the team.

We waited until 10:30am. Azman refreshed me about Leo’s message to meet him at 9.30am. Hmm, thinking back, Leo was the idiot who scolded my 3 week project’s team, which was the first to present, for being ‘unprepared and irresponsible, and that the working world has no place for such things’. Pfft.

Anyway, we decided to inform Mr Lim about it (he already arrived). He tried to call Leo but did not get a response. It took him some time, but in the end, he resigned to simply messaging him. Many minutes later, Leo replied and said that he had ’something urgent on’. The !@#$ bastard.

So we continued to wait in the GCC room with Hoe Peng Peng lecturing in it. Some female lecturer soon approached Azman and told him that he would be working in a different project. A Flash project. Apparently his team is to flush out a game per 3 weeks…and the first game, I later realized, wasn’t a walk in the park.

WyeHuong and I got briefed on our FYPJ: Second Life for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It seems that MoFA wants to make their presence known in SL. Sounds like a cocked up idea to me, but I was too agitated to protest. My team is suddenly 1 programmer short, again. And the best thing is that the last programmer isn’t even decided yet.

Unhappily, we conceded to the Second Life room, got introduced to some French designer, and went to work on some lame tutorials involving scavenger hunting. It began fine, until we got really tried to random exploration. We want to do scripting. So we went ahead to look for the wiki to get us started. Suffice to say, creating items is extremely fun. The power you have is so-so, but enough to do funny things.

Not long after, we had a meeting. It was probably the best turn on events in my life. To my understanding, I do not need to think of any ARG crap the other Second Life FYPJers went through, and the designers have already decided on what they want to do. The best thing is that it does not look difficult, at least from a usual programming point of view; SL script is a little more restrictive.

So what seemed to be a horrible day, turn out to be a pretty good day. Hopefully everything says like this from then on.

SBO 07

Those who haven’t seen it yet just search it at YouTube.

This year’s was great to watch and I feel that it is much more fun to watch compared to 05 and 06. GGAC was a blast to watch with Ogawa and mike leading their team to the finals. Still, it was fun to watch BLEED’s Johnny, Machabo’s Ky, N-Otoko’s Venom and KA2. I watched it all in a single night and I partly regretted not saving some for my attachment. How could I? One match is as great as the next.

I haven’t touched Melty Blood for a long time, much less Version B. The MBAC tournament is actually fun to watch now that I get to see probably almost the entire cast at play instead of only 20% of them. Damn, Melty Blood has evolved and changed so damn much. Satsuki’s qcb+A is JCable? Wtf! A lot of characters also seems a hell lot stronger now.

I want to go Japan

On the side note: I’d just finished reading A Clash of the Kings. I want my part 3.

EDIT: My Word Verification thingy actually formed a proper word!

Holidays and more work

Maybe I’m crazy but I took up a freelance programming job along with Dom, Heber and Yee Howe for Emerging Entertainment. NDA prevented me from saying anymore. I’m not truely passionate on this project per sae; I’m just in for the money and a way to spend my time. It’s not really hardcore (hopefully) programming, so my holiday plans aren’t ruined (yet).

Somehow, I managed to get myself involved with some Games Creation Community shit. There would be briefing at 22nd August and take up a week of my FYPJ time. Obviously I wouldn’t do this for nothing: I was promised a bump up in my school/FYPJ grades. Whatever that is to be bumped is rather vague actually, but there would be a bump nonetheless.

RPGA was really fun. 28 point buy is actually pretty fair. I think the best part was that the DM, or rather the module, has almost every plot twist planned out. Also I think it’s great to be part of this community.

Next up: SBO’07