The Final Act

The past week's been a blur. The first few days were meetings where very few people showed their faces. Wednesday night was a last minute pre-setup role call, but the cupcake team decided to work on cupcakes for the show instead. Had Insanity Hot Sauce for the first time. Painfully fun.

First up was Industry Night: Woke up early to get there to setup and unsurprisingly, it was unproductive. Left to do some errands and returned later that afternoon. The first hour of the night was dead but people started trickling in soon enough. Got treated a beer and got a little high on an empty stomach. Made conversations all the more interesting. Mo2 who came by might have thought otherwise.



After a long day, we went to GoGo Tea for some late night food. When we got there, it was hard to decide whether we wanted to eat or just sleep because of exhaustion and the time of day. Then there were dragonflies.

The next day: Speakers Night. Got spazzed at by spazz girl via phone while I was still only half asleep for not being there for the early shift. Didn't realize who it was until she got into full out spazz-mode. Spazz girl is spazzy.

Got there in the afternoon and cleaned/bleached the chairs we rented for the which came a lot dirtier than we expected. After it was a mad scramble to set up the rest of the floor as both the speakers (Paula & Karj) and the people started arriving. The talk started late thus it ended late as well.


(check out the quality)
The third and final day was the Degree Show. Got there on time with the intention to set up. No one was really there. It was decided not to set up the computers again so my table was really ronery without a portfolio. Learnt that Subway breakfast is disgusting. Sat around, talking with each other a lot and occasionally some family/friends would show up. Headed out for lunch to meet up with Patson and Kyle who both worked nearby. Shi2 and Tofu showed up later in the day.

Then finally, 6:30: take down! It was relatively quick and painless but we still didn't leave until 8. Considered ramen but the amount of people lining up for it on Friday night turned out to not be such a good idea after all. We ate at a Thai restaurant nearby and finished up the night with gelato. Cold as fuck but delicious, yes.

So after 4 years... IT'S OVER.

More on what comes after another time.

Ending School with a BAM!

On Thursday, the teacher organized a press check field trip to the printers to take a look at our catalog in progress and make adjustments if necessary. I got a ride from my classmates because I wasn't familiar with where the place was located. Getting there took us a good hour as it was fairly deep within Burnaby.

A mere block away from the print shop, we made a left turn from a small street into another small street and from the opposing lane came an incoming car, t-boning our vehicle in this lovely fashion:


Fortunately, nobody was sitting at the door where the opposing car hit us. It could've hit my friend sitting in the passenger seat or me, if I sat on that side that day. Both of us passengers saw the car coming but we helpless to do anything about it before the impact. The old lady claimed she was going at 55km/h (which automatically means she was speeding) and couldn't stop on time. Regardless, because there was a witness who saw it was "our fault", it might just split to a 50-50 fault claim.

There weren't any major injuries.. bruises from the seat belts, seat belt burn and a whole lot of stiffness and soreness. My neck, shoulders and the side of my hip where the seat belt buckle dug into hurts like a bitch now, but I guess it's kind of a nice reminder that we're still alive.


...and life goes on, with a side of pain.

Hello, Las Vegas!

Strangely enough, I have returned from Las Vegas (two weeks ago now) - a place I wouldn't of considered visiting anytime soon. The fact that I went with my parents and aunt made the experience all the stranger.


DAY 1
The plane was delayed 20mins, still made pretty good time and arrived in LV at 9pm ish. As soon as you see rows of slot machines in the airport, you know you've arrived. We checked out the Vdara hotel we were staying at. Environmentally conscious hotel with 57 floors, built in kitchen, no corridor a/c, and a pleasantly quiet lobby.



We felt pretty active still so we explored the new (and free to ride) tram line that went across the City Center block, stopping at Aria, Crystals, Monte Carlo... We also figured out some neat shortcuts to take to get to certain places.

DAY 2
In the morning, we walked across the front to Aria across the street and had a breakfast buffet. My very first LV buffet was conveniently called 'The Buffet.' It's definitely one of the best! Price and quality wise.


The rest of the day was dedicated to Premium Outlet shopping. We took the express transit which 'toured' around downtown. We then ended up staying and shopping there for about 8 hours (yep!). After a long day of hard work, we had our second buffet - Planet Hollywood. This time, we joined in on the Buffet of Buffets promotion where you are given a wrist band which gave you "unlimited" access to 7 buffets across the Strip for 24 hours. The tandoori chicken on the skewer was definitely the highlight for me.


(here, have some hairy arm~)
After filling up, we needed a walk. YEP DEFINITELY. It was pretty late but we walked the Miracle Mile regardless and were able to pick up a few things before it closed for the night.

DAY 3
50km/h winds greeted Las Vegas that day, complete with pebble bullets. Painful stuff.


I suggested going to Caesar's Palace for their breakfast buffet and so we did. Yet another awesome breakfast. The customizable omelet was DELICIOUS.

Alright, feeling fat again, we did some more walking on the strip. To make time for the show we have planned to watch later that night, we went back to Planet Hollywood for our 2nd meal-buffet of the day. We originally considered Paris' but the lineup was insane by the time we got there.

After fattening up once again, we headed to the MGM Grand and headed into the theatre to watch KA. Seeing people eat popcorn while watching a live show was a bit strange to me. Anyway, inside, the theatre was a lot smaller than I imagined it to be. The seats had built-in speakers which gave it a surround sound effect - that was neat. As for the show itself, the story felt a bit cookie cutter but it was still a pretty amazing performance. The music was definitely up my alley though.

For the rest of the night, we walked back from MGM and made some stops at the Coca Cola and M&M stores.

DAY 4
Shopping continued at the Fashion Outlet in Primm. We had to signup for a specialty charter bus that drove us there and the ride itself took about 45mins one way. It was a quiet indoor outlet mall, but the selection was quite decent and the prices were even cheaper for some things. We stayed there for 5 hours and left with the last scheduled bus. We returned to the strip and decided for another round of Buffet of Buffets. Ya rly.

(Round 2! This time, have some chubby hand meat~)
We went for the buffet in Paris where the restaurant itself looked like the streets of Paris itself. As for the buffet, it was a disappointment. They were known for their crepes, but the filling was a complete bust.

That night we returned to Miracle Mile and finally got to walk it with the stores still open. Light shopping was done.

DAY 5
That morning we revisited Caesar's Palace's buffet again for breakfast (just because it was that good!). Then we went back to the LV Premium Outlet to return something my aunt decided she didn't want anymore and instead, they did some more shopping there.

Returning to the strip via transit, we stopped at the Fashion Show Mall and did a walk around. That night, we went to Rio for the final buffet. GEEZ IT WAS AWESOME. They had pretty decent Chinese food (make your own noodle combination) and customizable Teppanyaki. I can't agree more for EVO to hold their event there with such an awesome buffet at their fingertips.

Back at the hotel, it was packing time and last minute AX plan-making over the internets.

DAY 6
We checked out, dropped off our stuff in storage and did some more wandering. We had McDix and their crazy 50 piece chicken mcnuggets for $9.99. WHAT. FIFTY.

On our way to Caesar's Palace, my mom gets pickpocketed in the washroom. Long story short, it sucked and it ruined our trip a bit... but stuff happens. For the rest of our spare time left in LV, we walked the Forums and caught one of the animatronic-powered hourly fountain shows.

In summary:
- 7 buffets in 6 days, 5 nights. WHAT.
- Think I gained 4lbs when I was there and returned to normal when I got back. The clothes I bought there are all strangely loose now. :(
- Las Vegas smelt like smoke and vanilla. Vdara smelt like new hotel and cleaning.
- Taxis everywhere. Bums in some places too!
- LV felt like LA and HK merged into one.

As as graduation present, yeah - I think it wasn't all too bad. The gaining weight and feeling full almost all the time was quite gross though. Shopping is heaven, but a dangerous heaven. For the price you pay to get there, it's definitely worth returning for.

GDC Canada 10

So, GDC. Game Developers Conference, which has the same acronym as my industry membership, holds their conferences around various parts of the world - USA San Fran (Prime), USA Austin (Online), China, Europe, and finally the newest, 2nd run, is Canada. These conferences are a gathering of professionals from the gaming industry to talk, discuss, learn, inform, promote, network almost anything related to the gaming industry. I waded among the sea of pros, which wasn't that thick of a sea actually. It was a light and pleasant crowd, and then there was the occasional one that talked too much, but that's normal.

GDC Canada was situated at the Vancouver Convention Centre this year, though only a mere floor, which was sufficient (to a certain extent) for the size of the conference. I must say, whoever designed the convention map in the program UPSIDE DOWN is not very smart... for obvious reasons. Shame on their graphic designer.

As unrelated as all the panels I visited may seem, all the panels I went to (minus one) were all inspiring and interesting, regardless of its relevance to my present career. Just thought I'd note.

Day 1
I couldn't wake up for the 9:30 keynote opener. It was about social gaming, which was a meh topic for me so I took my time. My first session was the 'Ask the Decision Makers' at 11 where they featured four guys of different professional backgrounds (Capcom, Next Level, Playstation Network, F9E) and companies discuss pitching. What the higher ups want to see, and how to sell your idea well.

1:30 was 'Character Voices' with Zach Hanks where he touched on conceptualizing, casting and recording voices for characters in games. Awesome to know that he was involved in Dawn of War II. He was an even more amazing voice actor.

At 3, I sat in on 'The Art of Conversion' which was probably the least interesting to me as it revolved around social gaming.

4:30, 'Can We Talk? - Speech in Videogames' turned out to be a lot more technical than expected, though was still informative. Again, there were reps from various companies (Blue Castle, EA, Radical, Proganda) touching on their expertise and the process of making, organizing and using speech/dialog data.

Day 2
Started the day off with an awesome session on 'Bringing Dragon Age to Life' at 11 where the lead animator and lead character designer both came in to talk about the process they went through to create such a diverse and memorable cast, both main and side characters. Then they threw in some teaser monsters (The Harvester and the Strider) from the next expansion following Awakening. Means I'm holding off on another run of Dragon Age for a bit longer!

1:30 was Sony's presentation and demo on Playstation Move and Stereoscopic 3D technology. The room was too small to fit the amount of people who showed up to check it out. They first went through to explain their Stereoscopic 3D technology to come and they even had us use 3D glasses. The 2nd half was the background to the Playstation Move and a live demo using the developer demo kit. It's impressive enough that I might actually want one for those Playstation Move games to come just by seeing what can already be done via just the demo.

To finish it off, 4:30 was a lecture on leader practices by Brian Sharp of Bungie. The room was surprisingly insanely packed. The lecture was also nicely packed with some enlightening advice as well. Self note: will work on locking eyes.

The number of companies in the Expo hall were a bit disappointing, as I did expect more companies to participate. I haven't visited other/previous GDCs, so I don't think I can judge fairly though. Regardless, ModNation Racers was playable in there and I got to give it a whirl. There was a bar in the middle of the hall too. Not sure what it meant. I didn't ask.

The whole conference wasn't all just a one-way dialog: I somehow managed to establish some "connections" which I hope will see through eventually.

I also saw Shane Bettenhausen pass through. His name slipped my mind during that moment so I couldn't give him a shout out. Probably the only guy I recognized at the conference besides Tommy Tallarico who came to do his keynote for the game career seminar. Speaking of him, I hear VGL was not bad. CHRONO MUSIC - WHY NOT MY YEAR?!

Overall it was a pretty great conference for those who know more or less the ins and outs of the gaming industry and want to dive deeper and with more detail. The conference showed just how much this social gaming thing is really taking over too. LONG LIVE HARDCORE D:!

(Tagging this under conventions, even though it isn't one.)

And Then Some...

So I returned from Las Vegas Friday (report to come). I did a little sleep catching up on the weekend, got to watch Kick-Ass, bummed around a bit, and threw in my name in some contests for kicks.

Monday rolls around and I win a pass to Game Developers Conference (GDC) Canada happening Thursday and Friday. I feel unworthy of such a pass. I'm unprepared (considering I didn't see it coming) and feel that it might just be out of my league. Regardless, I will go and experience (and report back) what most people not already in the profession can't afford to experience.

Life doesn't want to give me a break yet it seems.