Day 1: Starting a blog about the development of Project Butterfly

Decided to do this to track my progress and look back after releasing this project to the public. Might be able to learn quite a bit and of course, review the process and proceed from there.

Realized I borrowed a PHP / SQL book that doesn’t really cover the entire process so went to library to get another 2. 3 books that are thicker than a dictionary and only a month of development. Project Rich is looking like ‘mission impossible’ but I’m loving the challenge.

Basically, the entire motivation for me is to clear out the old me and finally step into a phase. Hence the project name is Butterfly. Its going to be beautiful when I’m done. For now, done with chapter one of Info Archi and User Centered Design. The official docs are also gonna be really important for the pitch. Can’t wait to start typing codes or document to get that sense of progress~

Designing Name Cards at 3.30am

16 years of friendship gets you perks like…getting your design savvy friend (me) to make a printable version of your concept for you FREE! Hahaha…I’m not complaining because its a for a dear friend of mine but my perfectionist side is making it harder for me to complete it soon.

The world is sleeping and I am just trying to be a better friend. Psst…Santa you watching this?

 

 

Update: For those who wonder how my dear friend’s concept originally came to me as…

and so I made it into…

 

How’s it? I wouldn’t say its the best but at least it looks decent enough to be on display. Psst…it was referenced off a free name card template on the net…I’m not taking credit for any of this.

Until next time!

Ended My Polytechnic Life with a Blast!

Yes, you didn’t read it wrongly. Three years of enduring my parents’ persistent question, “When are you going to graduate?” has come to an end (that is, if you do not mark it with the graduation ceremony).

I’ve learnt a lot throughout these 3 years and really enjoyed the journey. Weird thing was that it was not really what I learnt in the classroom that gave me this sense of satisfaction, but rather the friends I made and the self learnt subjects in my bedroom. No doubt the lecturers were still the main source of inspiration, like Mr Oran, Mr Seow, Mr Melvin, Mr Eric, Mr Lawrence, Ms Christina, Mr Wee Lian and yes, Mr Agus (he got me to carry a sketchbook wherever I went). All these people really made me behave like a Creative Professional and I’m pretty sure I will join the community of creativity real soon.

Most poly students go on to perform industrial attachment at renown companies but most of my course mates stayed to do a project for an entire year. Depending on how you see it, its either a really good time to slack (because no one was constantly supervising you) or to really make an impact for your portfolio. My group went with the latter.

When we started out, we knew what we wanted, to make a game. Thats where our passion were heading towards when Oran told us that we get to make a game back in year one. So we formed a group but sadly, the entire clique didn’t manage to stay together but we got 5 of 7 in it. Challenges were abound as we were trained in Interactive Media and only taught to build and script in UDK. Next we had to deal with interpersonal relationships within the team, even the best of friends might crack under the work = credit system. However, a year passed and we heeded Oran’s advice well, “lock down your main gameplay and stick to it no matter what!”

Cutting the long story short, we did have a rather decent game as rookies in this discipline. Couple our great demo with a well prepared presentation and *BOOM!* we got really good reviews from the judging panel. This nearly brought tears into my eyes as our one year of hard work finally paid off. What’s more, we were offered the opportunity to enterprise our game and creating a studio with the people I love to work with is becoming a reality. No doubt that the better route would be to let each member gain more experience in the industry but all great people start off in an orthodox fashion don’t they? (Just look at the number of famous college dropouts in the IT industry)

Come tomorrow, we’ll decide the fate of this idea…either way, I can only smell good things coming our way. I’ll update with the outcome and don’t worry…I’ll be blogging more often with my commissioned work as a freelance developer and designer.

Let me end this blog post with the awesome people of Outsiders Allowed with our supervisor, Mr Melvin Tan.

Naughty or Nice?

We are in December and with that, we’ll be concluding the year 2011. This is also the same time we’ll be judge upon by our Dear Mr Claus.

I’m all grown up and so of course I know Santas all over the world are just lovely fathers putting on a costume to give their children something to believe in. Doesn’t help much for me when I’m a Singaporean Chinese as our dads don’t go to that length due to pride and we got no chimneys.

And so, based on the recent events that happened to me (breaking up, not paid promptly, loss of direction for my startups), the results are obvious…I’m naughty.

Of course there are happy events in my life (upgrading my HDD, scoring some As, going to NZ and Korea), but in comparison to those bad ones. I have to conclude that the bad events made a bigger impact on my life.

Breaking up is probably the worse. Besides taking it quite bad, like watering my face for 5 days straight, it really felt like a final blow to my love life. So its always like I describe, its more like a divorce. But because of my breaking up, I’m able to choose the University and study for as long as I can afford!

Scoring well in my Final Year Project is my top priority now…lets nail that A, Outsiders Allowed! (Yes, that’s our developer studio name…haha)

ITE != Its The End

ITE in Singapore stands for the Institute of Technical Education. However, what it signifies to most Singaporeans is that its a dump for those who didn’t make it in Secondary Education (aka High School in some parts of the world).

That’s where I graduated from. Back in 99′ I was sitting for my Cambridge Ordinary Levels Examination. I took the meaning more literal than my peers by just sitting down like any ordinary day and only picked up the pen to fill in my name. Not a single f*ck was given that day. (pardon the vulgarity but couldn’t find a better word to describe what I felt)

When the result was released, I realised the gravity of my mistake. No school was going to take me in and the only option written on my slip was ‘ITE-Certificate in Office Skills’. I was jealous and angry.

This however was a turning point in my life, I started scoring my first A there and it became addictive. I was mixing with the right crew (what people called geeks) and even group work was a breeze. I soon myself graduating from this short 1 year course with several awards and scholarships and eligible for advancement.

I would then go on to pursue a Higher NITEC in E-Commerce and this gave me my first knowledge of web programming and my first specialty. 2 years later, I graduated with more awards and even eligible for advancement into Polytechnics. I was on fire!

Now I am in Polytechnic studying what I love, programming, drawing and design. How many people wished they were doing what they love right?  I will be graduating soon and all I can say is that my grades are eligible for University…every single one available to me, even the firewalled local ones.

Not just that, I’m earning extra allowances through Web Development (what I learnt in ITE) and enjoying every moment of it. Compared to my classmates who are working as Servers or Retail Assistants and earning nuts for crazy hours of standing.

I’m not showing off or being arrogant but I want to share my story out there that landing up in ITE is not the worst thing to happen to you. It could be start of all good things to come, like me.

ITE graduates are not intellectually handicapped, they are brilliant people who were lazy or led astray. Work hard my fellow juniors, prove Singapore wrong.

What Drives You?

In your lifetime, I’m pretty sure you’ve met someone and thought to yourself, “I will never want to be him/her…NEVER!” Be it someone close or just some random jerk abusing his girlfriend in public, there is that SOMEONE.

For me, there’s quite a handful that made me the man I am today.

Firstly, my parents. I come from a broken family and so I never want to be like them and make my children go through the kind of life I’ve been through. I’m not saying they are bad parents but it just doesn’t feel good being a human soccerball.

Next, my elder cousin living with me. He’s not a really bad guy but his sense of responsibility towards family and finance is not one to look up to. I don’t want to hang my dirty laundry in public and so lets leave it at that.

Then there are the ‘sleeping’ people on public transport not giving seats to needy people like the elderly and pregnant ladies. And those that drive after drinking who ram innocent people in their moment of folly.

There so many more and you may think they are on my hate list, but nope. These are just people I don’t want to become, not hate. So me pursuing a higher education and doing my best in everything are all credited to these ‘someones’. This is my drive.

So…what drives you to become the person you are today?

Activities within Paranormal Activity 3

 

So today, Yun Xiang and I went to watch Paranormal Activity 3 at Choa Chu Kang’s Shaw cinema. Been anticipating it ever since the first trailer came out and cannot wait to spot where the poltergeist might indicate where he/she is. The fun of the trilogy, fans would know right?

Anyway, I got more than what I bargained and here is a list of what happened.

-1-
Dennis (male character in movie) wakes up from a strange noise in the house and whispers, “You heard that?”

Me: Yeah, the man beside me is munching on Nachos very loudly! *nom nom nom*

-2-
Julie (female character in movie) shook herself up from sleep and wakes Dennis, whispering to him, “Listen.”

*Video game arcade next door has this game that goes CLINK CLINK throughout the entire movie and I hear it through the supposedly sound proof doors* -_-

-3-
*Story’s central burning question on “Whose behind all of this?” is being answered on screen*

Guy beside me, who has been narrating the entire story in Mandarin to his girlfriend says, “Neh! Told you its her right?” (`.` )”

-4-
Movie playing with noises like the ruffling of plastic bags from any direction, munching of really REALLY crispy popcorns and nachos, occasional cough and clearing of throat, some person behind me who activated his/her iPhone’s voice command and even a cell phone ringing at the peak of story.

So, the entire movie experience wasn’t that great so what about the movie? I would say, it still packs quite a scare but wasn’t as good as the first two. However, if you have watched the previous 2, please do watch the last one to wrap it all up for a good story ending. Hopefully they don’t go make another prequel or sequel and let the trilogy die gloriously in the minds of fans.

Did you watch it?

PS: Cinemas should have their food packaging made from biodegradable paper instead of plastic. It saves the Earth and the movie experience.

Overflowing Goodness

School reopened last week and our iOS game is undergoing production at full speed. Can’t wait to show to you all the final product (or at least Beta version).

I’m busy with concept art for most part of the game and also the cut scenes. This might appear weird as I’m kind of a programmer but now dwelling with the arts department. As they say, school is the best place to make mistakes, I’m doing just that.

Anyway, Lady Luck seems to be smiling really bright at me because now, my desk is piled with 3 projects. Each one with database integration, one with a new CMS system, two with designs to do. Seems good right?

However, two of them are based on partnership, which means I might not get paid a single cent…and the other is for a family member’s business…which also might turn out to be charity project.

Hopefully, today’s hard work will bring me rewards later. Fingers crossed.

How It Feels Like to be Siri

If you are not already aware, my aunt is on an overseas trip for 10 days. Leaving behind her senile husband (aka uncle) in the house with me.

One characteristic of my uncle is that he loves asking questions to obvious answers / instructions / directions on a standard playlist with Shuffle switched on. In a nutshell, I’m his Siri.

So like an iPhone 4s, my uncle simply needs to say “Sheng” (which is my Chinese name) to start up the application.

Below is a list of my favorites.

“I just dialled my own mobile number on my mobile phone, it doesn’t ring.”
No one calls their own number from the very same phone the number belongs to -_-

“Can you buy me food?”
Grandma cooked and its all ready to eat
“That’s for lunch and dinner.”
Its 4pm!

“Shouldn’t you be going to school?”
Its Sunday! -_-

“Who just made this coffee?”
You did…like 1 minute ago

“Did aunt return home last night?”
She left just 15 minutes ago to the market -_-

“There’s no sound from the phone receiver!”
You are holding the tv remote to your ears

I’m sure I can think of / collect more in time to come. Overall, it does sucks to be Siri but when you are the only family member around for the elderly, you don’t have much of a choice.

Any stories to share?

Doing House Chores at 4am because…

WARNING: RANTING AHEAD

a dysfunctional family on tv…mine could do better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
For starters, I am a 28 years old guy who (made some regrettable moves in life and now) still lives on pocket money from mum and dad till the day I complete my diploma in February 2012.

Next, we have my uncle who is getting better at being senile everyday and trying to fill his bottomless pit stomach.

To finish things off, there is this 37 years old son of my uncle who couldn’t give a turd for what is happening to his family and prioritizes his hobbies above anything else.

My aunt has given up most of what she loved in order to take care of my uncle and get annoyed by his relentless assault of questions (there are about 50 in a playlist with Shuffle and Repeat All switched on). Then the other son of my uncle has given up so much for the family that he is stuck in a job he doesn’t really like. Only reason to stay is for financial stability.

Dysfunctional enough? According to me, it simply couldn’t get much worse. Anyway, this is just some senseless ranting that will not catch the attention of the appropriate people to wake them up from their dreams and plant their face on the grounds of reality.

To complete the sentence:

Doing house chores at 4am because the people who cares for the family are not around