We have a new home: www.VirtualPieces.com

To you who visits the Hatchlings Games Blog,

Thank you for reading. We are please to announce that our blog has been officially named and its called Virtual Pieces, residing at www.virtualpieces.com. Please update your bookmarks and RSS.

CHEERS!

– John

We are moving!

We have a new home, at VirtualPieces.com! We’ll be putting updates and new content there, so make sure you check out that site once you finish reading this!

How to be a Great Game Designer

He is actually Tan Zie Aun aka nowing, the game designer of Encephalon and Creative Director of Quasr.

He should really grow a beard don’t you think? Then he’ll look very much like a great game designer doesn’t he?

Disclaimer: Except for Zie Aun, we are not associated with any of the game designers above. We took their pictures from websites.

Top posts by Zie Aun aka nowing:

• The Color Pie and the Color Salad Bowl
• Life of a Pawn

Encephalon in Production : Day 13

An older blog draft by Roshan. I thought of posting this up for old-time sake.

8th February 2007

Dear bloggers, we are facing some minor problem in the production team. There will be reshuffling of roles in our team with more additional team members within a few days. Especially, the web development team should have more web programmers.

Last night, we attended a meeting by MobileMonday. It was amazing to blend with people from various backgrounds. Learned a lot from the successful entrepreneurs who were present yesterday. It shows how fast is the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry is moving in Malaysia. Not to forget the lovely food and beverage served.

After hours

In the darkness, on the soft earth, the First Being lay.

The strange world, thoroughly barren in every direction the boy looked, had areas of light and shadow. He had crossed a border a while ago, a blurry line, slightly jagged from the bumpiness of the ground. Stepping across that border marked the instant transition from light to darkness. The First Being looked back, trying to find the Lightgiver through the buzzing purple and green objects in front of his eyes.

The Lightgiver was still there, though only a sliver of white light was seen from his angle. In the darkness he could still see his hands and feet, as well as the bluish wings of his friend. The wings gave off a very faint glow, invisible under the Lightgiver but now illuminating the air around him.

“If only I could bring the Lightgiver with me,” the First Being mumbled. His friend nodded nonchalantly.

“Why not try crafting it?” His friend asked.

The First Being did not say another word. He closed his eyes and channeled power into his fingers, still lying down. He pictured the Lightgiver in his mind, focusing on crafting the essence of Light on his fingertips.

A seed of Light formed on his palm. Then leaves, stems, roots. The seed swelled into a bud, and burst into petals.

Beneath his eyelids, the First Being sensed light. He opened his eyes. Hovering above his palm was a plant. A flower with petals of yellow and white, curving up towards a center, where a fuzzy ball of light bobbed lazily.

Forgetting his fatigue, the First Being got up on his feet and planted the flower into the earth. Focusing energy in his palms again, he crafted another flower, and another…

The standard working hours in Hatchlings is 2pm to 12am. Most of the people leave a the strike of midnight. Choo just picked up the habit of staying in the office until 3am. Kwang will not be here until Wednesday. Slade went off to fetch Iris from the airport… so right now, at 5.51am, it’s just me.

Our office has this small extension room, which is meant to be the storeroom another company’s room. So far they have not turned up, so we gladly took control.

The room is about a third the size of our office, though it can comfortably fit 4 (or even more) if the authorities would just throw away the dozen or so broken monitors (hence, ‘storeroom’). Choo’s PC takes up the other corner in that half of the room.

On the other half is a couch and two mattresses. Slade and I usually sleep there after hours. I mean, not together. That’s why there are, you know, two mattresses. And a couch. Right? Usually Slade takes the thicker mattress and I take the couch. And we’ll have nightmares of each other.

After office hours is pretty much casual time. Sometimes Iris, Slade and I will have a casual discussion on game design (Yes, work can actually be relaxing… but only at night), otherwise I’ll be goofing around on my Nintendo DS. I usually pass out at about 7am, just when the sun rises.

Cyberjaya is very sparsely populated at night, largely due to the fact that most of the land here is occupied by offices. No cars on the street. Just streetlights and lights from hourses far away. A medley of yellow and white.

The future crafters came to the world, and stunned by the flowers’ radiance, named the area the Glimmermeadows.

Games & Programming in My Life

Hi, I’m Lim Leong Kee. This is my first post in Hatchlings blog. I will start with my history then my current work.

I work as a full-time game programmer in Hatchlings Games Studio under an Industrial Training Program. The company is developing a game named Quasr, which is an online trading card on board game. I’m currently working on the client side game programming.

How did I involved in the project – Quasr?

Kuan invited me to work on the game with him. Back then Kuan was working on the client side but now he is the lead programmer of Quasr. The programming design pattern used the MVC (Model-View-Control). We divide the work into parts. Kuan did the model and control part for each object in the game (by the way, our code is in OOP – Object-oriented Programming). I did the view which is the user interface.

The client side programming uses Action Script 2 to code and it is suitable to be written using OOP, Object Oriented Programming. Although I learnt OOP from University but I my thinking and programming weren’t in OOP. Working on Quasr forces me to change my mind into an OOP state. I love OOP so much because every object is separated neatly and changes are easy to be made in future. OOP is fun. I gained a lot from Quasr.

Games greatly influence my life. I wanted to be a game creator when I made first contact with console games. I was 8 and I didn’t know how a game is made or what was used to create a game. I first made my own game using pen and paper.

In the search of a way to make games I was often attracted by applications that create moving graphics. I thought that was the way to made games but I realized what I did was just animation.

Later, some games came up with map editor. My first experience with Map Editor was Starcraft. I used its map editor to create a lot of mini games and campaign.

I was going to give up on creating games until I found Macromedia Flash. I bought a Macromedia Flash Book with the Flash MX software from a bookstore in KL. This book answered a lot of questions and the road to my dream is closer…

I am very happy that I am part of Hatchlings Games Studio.

Hatchlings is a team. We work together to make Quasr a success. Best of all, we keep learning. I did the client side while Kuan on the server side. We fix game bugs found by our game testers. I enjoy my current work since I love programming a lot. Last Friday (15 June), we finished all the game elements and fixed all the reported bugs. All the card abilities can be used in game. I haven’t got the time to make the effect animation for each abilities. It is playable at Quasr.com. The game is still imbalance. The new game design will be confirm on this Friday (22 June), so I may have a rest or learn other new things before that day comes.

Quasr Alpha tournament will be held on 29 June to 2 July in this year. We are expecting to get the great responses and comments from our game players. Hope that Quasr will be everyone’s favourite game. I want to join the tournament too!

Life of a game programmer in Hatchlings

After one and a half year working as a part time game programmer in Hatchlings Games. Kuan finally upgraded to be a full time game programmer! It’s been 2 weeks since I started working full for Quasr without distraction from tedious assignments or boring test papers. These 2 weeks are…Awesome!

It just like my dream job. Hatchlings Games…

1, does not have compulsory morning working time. Programmer working time is from 2pm noon until 12am midnight. Some of the game designers even work overnight in the office so that they can use the early morning time for brainstorming and quiet debates.

2, does not have compulsory fixed attire. I can wear my favourite style – t-shirt + short pant + sandal. Personally, I feel bad about wearing formal. For me, it just decrease work efficiency.

3, does not have bad politics, because Hatchlings is a team :). Quasr earn, we earn. Quasr dead, we FIX!

4, has a harmonious and fun environment. Everyone is passionate about game development, close in age, love Quasr, are friendly, playful, have dinner together, and laugh together… I doubt this is common in the working world out there.

5, Is all about game development. Involving in game development had been my dream since young.

Here are some of the pictures I snapped in the office today.

Most of the hatchers bring their own laptop (limited space? good, everyone can talk!) I like this feeling, all work together, discuss and yell together.

This is my space, my 2 years old wife and girl friend’s head phone. Why headphone? Because I need music to steam my brain to think ( not because of the noisy office? no…of cause not…)

This guy with a soft toy in his hand is Nowing aka Quasr’s God (Because he create it). It’s common to see somebody playing with a toy in the office, since there are many of them (Sponsored by John :P)

 

Anyone felt excited or attracted after reading this? Hatchlings Games are still recruiting 😛

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Related Posts:

• Good Programmer Links
• Be part of Hatchlings Games!

 

How did Iris became one of us?

A random post about a random post. From Iris’s blog:

It’s funny how I came to be.

Last year, probably around this time or before, Jarod casually asked me to help as an artist for Hatchlings Games. Without any hesitation, I agreed. There isn’t anything for me to do except attending their meetings and listen what they have to argue about (game design). They failed 2 projects, both did not even pass the early game design stage.

Hatchlings Games wanted to go into the casual games industry but fortunately they did not. If we did, we wouldn’t have Quasr. Still, my name was not called until the recent MSC IP Challenge Series: Game Design Competition 2006. I was a general assistant that did all the general but time consuming stuffz. It is during that period, Slade discovered that I have the potential to become a game designer and encouraged me to attend AGDS at Singapore. It is there I met Noah Falstein.

I came back, feeling confident but still arrogant and was given a chance to be part of the game design team in Quasr. It is around this time that we started to lay the foundation of Quasr’ gameplay. You can read about The Evolution of Quasr’s Design here.

With the Alpha release of Quasr, the Hatchies are too busy fixing eggs.

I’ll talk about the newbloods in the next post. I’m really having fun with them.

We sure love Iris, the girl who loves to say yay! in Hatchlings. She is on a week-long vacation to Guilin, China returning this weekend.

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Previous posts in this group blog by Iris:

• Cheesy game commercials – video links
• Review of MSC Malaysia Game Design Pitch 2006 winners
• Winning the MSC Malaysia Game Design Pitch 2006
• Slade went mad! part 1
• Game Design: What is noise?
• Game Design: Fighting noise

Chessy Game Commercials

Where and how did you get to know about a video game?

I remember running into friend’s house when they have the latest console or the latest game. I had never ever watch a single video game commercial on the television before and so I thought video game is a viral phenomena.

And so, I was wrong on the commercial part. I ran a search and stumbled upon this: Top 10 Chessiest Classic Game Commercials. Well, I already posted the videos all here (and it is youtube video!).

10. Activision: Sports

9. Berzerk

8. Activision: Ice Hockey featuring Phil Hartman

7. Give Me Everything

6. French Tutor

5. Intellivision: Featuring Henry Thomas from E.T.

4. Nintendo: Power Glove

3. Vanguard

2. Pole Position

1. The Legend of Zelda Rap

Oh, I have the lyrics here. You can rap along 😉

Back when I was riseing up
All the suckers used to play
Acting like they all that
And no one knew the way
To Ganon’s castle, Level nine
Link had the power, I had the mind
I held the magic sword way up high

I knew I could win I didn’t have to try
The NES Advantage was on my side
I take evil for a ride
I smoke the tactites like they was hooch
Cause soon I know I’d have zelda’s cootch
I’d walk to meet The motherfuckin gannon
He’d dissappear like a ball from a cannon
I raise my voice and I shout out loud
I got the triforce and I am proud

I finally hit him with the silver arrow
And you know I leave the rock
Even though the road to good is narrow
Zelda’s on my jock
Cause my balls is big, to be this brave
Princess zelda is the one I saved
Now I’m playing with power
The nineteen eighty’s will never go sour

Yeah, who would have thunk it, it must have been a drunken
someone who could pump it with a beat so funky
hell yeah bitch, you heard it hear first,
recognize now or you’re gonna need a nurse
to stitch up the wounds from the k and the b
redefine the word “originality”, cant fuck with this shit, 1986
we was in the mix and zelda was the fuckin fix
now we bringin this shit, full fuckin circle
cant hate with this?go hang with steve erkle

cause we regulatin hardcore, now you know whats in store
beggin for a little more, glad i was in level 4
realize this, im creepin through the mist
with the fuckin triforce, and im motherfuckin pissed
now you realizin this beats hipnotizin, my skill keeps rising
all this shit just ties in, step back i got the players guide
fuckin game genie with the codes inside
skill to save hyrule and the rest of mankind
all this shit be stickin in your mind

now you understand the controller in your hand
you almost beat the game, but you aint the fuckin man
so leave it up to me, and back the fuck off
you think you’re hardcore, but your skill be soft
i piss on your cartridge, throw it in the trash
take it to the pawn shop for some cash
you dont belong on my NES
i grab your controller to show im the best

Classic games are out? Not quite. I’m still playing the my Donkey Kong Game & Watch.

Sherman3D needs a Pixel Artist for a DS game

Our studio’s friend studio, Sherman3D is hiring Malaysian Pixel Artist for a Nintendo DS game project. They need the artist urgently. Sherman3D is a top game development outsourcing studio in Malaysia. The two co-founders and lovebirds, Sherman Chin and Tiffany Lim are great personal as well as professional friends.

Check out their website at www.sherman3d.com.

Also, we are also looking for any kind of character, creature and landscape artist

If you are interested in the job, please leave a comment or send an e-mail to johntan@quasr.com.