Shadow Craze

Genesis & Skaar

2010-03-01T00:13:00.007+08:00

Castle Age has recently launched two monsters for group fight - Genesis & Skaar.

One thing interesting about Castle Age is that each part of the game has an accompanying story plot that helps to explain why we are fighting the monsters.

So here I've captured the screenshots for Genesis & Skaar.

For Genesis here's it:

Here's a screenshot of the loot available when you defeated Genesis.

And of course the text you received when completing the fight.

For Skaar the format is slightly different. Instead of using energy to build up defence (blue bar), the players are supposed to use energy to dispel the protective forcefield of Skaar (purple bar). I guess Castle Age just want to introduce some variety into the fights.

Here's the text when Skaar is defeated.

So far so good. Wonder what more monsters will Castle Age introduce next, e.g. in the other maps of Atlantis.

'Specials' of Castle Age - Generals and Items

2010-02-08T22:14:00.009+08:00

Players of Castle Age will know that the favour points can be used to buy 'special' general and items that are somewhat powerful. Every month or so there will be new 'specials'. It costs 30 favour points to buy a general and 25 points for the related items.

I'm not sure how the new specials work because I am sure there are a lot more specials for different players, i.e. different specials are available to different players?

Here's three sets in Castle Age that I've found so far:
December: Lyra (16 attk 13 def) and her related items.

January: Dexter (13 attk and 16 def) and related items. Descriptions about him are subsequently linked to the orge Gorlak because supposedly Dexter took the powerful axe from Gorlak.

Current: Gorlak (15 attk and 15 def) and his related items. Gorlak's cudgel is made because Gorlak lost his axe to Dexter.

Wonder what other creative generals and items can the developers think of.

Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

2009-12-29T16:32:00.007+08:00

Every now and then there will be new collaborative events for Castle Age players. After the Sea Serpent, there is this Battle of the Dark Legion where orcs threatened to overrun the castles.

Players will be invited to participate in this event, where a maximum of 130 players could engage the orcs at the same time. There is a limit place at different groups of players' levels, e.g. maximum of 30 players for levels 1-30, 30-60, 60-90, and maximum of 40 players for levels 90+. That is fair since it encourages more players to come on board. When more players come on board, new allies, e.g. paladins, archers ... will join in the battle.

The storyline is also interesting, and I think that is a big plus point for Castle Age, i.e. there is at least some effort to write out a story plot. So at the end of the battle there is this long narration of the event.

The rewards for this event is not bad, and it seems more worthwhile to spend the stamina for such events rather than the PvP battles. I wonder what next after this invasion of the orcs. From the way the storyline ended, the main character was wondering where did the Horde of Orcs come from. So I guess there will be more of such interesting events in the coming months.

FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 2

2009-12-25T15:03:00.001+08:00

Castle Age – Stats & Achievements

The stats determine the playing style of Castle Age. As with any other RPG game, the stats will influence how well a player fight / defend etc. 5 points of stats will be given whenever the player levels up. Stats points will also be given when 100% Influence is achieved for quests, or when certain achievements are completed, or when the player reaches some of new rank in the Battle arena.

For a better sense of what these stats means, here’s some brief descriptions of the 5 stats attributes. Energy is described first since that is the more important (in my opinion) stat.

Energy – For each of the quest there will be an Energy requirement stated, and the player will consume that amount of energy to do the quest. The amount of energy needed, together with the rewards is stated next to each quest. Under some circumstances, Energy is also needed to fight monsters. Try to have a higher maximum Energy available, or the higher level quests may take much longer to complete. The Energy points regenerate once every five minutes.

There were forum discussions about the optimal amount of energy. The figure seems to range from 130 to 170 points. I guess it is up to individual player, but the main issue to consider is the rate of energy regeneration versus the amount of time you play Castle Age each day, which in turns affect how fast you can level.

Attack - This affects how good the player is in the battles against other players and monsters. In the initial levels there is less need to focus on this stat unless you intend to create a PvP character.

Defense – A good defence will be useful against other attacking players. When the player successfully defends against other attacks, there is even possibility for gold to be gained.

Health - This measures how long the player can last in a fight against monsters and / or other players. Once the health reaches 0, it means the player is ‘Eliminated’. Each PvP fight will only consume a few health points unless the player is whacked real hard for some reason. Once Health drops below a certain level, other players cannot attack you. It is quite easy to heal the player back to full health, and thus this stat is not as important actually. It regenerates 1 point every three minutes.

Stamina - It costs 2 stat points to increase the stamina by one point. Stamina points are used when the player fights against other players or monsters. PvP battles consume 1 stamina point, but for monster fights, the player has the option of a 5 stamina point attack. The stamina points regenerate at a rate of 1 every five minutes.

To help increase these stats (other than leveling), the player can also call for ‘Elite Guards’ to join his rank. Basically it is a call for help from friends who are also playing the game to join the player. Each Elite Guard that joins will help to boost attack / defence of the player, with increase of gold as well.

Castle Age – Demi - Powers, Alchemy & Items

Oracle - This is the ‘shop’ for Castle Age, where more powerful heroes and items are available for sale through Favour Points. The player starts with 20 Favour Points, which would be sufficient for simple services like a change of name, Energy refills etc. In order to buy the items or heroes, you will need typically 25 points and above. The player can get more points by praying to the demi-powers, completing quests, getting achievements etc. The more straight forward way of getting more Favour Points is to do surveys listed at the Oracle tab, or simply buy them at a rate of 60 Favour Points for $10. Well, the developers need real cash for their hard work and server maintenance too.

Demi-Powers – There are 5 Demi-Powers (Ambrosia, Malekus, Corvintheus, Aurora, and Azeron) with unique aspects in the game that can help the player in the game with their individual benefits. For example, Corvintheus is the demi-power of defence, and players who seek blessing from him will gain a defence point.

Via the Blessing function, the players can also get demi points linked to each demi-power. With sufficient demi-points, the player can gain access to demi-power quests that often offer items and magic. Many of these demi-power quests will require other heroes to gain influence in these quests. The players are limited to one demi-power Blessing each day, except for Azeron who gives more demi-points but the Blessing frequency is limited to once every 2 days.

Units, Items and Magic

Units - Army units / troops are essential because they form the pre-requisite for the quests. Moreover, they to defend / invade other players under the Battle tab. The troops can be purchased under the Town tab, and each troop will come with their own defence / attack.

Other than the initial troops, other higher level ones will have an upkeep cost, and players need to be mindful about their overall upkeep costs. There are also certain heroes, e.g. Penelope and Garlan, who will help to decrease the troops purchase costs by a few percent when you buy the troops in town. It is important to note that the discount applies only when the purchase is done in towns; if the player purchases the troops via the Quests tab, there is no discount.

Land – The upkeep costs of army units and heroes will need to come from somewhere, and that is mainly from income earned through Land. There are different types of Land, from simple Temple to Castles and Lake Fortresses. Each of these land will give gold per hour, ranging from 200 to 150,000. Attacking players or earning gold via quests will not be sufficient to maintain the troops upkeep, and land will be essential. Land can also be given when the player completed the fights against monsters.

The cost to purchase each type of land will increase based on the number of such land the player has in each category.

Items – I feel that many of the more worthwhile items are obtained via fighting monsters or getting them via Demi-quests, and thus it is not much point to buy them via the Blacksmith shop. One such example is the Holy Avenger sword that players may get after the completing the Land of Earth quest (12 attk / def).

Also see:
- FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 1
- Castle Age: Battle of the Dark Legion

Merry X'mas! X'mas Globes by Playfish!

2009-12-25T02:27:00.005+08:00

A Merry X'mas to everyone! Thanks for visiting this blog.

Yupz, there are also presents by game developers for those playing online games. For example Playfish's Pet Society game is givign player a X'mas Globe!

The gift is available only during this X'mas, and thus those who want it, better get it fast!

Afternote: Restaurant City is giving the same globe to players too, except that the Globe is rendered in a slightly different angle.

FB Castle Age - Simple Review & Guide Part 1

2009-12-20T16:46:00.003+08:00

Simple Introduction & First Steps

Castle Age on Facebook is like a cross between Mafia Wars and Tiny Adventures D&D; it has a medieval setting and uses the same game mechanics as Mafia Wars, i.e. stats, energy, stamina etc. Similar to Tiny Adventure, the player needs to hire heroes who lead armies assembled by the players to complete quests and fight other players / monsters.

In my opinion Castle Age is more interesting than either Mafia Wars or Tiny Adventures because it offers better graphics and better named items compared to Mafia Wars, and more depth of play compared to Tiny Adventures.

As per any MMO RPG based games, the first few steps will be pretty standard.

After you start the game, try to complete as many quests as you can. At low levels, completing quests can get you up to level 5-6 easily within 10-15 minutes. Devout more stat points for Energy since that allows the player to do more quests, i.e. level faster.

One small tip is that at the early stage of the game, go to the Demi-Powers tab, and click Ambrosia to get the Sword of Lights. This should be amongst the 1^st items to get in the game because it gives the player a good headstart and it is free.

Since it is likely you join Castle Age because of an invitation by friends, do try to partner them in their fights against the monsters. Just a couple of clicks that consumed your stamina, but eventually when the monster is killed, the rewards can be huge for a beginning player. I fought a Sea Serpent the first night I joined Castle Age.

Before you logged off, get some land to generate gold, and keep the rest of gold safely away from other Players, in the Treasury under ‘Keep’ tab (yes, just pay the 10% ‘service charge’).

Castle Age – Heroes, Quests, & Battles

Heroes play a critical role in the game, since they commend armies to complete quests, battles against other players, and form perquisite to increase the ‘influence’ for many quests. Each hero has their own attributes, i.e. more attack power / defence power, or a balance of both. The list of heroes can be accessed via the Heroes tab, but the more powerful ones can only be obtained via use of favour points.

When the player reaches level 10, there will be opportunity to also level up the Heroes for better Hero stats. One point to note is that the rewards from the Land of Fire Boss quest (1^st starting area) include a powerful hero – Celeste. Celeste has 12 attack and 12 defence, and will be the main power Hero for many levels.

Quests - Quests are the main bulk of the activity other than battling other players or monsters. Completion of the quests is needed before new areas are unlocked. For example, the player needs to complete pre-requisite quests with 100% influence in the Land of Fire, before new lands are available. When x number of quests are completed in each Land, the boss quest option becomes available, e.g. Orc King.

Quests consume energy to complete. Higher level quests will consume more energy, and thus it is important to add stat points to Energy attribute. The plus side is that quests are give more gold and experience at a higher level in those unlocked Lands.

Quests also require certain number of troops before the player can engage in these specific quests, i.e. 5 units of paladin / Tree Ents before the player can complete the quest. It is also important to check your current Hero, in order to match the quest requirement. Using the wrong Hero for the quest means there is no increase in Influence (the standard coins and experience will still be given).

Battles - Castle Age's Battle tab has two options for player to fight against other players – Invade or Duel.

Invade means there will be a battle among the two armies. Choose this option only if you have a lot of friends playing Castle Age. The maximum number of army players you can involve is 501. It is simply a test between numbers. Of course, each army member can also use the player’s items to boost the attacking / defending power. Nonetheless, superior number will still win. Big army size also means that more of the player’s Heroes can be involved, thus boosting the chance of winning. I think the ratio is 5 army members to 1 Hero.

The other option, Duel, is a fight between the best of each other’s Heroes. Use this option once you have Celeste unlocked from the Land of Fire since she has better stats. The fighting Heroes will be equipped with the best equipment available.

Each time you battle another player, a stamina point will be deducted. Thus for players who enjoyed PvP, raise the Stamina stats. A bonus of battling is that battle points are earned when the player wins a battle. More points are awarded if the player fights against someone of higher rank. When certain ranks are achieved, rewards (e.g. stat points) are given. Each battle also gives points linked to the Demi-powers.

Monsters - Monsters are the fun part of the game when the players can co-operate with each other to fight monsters. A player can start a summoning of monster once certain requirements are met, e.g. the Orc King and Sorceress Queen become available once the majority of quests are completed in the respective Lands. The other monsters (e.g. the sea serpent and dragon) can be summoned once the player performs alchemy with all the necessary alchemy items.

The monsters don’t last forever, and have to be killed within a set timeframe. Beyond the time frame, the monster fight stops. Participate in all the monster fights started by your friends, since each monster kill can give pretty decent rewards. I got good rewards in one such monster fight when I first started the game, and the items were useful for the many subsequent levels.

Finder is Not Keeper - Playfish games

2009-12-16T01:13:00.005+08:00

It is somewhat irritating when I realised that as the finder of rare 'visitors', e.g. Hideeni, or the Gourmet King, I can not keep the items they professed to give. Instead, I have to make some announcements, and my friends will get the items. Hopefully in turn some kind soul will also find these avatars and I can get the items.

Here's the two pics from Restaurant City. Oh well, so that means I shouldn't spend time spotting these special avatars.

I will actually appreciate if upon the announcements, the players can also keep the items. Here's the pic about Pet Society, and that means I will not have the plushie.

You Can Now Cook in Pet Society

2009-12-14T00:35:00.008+08:00

Seems like cooking is a big draw for Facebook gamers. We have Restaurant City, Cafe World, and now even the Pet Society has a cooking function. Pet Society now provides each pet with a toaster / microwave oven device that allows the pet to cook!

Cooking seems pretty simple, much like other functions (planting, stickers...etc), and the instructions are provided when you click on the microwave device.

Initially the number of recipes is limited, and the pet will have to cook more in order to level up and get new options. There is not much profit to be made from cooking though, since each dish will only provide a few coins more. The dish that takes one day to cook, i.e. King Burger, will give about 40 coins profit.

There is no need to 'buy' ingredients, because the ingredients will be provided automatically when you purchase the dish. The dishes take about 10 minutes to 1 day to cook. Once there is something cooking, there will be an alert to inform you about the time remaining.

Just click when the dish is done, and the dish will go straight into the storage. There are quite a number of dishes to learn but the pet has to level up the cooking skill before the recipes are available. Recipes include Snowman Sundae, Gingerbread house, Choc Fudge cake...etc.

You will get the congratulations note about the cooked dish, and yes you will also get the congratulations note when you level up the cooking skill for the pet. Well, give it a try and see if there is any other cooking functions for higher levels.

It is snowing in Restaurant City!

2009-12-03T23:48:00.005+08:00

It is snowing in Restaurant City! Now that it is December, everyone is in X'mas mood, and Playfish has introduced four festive related dishes (one for each category) into the game.

New dishes is an old concept, but I was pleasantly surprise at the snow covered trees. Yes they also added an outdoor option for more diners. Based on the letter from Playfish, there is supposedly a Food King, but I am not sure how to identify him. There were forum posting that the Food King is a purple character who is likely to be dining at the outdoor space.

You will need the Food King in order to get some of the materials needed for the festive seasons, e.g. raisins. Guess I will need to build an outdoor dining area (5,000 coins) in order to get these special ingredients then.

Snake in Restaurant City!

2009-11-25T23:27:00.004+08:00

Yes there is a snake in Restaurant City! Well, not exactly those snakes that bite, but the game 'Snake'.

It is somewhat surprising actually to see an 'arcade game' within the game itself. We've always seen games within games, but I didn't expect to see it within a Facebook game like Restaurant City.

The Snake game can be activated if you have an arcade game machine within Restaurant City. The control is pretty simple, i.e. movement of the snake with the 4 arrow keys. to eat up ingredients that looked like actual ingredients in RC. There is a score function at the end of the game. I couldn't see if other 'functional items' giving this additional feature. Now that Playfish has introduced Snake, wonder what else would they add? Tetris? Bejewelled?

Electronic Arts bought Playfish!

2009-11-10T23:42:00.004+08:00

Yupz Electronic Arts has bought Playfish, and from this CNA article it is at a hefty price tag (in my opinion).

for 275 million dollars in cash and 25 million dollars in equity retention arrangements for employees.

In addition, EA said it will pay up to 100 million dollars if the privately held Playfish reaches certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011.

Yeah that is a max of US$400 millions!

I must admit that Playfish has been a very innovative games developer, who has been able to track what consumers want and provides new features to the games. For example it has added features to prompt players to visit others in Restaurant City (in addition to other features).

Oh well, after Playfish, who next to be considered for buyout? Zynga? Zynga has also been rolling out new games that parallel many of other similar successful models (e.g. Cafe World). So yes I think it is time some of the bigger games company start to look at the new developers for some measures of consolidation in the industry.

Planting Seeds in Restaurant City - and get new ingredients!

2009-10-04T17:39:00.003+08:00

Restaurant City has offered the 'Plant a seed' option for quite some time. The 9 plots of land located at the upper right corner of the restaurant are available for seeds planting when the player reaches various level. For example, the last 3 plot of land at the bottom right of the farm, where the plots look filled with stones and weed, are unlocked when I reach level 28, 30, and 32.

Why would any player want to plant a seed for 2,000 coins? Well, when ever seeds are planted, 48 hours later the player would get a new ingredient! This saves a lot of time and effort to hunt and exchange ingredients with friends. More importantly it allows for players to get more ingredients. So that simply means that if a player has all 9 plots available, he would get 9 more ingredients every 2 days, or 4.5 ingredients more per day. Attractive isn't it?

There is a trick though, and that is the players need to constantly water the plots of land. Each time a player click on the plot of land, 3 hours worth of water is added. A total of 9 hours of stored water is the upper limit. If the plot of land runs dry, the plant will not grow. :) Mouse over the land to get the info about the time left to harvest the plants.

When time is up, the plant will appear shiny, and a player can click on it to harvest the plant. As the plant grows, the icon changes a little. Below is a picture of the saffron ingredient. The icon in the little black box (to the right) shows the growing plant.

There are many ingredients that a player can obtained from plants. Well I guess it is only natural that meat products can't be obtained this way, but I've found the following list of plant ingredients: coffee, tea, saffron, sugar, garlic, oregano, basil, vanila, bay leaf, coriander, and wasabi so far. I've heard of people with the ginger plant, but I've not managed to grow one so far since the plant grew is random.

picture of garlic plant above

picture of sugar cane (i.e. sugar ingredient) above

picture of vanila plant above

I wonder if Restaurant City will offer a animal farming option soon? Now the meat ingredients are much harder to obtain...

Afternote: Restaurant City had just added an instruction (pic below) to teach players how to plant seeds.

Games Convention Asia 2009 - Convention @ Suntec

2009-09-20T17:43:00.003+08:00

This year's GCA 2009 convention seemed smaller somehow. Perhaps it was due to the economic crisis and that the recently there were a number of other related trade shows / events (e.g. Toys Comics Games Convention, and also COMEX).

The good thing about GCA 2009 was that I get to see many other smaller local studios! I was hoping to catch the developer of Straw Hat Samurai, but I guess he wasn't around the area when I visited. I saw other booths by Tyler and also NexGen Studios. Seems like they are doing well, and that is good news to show the promise and potential of the local budding games studios.

A major attraction of GCA this year is the display of the Into the Pixel art prints. The prints were selected as part of a competition, and these pieces were the winners this year. For 3 years running, the Into The Pixel competition serve as an event to celebrate the artistic elements of the games development, and it is indeed different to see the art pieces as prints rather than on screen graphics. Ok I am a bit more biased towards Guild Wars but that game does have good graphics!

This year there were a number of business and trade related initiatives and a whole area was devoted to be the business centre for deals discussions. Not sure if there will be any announcement of the the total deals value later. I think we need more incentives, and more publicity of the events regionally to attract deal makers to come here.

In the exhibition halls we see the usual consoles, cars racing ...etc. Perhaps we have seen too many of such set ups that it is getting a bit dull. It is fun to see folks tryong out games but we see that too often at the various events.

Yeah we have other type of booths selling games related items too. Quite fun to wear military style dressed up persons walkign around. I wonder how they feel wearing these costumes that should be quite different from the SAF number 4 uniform that we are all familiar with.

The highlight is of course the competition. The One Asia Cup rounds will be completed (for Singapore leg) by this weekend, and then we have finalists from four countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore) competiting. Good Luck to those who are competing!

There was this large booth area hosting Dragonica online game, and I understand there was a x2 experience points event going on as well. Dragonica is fun and yes it is important to have more games event to retain the interest of gamers, especially when there are so many other online games available.

Afternote: Thanks to a guest reader who correctly pointed out that there is the large gaming area by Cherry Credits.

I do like to see more variety of games offered at such conventions and viola, we have the Playware Studios, demonstrating the educational games. These video walls content, including the displayed game items could be controlled via remote controllers by the side of the booth. So I guess these tools will be useful for teachers at schools (i.e. for educational purpose).

Yupz Playware also has other games, e.g. the Magic Lanterns, that we see here.

Overall the Convention is interesting, but I guess the CosPlay events and tournaments will attract more people this weekend rather than gaming booths. :)

GCA 2009 - D.I.C.E. Asia Summit @ Suntec

2009-09-20T16:33:00.002+08:00

It was a wonderful experience attending the first D.I.C.E. (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) Asia Summit where I could have the first hand experience learning and interacting with so many renowned persons from the gaming industry.

The Summit started with the opening remarks (and announcement of Singapore Game Box @ E2Max) from the Acting Minister of MICA, and the official speech could be found at MICA website. There were many speeches, presentations, announcements...etc and I would just highlight those of interest to me.

The discussion by Mr Eundo Chae, General Director of Wizet Studio was interesting simply because it was all about MapleStory! Yeah, that was one of the online games where I spent a large amount of time, and where I met many online friends, a few of whom I still maintain contact till today. So it was very interesting to hear that MapleStory didn't start out as an online game durign the conceptual stage. Mr Eundo Chae shared that it was actually meant to be a graphical chat tool complete with avatar and costumes!

Wizet then realised that it was pretty easy to let the avatars moved around in 2D, and that they had difficulty developing the entire database of avatars and costumes at one shot. Thus Wizet had the brillant idea of developing MapleStory into a 2D side scroll game instead. Of course, the chatting function, the bright casual feel, and avatar customisation remained as core points of the game.

Mr Eundo Chae then shared that MapleStory became successful (currently about 87 million players around the world, wow!) because of the continuous development, the intriduction of relevant game content and events, and the effort to prevent server hacks ...etc. The localisation effort for MapleStory was remarkable, where new towns and related quests were customised according to the country for the specific groups of users. The MapleStory of today is no longer just limited to the game, since there were many other game related products, e.g. stationery, comics, anime and even TCG cards.

Another interesting discussion was by Mr Yasuhide Kobayashi, Senior VP of SCE Worldwide Studios. The discussion was interesting because of the focus on localisation. Localisation has always been a very important part of games introduction into any market. Games is a part of culture, and without understanding the culturally aspects of the target audience, it will be very difficult to penetrate the market successfully.

Mr Kobayashi shared many stories from the Sony studios, and how the Japan and US offices discussed about their games development strategy and designs.

The discussion was lively because of the many examples used, where as part of the audience we were asked about our preferences for the various designs. He ramarked that Japanese market prefered a softer image in terms of games packaging, where the US market prefered a stronger character focus. Examples of Hot Shots Golfs and ICO were used. Of course, the claps (indicator of preference) would be very confusing to Mr Kobayashi, simply because the audience came from various parts of the world. Thus there would be no way he could discern what was this D.I.C.E audience's preferences.

It was also interesting to know that Sony actually spent 1 year in designing the characters for their games. The decision makers had to decide on the looks of the game characters for Rogue Galaxy that took various iterations. Of course, that is important because any die hard fans of a game title will not want the character designs to change drastically at the next release.

The first day of the D.I.C.E. Asia Summit ended with a roundtable discussion. The topics were interasting, but I find the pce slow, simply because translators were needed for the various speakers. The makeup of the panelists reflected the global nature of the game industry, as can be seen in the picture below.

The second day of D.I.C.E Asia Summit attracted a lot more students and developers. I believed it is simply because the topcis of the second day would be closer to the hearts of many individuals. Unfortunately my camera battery died during the second day and I had taken only a few pictures.

The sharing by Lisa Hanson of Niko Partners about the China's Games Industry Outlook was informational. It is simply remarkable how the market size of China has grown. The 60 million online gamers base of China offered huge business opportunities. Of course, I didn't know that consoles were generally banned, and that many online games developers need to partner with Chinese local firms in order to provide services in the market. I guess billion dollars games industry, with predominanatly item based subscriptions will continue to be attractive to the game developers. I also learned new info, that ShangHai is the nexus of the telecom networks, and thus became the ideal location to host games servers.

Not all sessions were serious discussions of informational stuff. I attended the enlightening session by Christopher Natsuume of Boomzap entertainment, that was very very entertaining and yet provided insights into how the casual games market functions. Christopher's use of many examples helped to drive home the points of his presentation. Seriously I didn't know that there were so many different releases of Diner Dash, or that there were so many different versions of 'match three' puzzle or 'Mtstery Files' spot the items games.

These two days of the D.I.C.E Asia Summit were worth spending my annual leave for, and if there are opportunities again next year I am sure I will attend again. Judging from the audiences I am sure many will return again next year. However, I would think that topics offered during the second day will be more attractive than the general announcements or broadbased discussions done during the first day. I guess the organisers will have sufficient feedback to re-adjust their focus of the event, i.e. whether it is a trade show, discussion forum, or just consumer focused event. The pictures of GCA 2009, and the Magma Studios announcement will be shared in the blog separately.

GCA 2009 Media Conference @ Colosseum, Iluma

2009-09-15T15:07:00.002+08:00

It was a pleasant surprise when I received the invitation for the Games Convention Asia 2009 Media Conference. The Games Convention Asia event (GCA) has always been a highlight for the regional gaming industry, not just due to the large variety of different games companies and business deals struck, but also the interesting discussions with the many panelists from the different value chain of games development. One can get a much better perspective of the current development and trends of game development in the region from GCA.

The GCA 2009 Media Conference was held this morning at the newly opened Illuma cybercafe, Colosseum. I met Yirong (Atomic Gaming) and Gayle (Colosseum) who commented that Colosseum with its 220+ gaming PCs and the latest gamign assesories, will be making its pressence felt in the gaming sector. Colosseum had hosted competition events, and the set up of the place with three mega screens will definitely be ideal for tournaments. Those who are interested can visit the place, located at the top floor of Illuma (next to the newly opened club Seven), i.e. you have to take the lifts (not escalators) to the 7th floor.

When I reached the venue, Tannia and Shirley (Hoffman) were introducing the panelists to me. For the Media Conference, they had4 panelists (left to right in the picture below), Jorg Zeissig (LMI), Joseph Olin (AIAS), Aroon Tan (GXA), and Richard Chua (IAH Games). There were also some collaterals for folks to read, including a coming cosplay event (Asia Pacific Cosplay Championship @ GCA 2009) on 20th Sep at Suntec as well.

Jorg and Joseph shared the details of GCA 2009, including the introduction of DICE (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) Summit to Singapore. Personally I always think it is encouraging to have forums / platforms for companies and individuals to share their experiences, and I think DICE Summit Asia will do just that for companies in this region. It is very interesting to hear remarks like 'game creation as fine arts, as culturally revelant materials, and as the next wave of interactive entertainment, relevant to audiences at home and the region' from Joseph. I think that is simply great, and that is precisely what we need to encourage games development locally. Games are artistic entertainment that are of great relevant both culturally and commercially. Arts and / or entertainment can better flourish in an environment that encourages ideas exchange.

So I guess we can expect a lot from the participating companies in the coming GCA. I was looking through the list of 70+ exhibitors (Cherry, EA, Epicsoft, Gaming Era, Gigabyte, Microsoft, Nanyang Poly, Playware, TimeZone...etc) and while the majority are Singapore companies, we do have about 18 companies from China, India, Germany, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, and UK. I was hoping to see developers for mobile games, and also IPTV interactive games (e.g. Accedo) but I guess the current market is not attractive (yet) for these companies to participate in Singapore events. Hopefully in the years to come we can have these companies, to complete the spectrum of different games development. Well, GCA appeals to the games developers for the English speaking communities in the Asia region, but there are also many pockets of non-English speaking crowd and we do need other developers to come along and add to this eco-system.

Aroon and Richard shared their initiatives that will be launched at this week, including the directory of key players in the gaming industry that spans across the whole value chain. Aroon also shared that more market trends, market statistics, and details will be released to level the playing field such that smaller players could also have a good chance to secure their niches in this market. Actually I am not so sure that smaller games developers are disadvantaged, simply because the market we are talking about is actually world size. If a game is good, it will find its way around to other markets. Some niche successful games developers that come to mind are Amanita Design (with their Samorost 1 & 2, and Machinarium), and even the local LUT! with his Straw Hat Samurai 1 & 2. There are many others, e.g. Pencil Farm, who occupy different niches, and a small niche in the world market can be as big (in revenue) as the local market. Of course, an information directory is always good, and more market intelligence will also be great.

For Richard, he shared the One Asia Cup launched by IAH Games, where games from Malaysian, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, will compete for the US$100,000 prizes. It is encouraging to have such tournaments and competitions that give the much needed boost to the local competitive gaming landscape. It shows that gaming can be a serious affairs, and that helps to dispel the many media association of online games with crimes, social problems and gaming addicts. After the Media Conference, various journalists had their discussions with the panelists, but I left shortly (heh partly to come home and quickly register as Press Accreditation for GCA).

For GCA 2009, I will be looking forward to a healthy debate of gaming related issues. Of particular interest to me will be the keynote speech by Tetsuhiko Yasuda about copyright protection, development support, and games export potential in Asia. Yes, there are many other discussions and do visit the GCA site to get a sense of the different tracks of discussions.

So I guess that is about it for the Media Conference and I am looking forward to GCA 2009 at Suntec (from Thursday to Sunday). Oh, as an interesting side note, it was also shared that Into The Pixel exhibition (the website has pictures of the different pieces) of different art pieces will also be held during the GCA! I was glancing through the small booklet and found many interesting prints (Rabbids, Guild Wars ...etc). Yes, it will be great to appreciate game arts as prints, and truly celebrate the concept of games as the artistic forms of entertainment!

COMEX 2009 @ Suntec - Part 2

2009-09-15T01:06:00.002+08:00

The 6^th floor exhibitors had a lot more bargain items. It is already a common sight to see posters with bargain details and large group of consumers queuing in front of the booths to get the discounted items.

Unlike the 4^th floor with glass shelves of display items, 6^th floor had a lot more racks of smaller items, and even goods simply stacked on cardboard boxes. I heard that those who went on the last day, and especially during the last few hours of COMEX, could bargain for even greater discounts or more freebies. I guess that make sense since the exhibitors would also save on the logistics of transporting the goods back to the warehouse.

Here’s the level 6^th floor plan and yupz those wanting to buy smaller items could likely find them here. I bought a headset at a pretty cheap price!

Here’s a picture of the different A4Tech headsets. Nope I didn’t get mine from this rack though.

6^th floor often had innovative new products, and this time round I saw this interesting piggy bank. The piggy bank would recognise the value of the coins you put in, and it would sum up the total as well! Actually I think this is not much different from the coins vending machines available on the street, except that this is a brand new and innovative use of the same technology of coin recognition. The item description stated that there is a patent pending actually.

Yupz other nice products include this Irive MP that looked like a mouse head. There is no LED display and the two rounded ears form the control for the MP player.

That is about it for this COMEX 2009. Other great bargains and babes could be found on the many other websites and so I didn’t take any photos or have any descriptions about them. :)

COMEX 2009 @ Suntec - Part 1

2009-09-14T23:31:00.001+08:00

The COMEX 2009 was held at Suntec over the last weekend, and as usual there was a huge crowd. Generally people would buy their electronic products during the 4 IT events of the year due to the various discounts and goodies given. Various credits cards like OCBC and Citibank would throw in further freebies when purchase were done using their cards.

Here’s a floor map of level exhibitors. The bigger names (e.g. HP, Epson, Dell, Samsung) were located at the 4^th floor while the smaller shops selling different products would be located at the 6^th floor. Interestingly Mustafa was also at the COMEX 4^th floor!

People queued, sometimes before the actual opening hours, simply because there were certain promos with limited number of sets. For example Samsung was selling the Omnia II at $799 for limited number of sets per day and once the sets were exhausted, the more expensive price of $839 kicked in.

Of course, consumers benefited when the stiff competition resulted in prices being cut, often on the spot with price reduction scribbled on some cardboards. For example the Toshiba flash drive prices were adjusted when other price lists were revealed. There were also many booths selling the same items, and it would help if you tell one booth that the other booths were throwing in some freebies (e.g. laptop items) before you made any purchase.

Exhibitors were a lot smarter now with their logistics. It used to be that consumers have to lug their own boxes from the COMEX exhibitions, and that deterred people from buying bulkier items. Now exhibitors, for example Epson, simply packaged their bigger items with a trolley (picture below), and the consumers could simply pay and go. Innovative right?

Those who were worried that their older electronics were taking up storage space at home, could also trade in their older wares e.g. laptops, during this exhibition. Both working and faulty sets could fetch in some cash for the consumers’ immediate use at the COMEX. Smart idea!

Descriptions of the 6^th floor booths would be detailed in COMEX 2009 @ Suntec – Part 2

When games and all things related go mainstream...

2009-09-05T01:03:00.003+08:00

Ok ok I know gaming is now a main stream activity and we have people of all ages playing games, from the hard core gamers spending up to 10 hours per day in MMORPGs, to the casual 10 minutes gamers dropping by their Facebook accounts once every few days.

But do you know that even the library has stocked up many books about gaming? Barely a year ago, there were only 2-3 books on the book shelves about gaming. Today the National Library (near Bugis) actually stocks up many shelf sections about computer gaming and related materials.

We have books like Wii for Dummies, Massively Multiplayer for Dummies, many books about Second Life, Pac-man, virtual world books ...etc. Amazing. I am actually not sure if there is indeed such a huge demand for these books. I mean, many of the information could be found online, and most of the gamers should know how to get these ever-changing info online? No?

Other than just books about gaming itself, there are also other books about games development and programming. There are books about .NET development, games programming on Python, games level design, PSP hacks ...etc. I agree there is an increasing demand for these more specialised books since it is much harder to read and find information about games development and programming online. If anything there are just FAQs on some websites and forums, and not full chapters of in-depth discussions and info.

Oh well, now that there are many shelves of books about games in the library, aspiring game designers could borrow a few and try it out. :)

World of Warcraft Expansion 3: Cataclysm

2009-08-24T22:58:00.003+08:00

World of Warcraft 3rd Expansion: Cataclysm was announced last week at BlizzCon 2009. The official website could be found here. Of course, the huge number of hits by fans all over the world means that you could experience slowness in accessing the site. The details of this new expansion seem interesting.

There is also this slashdot discussion about this new Cataclysm expansion with all the funny / insightful comments as usual.

Basically there is a new level cap of 85 (yeah just 5 levels instead of 10 levels as before), and the world of Azeroth has been (will be) changed cos' of Deathwing the Destroyer. There are also two new classes, Horde Goblin and Alliance Worgen. Not sure how they will look like but I can't think well of a goblin player. I am sure the voice will sound funny. Not sure how this goblin player's stats stacked with the existing game materials, especially the existing Booty Bay related reputation. Will they have special race stats bonus on engineering? Hmm.

Further descriptions of the changes can be found on the WoW site. Somehow I am not as excited about the new classes, but rather I am more intrigued by the new profession of Archaeology. Hopefully it will not be too difficult to level up (remember jewel crafting anyone?). The description on the new mastery system is interesting, but let's see how it actually turn out in game play.

Actually I am not sure if I will continue to be so interested in WoW. WoW has been great. However, when there are too many end game players focusing on the end game materials, the game sort of get boring after a while. I'm not those who spend many hours per day to play WoW, and so it is quite hard to find that many casual players in towns, and yes the guild I once belonged to is also no longer around. Going into BGs and pitting yourselve against the fully geared enemies seem demoralising.

Hmm perhaps I should look forward to the Diablo III instead. Here's the Diablo III monk trailer. Impressive right?

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 2

2009-08-22T00:38:00.000+08:00

Here's the photos for Part 2 of the Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009. Following the same practice as last year, the various artists painted on the blank boards just outside the convention halls.

Star Wars items (toys, comics...etc) have always been a popular draw for the crowd. This year we had a number of 'life size' troopers walkign around in the costumes, which made it quite interesting. They even had a 'dressed up as Star Wars characters' for a fee that is donated to charity.

What I liked was this robotic R2D2 (life sized) that moved around the place. Quite cool! Imagine having one such toy at home. I guess I could fix a vacuum machine to this toy and have it move around the house. That should make housecleaning more fun.

Besides Star Wars, the other popular games / toys with the crowd are the World of Warcraft (WoW) items. Want to make your own WoW figurines? Here's a photo that shows the different stage of crafting the figurines.

Not forgetting the free posters (and collar pin, & fake tattoos) , and even life sized figure boards for people to take photos!

Of course, there were also transformers, 'Revenge of the Fallen' (a movie where I think the plot sucks).

Ok that is about all I have for STGCC '09. I guess next year there will be equally interesting toys / comics / games for the STGCC 2010!

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 1

2009-08-18T23:02:00.002+08:00

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 (STGCC) was held at Suntec Convention Centre (level 4) this past weekend. I think it was a great event! :) It is always fun to see many displays of figurines, toys, games, comics... etc at one place, and see the many people ogling at their favourite toys.

Like last year, the Devilrobots designer was here to sign autographs and 'drew' something for those who purchase the toys. I was quite amazed by the variety of the To-Fu toys actually.

What was equally amazing is that To-Fu toys have invaded the stamps collecting circle! Thus there are now stamps sets (with competition organised by SingPost)and related game board sets for To-Fu Oyako.

Of course, the cute toys are not limited to To-Fu, and others like ugly dolls also made their appearance. It is weird to see so many of the ugly dolls piled up in the container. Mass ugliness? Lolz.

For those who are gachapon fans, there are plenty of capsules to choose from. Visitors can even change their notes for coins at the event.

Beside the collectible toys, there were also huge 'toys' walking around. Yupz, it was really fun to take pictures together with this pair of Mario Brothers. I didn't go to the event on the last day where the cosplay competition was held, or else there would be other more interesting photos. Nonetheless, there is a part 2 coming with more photos.

Finally, I have my own domain name!

2009-08-11T23:55:00.002+08:00

I haven't been blogging for the past couple of days because I was trying to get Blogger to work on my own customised domain names. It was not that easy for someone without any knowledge of the domain name stuff.

Well, the whole thing started when a friend alerted me to the current August promotion of $5 for a .sg domain name. You can get the list of participating registrars from SgNIC site. I got curious, and decided to get one, i.e. shadow.sg. I thought that is all about it, since Blogger's "publishing tab' stated clearly that

You're publishing on blogspot.com

Switch to: • Custom Domain (Point your own registered domain name to your blog)

Oh well, it was only after I got the domain name that I realised that no one host my DNS for me. The Blogger Help post about this subject is also not very helpful. After much searching I finally found this site, 'Setting Up a Custom Domain? Here's Advice'.

There is truly good advice on that site. :)

So yes, I finally got my own domain name!

Restaurant City - High Score of 50!

2009-08-02T23:59:00.003+08:00

Yes I finally got the high score of 50 for ratings in Restaurant City, and it is done without the use of arcade machines!

Initially I only managed to have a score of 46.5. After some juggling of the employees (rotating 1 chef to be a waiter), and occasionally cleaning the toilet, I managed to get the score of 50 (second picture below).

The score is maintained or quite a while and not just a 'touch and go' rating. I guess the inclusion of the drinsk and fridge help, since there is no need to wait for the chef to cook up the dish when the drinks can be served instantly.

Ok, now the trick or next achievement is to get more dishes to level 20, including some drinks recipes!

Restaurant City - New 'Drinks' recipes & option to serve more dishes

2009-07-28T23:15:00.004+08:00

Playfish's Restaurant City has just introduced a new drinks recipes, and thus the customers will now want drinks as well!

The drinks recipes currently available are
1) Glass of water
2) Expresso
3) Coffee
4) Tea (yes they introduce coffee beans and tea leaves!)
5) Chocolate milkshake
6) Strawberry milkshake
7) Lemonade (they introduce water and ice ingredients too!)
8) Peach ice tea (yes, you are right, peach too!)
9) Bubble tea
10) Fruit smoothie

The drinks are not served from stoves, i.e. unlike the traditional category of foods. The drinks are 'dispense' from new functional furniture, i.e. the drinks fridge and soda dispenser (shown below). The waiter and waitress will need access to the fridge or dispenser in order to get the drinks for the customers.

Other than drinks, Playfish has also allowed for more than 1 dish to be served per category. Thus those who have more than 1 dish at level 10, can enjoy more gourmet points while seeing more varieties of food served in the restaurant!

Yeah, the good thing about Playfish games is that there are constant updates, that makes the game more fun to play with.

See also:
- Restaurant City is up! Added Photo Feed and Gourmet Street

Fishing in Pet Society - New Function!

2009-07-26T23:31:00.001+08:00

Pet Society has yet another new function after their recent garden / seeds planting addons. This time round it is a fishing pond where players can bait and fish different types of fishes! I must say that Playfish is quite innovative in their game designs. Quoting directly from Pet Society :

Go fishing in Pet Society! After a hard day of shopping, visiting friends, racing in the stadium and tending to your garden, we thought your pet might appreciate a little rest and relaxation. And what could be a better way to rest and relax than grabbing a fishing rod and some bait (something from the food shop will do) and heading out to the all new fishing pond in the middle of town to see what you can catch?

Once you've caught your fish you can put them in an aquarium in your home, so any visitors can see your fish collection. There are loads of different fish to find but lots of fish will only eat a particular type of bait, so try experimenting with all kinds of different foods.

Well, that seems nice. When I opened the program and got a new message alert, I know they have added new things.

Yupz you can buy fish tanks of different sizes and keep the fishes you got in them. It is sort of fun to see these new captures floating around in the tank. The darwback is that players will need to spend more coins to get fish baits. I got a squid, a starfish, and an empty bottle so far.

Fishing itself is not difficult. It is just a three step process of 1st click to activate the fish bait and throw out the fishing line. The second step is to click the pet (just once) when the fish bites. If you see splashing water, that means the fish is struggling and you must not click the pet. Else the fish will get away. I wasted two home grown banana because of this mistake. When the fish is nto struggling, keep clicking on the pet and soon you will see your haul!

The fishes don't sell for much currently, unlike the fruits from trees in the garden. Oh well, the fun is not to make coins, but in fishing! Have fun trying out fishing!