Hansel Portal

Its an really awesome week this week! really pack, busy, meaningful, and its just great, probably the best week of the year! It’s so good that I almost forgotten that I am still serving army. 100% no regrets on spamming my 3 days off for next year away like this!

The week starts off with Console development @ Nanyang Polytechnic on 21 and 22. really great to see all the ex lecturers that are still around, Mr Quah, Ms Tan Siew Lan and some others! getting together with friends like Melissa, Shu Wen, Ren Hao, Gabriel and Adrian to code together again! and what impress me was that I am still able to code with all the shortcuts to compiling and running around the codes. And for eye candy, recorded Shu Wen’s “AAA” title game in making! =X

Next will be Gambit’s new game lab at 23rd level of shaw tower with an impressive view of the city, able to see esplanade, IR and many others. It sure be a great spot to see fireworks, F1 and so on.. Had a super full pizza + Ham + Hot Dog, and console games, card games, drinks, dominic’s nurf guns, and some urban ops in the office =X

And there’s my secondary school band’s chalet for the sec 4s that are leaving, really great to see them after so long, hardly able to go back ever since enlisted in army. Really had some fun there, Liang Rong and some others are still the same as when there are sec 1, still screaming, shouting  and playing. Although only get to see Benedict and Tian Hoe, and Tian Hoe have a girlfriend called Joanna *i think* all have grown up!

Then it’s my birthday on the 24th, nothing epic just simple dinner of  log cake, wine and ham at home with family in front of television, and count down to Christmas!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Well that’s all so far for this week 26th will be an ITE class  gathering @ Mr Wong’s place which should be another cool times with friends known during ITE, quite an anticipated gathering as we weren’t able to get together during Chinese new year early this year! oh well! it will be great anyway

Yay! Hot new from ren hao when I woke up! Showtime has made it to Penny Arcade Expo 2009 top 10  selections! Congrats so Gambit and Showtime team once again!! wooott~~!! How I wish I could be there at the Expo in seattle but too bad! maybe next year or the year after!

I was quite excited to see who are the other entries and notice that 1 of them (Tag: The Power of Paint) is done by students of Digipen!

The PAX 10

After sifting through over 150 submissions from a gaggle of gameplay types and a plethora of platforms, a panel of game industry experts have selected the ten best submissions to be recognized as this year’s The PAX 10.

What is PAX?

PAX is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. We call it a festival because in addition to dedicated tournaments and freeplay areas we’ve got nerdcore concerts, panel discussions, the weekend-long Omegathon event, and an exhibitor hall filled with booths displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers. Even with all this amazing content the best part of PAX is hanging out with other people who know their shit when it comes to games.

From gamasutra:

July 16, 2009

Organizers have chosen the 10 best games from over 150 submissions to be showcased at Penny Arcade’s PAX consumer event this year, including CarneyVale Showtime and Osmos.

Now in its second year, the PAX 10 is designed to highlight the efforts of indie game creators working on original, self-funded and self-published, fully playable, non-mod game projects across all platforms.

The developers of the top ten games will be given four exhibitor passes each to the Penny Arcade Expo to be held September 4 to 6, and will showcase the games in a special booth at the show.

The PAX 10 selections are as follows:

CarneyVale: Showtime by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Games Lab (Xbox 360)
Closure by Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe (PC)
Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios (iPhone)
Liight by Studio Walljump (Wii)
Machinarium by Amanita Design (PC)
Osmos by Hemisphere Games (PC)
Puzzle Bloom by Team Shotgun (PC)
Tag: The Power of Paint by Tag Team (PC)
Trino by Trinoteam (Xbox 360)
What is Bothering Carl? by Story Fort (PC)

PAX, organized by popular Penny Arcade comic creators Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, first featured the PAX 10 last year, with finalists whittled down from more than 80 submissions. Last year, Expo attendees chose Twisted Pixel’s The Maw as the overall champion.

“The judges were absolutely blown away by the polished and robust experiences offered by the 2009 submissions,” said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade.

“We’re impressed yet again by the amazing games that indie developers are creating and know that, when you stop by The PAX 10 booth at the show, you will be, too.”

This year’s Penny Arcade Expo itself will be the sixth annual event, with attendance having grown from 4,000 in 2004 to 58,500 in 2008. In 2007, it moved from Bellevue, Washington to the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle to accommodate its rapid growth.

Well this week is a boring week for me, but i did found something interesting when surfing around and I came across a review on my ex project Carnival Showtime on XnaRoundUp.com, which review about the game!

XNA Roundup #20 Weapon of Choice, Blow, Carneyvale: Showtime