skysenshi.com

New Game: Puzzle Pets & Anino Anniversary

2012-05-05T09:15:00.000+08:00

Sorta New Game Well... Puzzle Pets Adventure, the second game I produced for 2012, is not entirely new. I mean, it was softly launched at the end of March. (Yay, we released two of my games on my birth month!) We're still doing some tweaks based on user feedback and some other qualitative data we've been looking at, but I would like to urge everyone to try the game out and tell us what you

My First Concert: Hanson's Shout It Out Tour

2012-03-31T15:53:00.001+08:00

I just realized that I have never attended a concert before and it just so happened that one of my "guilty pleasure" bands, Hanson, arrived on the month of my birthday. I didn't know how to celebrate my birthday earlier in the month, since I had tons of work and school deadlines, so this is like my delayed gratification. Finished dissertation draft, check! Launched Grave Mania, check!

My Best Birthday Gifts for 2012

2012-03-06T12:53:00.000+08:00

Wow, the last time I posted was in January. But yesterday, which happened to be my birthday, was so inspiring that I really felt like writing about it. As many of you know, I had been so exhausted and stressed over game production work and my doctoral dissertation (41% done at 195 pages) that I felt I had hardly any time left for myself. Well, it's a habit for me to make March 5 my "Me Day",

2011: The Good, The Bad and Some Changes

2012-01-01T11:37:00.000+08:00

First off, I would like to greet everyone a HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! From the multimedia industry (game development companies and associations) to the academe to the blogosphere to my wonderful colleagues, my readers, professors, classmates, former students, fellow bloggers, friends and family: Thank you all for being part of my 2011. You have made my year very memorable. You may have noticed

Hong Kong Nights 2011

2011-12-28T10:51:00.000+08:00

From the moment we arrived in Hong Kong, it was very clear how commercial the entire place was. It was around midnight then but the streets of Kowloon was still buzzing with activity and was very well-lighted. I was actually shocked that we were in Kowloon, haha. Because the last time I was there (approximately 14 years ago), it looked a lot like a more packed Binondo. Kowloon now is full of

Siggraph Hong Kong 2011

2011-12-24T15:18:00.000+08:00

I'm actually going to have to divide my posts into three parts: work, night time and day time. Why? Because the entire time I was in HK, I spent most of the daylight inside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center at Wanchai. By the time I'd go out of the convention center, dark had already descended and there was nothing left to see but overly lighted shopping malls. Like I mentioned in

Singapore and Sitex Expo 2011

2011-12-18T15:05:00.000+08:00

Today is officially "Chase Blog Backlogs" day. I can only chase one backlog per blog so I'm choosing to post about my Singapore experience last month. Was there from November 25 to 27. Unlike my brief sojourn in Singapore four years ago, which was mostly leisure, this trip was really just about the Sitex IT Expo. Cris and I spent our mornings and afternoons in Singapore Expo and what was left

200 Pounds Beauty

2011-10-30T15:27:00.000+08:00

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I never thought I could actually sit down and enjoy a good Korean movie. I remember seeing my former boss' FB status a few days ago, wherein he lamented about how old Asian movies relied a lot on storytelling that emphasized on "show" instead of "tell". He used one of my favorite classic HK films, Love On A Diet, as an example. I guess I missed watching

Geeky thoughts and friends I've sorely missed

2011-10-06T20:05:00.003+08:00

I was already compiling my thoughts on the things that I have wanted to write about but didn't have time to do so and I guess it's only now that I've stolen my own office space that I've actually given myself a brain breather. Goodness, I've got two games to release by end of the month and a dissertation defense sandwiched in between. (Plus a game development competition and a festival to help

Lords and Colonies: Our new Facebook game!

2011-09-17T09:58:00.002+08:00

Oh, wow, I haven't updated for quite some time. (Because I am now married to my employer, Anino Games, Inc. and UP Diliman is my mistress. Can you name any other lethal combination? If I'm to compare it to George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones, Anino feels like King's Landing -- what with all the organizations and activities attached to it -- and UP is Winterfell.) And apparently, in the two

Solo Features Kenkoy

2011-08-30T09:59:00.003+08:00

Hurray for vacations!! An update! I'm actually tempted not to write anything so I can just gawk at the beautiful campaign photos Solo released for their Kenkoy feature. In fact, I've posted the press release (along with this blog's contest details) on my Facebook page. I know that maybe a lot of people don't know Kenkoy -- I mean, my maternal grandparents had yet to meet when it first came out

Sims Social: The FB game that took us by storm

2011-08-24T06:58:00.002+08:00

I was looking for a third game to do a case study on when I first saw EA Playfish's announcement that they will be releasing Sims Social soon. Looks like I wasn't the only one looking forward to playing this, since there happened to be a lot of The Sims addicts among my friends. I have never played The Sims. That is, until I needed a replacement for Gaia Online's Monster Galaxy, whose frequent

Drev's Fun Friday Night with Yellow Cab

2011-08-15T07:47:00.000+08:00

I received this invitation from Chin (who belongs to one of my favorite groups, OmnicomMediaGroup) a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, I seem to have been declining blogger invitations left and right lately due to my after-office responsibilities (which could usually be about school, work or industry organizational meetings). I didn't want to decline them again, because as I have mentioned,

On corporate social responsibility: What do you value in a company?

2011-08-12T07:46:00.003+08:00

This is actually about the tree planting activity that Anino employees did a couple of months back. I wasn't able to attend because I was doing my thesis but I wanted to and I promised that next year I will be able to do this kind of activity with them. Let me show you the photos first before I talk about why I am getting more and more attached to this company. This is actually Anino's project

Office Arcade Eklavoo

2011-08-04T07:29:00.001+08:00

Wow. This should have been posted around a month ago, haha! Anyway, we have a tradition here in the office. It is a gaming company and even though we mostly produce casual games, everyone in here is a hardcore gamer. During lunch breaks, people would eat quickly so they can play DOTA. Not me. I am one of those few people who valued the old school novelty of our arcade machine. One lunch break,

Why I haven't been blogging lately...

2011-08-02T07:44:00.002+08:00

(Offline Blogging: Saturday, 30 July 2011 at 19.14 Because there is no internet and I can't complete my thesis.) I haven't really been blogging lately and it's been a while since I have written about something on a really personal level (well, my deepest personal stuff I don't post on this blog because those are meant only for my LJ, as they've always been for the last 10 years I've been

On Female Video Gamers

2011-07-19T07:26:00.002+08:00

Since I look so hurried all the time, people have asked me what's making me so haggard. When I say that (besides being a Game Producer and running a Communications department) I am doing my thesis, the immediate follow-up question would be, what is your thesis all about? The answer: Girls and gaming. One of the videos I came across while doing my research is this interesting piece done by

Battlestar Galactica Online

2011-07-14T07:39:00.004+08:00

Since I am currently on research mode right now, hoping to become a doctor of Communication Research (specializing in Game Studies) by the end of the school year, I have been playing games like crazy. Sometimes, I'd find myself playing an RPG on the Sony PSP while harvesting virtual crops/goods/products on my social games. (My brother warned that this kind of multi-gaming

Outfit of the Day: Japanese School Girl Mode. Meep!

2011-07-13T07:39:00.006+08:00

Here at Anino Games, people are eccentric. LOL. Actually, we love our job so much that we try to make things fun everyday (so that we don't seem so geeky). One of the things we Anino girls do, living in a male-dominated, wear-shirt-jeans-and-trainers organization, is to have certain days where we dress up. Sometimes, Tuesdays would be our official skirt days. Unfortunately (fortunately?), at the

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

2011-07-05T07:10:00.003+08:00

"At least Megan Fox was useful." That was my Facebook status, which I posted as soon as I got out of the theater last Friday night. In a nutshell, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was a waste of PhP300 (I hate that I always have no choice but to watch in stereoscopic 3D because they have the best schedules) and wow...that was 2 hours 30 minutes of my life that I can never ever get back. If I

Dove Beauty Event

2011-06-29T07:16:00.002+08:00

Gosh, I feel like I've been out of the loop forever. It's been a while since I saw my good friend Rowena and the Bridges people, especially Franco. I missed Michelle's birthday last month! T.T I missed you guys!!! So when Rowena texted me about Dove and that the event is being arranged by Bridges, I immediately said yes. I was sad not to have seen Michelle, but at least Rowena and a lot of the

Guardian for July 2011: Voltron GoLion

2011-06-27T07:10:00.004+08:00

"From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend. The legend of Voltron: Defender of the Universe! A mighty robot. Loved by good, feared by evil. As Voltron's legend grew, peace settled across the galaxy. On planet Earth, a galaxy alliance was formed. Together with the good planets of the solar system, they maintained peace throughout the universe. Until a new

Cafe Ysabel at Night

2011-06-23T07:21:00.000+08:00

This blog entry was supposed to be posted around December of 2010. I never really got around to posting it (until now) because I was hoping for better photos...maybe during the day, when my camera is at its strongest (Shin-chan2 is just so weak in low light). But I guess I won't be having a social life any time soon, so I might as well post about the things I miss doing. Anyhoo, Cris (shown in

Guess the Guardian for July 2011

2011-06-21T06:54:00.002+08:00

I think I'm going to make a habit of this Guess the Guardian thing, although that would depend on how many times my office desk guardian changes. Hehe. Last month, I had my first Guess the Guardian spur-of-the-moment contest (because I was so aliw). I suppose it's my way of saying that, hey, I'm still here even if I've been consumed by work. Even my studies became secondary to my work (in fact,

Skysenshi on Nokia OVI

2011-06-15T07:07:00.002+08:00

Gosh, this is another late posting, since Nokia OVI contacted me about two months ago. They created OVI apps for my three blogs. The blogs with OVI apps are: Skysenshi Sarimanok.PH The Otaku Fridge Do try visiting them via your Nokia cellphones. I have just become a little bit more accessible and I kinda like the idea. (Now you can keep tabs on my contests, hehe.) Thanks Nokia OVI!