This is our third casual adventure series, and our first try at something “dark and beautiful”. We wanted to create a magical world similar to Awakening, but with a darker, more adult tone (loosely inspired by Neil Gaiman and old European folklore). The story follows a woman who finds a locket in an old house in the countryside, and discovers a fay world hidden beneath our own.

So far, this has been the most fun game to write and design, and I hope people out there will like it as much as we do.

Here it is: Otherworld: Spring of Shadows Collector’s Edition, developed by Boomzap Entertainment and published by Big Fish Games. Thanks and enjoy!

2011 was a difficult year for many people I know, myself included. I can’t exactly say my year was bad; all one has to do is look at Cagayan de Oro, or parts of Japan, or any war-torn country and know that I am not in the same vicinity as bad, and life is actually pretty good. But things happened this year that I’m not happy about, and I’m glad the year is over.

Like every end-of-year post, I’m limiting my list to 20 bullets. Here was my 2011:

1. Helped organize the second Manila Global Game Jam
2. Spoke at the Philippine Game Development Festival and two IGDA events
3. Taught Interactive Narrative at De La Salle University, a completely new subject that I got to make from scratch. I’m not entirely sure the kids learned anything. But it was fun!
4. Studied Level 1 conversational Japanese at Nihongo Foundation
5. Got very sick throughout the year, including (but not limited to): tonsilitis, laryngitis, asthma, high cholesterol (farewell, bacon. How I loved you), physical therapy for my chronic ankle sprain (only to sprain it again later), skin allergies, and a few more that are too upsetting to blog about. My expense tracker tells me I spent over P62,000 (USD$1415) on hospital tests and medicine. That’s real money
6. Since many of my illnesses happened during the first half of the year (when I was IGDA-ing, teaching, and studying at the same time), I decided to quit all my obligations outside of work. Cold turkey. Life is slower now. Quieter
7. Spent a lot of time in hospitals, and not just for myself — my dad was in the ICU; my aunt was in the ER; hell, even my boyfriend was in the ER while he was here. I used to be the mayor of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Asian Hospital on Foursquare, just to show you how often I was there
8. Showed my boyfriend around Manila (his first time here!). We basically just ate. And ate. And ate. We also toured Intramuros, which was nice, albeit highly theatrical
9. Watched The Radio Dept live. Oh my God
10. Went to the States for two months. Got detained by Homeland Security. Sprained my ankle at the Outside Lands Music Festival. Saw Hearst Castle and Monterey Bay Aquarium. Did not get fat. Achievement!
11. Only got drunk twice (the Boomzap Manila conference, and Casual Connect Seattle). Am I getting too old for this shit? (Quick answer: No)
12. While in the States, my relationship went through tough times. Came home changed
13. Started writing daily again, thanks to a beautiful journal app called My Wonderful Days. I highly recommend it. Writers need to write daily. Keeps us sane
14. Finished a third casual adventure franchise (it comes out early next year!) and started a fourth. The freedom to create worlds and bring them to life is one of the best things I’ve experienced this year, and for that I am grateful to Boomzap and the insane amount of trust they’ve placed in me
15. Got hacked. Filed my first police case with the PNP Cyber-Crime division. They’re still investigating, but I don’t use Paypal anymore, or buy anything from Groupon or Metrodeal (the two sites I had used Paypal for)
16. Changed to a “life is too short” mindset, thanks to a schoolmate who suddenly passed away. Started to be more spontaneous and do what I’ve always wanted to do, instead of putting things off for the distant future
17. In the next three months, went to Bellarocca, a Pampanga 10-course food trip, and Kuala Lumpur, all on short notice
18. Also bought an Xbox 360, which I’ve wanted for years, and an iPhone, which I kept insisting was a terrible idea until I actually had one. Now I’m kind of in love with it
19. Booked for Hong Kong, Boracay, and Singapore for 2012, with two more trips later in the year
20. In general, weeded out the bad things from my life (everything from stressful TV shows to assholes) and filled the void with things I enjoy (hanging out with a few real friends, yoga 3x a week, gigs, quiet time for myself). If there’s anything I learned in 2011, it’s that life is too short to do anything you don’t want to do. So go for it

Well, that wasn’t so bad. I’m really excited for 2012! No more looking back — just a lot of jumping forward.

I leave you with what is possibly the cutest New Year’s song ever made, by the cutest people ever born:

Happy 2012, everyone!

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My recap for 2010 is here.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” Ben said when he picked me up from the airport.

I couldn’t believe it either! I’m not exactly a spontaneous person (friends know to book meetups with me a week or two in advance). So suddenly flying to Kuala Lumpur last November was out of my usual character. The idea for the trip spawned from some bad news: a high school orgmate of mine suddenly passed away from an illness, catching everyone by surprise. She couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than me. That day, I realized that life was too short to put off anything I wanted to do. KL was on top of my bucket list; I’d only been there once before for the 2005 Asian Game Developers Summit. I saw nothing but the hotel and the mall beside it, and ate nothing but KFC. I kept talking about KL but never actually returned – so I booked. And went.

Staying true to the spontaneous nature of it, I made no plans and didn’t read up about KL in advance. I basically showed up, stayed with two of my Boomzap coworkers (Ben and Iris), and trusted them with whatever they wanted to do.

Which, mainly, was eat.

Food

We ate our way through KL, and everything I had was delicious. Also, most of the time, I didn’t know what it was! Unlike Manila, you couldn’t assume everyone spoke English, and I wasn’t familiar with the food anyway. So Ben and Iris would always order for me, and I would wait excitedly to see what they got.

Here’s some of what I ate:

• Nasi lemak, which was my favorite dish; it reminded me of a Filipino breakfast dish called tapsilog
• Wan tan mee, my second favorite dish, which we had in a stall in Chinatown that was 70 years old. It’s like our roadside pancit canton, but tastier
• A lot of Chinese food, like beef noodle soup, bah kut teh, and dimsum. In a place called Fat Rock, they had no menus – a man just arrived and barked out what they had for that day. I also tried out Hakka cuisine, where we drenched our rice in green tea
• A lot of Malay/Indian food, such as satay and roti. I used to have roti in a Singaporean restaurant in the US, but in KL you could order it with margarine, kaya, egg, etc., and then dip it in three kinds of sauce
• A whole lot of coffee. I LOVED THEIR COFFEE. I had iced kopi with milk every day, and it was so good. I also liked something called “three-layered tea”, which is tea drowned in sugar. All the drinks I had were sweet, which was perfect for me and my insatiable sweet tooth
• One sad note: beer is very expensive in KL, so Manila remains the best place to drink

Most of these places weren’t in malls, and I never would have found them without a guide. So my advice for anyone visiting KL: go with a local. Don’t eat like a tourist! (KFC is NOT an option!)

Places

When we weren’t eating, we were walking or driving around the city. KL felt like Metro Manila but with bigger freeways and less traffic. There were lots of malls, and we went to almost all of them, though I didn’t buy anything; the brands I liked were also available in Manila, with the same price. The one mall that did stand out for me was a new one called Publika, which was decorated with random modern art. It reminded me of the Anti Mall in Costa Mesa, California.

One thing KL did have was IKEA, and it was always packed, but not for the reason you’d think. IKEA is a big deal not for shopping, but for sitting. Entire families flock to IKEA to sit on their chairs and sofas. They just… sit there. It’s like hanging out in a park, but… on furniture. Very strange!

We didn’t do any real touristy bits, which was fine with me. Staying with locals meant living like a local, so I got to experience the following:

• A Chinese wedding tradition called “receiving the bride“. The groom attempts to pick the bride up from her house, but the bridesmaids have set up trials before he can get to her. The groomsmen, to prove their friendship, do the trials in the groom’s stead. It’s kind of like torture, and is hilarious to watch (if you’re not actually in it)
• Batu Caves, which has a Hindu temple on top if you can climb the 272 steps to get to it. If you’re going, wear comfortable shoes, and don’t hold any food or drinks in your hands – the monkeys will grab them. I’m not kidding
• Chinatown. We ate street food (it’s safe there – not like here) and explored Central Market, including dipping our feet in an aquarium full of biting fish. It’s called a fish spa, though I prefer calling it “death by tickle”
• A fancy movie in a Gold Class cinema, complete with lazyboys, blankets, and a personal waiter service
• Karaoke in Red Box, where I sang what became my trip’s official song (it was playing EVERYWHERE in KL)
• Surprising the rest of Boomzap Malaysia (they didn’t know I was coming). Since we’re a virtual office, I actually haven’t met most of them, even if I’ve been working with them for the better part of three years! It was great to see them in real life

10 days went by fast. When I got home, I was surprised to discover that I hadn’t bitten my nails the whole time – I know, it’s gross, but it also means I was actually stress-free! The only downside to the trip was that I lost my camera I don’t think it was stolen; I probably just left it somewhere, scatterbrain that I am. But even with that unfortunate incident, I went home happy, and glad that I went and did the trip I’ve always wanted to do.

When I got back, I immediately booked for Hong Kong in February. Because that was second on my travel bucket list. Nuts.

Thanks again to Iris, Ben, and Elaine for being wonderful hosts and taking care of me so well. I owe you!

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P.S. The rest of my KL photos are here.

If you want to help, you can donate to the Philippine Red Cross through your mobile phone.

• Globe users: Text RED (amount) to 2899. e.g. RED 50
• Smart users: Text RED (amount) to 4143

If you are abroad or would like to help another way, you can donate to the Red Cross online by visiting this page on their website.

Please don’t hesitate. Any amount you can spare will help. Thanks.

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We’re looking for full-time game designers to join our studio. We make PC, Mac, and iPhone/iPad games – some of our best-selling titles include the Awakening and Dana Knightstone casual adventure series on Big Fish Games. We’re specifically looking for graduating students who want to go into game design.

Game designers in Boomzap do the following:

• Design puzzles and levels for different types of casual games (PC/Mac adventure games, iOS puzzle games, etc)
• Script the gameplay themselves. Programming /modding experience is not required, but it’s a bonus
• Test all our projects, not just the one you’re in

Boomzap is an indie development studio that’s been making games since 2005. We’re registered in Singapore but we’re a virtual office, with 50 employees working from home all around South East Asia and Russia. We pay highly competitive salaries and let people manage their own time and tasks.

To be honest, the best designers we’ve hired are those that have more drive and passion in creating games than those with experience. We’re hoping you can recommend some stellar students in your university who want to go into game design. Boomzap is a great place for new talent to train and learn from some of the best developers in Asia. Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon!