Let’s keep it simple: Tony Jaa Rocks!

Our first formal coverage of Housewife Superstar is up. Of course it’s no surprise to regular readers that the article is by Brandon Sheffield. Brandon disclosed that I will have him work on the project brushing up script, more of an editor since I would still conceptualize and write the story.

So why would Brandon write about it again? Was he, in his word, “…pimping my ride”? I doubt it. For those that knows Brandon also know that he has solid integrity (goodness forbid!). From what I’d heard, there are always occasional payolas offer but always firmly refused.

Heck, I can even vouch on this. We had Thai government invited him here last year as media guest and he refused because it was unseemly to accept free airfare/accommodation. That’s all you need to know about Brandon Sheffield and the issue of integrity to his profession.

I digressed but I think it was necessary. Brandon wrote about Housewife again because we actually had a live playable demo of it. So it’s no longer just a cool idea, but a cool idea with a (hopefully) cool game play behind it.

To add irony to this whole article, I will add screenshot from Housewife Superstar here…but not from my own hard disk. Rather, I copied it from Brandon’s site and uploaded it. The whole idea is deliciously absurd and completely tickled my fancy.

I accidentally ran into Rob Reger at Wondercon. I was buying the Dark Horse compilation and the school “crest.”

I normally am not one of those autograph hound nor am I easily starstruck. However, I thought Rob seemed cool enough and since I bought Emily’s merchandise, I thought I’d asked him to sign it. The guy asking Rob earlier wanted Rob to draw and write a personal message for his niece (which I think is nice of the guys…both of them, one for asking for his niece and one for Rob obliging).

Anyway, I don’t want to be a big bother and just asked Rob to sign the book. However, Rob was really genial, asking me for my name, where I’m from, etc. Without asking, he not only signed the book but also drew and gave me short but nice message.

Rob, if you’re reading (since you mentioned unsolicited that you’ll drop by, I will pose the VDO of our work here in about 2 weeks time). I think you will find it worth the 2 minutes (length of the clip).

Please come back and check it out.

PS Definitely feel free to email me when you’re in Thailand. Thank again for the autograph.

Met up with Ian. It’s amazing to me how people react to him. I sometimes forget that Ian is one of video game industry pioneers. Of course with recent shake-up at Eidos, Ian is also taking a more prominent role at the company once again.

I thought it was funny to observe one of Eido’s senior managers from local office coming up to his suite and making sure all Ian’s needs are met. Ah, the corporate politic, how I do not miss it (nor have I ever got into it…that probably explains the glass ceiling during my time under John Irwin at EarthLink, but that’s another long story).

Ran into Erik Bethke, our adviser and my “pot brother.” Before you go crazy, it’s not pot for smoking as recreational drug is not my thing. Again, some that know me would be shock if it were seeing how hard they tried in the past to take a puff (and failed miserably).

Out of Erik came a potentially awesome business opportunity for Housewife Superstar via his many connections. I can’t divulge yet until it’s fully formalized. Thanks bro.

I seriously think that fate and the man above have plan for my company. Just like last year, little things I don’t plan seem to happen (for the better). I feel really blessed sometimes how both my friendship and relationship came back unsolicited to help me when I seem to need a boost.

Oh, great dinner last night also courtesy of Bill and the Mastiff crew. It was really lovely…I got a big soft spot for Kobe beef and okra.

I’m happy. I’ll make this post short and sweet. We got strong interest for Bloody Bunny and 4p. As I’d hoped, a good number of Publishers really liked design for 4P and especially Bloody Bunny. We’ll definitely need to go back, get concept doc in place, and follow-up.

As for Housewife Superstar, we got three tentative offers on the table. I’ll try to stick to my commitment with other Publishers that I will make my final decision end of March (after I send them playable demo).

SWEET.

Was I nervous? I would be lying if I were to say I wasn’t. I normally won’t be nervous at all for those that know me. If anything, I relish this opportunity. However, my main worry was with the state of my vocal chord. Being shot as it is, I was worried if the Publishers can understand me.

So, this particular blog is my shout-out to all the Publishers that came by. All of you were very understanding and accommodating. Of course it helps that the responses for all our projects ranged from not bad to very very good.

I think I’d been at it enough to know the difference between lip service and genuine interest (I would say 80%) of the time.

Only one rejection today from EA. However, it was still a big victory in my opinion. EA was pretty honest from the beginning that they’re only interested in working on their own IP or triple A licenses. However, he wants to see our work to determine our skills level. If it’s good enough, and we’re open to the idea, EA would like to look into a subcontract-type arrangement.

He was impressed with our creative capability. So, with EA, it looks like we’ll be able to get an outsourcing project for DS when it becomes available (assuming we meet all the RFP requirements of course). I hope we’ll have enough resource to tackle the project when the time comes.

Gotta give kudos to the team. I really drove them hard and they came through. Less than 3 weeks to have Housewife Superstar playable demo ready. Granted it’s about 70% of where it should be. Still, it’s good enough to give Publishers concrete idea about the game.

There’s no way we could do this 6 months ago. The experience from all the DS projects the past 8 months really helped. So do all the tools and engine that we’d created for the aforementioned projects.

How last minute is the delivery? How about 20 minutes before my first meeting. To be fair they delivered the build to me the night before. However, I gave fairly lengthy list of fixes. It was about 55% of where it should be. It’s a wonder they are able to address my whole list.

I ran into a JAL air hostess on the train who also helped me get proper hotel in Narita to sleep over night.  In a way, I’m glad I got stuck in Narita because it gave me the chance to visit Aeon. Aeon is kinda like a Japanese Factory Outlet. It’s heaven for shopping hound like myself.

Found some nice books (if somewhat expensive) for Housewife project. Got a nice jean with swath of Japanese kimono pattern. As typical of Japanese attention to detail, the stitching, cut, and material are immaculate. Like Evisu jean, it’s the jean’s made from those vintage cloth using old-school loom. So while it’s not cheap (at $60), I would say it’s more than worth the money considering I saw similar jean in Koenji that went for $200.

Finally, I also discovered this nice chic interior/clothing store where I got a nice jacket. I’ll visit it again for sure although I may have to do so at their Ginza location as it’s a bit hard for me to make my way to Aeon.

I only slept about an hour or two on the flight. After I woke up to eat my meal and started working on my laptop, the idea just kept flowing. So much so that the battery gave out on me. I continued using my pen and notepad. Hardcore. Old school. Despite lack of sleep, I must say the flight was super productive. Refined some really ideas for Housewife Superstar remaining game play.

I got stranded in Tokyo for one day. The lady at information counter gave me wrong gate information. It didn’t help that the transit time was 30 minutes. The combination basically resulted in me missing my connecting flight.

This would basically mean that I’ll have to arrive on Monday, the day before the show. My compatriots all got to San Francisco Saturday in order to cope with jet-lag. Me? I’m a big boy in little guy body, I’ll manage.

Shits happen in life. This is minor compares to other. I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the staff at ANA though. They were typical Japanese in going out of their way trying to fix the problem. I can’t say they’re most efficient at it but I can’t certainly fault them for their effort.  Despite the problem, I would happily take ANA again.

Despite last minute meeting requests, we’re getting pretty good response so far. As a matter of fact, zero rejection and even one request from a medium-sized publisher.

Now, the pressure’s on. The Housewife Team is cranking it out big time. I think we’ll have a playable in place although it will be about 75% of the actual. Still, 3 weeks to do this? I think that’s pretty good.

The Wii Project team is in a much earlier stage. So we’ll just bring concept for it. It’s partially due to me being knee deep in both Makeup and Housewife projects.

Overall I’m happy with the response and the progress on Housewife. As for the Wii project, I think I’ll bring it along base on interest.