feel the experience - Finnish/ Global Game Jam 2015

*A conversation held around December 2014

"We will host the next Finnish/Global Game Jam 2015 at our school" <-- my teacher

"Great! sounds cool!...uhhh...what we're gonna do there?"

"Its the event gathering where you make a game in 48 hours"

"...."
"Wait WHAT??
"How the HELL you possibly do that???" -_-

*dramatic music*

That is my friend, what I was thinking back then.
I went into panic-anxious-excited-mixed feeling mode because at that time i don't have any idea what is it. It's the first time for me (and our class) to participate.

The funny part was when someone asked me what is that event about, this is my answer ;

"I don't know (with confuse face)...its...well...you make games with other people...under 48 hours...sounds fun and cool...we got a free t-shirt...oh and we got a school's credit also...uhmm...yeah...like that" XD


But anyway,

We survived the whole things. Our awesome team got the job well done and we are so proud of the outcome (woohoo!).

The event was held at 23-25 January 2015 and it is worldwide. Global Game jam is the biggest game jam event ; check their website here to learn more since I'm bad at explaining things.

The first day we didn't actually start making the game. We form the team, watching some videos, getting to know each other, and blah blah...

aaaaand *drumroll* waiting for this year's theme! Its the time we were waiting for since before the D-day you don't know what's the theme will be.

This year's theme was "What do we do now".

We decided that the game will be a jumping platform with super-cute-unicorn-cat-character that need to choose what it want to do (according to the theme, d'oh!).

So, here's how it work.

The player need to choose whether it want to free the poor little chicks in the cage or to eat the tasty chicken legs. Each of the decision the player make will affect the game.

The chicks will make you slimmer, but faster the game's pace.
The tasty chicken legs will make you go fat and more fatter and harder to jump, but slowing the game's pace.

The fun part is the two player mode that either you can work together to the top, or kick others down.

Hence the name "Karma Cat" (We hope you got what we mean xp).

Here's the gameplay video or you can go to this link;

And you can actually play it also in this link. Don't forget to put the sound on, it is so awesome that it will stuck to your head after a while.

Surprisingly I though that we are going to stay up super late that we all going to transform into some brain-eating-zombie-state after the event, but it is not that bad after all.

Tired? yes.
Did I turn into zombie? barely, but fortunately not :p

To make it simpler here's what I felt about this event :

The fun-happy part

- You met other people (did I mention about meeting other NERDS?).
- It is not a competition
- It don't need to be finished game, it's just for fun!
- You experience how you develop a games in really tight time.
- You learn how to organize better.
- I got to see how other's make a games.
- Pizza...pizza..and pizza...since everyone is lazy to move from the computer, so pizza guy are our best friend here.
- I got free t-shirt.
- School's credit.
- Like I said before...it sounds cool :p

The annoying part

- They put the live webcam whole time. I can't pick up my nose! everybody is watching!
- The class room somehow turned into a hellish-hot since there's too many people.
- Its not actually 48 hours, it is LESS than that.
- They said if you're not having fun you doing it wrong...but then if you have fun all the time, then something is wrong.

The verdict 

Will I participate again? Absolutely yes!
the next year will be held at 29-31 January 2016.

Lastly, here's the photo of our awesome team member...skully-fy and pixel-fy by my friend :p

Team Karma!

Graphics : Emmi Malkki, Maureen Lukito Alkkiomäki, Moona Miettinen
Programmer : Antti Alkkiomäki, Joonas Jakobson,  Sakari Malkki
Sound designer : Jan Kanerva

cactus robot design - artworks

We had this fun task at the school to choose one object then we need to design the robot version of the object. I have a really fun time doing this task.

*Except when it came to drawing the actual object.*

I am not very fond of drawing realistic object so it took more longer to do the actual object. I'm satisfied though with the final outcome. I will probably color it in the future but i think its nice the way it is now.

So this is the real object that i chose. I was thinking of doing a teddy bear plushie. But teddy bear plushie is too mainstream, so I chose cactus that has been with me for year or so. People always said that cactuses are the easiest to care. I always almost every time kill this poor spiky plants XD

And these two are the design that i made. I was suppose to do only one but i can't choose which one is nicer. I love them both! 

I rarely do some robot-mecha stuff (i don't like scifi too much either). It was a challenge for me to do it. After browsing plenty references (and sobbing in the corner of the wall) i remembered Megaman games that full of this hybrid robots-mecha-style. So after some few sketches, i finished these two in the end :D

*Wait, what kind of school again? why making these?is it art school or what?...*
ehmmm...

Sooooo, this August 2014 i got accepted to games and animation line school in Helsinki.

Yay!

*ok this might be a little bit late news, oh well* :p
Anywayyyy I am really happy with it. I am really satisfied also for my decision to focus more into games industry since this is my dream since i long time ago.

*Best decision ever!
...oh sorry I think i got some dust in my eyes now*

welcoming the 2014.

Finally I decided that is better to organize 1 blog only. So i merge my old imajinasimaginatia blog together with my main one salvadorkatz. You can still see my old posts from the imajinasiimaginatia in here also.

For this Christmas 2013 i made some drawing so i can print my own christmas card. After i sketches and doodling ( and tons of glögi and piparkakku - gingerbread ), here is the final result. I am really satisfied with it. 

I drew some small "goodies" in a rounded wooden ornaments and sent it together with the cards.

I love taking photos for hobby and last year 2013 I decided also to bought new camera so i can maximizing my hobby. I felt with the current point&shoot type camera ( its a pocket camera ), i didn't get 100% what i want in my photos. 

So I pick Fujifilm X100S ( that break-popping-my-original-budget-ouch ) after pestering my old co-workers and photographer friends ( and long hour stalking the internet ). I haven't use it for long time but i'm quite satisfied for now. 

I move my photo gallery to flickr since they changed the design to my taste, neat, professional looking and easy to navigate. 

Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/salvadorkatz/

This photo is one of the result also for using X100S,

organizing fever - accessories.

I hate cleaning. 

Whatever the type of cleaning i hate it. I have an allergy with dust, but it's not my main excuse why i hate it. For me its just wasting your time when you can do something else more nice. 

Let's face it anyway, you need to do cleaning in daily basis, except if you want to see your home or room fill with dust and spiders! ( yuck! ).

So i tried to find way to minimize cleaning. After sometime browsing internet, talking with friends, and family, i found the answer for it.

Organizing.

When you do organizing, it will help to minimize the time you spend for doing cleaning. 

For this time is my accessories that got the ooohh-rrr-ganized. I am a big fan of accessories. I think its more nicer than clothes and shoes. You can enhance your look just by wearing different accessories even if your clothes are simple or boring. And before i know it i have ( quite ) a lot stashes of it.

Pinterest is really helping me for finding some ideas of organizing. This is the outcome of it, i bought  a push-pin board and hanger rail.

Did i tell you that its more cheaper to DIY than buy some fancy-pancy-expensive accessories storing ?

To add more space without buying too much pushpins, i used thin wire to make some wire-line so i can

hang my dangle earrings. I connected it to each pushpins and twisting the wire so it looks more artsy :p

Its easier to take-and put it back also, plus its a neat decorations for my wall also! :D

For the other accessories, my husband helped me to installed a hanger-rail into the cupboard and bought some S-hooks that you can add more later. This is for storing and displaying my necklaces.

Then i got plastic cups from pudding that i turn for storing my bangles and bracelets. Plates for stud earrings, small boxes, foam board, and even clothespins. I used whatever at home that i can turn for storing accessories.

Lastly, i remembered i got some portable LED-lamp ( bought from LIDL ) so i installed inside. 

Now its easier to take and put back, no more mess and if i want to clean the cupboard i just need to take the boxes and cups out. 

Love it! :D

5 simply heaven for me : 06122011

Today is the Finnish independence day so almost all the shops and public places closed. It's a nice experience also for seeing the first snow today. It still not huge snow, but it's still great to see all turns white here. My partner said it was quite warm and unusual this year since it should be already snowing more and more colder.

So, let's continue shall we to the list?

1. it's beginning to look like christmas, my first time seeing the real winter!well, the beginning of it. I really can't wait for more :D

2. heart-pattern-by-tires, i'm surprise when i saw this in the parking lot. It was made by the car tires accidentally. how cute is it? :D

3. lappish ( lapland's ) bread, or they call it rieska ; this is new for me. I think it looks like a indian pita bread or mexican tortilla. This was made from potato ( perunarieska ; peruna means potato ). It was really nice with the tomato-basil-shallots-salad i made. :D

4. game addict this month ; dungeon defenders, we can't stop playing this everyday! we even stayed overnight just to play this. I even got a dream about it quite many times, still playing this in my dream, OMG. It was fun that my partner is a *serious* gamer also like me. For all gamers out there, try this game for sure. It was super-awesome!

5. big-bad-(but tasty)salmon, this maybe sound exaggerating but this is my first time handling such a big salmon to clean and cook. It was awkward and puzzling, took quite time to do it but the end result are *tempting* so i need to bear with it...lol ;D

greenery babies.

Now its almost winter so there's no way you can plant anything ( except if you want to torture them to death-freeze ) outside the balcony. So i bring this awesome babies inside.


Why I want to keep this babies?

For me, it give you tons of benefits ;

like *relaxing* mood to see them around, they are cute, pretty, unique ( like this venus flytrap of mine ), a bad-ass as it cleaning the air inside ( yes, they happily do it for you ) and you can even get source of foods ( like fruits, herbs, veggies ).

For now i keep myself only an indoor plants. The nice things about them, they don't need extra-hard care that you need to struggle with. Next year in spring i will try to keep more *harder* plants outside. I'm thinking of making some small veggies garden for fun.


oh my, aren't they are such an awesome buddies to keep? ; )

5 simply heaven for me : 11112011

Wow i just notice it its 11-11-11 today, it's a really unique eh? Many couples do their wedding today so they can get a *lucky* date. My mom said she got 4 invitation for today and more of my friends complaining they even got more, lol ; )

back to the post ; p

1. christmas comes early , we bought a hanging christmas lamp for living room and get a christmas calendar from a girls scouts. Pretty!

2. dottie angel book, finally arrived! i fell in love at first sight when one of blogger showed this in their post. I love how detailed they put the design and using lot of whimsical stuff. Just lovely.

3. pack of cutie dried mushroom, my parents in law dried the mushroom we picked and it was awesome to have this for whole year ahead. They will *poof-ing* out when you put them in water. My partner *jokingly* said in the wild they will pop out from the ground with ploop-ing sound after the rain! ; )

4. strawberry plant, strawberry plant to keep indoor from my partner's dad, i hope this baby will thrive here so we can get a tiny-weenie-berries later.

5.  recreating famous painting, doing american gothic painting with my partner! We took photo first then he did the repainting on it. it turns out really nicely don't you think? make me want to recreating of other famous painting also ;D

you know your designers bored if.

They started to take A LOT OF crazy-hangky-pangky-random-photos with any objects and anything available. Even if it not available they still CAN make it ( hail to Photoshop ).

well after all they are designers anyway... :p

warm greetings from Jarvelä.

A very warm invitation from my partner's auntie came to us a couple week before, asked us if we can come to their home in other city. It was a really exciting and lovely invitation for us.  

After some arrangement to make, last Saturday we went to Jarvelä to visit them. It took about 1 hour to reach here from Helsinki with local train. It was a country side, peaceful and serene place. It was a lovely moment to share with, meet new relatives, looking at photos album ( she showed me Tibet trip! it was breathtaking ), laughing, eating wonderful home cooking, and even though some of them didn't talk in same language we can still share the moments together, how awesome is that?

Sometimes i was sad because i still can't speak their language ( well "Rome wasn't build in one day" anyway ). But human are wonderful creature to begin with. Even we don't speak same language, a genuine kindness, smile, and caring act are always a winner. I still remember my dad in law, talking Finnish with a girl who talked in Indonesian, asking for some photos taken together but "strangely" they can still laughed together and have fun. 

it was heartwarming.

Some random though, just realized a thing that there is a true-real-life cooking dash person here ( yes! that time-management-game-that-make-you-crazy ). I was surprise how people work, like one of my partner's auntie who is a cook, she manage a canteen for about 50 people everyday ALONE! suddenly the picture from that game playing in my mind...LOL... O___o

Anyway, I want to share some photos that i took from lake there.

enjoy!

bringing the forest inside.

Our bedroom seems pretty boring and plain. I was wondering what to do with it until i found this cute DIY tutorial here.

Birch tree ( it's called koivu here ) are one of the many tree in Finland, i said, why not bringing this also inside? and we still have quite lot of the paints left.

°picture : masking tape

°picture : masking tape and tape mess!

We started working by making the sketch on paper, and transfer it with pencil in to the wall. The most painful and really long process its the mask-taping it. Took more longer than I expected that i realized that I made the design way more complicated...LOL...

After we painted over the tape, and remove it, we still need to paint some of area with hand painting so its more nicer and neat. I love this process because i can freely paint it what i want.

But in the end the hard work paid off : )

We even add the cat and arctic fox silhouette! it's my signature with my partner :D

°picture : with Hayden my teddy :p

°picture : the outcome :D

'shroom obsession.

Mushroom is one of my *new* obsession since a long time ago when my friend in Japan upload a really nice mushroom photo in his Facebook.

Somehow it's really looks *cute* and beautiful in my eyes.

They are awesome creature, they can be really small, really big, strange, many shapes, and colorful. Especially the *umbrella* look that amazed me the most.

How can they get that shape? and the way they flock together, its like coming from some fantasy fairy kingdom. Probably the fairies are the one who create them, using them for umbrella or for chair, maybe something for hat also? my imagination goes wild ; )

When i moved here to Finland, i'm more than happy to find a lot of mushrooms everywhere, with forest also in my apartment's backyard, i felt like the most happiest mushroom-obsessed person in the world.

And yeah, that included the most well-known mushroom all time ; Mario brother's mushroom, yay!

*be careful though, they seems colorful and nice but they are extra poisonous....why the colorful one in creatures usually the dangerous one eh?...no matter, they look cute though...just don't try to eat it LOL*