A Reflection (Nov 2013)

Its been an awful long time since my last entry here, a lot had happened to me and Lunavark since. 

We are now an OFFICIAL COMPANY, we have a publisher! and we're currently in a PRE-PRODUCTION STAGE working on a brand new project which we are unable to announce anywhere (due to legal issues), but Cosmic Couch unfortunately had to be put on the shelf for the time being. It hasn't been easy and certainly the last few months was basically a 'mixed bag of emotions' for me to say the least. 

However, this 'devilish' offer we managed to secure with whatever perks or difficulties they may present us with - seems promising. I had my moments of uncertainty, and considered heavily on heading back to Asia, but now I'm 200% looking forward to pushing this project to see the light of day, very very soon. 

There's not a lot that I can say at this very moment about what we're doing but damnit it is such a creatively uninspiring process - when all I desire is just to make a meaningful Video Game as my own company; that expresses emotions/ concepts which celebrates humanity (or inhumanity mostly) or just whatever I want to express at the moment as a human being, however in order to do this there are shit-tons of steps to follow that I feel so incredibly taxing as a creative person and especially as a fresh-graduate who spent most yrs of his life living in an artsy-fartsy bubble. I guess this is a good eye opener in a way and it'll just be the same for any corporate industry, well Lunavark and I pushed ourselves beyond our limits for this moment creatively and now, we've got the gig and I am well aware of what an incredible opportunity this is so I'm willing to take this insane challenge down (and teabag it).

Anyway, just like a lot of artists throughout time and space from Van Gogh to Warhol to Lennon to Sakamoto, who did SELF-PORTRAITS in various forms of media - I've done one to reflect upon this moment and also to commemorate this massive crossroad in my life. 

REFLECTION (Nov 2013)

I probably need a haircut.

Cosmic Couch (Log 9: Over The Moon)

I'M OVER THE MOON!

I meant that in many ways;

1) As an obvious pun  :P

2) Lunavark Studio finally finished our protoplay of Cosmic Couch - 

we the gameplay all the way to end of the first Chapter (Onto The Moon).

3) We won the Artistic Achievement & Team Choice awards at Protoplay!

4) We're getting interviewed by BBC Radio on Thursday 15th of August!!!

5) I'm just feeling extremely pumped and excited because our next chapter 

of being a a proper Studio is underway!

So thank you for everyone that has been supporting us all this time 

and please continue to show your love for this project.

Here's the trailer for Cosmic Couch

Lastly, I just want to take some time to emphasize how brilliant these 2 months
has been for me and the team; all the experience and exposure we gained (LEVEL UP!)
and most importantly the people that we've met!

The mentors from Denki, Tag-Games, Ruffian Games, Cobra Mobiles, Lift London,
Codemasters, Outplay Entertainments, Ninja Kiwi, Ubisoft Reflections, SEGA, Jagex
& Sony. You guys had given everyone such priceless advice - So on behalf of Lunavark Studio;
I'd like to thank everyone and we hope to see you all again soon!

To Dare organizers, Elaine Russel, Sarah Johnston, Eleanor MacKeddie, Pavol Hanko
and many more that I might have stupidly missed! You have all been the coolest people ever.

And last but not least - to the teams!
Its been emotional to say the least to leave Dundee knowing that I might not be able to see
most of you again for a long while, its been a blast. We came, we worked our arses off side
by side, we party hard,  destroyed a wall in the Chambers, get shat on by vicious Dundee
Seagulls, but most importantly - WE MADE GREAT GAMES & CONQUERED DARE
TO BE DIGITAL 2013! So well done to all the teams; I will miss all of you crazy people
dearly. Keep in touch! Seriously!

- Elbert Lim, Lunavark Studio
14th August 2013

Cosmic Couch (log 8: Our protoplay promo poster's up!)

Its been an emotional week on Lunavark Mothership, battling ill viruses and weather turbulence, but we survived and here's the sneak peek of our final promotional poster for Protoplay in August.

and the Final Updated version (14th August)

Cosmic Couch (Log 7: DARE TO BE DIGITAL 2013)

End of 2nd Week in Dare.

We made it to Dundee 2 weeks ago - ate lots of Haggis (Love Haggis! Not thinking of what its made of while eating it definitely helps!) and tried IRNBRU for the first time (which totally taste like bubble-gum). Not only that these 2 weeks are exhausting (half a day journey from Norwich, getting to know the city of Dundee, the other teams, keeping in touch with people back home and getting shit done all at the same time) ; they are also an emotional roller coaster for me - development changes due to technical issues - having the team to adapt in a new environment & living together - getting to know our programmer - and getting our 3rd yr results!

Its been a really rough start; things are just all over the place with accommodation, software issues and most of all keeping the team together amidst the introduction of so many new things. However, we managed! and I am really proud of Lunavark, we went through every single shit thrown at us as a proper team, and head on! So proud of the guys! And now everybody seems to be back on track and our early build are looking pretty sexy thanks to our new capable and trustworthy coder, Jordan O'Hare. Many of the teams in the competition are such fun & passionate people to be around with, it is definitely a privilege to be here; its almost like a crazy dream.

We pimped out our workspace!

 Showing off our quirky art work

During the first week we get school-kids visiting us and that was pretty fun. There was a girl that was constantly hugging Balzy and wanted to bring it home (aaaawwwww), and I had to break the window to both our souls and answered he with a wavering 'errr...nooo..' kids are unbelievably fragile to me, never knew when they're gonna turn berserk and start a rampage -_-

On a more recent emotional salad; I got my results for 3rd year final project and I got 83% for my BA8! Yay! its awesome until I realize that I could've done so much better if I did my essay in a proper format...so that pretty much bummed me out a little bit. Anyway, everyone else did pretty well too and we celebrated with an awesome Indian Buffet that turned us into a lazy un-moveable objects that night.

Lastly, I spent the weekend working on the first proper OST for Cosmic Couch, so I'll leave this post with this;

https://soundcloud.com/treble-epiclone/celestial-swing

Cosmic Couch (Log 6: ITS OFFICIAL!!!)

 ITS OFFICIAL WE'RE GONNA BE IN DARE 2013!

5 000143 555233

The Gazebo: Finalrealization

Trevall

Ludwig

Solla & Lunna

Semar

Flightless Crow