Diambil dari blog cj,
http://kimijc.com/journal/?p=79
Demi kenangan gambit, huhuh!
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The Last Goodbye.. 2008-8-10
August 8, 2008.
We finally bade goodbye to Gambit Game Lab. Mixed emotions, indescribable feeling.
We had playtesting in the morning, the one and very last session. Gambit Game lab opened its doors to the public, to come and play, to have a feel of our summer’s hardwork & efforts. As the QA Lead, this time round, no more surveys, no more observations to be made. It was all just sit and watch people enjoy our game.
It was rather ironic when I see people saying our game is fun, but they gave up halfway. It makes me think that they were saying fun, just not to break our hearts. It beats having someone coming in and said your game sucks. You don’t want people to be too nice to you, yet you want the truth. Contradicting, isn’t it?
I was thoroughly impressed by the number of people winning our game. I didn’t care whether they’ve played our game before, as long as they won, I’m happy. And because I configured the game to let them win without letting them walkover the game. There were people struggling to play the game though, I could see why. After all, a game can’t possibly cater and please everyone.
I’m also very glad to hear Henry Jenkins talking good about our game. I hope, and possibly glad that the team has done the product owners proud. Yes, you, Josh Diaz & Matt Weise. =)
For me, it wasn’t about personal glory, it wasn’t about people saying ‘hey, that game you made was fun & great.’
For me, it was about fulfilling the hopes that the two great men have placed on us. I certainly hoped we did.
It almost certainly brought tears, rather teardrops to my eyes when I see the different people having fun. Heart pounding, rush of blood to the head.
Playtesting session was successful. The numbers that turned up were impressive. Young and old, men to women. We had our tearing down session after that, where we had to take down everything, papers, drawings, etc..
I was sharing with my team, reminiscing the day we first stepped into the team’s room in the lab. How empty it was, and being in a state of euphoria just by looking at the cool PCs and laptops. Right now, with a blink of an eye, and we are leaving. Astounding. Recalling back, those memories playing in my head.. laughters, shouts, serious atmosphere, the sounds of discussion.. fading in and out.
We had a post mortem session after lunch time. Nick took over Sharon, as she had to leave in the morning back in time for her competition. It was suggested few days ago that I take over Sharon to present the points at the session, but I felt Nick would be the better candidate. He has always been more involved in the design and worked more closely with Sharon than I do, and I must say he did a great job even though there was a slight hiccup.
Later in the evening, we had a dinner party in our dormitory at Burton-Conner. It was on the second level, a place we have never gone to. Though it looked a bit tattered, it was still a comfortable place to eat in.
It was raining quite heavily at that time too. People who came later got drenched. We grabbed our food, found a table and sat down together and ate as a group. It has been quite a while since the whole team sat down together for dinner. Scanning my surroundings, everyone was enjoying their dinner, and chatting with one another.
Emotions started to erupt when the first person started to leave. Sara Verrelli. My helpful QA mentor, who was always there to help all the QA(s) and guide us along. This role wasn’t skill specific, hence it was an ambiguous job to do. No fear. Sara was always there to help me. Giving me suggestions to make things right, giving me valuable opinions to transmit back to the team so that we could improve our game.
I rushed out and thanked her. She thanked me too. I was almost lost for words when it comes to occasions like this. I tried to say as much as possible to let her know of my gratitude towards her. I hope she received it.
Thanks Sara.
After dinner was chill out time. I moved over to the ‘dance floor’ where there was a huge space to take a good rest after a heavy dinner. Accompanied by the hip music and dimmed lights, it was as good as being in a club.
At 8.45pm, the music started grooving. No one dared to step into the middle and start dancing, except for a few. Everyone was having fun, Josh was strutting his stuff in the middle. He could dance well. Haha. Matt had a slight chat with us, asking if we could dance, we couldn’t. He said he was too shy to dance too, because he was a nerd. LOL. Matt oh Matt…
It was cool to see Marleigh and Clara entering the dance floor, I always knew if any one were to dance, they would surely be the ones. Philip went in too later, awesome. He danced REALLY well. He looked too shy to be dancing the way he did, I was simply dumbfounded!
When it all finally came to an end, I helped the rest by carrying the sound equipment downstairs. Philip’s wife was coming to fetch him and some of the Gambit mentors. While waiting, I walked up to Josh and thanked him by shaking his hands. He has always been like a great buddy to me and to the team. I was hoping the stay at Gambit didn’t end so soon, working with him was a real great pleasure.
Again, I stuttered quite a bit. Lost for words, probably because at that point of time I was sorting my thoughts clearly and the feeling wasn’t describable. Bad me.
As a former QA lead, he has also helped me with the questionnaires, giving me options on how I could improve writing them. He even generously shared his previous experience in the game industry with me when I only asked him casually about his QA job history.
He went off first, and I knew no matter how much you want to hold on to something, when it’s time to let go, you’ve got to loosen your grip.
Josh Diaz was simply amazing. He was funny, adorable, caring, and all the nice adjectives you could think of to describe him. You rock, Josh.
Another person who helped me alot during this summer was Clara Fernandez. She’s always there letting us know what her opinions of our game were, and I always listened to them. She’s such a nice lady, (Matt you lucky guy). I remember once when I brought Nick to her, and we both discussed how we could improve the feedbacks issues our game was facing. Another time, I was discussing with her and Sara in the office. They both enlightened me, gave really positive push when the game was hanging in the balance. Make or break. We made it.
She gave us so much more than any other playtesting session could offer. She is one of the MAIN reasons why GumBeat is where it is now. Players loved our game, and whenever she sees me, she would go, “Just a little bit more/Just a few more tweaks, and you’re there! Just a little bit more..!”
Oh god, I always got so encouraged by that. She always said that with some hand gestures, if you could try to imagine.
She got my eyes feeling hot when I saw droplets at the corner of her left eye. We both knew we would not be able to work / collaborate together again. It’s like a bond between the students and the mentors, who have formed such a successful partnership. Now one party has to return, and thinking of the 12 hours time difference really hurt.
Though there might be a chance she would visit Singapore, which would be really great.
Thanks for everything, Clara.
Lastly, I also managed to thank Matt and Philip. They both were all so cool. Matt actually has a real good sense of humour, and it never fails to make me laugh every time. I thanked him for giving great ideas to the team, and for being such a great product owner.
Philip actually helped me out when I had problems withdrawing money while I was here, and also on another occasion when I had problems with my package from Amazon. He readily helped me checked out the addresses of the post office and advised me on what I can do. He’s such a nice guy, and I couldn’t say much more better about him. Thanks Philip! Hope to see you in Singapore soon! (and if I’ve got the chance to do so)
As I’m typing this, the clock starts counting down to 6am where we have to gather to take the bus towards the airport. I’m leaving Cambridge soon, leaving US soon.. it’s getting nearer and nearer.
What will I miss?
Charles River, Gambit lab, Philip Tan, Josh Diaz, Matthew Weise, Nick. Ristuccia, Clara Fernandez, Sara Verrelli, Gene Fierro, Jason Beene, Marleigh Norton, Andrew Grant, Jesper Juul, Eitan Gilnert, Kevin Driscoll, Claudia, Rik, Mike, the computers in game lab, the consoles in game lab, the food court below the lab, Boston, Cambridge, MA…
Love ya all. Farewell. You guys have been amazing, and made us felt really at home.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
JC
GumBeat
Team PanopXis
Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab; Summer 2008