OIP Week 6 - Dinosaurs

What do you know? It’s already Week 6 of our Overseas Immersion Programme, and time for another update. This school week has been particularly exciting, with DigiPen organising a tour to Motiga as well as a talk by James Portnow and his crew from Extra Credits.

James Portnow came by on Thursday night, along with two other presenters, to give an insightful talk on marketing for indie games. The talk, originally designed to be presented to indie strategy-game publisher Slitherine, used case studies to highlight the various problems and mistakes made by indie developers when marketing their products. Some of us even managed to catch a photo with the rock-star-like James.

Staying back for some Extra Credits.

Stretching out the awesome, on Friday afternoon, DigiPen brought a handful of students via shuttle bus to Motiga, an indie game-development studio based in Bellevue. We took a tour around their impressive studio, caught a glimpse of their ongoing project, Gigantic, and even got to play-test the game.

Photo courtesy of Alvin Wong.

Saturday morning was spent finishing up the rest of our assignments before heading out for lunch at Sushiland, just outside the Regal Bella Bottega Stadium. The Japanese sushi place had a traditional sushi belt and plates ranging from 1 to 3 USD each. The beef udon, tuna maki and seared salmon were absolutely fantastic, or perhaps it was just because we haven’t had sushi in a really long time.

I want more.

After lunch, Gang B207 wandered around Bella Bottega and its surrounding area. We came across a hobby shop called Games & Gizmos that specialized in miniature war games. They also sold board games, card games and various gaming accessories.

Cool beans.

Following that, it was a 5-Guys-Lost-in-America reunion as we met up with Moses to watch Jurassic World. The film had its moments, despite its lack of focus, plot holes and its inability to please Kenneth, a hardcore Jurassic Park fan who apparently takes dinosaurs very seriously. Still, it was kinda funny watching three Marvel actors from three completely different Marvel films acting in the same non-Marvel movie (which beat out Avengers: AoU in opening week, FYI).

Nobody learned anything from that first movie.

When the movie had ended and we’d had our fill of bitching about it, we decided to have dinner at Jack in the Box. I ordered a Bacon Swiss and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Tender beef patty oozing with meat-juice, crisp bacon and stringy melted Swiss cheese tucked between two warm toasted buns. Yum.

This picture doesn't do the burger justice.

We finished off the night with a not-so-quick stop at Bella Bottega's QFC (dubbed by many as the ‘Bigger QFC’), and stocked up on supplies. Our empty refrigerator was filled by the time we got home.

On Sunday, the Catholic Trio again tried out yet another unexplored place called The British Pantry, which was a pub, restaurant, bakery and gift shop all rolled into one. Samantha and Moses ordered their speciality Fish & Chips, and I went for some smoked salmon. It was decent, though nothing compared to that seared salmon from Sushiland. They had some very addictive tartar sauce though.

A'ight, mate.

The gift shop had a nice stock of commodities you don't easily find in American supermarkets, like Ribena, Ovaltine and Horlicks. I'm still trying to decide if we want to buy a bottle of Ovaltine or Horlicks—those things are expensive as heck (13+ USD for a small bottle). Budgets aside, I’d kill for a cup of Milo…