Fixing a Broken Wacom Pen

Two weeks ago, I accidentally drop my Wacom Pen. It happened several times before but this time, the pen stop working 🙁 The tablet could not detect the pen tip but the eraser tip was still working.

It’s an old model which I bought on 2002 (Wacom Graphire 2) and the replacement pen cost around 40 Euro 😯

Now I am using a mouse.

Three years ago, I decided to stop using computer mouse and rely 100% on my Tablet. Actually, I was training my eye-hand coordination using the tablet. I found it’s more natural to use a pen so since then, I stick with it. It’s also good for your wrist since I read somewhere that you could reduce the risk of getting Carpal Tunnel.

I plan to buy a new tablet later (maybe the Wacom Bamboo) so it’s worth it to try repairing the pen 😛

Click more to see my step-by-step instruction (with photos) how to fix a broken Wacom Pen 🙄

Continue reading

Tokusatsu Agent’s Demo Video

Finally, a demo video of my Tokusatsu Agent is available at Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ-e47yRJmg

I also add new screenshots at my portfolio page
http://www.abiyasa.com/#/portfolio/tokusatsu_agent

So, new features/stuff which I added since the last screenshots:

  • Main menu, including the illustrations
  • You can pause and back to the main menu during the game
  • Jump effect
  • Cute ‘die’ effect for both enemy and the main hero

Hopefully, the game demo will be available for download before the end of April 😉

Tokusatsu Agent

That’s my latest game project. It was called Chibi Contra before but I decided to change it to ‘Tokusatsu Agent’ since the last 3 months.

Tokusatsu Agent Logo

For those who don’t know what Tokusatsu is, check out these 2 pages giving a short and simple description:

So Tokusatsu Agent is a 3D platoformer game. For the gameplay, just imagine Super Contra or Megaman (Rockman) except everything is in 3D and the characters are Super Deformed (Chibi).

Tokusatsu Agent Screenshots

The story is somewhere in the future, where Tokusatsu services are very popular. People would hire metal hero from the agents just to be their bodyguard, fight against the crimes, photo shooting for an advertisement, or even just for a date.

Our hero, Hiro Papayashi, is working for a tokusatsu agent that can only offer services for a low price. So, besides fighting against the bandits, they also have to struggle with their financial problem. Little did they know that someday, the fate of the city will be in their hands 🙂

screenshots 2

That’s all for now. For more screenshots and infos, just go to my portfolio page (http://www.abiyasa.com/), and check the Tokusatsu Agent under the menu ‘Game’ 😉

My article gets published

I couldn’t stop smiling after reading the Gamasutra newsletter. They published my article!!

Hurrrrayyyyy 🙂 😀 🙂

You can read the article here: http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/356/student_postmortem_university_of_.php

And if you go to http://www.gamecareerguide.com, my article is still on the features list 🙂 How exciting!!

For summary, the article is about the process behind our last-year project, citizenMOB. It was a two semester project, creating an online game for mobile phone. For the game gameplay, just imagine a combination of Pokemon, Tamagotchi, and treasure hunting.

Treasure hunting?

Yes, the game is also about finding virtual items on the city. Using GPS device (and your mobile phone), the player will be able to see nearby (virtual) items on their mobile phone screen (on the map/radar). All you have to do is just go to pointed places and … tada! The item is belong to you.

That’s only a tiny part of what our game can do. Just read the article or go to our website http://www.citizenmob.com 😉

On the article, you’ll get the introduction of our project, the features of our game, and the things that went right or wrong during the development.

Enjoy and Happy Easter holiday!!! 😉

Chibi Contra Guy on Mikoto

As I promised before, this is the animated version of my 3D model 😉 (http://abiamy.com/abiyasablogs/2006/11/01/chibi-contra-guy-phase-1/).
Actually, it’s done on 30th of October but I was too busy to post it 🙁  

Chibi Contra Guy in Mikoto

So I used Mikoto to animated the Metasequoia model, and convert them into .X animation file using Mikoto2X. I plan to write a quick tutorial how to make bones in Metaseq and animate them in Mikoto but right now I have no time.

Next week, me and my wife will fly back to Indonesia (finally after 2 years 🙂 ) and stay there for one and a half month, so I have to do many stuff before leaving. You know, in Indonesia, we don’t have good and Internet broadband connection 🙁

But if you want tutorials about Mikoto, check this link below. It’s very good, step-by-step tutorial, and complete, but it’s in Japan:
http://umemori69.hp.infoseek.co.jp/umemori69_005.htm

This one is in English, not that complete but good enough to start:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/XingSutachi/mikototut/animamikoto.html

and the translated manual of Mikoto:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/XingSutachi/mikototut/urltrurl.html

There are many things which are not covered by two links above so you have to try Mikoto by yourself. Feel free to contact me if you have trouble. I will help you as best as I could 😉

Chibi Contra Guy Pose
Pose in Mikoto, rendered in Metesequoia