Plan for David "RM" Michael

It's a long road to Singapore, and wet. Take a plane instead.

On 19 June, 2004, at nearly midnight, I returned from a weeklong trip to Singapore. Two months ago, I didn't even have a passport. And now I've clocked over 40K travel miles. One of life's little surprises. And a pleasant surprise, at that.

IDA and My Invitation

Unlike my trip to Australia in May, for this trip I wore my "Press" hat. And unlike the GDC (where I most often wear that hat), this wasn't a game-specific conference. It was a more general-purpose IT and technology conference, with a lot of networking and broadcast components, and participants from all over the world, especially from Asia.

So why was I even there? Glad you asked. =)

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) invited three members of the US press to attend the imbX conference last week: one from IT press, one from film press, and one from game press. Thus, the US contigent came to Shel Israel (writing for Network World), Nick Dager (editor of Digital Cinema Report), and me (writing for GameDev.net).

So how did I get the invitation?

Well...it's a *bit* involved, but when you strip it down to brass tacks it's...because I had a valid passport. The Universe works in mysterious ways sometimes. (Yes, there was more to it, but this way makes a better story at parties. ;-) )

Besides we three from the US, there were four journalists from India and four more from China.

Some sightseeing

I arrived in Singapore just after midnight on Sunday, 13 June, which allowed me a convenient Jet Lag Dispersal Period before heading out to do some low-impact sightseeing. I didn't have anything official until that evening, and didn't know if I'd have much time to sightsee on my own once the week got going, so I carpe-ed the diem and headed out on my own.

Singapore is beautiful, if a bit...planned-seeming. Here a couple of snaps from my various walks on Sunday and Monday.





Oh, and I learned a valuable lesson about picture-taking in the tropics: let your camera warm up to air temperature *before* taking pictures. Otherwise, well...



I didn't get a picture of one, but a cab driver pointed out a mango tree, and complained about not being able to eat the fruit off of it. There was a fine, since it was a government-owned tree. If the fruit falls off...help yourself. Climb the tree, however, at your own peril.

Despite what you might have heard, though, Singapore isn't a police state with cops everywhere fining (and caning) you for every litte thing.

Instead, Singapore is a very pretty city, filled with pleasant people, and not too unlike US cities such as Santa Monica. Though probably cleaner. And safer at night.

As for goods and services, if you're used to finding it in the USA, you can probably find it in Singapore. They have quite a number of multi-storey shopping malls.

Life as "Managed Press"

As a member of the "foreign press", my time in Singapore was in the hands of the IDA PR group. They packed us up and sent us off hither and yon across Singapore.

Don't get me wrong, though, they were some very professional (and very pleasant) hands. And well...judge for yourself how much I must've minded. Meet Cindy, Dulcie, Hwei Ling, Stella, and Jennifer:



As I started to say above before my little digression, we of the foreign media were taken to a number of presentations and tours. For instance, to the Port of Singapore:



Which was actually pretty damn cool. Lots of huge, HUGE machinery and ships and containers all being pushed around by a very sophisticated collection of software and hardware. Not a bit of it game dev-related. But there's more to life than game dev. I've checked.

We were also taken to the Jurong Regional Library (a very impressive library) and to a hospital (which except for the pleasant little gardens scattered around, could have been in the US). Neither of those related to game dev either (even if the library was damn cool).

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were taken to the combined conferences for CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, and EnterpriseIT. Lots of exhibitors. A good crowd of gawkers milling about. In other words: a conference.

I think that the GDC 2004 Expo could have been *lost* in the expo space there. Believe it or not, though, there was a bit of game dev material to report on there. I jumped all over it. That is, between free-stuff-trawling the other booths of the conference. Got a great bouncey ball with a red light that flashes on impact... Anyway, here are some pics:









And, yes, I was about the only one there in Levi's and a pullover. Stupid American, messing up the dress code. ;)

Besides all the conference-related activities, we were also taken to some of the best local restaurants, the Singapore Zoo, and even dinner on a beach.





At times, the amount of food they kept trying to make us to eat was staggering. Literally. Being allergic to seafood, what I could eat was very limited (only about 10% of the food in Singapore doesn't have some kind of fish in it; they're an island; go figure), but it was all very good. I tried to eat a bit of everything. But we would've need about twice the number of press in the group to have eaten all that they put in front of us. And even then doggie bags might've been needed to carry home leftovers. It was a lot of food.

In summary: Singapore is great! Especially if you're foreign press. =)

Singapore and Game Development

Since I was there to cover game development, I did what I could to find and talk to anyone working in game development. As you may have guessed by now...

There weren't that many.

But I did find a valuable few, like Tan Peck Leong Jasper of Teckwah, Sarah Fay Krom of Nanyang Technological University's Game Lab, and Bran Kelly of Inerworx. Everyone I talked to was excited about games and the potential of game development in Singapore.

I have a *lot* more to say about game development in a series of articles I'm doing for GameDev.net. Those articles should start appearing later this week.

Final Words

The past two months have been incredible. Six months ago I would never have thought I would have been so fortunate. All the fuss and preparations have slowed down my game development and other projects somewhat, but I wouldn't swap the experiences had and people met for anything.

For those who will, inevitably ask: Yes, work on Paintball Net is still happening, though it won't be my main focus for at least a couple more months.

Finally, a shout out to my new Indian buds: Anand, Gaurav, Lavanya, Edwin, and Madhavan!



Keep it real!

(For the astute reader who remembers that I said there were four Indian press members, now noticing that there are five people in this picture, I offer the following explanation: one of them isn't press.)

-David
Samu Games
The Indie Game Development Survival Guide