Kuala Lumpur
First Impressions

We arrived on Saturday greeted by rain to make us feel at home. The 36 degree heat thought was a bit of a shock to the system. Our apartment is on the 16th floor above a large department store. It's taking me a while to get used to the height, but the view is incredible.

After a weekend settling in and wondering around KL, we started work on Monday. We met the tutors at Lim Kok Wing and in the afternoon went to a Chinese New Year Party at Moon FX's offices. It was an amazing experience and a great welcome to KL. Moon FX are one of Asia's leading motion graphic companies and after watching their showreel it is clear to see why. Their portfolio has a diverse range of styles, and their client list is impressive. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet them in such an informal atmosphere and they made us feel very welcome.

We started our Interactive Design course with Ike on Tuesday at Lim Kok Wing. Ike is a big fan of Macromedia Director so we got an opportunity to have a quick crash course on the package and learn some basic Lingo.

On Wednesday we met MYGO, a games company. They are best known for organizing gamers tournaments, but are also well known for their online flash gaming portal and more recently have developed SMS-TV games. These games are broadcast on analogue television 12-3am and aimed at a youth audience. Viewers participate in the game by sending SMS text messages on their mobiles which enables their actions to be carried out on screen. It was really interesting to learn about these games as I have never seen anything similar in the UK. At peak periods 200 people have been playing the same game within the space of 1 hour (sending multiple texts), so the idea can provide a good alternative revenue stream for television companies.

We were set to work on developing a SMS-TV game ourselves using Macromedia Flash. We managed to come up with a couple of good ideas so will be working on finalising the plans and attending a crit session at MYGO on Monday. Hopefully then we will go on to develop a game and if it's good enough there's a possibility it will be on Malaysian TV!

Today I had a lesson on Web Technologies. This focused on the importance of usability both in web design and product design. Our task was to design a Sushi vending machine, focusing on its functionality.

The experience has been fantastic so far, I feel like I've already learnt a lot about cultural differences in terms of technology. For example, people feel a lot more comfortable using mobile phones than the internet, especially for financial transactions. You can even pay for some car parking using your mobile. I'm so glad I've got the opportunity to come here. Thank You Cyfle.