Friday, November 23, 2012

I lost a great friend...

He is someone whom I met during my polytechnic days in my final year project. A friend who is kind and willing to help others no matter how things are bad or busy. A person who is very determine to do what he wants, his name is Reuben.

I remember when I knew him, he was part of the team in the project. We were working on the title Operation Flashpoint. The goal was to mod the game into the local taste which we named it Operation Flashpoint Singapore. It was a 6 men team, 4 designers and 2 programmers. He was one of the designer working on environment game assets. He contribute a lot of his part in the project, including his face in one of the soldier, voices and his music. Yes, he took care all the music for this project. I told him what kind of music we will be expecting for the missions and he gladly do it in his extra time. He has a website here for all his works.

Sometimes after school I may met him in a gym, it was during that time he just started to buff up his body. He did his workout quite consistently and never fail to rest for a week. He introduce Mugen to me and when the first time I saw it it was fantastic. The street fighters characters all have exaggerated stances and its kinda cool. He told me he was part of the Mugen Community and involved in coming up one of his own character which called dragon claw. He did everything from scratch and I was pretty impress of the work and dedication he is striving for.

There are a few times I approached him to help me on composing music for my final year project, Saiyuki: Return of Wukong. His strong musical inspiration has influenced me on picking up piano playing. I remember there is once I met up with him near his house and had his favorite chicken rice near his place. After that I went to his house and see how he setup and do his stuff with his Yamaha Clavinova. I as an avid gamer and also a person who like to listen video game soundtracks, he will also share with me his new pieces of video game music whenever we met online. He will ask me to rate or discuss with him his pieces to see if there is any improvement and also promise to help me compose more music if I came out new games.

Unfortunately, on 23 November 2007, he met a boating accident in one of the competition in Cambodia at the age of 23 which also claiming 4 of his teammates. The day when I heard from my friend, Nick said his body was missing after the boat capsized, I cannot believe it at first but then it really happened. His body was only found 2 days later on the 25 November. It was a devastating blow for me even though we were not very close. I remember that I cried for him twice. The first time the moment I saw his face in the straits time newspaper, I couldn't control my tears and secondly, at his wake with his friends.

All these years whenever I see Street Fighter, it always reminds me of him. How I wish he was still alive to see the new Ken and Ryu playing Street fighter 4.

Today is his 5th anniversary and I wish he is living great in another world. He has touched many of the people around the world with his music and his legacy will goes on.

Reuben Kee, you will always be remembered!