A RIEview on Life and games

Though 'Surviving Overseas' series has ended, I wanted to include my experience of working part-time during my university time in New Zealand, hence this post is a bonus piece – like sprinkles on top of a cupcake or an ice cream, just to wrap up the series for good.  Disclaimer : I am aware that not everyone will share the same experience as I do. All of us will have different routes to get a job, and some of us may have to take many, many tries before you finally snag that job you've been eyeing for. A month into my first semester in second year, I got a call from my friend about a vacancy at the place she worked at. Before this call, we had met over lunch and we chat about a lot of things when the topic of working part-time came up in our conversation. In first year, I wasn't so keen finding a part-time job mainly because I wasn't sure if I can commit to a job. New country, new study environment, new study schedules – I just didn't had the confidence I can jug...

Ah, Mushroom Garden. This is the first casual game I ever downloaded and enjoyed, so downloading Mushroom Garden HD definitely bring back memories after I completed and deleted the game back in... 2012/13-ish? Not only did I download Mushroom Garden, but because I got so into the game that I went and downloaded BeeWorks' other game – Touch Detective. Touch Detective revolves around a young girl detective Mackenzie who solves cases with her faithful pet/sidekick, Funghi. Because of Funghi's popularity, BeeWorks decided to launch the Mushroom Garden series and even character goods! So thank you, Touch Detective! (Now if only I could find Touch Detective on the game stores again...) Now onto the Mushroom Garden HD RIEview! Game Plot  Like Mandrake Boys, Mushroom Garden HD don't have a plot. Instead, you are directed to a piece of wood where you will be given a basic tutorial on how to grow mushrooms. While the whole appeal of Mushroom Garden is to collect all the different ty...

Mandrake Boys is a casual game by Owlogue Inc., where the objective of the game is to harvest a collection of good-looking anthropomorphised plants. Or in common English, your task as a player is to grow plant boys. Yes, you read that right. The same company also released Mandrake Girls, the predecessor of Mandrake Boys. However, due to software incompatibility with latest operating systems and (probably) being less favoured than Mandrake Boys, Mandrake Girls are no longer found on the app or play store. Wondering if you should download this game? Read on to see if this is your cup of tea!  Game Plot  There's no main plot for Mandrake Boys, other than the fact that you are there to grow and harvest mandrake boys. Of course, with each mandrake you harvest, you will unlock parts of their story related to the seed pack they are from. Occasionally, the dialogues for some mandrakes will appear to be addressing the player, but that is rare and sometimes not consistent throughout the...