Growing up, I loved playing video games. I loved the feeling of coming back from school, switching on my old Gameboy Colour (this is really showing my age…maybe I should leave this out) and booting up a game of Pokémon. I used to love comparing my Pokémon with my friends, occasionally we’d battle and occasionally we’d trade Pokémon.

The beauty of that was that we lived in an age where all of us were new to gaming. Looking at the the look of smugness we had when we found a hidden route and refused to share it with our friends, the joy on our face when we found a rare Pokémon, or even the look of shock, surprise and regret I had when trading my Graveller for it to suddenly become a Golem and wanting it back (and just as an FYI, I never got it back 😅). 

This is something which is hard to find in games nowadays. With most games requiring you to have an online connection rather than physically being next to one another. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it doesn’t have its advantages, my pals and I can now play games no matter where we are in the world and that’s amazing in its own right but there’s still something about being physically next to each other that makes the experience completely different. The feeling that inherently you and your friends are working towards the same goal and are engaged in the process. The feeling of not being alone as you venture and journey throughout the virtual world together. I dreamed of days where I could just play games with my friends all day instead of going to school.

With all that said, life happened and I never really thought of “gaming” or “game development” as a real career path. Instead like the typical 90s Asian kid, I thought that I had to go into a field of medicine, business or law in order to have a successful career. Slowly as I identified my strengths I went down the Psychology route (with a minor in Neuroscience) hoping that one day I would be a Clinical Psychologist. 

I got some work experience in NGOs, mental health organizations, and even got my Masters in Psychology and Neuroscience. Having said all that, I came to a point in life where I wanted to explore and see if I could reignite that old dream of playing games or even of being able to create those memories for people. With that, I started looking into how I could use all the things I’ve learnt and all the skills that I’ve gained to get into the gaming industry.

My background in Psychology as well as my work experience gave me a strong foundation in understanding how people think, feel and behave. Couple that with the UI/UX experience I’ve had in my previous workplaces and you have a formula for creating meaningful game experiences. Whether it be creating engaging emotional arcs, shaping player decisions, or even improving the User Experience, my background put me in a place where I could naturally go into game design.

This may be a bit ambitious, however right now I want to be able to create games that help people really connect with one another and recreate that feeling of discovery that you had when you first played a game. I want to be able to make games that people can enjoy no matter if they’ve played games all their lives (like me) or people who have never touched a video game.

So I guess, long story short, I want to say thank you to all of my friends whom I’ve encountered through gaming for this amazing experience and I hope that I can share this experience with more and more people! Look forward to the games that we cook up!