Hei Wa Chan - Game Developer

Summary of my design sensibility:

1. What are the top three things that make a single player game stand out to you?

Story, Fun Gameplay and Visual. Story is the most important part for me because I highly treasure the memories of a good scene or an epic ending of a game for the rest of my life.

2. What do you love about games?

I love games because I can experience to be anything different in my life. I can play as samurai in Ghost of Tsushima, investigate case as a lawyer in Ace Attorney or build a city as a mayor in Cities Skyline. Games are so much better compared to books and movies because I can participate in a story and sometime take challenges to solve problems in a game.

3. List your 10 favorite games of all time, give reasons for your top 3.
‍
~1. Total War Series
Have been playing from Total War Shogun since childhood. City management and battle matched perfectly: giving player good amount of rest between fast phased reaction battle micro and brain time management macro. The battle map loaded according to army location challenge you to use different tactics and never get bored from battle.
~2. Ghost of Tsushima
Unbelievably accurate on representing Japan culture. You can feel the developers truly love the game by implementing numerous mounts of details. Stunning black & white & red scene tribute to the famous film director Akira Kurosawa. Strong storylines focus on Japanese's most important virtue - Honor. Innovative graphic and game mechanic such as large-scale dynamic paddy field and Japanese poetry mini game.
~3. Ace Attorney
The game utilizes NDS's mic function and provide unforgettable satisfaction of shouting "Objection!" to your opponent in the screen. The mic control enhances the interaction between player and game to next level. The court pace and hint design help player to solve case step by step without getting overwhelmed. The exaggerated character designs and comedy keeps player engaged.
~4. Castle: The Forbidden Divines
~5. World of Warcraft
~6. Populous
~7. Splinter Cell Series
~8. Theme Hospital
~9. Yakuza Series
~10. L.A. Noire
‍
4. Give an example of a game mechanic that is accessible but deep?

The wind blow navigation in Ghost of Tsushima was a mind-blowing genius design. It does not only fit with Japanese culture but also enhance the feeling of an adventure. The wind navigation allows free exploration on open world without a big arrow over your head or a red dot on mini map which distract players. I rarely have to pause and open the map for direction in such a huge map which result in the best seamless open world experience among every game I have played so far.

5. Where would you begin to come up with a new game?

The first thing I would look at the medium device to see what the limit are and what I can do with the device to provide maximum satisfaction and fun to the player. For example, there are currently two ideas that I really want to work on my personal VR game projects. The first one would be sumo wrestling - the hand tracking is something unique and the theme perfectly fit the use of a VR headset. The second game would be a RTS where player control units by moving pawns on a chess sized map.

6. If you could design any video game, what would it be about?

I would definitely design a City Builder set in Japan Sengoku period. You play as a local lord who manage and develop your small village and become a powerful warlord and race with another competitor to become the ruler of Japan. I want to implement free roaming in the city and citizen will react to you and give very simple mission according to the city's happiness and respect toward you. I am currently learning and trying to figure out Unity DOTs to prepare for the future if I have chance to make this game come true.


A little bit about my personality:

My favorite genres of game are RTS, RPG, City Building and Simulator.

According to "Classification of Video Game Player" by Richard Bartle, I am a 100% pure explorer who enjoy finding hidden areas, creating maps, enjoy lore/backstory, pay attention to details, read every everything and interact with anything I can find.

I am an indoor person and prefer cats over dogs (also love dogs though).

I love new technology and I am kind of good at cooking.