Meeting Ken Wong at the GDC 2014

As mentioned in my last post, I thought of writing a special post on the final event of the final day of GDC.

When I entered the hall in which the session was being held, I realized that the lay out was arranged in a different way which made me realize that this was a round table conference.

As I went forward I saw a gent with a cap pulling a chair who quite pleasantly smiled at me, I asked him if I could sit here while placing my hand in a chair which he answered in the affirmative, as I sat down I asked him if the session was in Chinese which he replied 'No, As my Chinese is not good'.

It was then that I realized that I was speaking to the speaker/moderator of the event who was none other than Ken Wong, the creator of the mobile game 'Monument Valley'. As a result I got to sit right next to him throughout the conference.

Ken Wong and me
(Courtsey: GDC China)

 This was indeed a highly interactive session where he was kind enough to show his Oculus Rift(https://www.oculus.com/rift/) and the Concept Art he did for the Monument Valley. Here are some of the facts that he shared with us.

• Writing documents is not as useful as creating a playable prototype.
• The prototype for Monument Valley was created in Unity (Game Engine).
• The structure of the game was different (similar to the difference between a Movie and TV Drama).
• Monument Valley was focusing on the UX (User Experience).
• Monument Valley was developed with the IPad in mind.
• How to make the best use of the touch controls of IPad.
• It is always possible to do impossible things.
• Details were not added to the character (in Monument Valley), as it is not storytelling.
• The main objective of the character is to walk.
•  To create a strong character observe other strong characters.
• Once you see a silhouette of Mickey Mouse or Indiana Jones, you identify the character, the reason is because the characters are strong.
• The story is not important in a game, there could be games without a story.
• The most important thing is to create a strong character.
• If the game is too complex in the beginning, people will not use them.
• The ability to express ideas and opinions between teams is very important.
• Having no sound effects in the Princess (in Monument Valley) panting while climbing had some effective aspect, as players could imagine the sound through their mind.
• When making games its always important to discuss how an activity could be done rather than why it shouldn't be done.
• When a game is submitted to Apple, there will be a gap of a few weeks as Apple Inc. checks if the game follows the Apple guidelines.
• It is important to note why you make games and why you want to make games.
• Minecraft (The Game) is played by users without a goal in mind, but just to showcase their creations in Minecraft.
• The most important thing when creating a company that makes games is to make its employees happy.

Once the session was over, each one went up to him to introduce themselves, take photographs and engage in General discussions, I too introduced myself and spoke to him, and the first thing he asked me was 'Do people in your Country make the villain black ?' I explained to him that game developing is a very new field in Sri Lanka and then he said 'Make sure when you make your next game don't always make the villain 'A black' but make a 'A White' villain as well'.

This was indeed a memorable experience for me.