PUCHONG: Two men are set on feeding the passion for excitement on the game console, and gaining global recognition at the same time.
For duo Ng Aik Sern and Mel Law Sheng Li, the more gore and destruction there are, the better for their fans.
They are developers of one of the latest console games – the Gigabash – that has already won several awards.
Their success, one could say, was destined. Both began their careers in a similar industry.
Ng was an educator, teaching computer animation at The One Academy in Petaling Jaya while Law was a cinematic director.
Ng later established a start-up that acted as a “sub-contractor” for established game developers. Essentially, with Law as games director, their job was to complete development of games for their clients.
Cliche as it sounds, the rest is history.
Ng said he quit his teaching job in 2007 to start his first animation company, called Passionfruit Animation House.
The company took on random projects, developing commercials and cartoon series, among others, for their clients, he told theSun.
In 2009, he started a new company, which he named Passion Republic, with a view to taking on the challenge of producing his own games. That was when Law joined him.
The duo thought they could start by taking on projects from established game producers, but not having a portfolio to showcase their skills meant that they were quickly dismissed by would-be customers.
Then their first opportunity came. Sumo Digital, a UK-based games developer, needed to complete its Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed game.
They were given four months to complete two race tracks that would pay homage to intellectual properties belonging to Sega, such as the House of the Dead.
They did it, and soon, other projects came, such as Shadow of the Beast and The Order: 1886. There was also one for Naughty Dog called Uncharted 4, Ng recalled.
“Getting the opportunity to work for Naughty Dog was a dream come true. They are a triple A games developer,” he said.
Soon, they realised, it was time to come up with their very own game. Their first, and still the only one, is Gigabash, a four-person brawler inspired by Tokusatsu monsters like Kaijus. Basically, these monsters go about smashing and destroying buildings.
The yet-to-be-released Gigabash won four awards at the recent Level Up KL conference and an indie prize from Tokyo-based Dengeki online.
Ng is now more optimistic about the future. “With the recent announcement by Sony Interactive Entertainment that it was setting up its South-East Asia studio in Malaysia, the gaming industry will blossom in the country,” he said.
