Draft:Chun Wah Kong

Chun Wah Kong (born August 1974 in Hong Kong) is a British video game designer, best known for designing Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage and The Getaway. With other notable games in his softography from the golden age of 16-bit console era such as Plok!, Tin Star, Equinox and ''Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.

Career
A film student and an arcade diehard, Kong took a job as a video game tester during his gap year in 1993.

Kong cited the turning point for his career change was when Software Creations director, Richard Kay, reassigned him to design duties. His first design assignment was Marvel's Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, a game considered one of the best comic book-to-game adaptations in history.

Further titles followed, including Cutthroat Island, and Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety. Kong parted company with Software Creations during the production of Spiral Saga for Sony Europe, a launch title on the Playstation that was ultimately cancelled.

In 1997 he joined Psygnosis to work on Lander in his first role as lead designer. The game was announced at BAFTA as the first Dolby Digital Interactive DVD game, utilising MPEG-2 full-motion video, Dolby Digital and 5.1 channel audio, setting a new industry standard. It is also "The first game to be [exclusively] written for the PC DVD-ROM" format. The tech advances of Lander made it a popular game sold bundled with DVD Drives, and graphics and sound cards.

“It was a time when some companies finally started believing in the need for designers”. Kong was quoted during his time at Psygnosis, “I don't believe in the concept of design by committee – what you end up getting there is a soulless by-product of committee thinking, a mess that is neither here nor there”.

In February 1999, he was transferred to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe after its acquisition of Psygnosis where he played a key role in conceiving and developing as the lead creative designer of The Getaway, which became one of the PlayStation 2's most iconic titles. The game is known for its authentic recreation of Central London as its backdrop, with real life actors, licensed vehicles and branded outfits. Cutting edge digital scanning and motion capture technologies used to create the cinematic feel of The Getaway broke new grounds and set a new benchmark for the medium. Kong went on to establish The Getaway franchise with The Getaway: Black Monday and The Getaway: Gangs of London.

A TV adaptation of The Getaway: Gangs of London premiered on Sky Atlantic in 2020, shortly followed by the graphic novel Ghosts in 2022.

Kong also experimented with a Getaway Online multiplayer game, a concept which evolved to become the basis for the 3D social gaming platform PlayStation Home on the Playstation 3.

After his departure from SCE Europe in 2005, he founded Skoobie Games to focus on self-funded original, family-friendly titles for the mobile games market. Two original games were released between 2008 and 2018. "Blue Eden" brought awareness to ocean conservation, and "#XOXO" was a social game where players exchanged virtual hugs and kisses.

Kong was unveiled as one of Walter Day’s Superstars of 2018. The Trading Card Awards Ceremony was held at the Arcade Expo 4.0 in Banning, California, on March 17, 2018. The Guinness certified "Father of eSports" and Kong were both featured in the 2014 feature length documentary The King of Arcades, directed by Sean Tiedeman. Kong’s favourite arcade games are Kung-Fu Master and Double Dragon. In an interview with Playstation 2 Max Magazine, Kong expressed the influences of arcade action games on his designs and career. His industry hero is Yu Suzuki.

In 2020, Kong reunited with former Software Creations colleague Carleton Handley to create Millie & Molly on the Commodore 64 which won Retro Video Gamer’s Game of the Year.

Award nominations
For The Getaway, Kong received a nomination for Excellence in Level Design at the Game Developers Choice Awards 2003.