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 (video game).
==Career==
A film student and an Amusement 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 (video game), and Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety. Kong parted company with Software Creations during the production of Spiral Saga for Sony Interactive Entertainment, a launch title on the PlayStation (console) that was ultimately cancelled.
In 1997 he joined Psygnosis to work on Lander (video game) in his first role as lead designer. It is "The first game to be [exclusively] written for the PC DVD-ROM". It features cutting-edge MPEG-2 full-motion video, Dolby Digital and 5.1 channel audio to create a true theatrical experience. The tech advances of Lander (video game) 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 Team Soho Computer Entertainment Europe after its acquisition of Psygnosis where he played a key role in conceiving and developing The Getaway (video game), which became one of the PlayStation 2's most iconic titles. Known for its recreation of Central London with accuracy unheard of in video games with pioneering Motion capture | mocap cinematic techniques. Kong went on to establish The Getaway (video game) franchise with The Getaway: Black Monday and Gangs of London (video game).
Kong also experimented with a Getaway Online multiplayer game concept. Although the project never came to fruition, it became the basis for the 3D social gaming platform PlayStation Home on the Playstation 3.
After he departed from Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe in 2005, he founded Skoobie Games to focus on family-friendly titles in the mobile games market, a shift from the stylised violence, arcade action games he is known for.. Two original games were released between 2008 and 2018. "Blue Eden" brought awareness to ocean conservation, and "#XOXO" was a social game where players hugged and kissed their friends.
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 World Records | Guiness 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 game is Kung-Fu Master (video game)|Kung-Fu Master. 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.
== Works ==
Year	Title 	Role(s)
1993	Equinox (Solstice 2) 	Game tester
1993	Plok 	Game tester
1993	Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends 	Game tester
1993	Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge 	Game tester
1993	Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast	Game tester
1993	Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest 	Game tester
1994	Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball 	Game tester
1994	Tin Star 	Game tester
1994	Barbie Vacation Adventure 	Game tester
1994	Moto-X 	Game tester
1994	The Simpsons: Bart and the Beanstalk 	Game tester
1994	Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage 	Game logic
1995	Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety 	Game logic
1995	Cutthroat Island 	Gameplay programmer
1995	Mortal Kombat 3 	Quality assurance
1996	Spiral Saga (cancelled) 	Level design
1999	Lander 	Designer
2002	The Getaway 	Lead designer
2004	The Getaway: Black Monday 	Lead designer, Writer
2010	Spirit 	Special thanks
2014	Blue Eden 	Lead designer
2017	#XOXO 	Lead designer, Artist
2020	Millie & Molly 	Puzzle designer
===Award nominations===
For The Getaway (video game)|The Getaway, Kong received a nomination for Excellence in Level Design at the Game Developers Choice Awards 2003.
Category:British video game designers
Category:Video game designers