Kowloon Walled City Reforge Project

Built using an extensive collection of photographs and architectural plans, as well as new information provided by former residents, the game shall give an accurate and in-depth look into the everyday lives of the residents of the Kowloon Walled City.

Skill demonstrated

Research

Game Design

2D Game Art

3D Game Art

Narrative Design

Programming

Duration

2017.10 - 2018.06

Master Class Group Project

Poki, Chan Po Ki

Project Manager, Researcher, Game Designer, 2D 3D Artist, Porgrammer

Zac, Lin Zequan

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Zac, Lin Zequan

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Level Designer, UX UI Designer, Technical Artist, Tester

Michael, Wong Kai Ho

(

)

Michael, Wong Kai Ho

(

)

Programmer

Yo, Mak Sze Yiu

(

)

Yo, Mak Sze Yiu

(

)

Concept Artist, Character Designer, 3D Artist

Sally, Kim Sang-A

(

)

Sally, Kim Sang-A

(

)

PR (English & Korean), Copywriter (English & Korean)

2018.06 - Present

Self-initiated Project

Poki, Chan Po Ki

Project Manager, Researcher, Game Designer, Narrative Designer, 2D 3D Artist, Programmer

Zac, Lin Zequan

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Zac, Lin Zequan

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Level Designer, UX UI Designer, Technical Artist, Tester

Menson, Chan Chin Ho

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Menson, Chan Chin Ho

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Sound designer, music composer

Peter, Guo Tian-li

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Peter, Guo Tian-li

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Programmer, Technical Artist

Jessie, Lin Jie-shi

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Jessie, Lin Jie-shi

(

2018.11 - 2019.04

)

Texture Artist (Assistant)

Award

2020

Merit Award

Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association

2019

Best Music Award

The Hong Kong Game Development Association

2019

Gold Award (Student Group)

The Hong Kong Game Development Association

2018

Best Student Work Nomination

China indie Game Alliance

Download

Website

About The Game

This is a 3D adventure puzzle game based on the setting and stories of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City in the late 70s. The player controls Min, a child sent to live with his grandfather for the summer holidays. Min will explore and solve puzzles around the Walled City to acquaint himself with his surroundings.

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<small-header-orange>Features<small-header-orange></small-header-orange></small-header-orange>

Environment & stories demonstrating the old days and culture of Hong Kong
Game map and environment design based on solid research
A cast of characters designed with reference to the former Walled City residents
Speech patterns and dialogue consistent with the times
Dubbing in Cantonese
Original sound track

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<text-colour-orange>Creativity & Originality<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The goal of the game is to reflect authentic local culture, history and society in order to document a history of place and evoke a sense of nostalgia for the players. I work closely with the former residents to design and develop the game. The game gradually becomes a unique community project that visualizes and records an important part of the Hong Kong history.

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<text-colour-orange>Design Quality<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The genuine map of the Kowloon Walled City, the story and the new information shared by the former residents are references of the game level design.

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<text-colour-orange>Artistic Quality<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The game is in 3D to best restore the intricacies of the architectural structure of the Kowloon Walled City to its highest potential; in-game models have been modeled after original maps of the Walled City. For the parts that does not covered in books or any other documentaries, the models are crafted according to the former residents oral or hand-drawn description.

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<text-colour-orange>Values & Social Impact<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The Kowloon Walled City has its warm side of providing living place, preserving Chinese culture and folk customs as well as embracing with neighbourhood faith and love. Kowloon Walled City had been veiled with mysteries and stigmatized for decades. Stories, films and video games produced about the district locally or internationally are still using the misleading information. This game will restore the blanks in its history and should redress the grievances for this district.

Video

Videos

Feature

Hong Kong, playground - STORIES

Ubisoft

March 13, 2020

Playlist

Game Prototype

Sample Scene Walkthrough

Game (v3.0) Trailer (English)

Game (v3.0) Trailer (Chinese)

Player Reaction Video (Original Video by CoalFire)

Preliminary Game Concept

Other Deliverables

Background Music - Blossom

Playtest Compilation

Game Theme Song

Media Coverage

Hong Kong, playground - STORIES

Explore the Kowloon Walled City in Cantonese! Post-90s Postgrads design a game featuring local Hong Kong culture

Restoring Hong Kong through Digital Game

3D Games: Restoring a realistic Kowloon Walled City

Made in HK – PolyU students rebuild the Kowloon Walled City in Game

Production Crew Interview on Radio

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View all

The integrity and passion of the team to create an accurate depiction of location based on recollections of former residents is both admirable and uncompromising.

Chau Hoi Kit 周海傑

Former Resident of the Kowloon Walled City

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Case Study

Background

Hong Kong has been the backdrop to many films and video games worldwide. That being said, this introduces the concept of 'Orientalisation' in which East Asian countries are exotified and 'othered' via mysticism and vague 'oriental' concepts into cluttered ideas of Hong Kong's authentic culture. The Kowloon Walled City, in particular, was the signature of the Kowloon City but had been veiled with mysteries and stigmatized for decades.

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Due to Hong Kong’s turbulent past, many have taken liberties with Hong Kong’s crime rate and the influence of the triads to make Hong Kong into a criminal haven in their creations. Unfortunately, this means that many aspects of Hong Kong’s everyday culture has been commonly overlooked.

Keywords

Historical Integrity

Virtual Archaeology

Local Culture

Oral History

The Walled City

Old Hong Kong

Inspiration

Motivation

The serious games Detention (2017) by Red Candle Games and This War of Mine (2014) by 11 bit studios provide good precedents on how the well-designed combination of history, culture and scripted digital interactions could deliver highly-rated gaming experience and more.

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I am inspired to design and create a game that could present the history and culture of Hong Kong and the Kowloon Walled City.

view site

Research Questions

What is the true face of the Kowloon Walled City? What are the stereotypes?
How is the true Kowloon Walled City different from its stereotypes? In what aspect and how?
What are the gaps in the existing information about Kowloon Walled City?
What is the new information this game would be able to provide?

Research Methods

Primary Research

In-depth Interviewing

Field Studies

Competitive Analysis

Observation

<text-colour-orange>What are the Stereotypes? And How do they take shape?<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

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<text-colour-orange>Information of Narrow Range, Repetitive And Inaccuracy<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Official information are little and very often repeats itself in media. Information found in publications often contradict to each other. Even the official information released inside the Walled City Park were said to be mistaken. Past study on recording the Walled City's historical facts were more often conducted by foreigners and written in foreign languages such as Japanese and English, implying the fact that there may be miscommunication between the researchers and the locals by that time.

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<text-colour-orange>Skewed Perception, Exaggeration And Stereotype<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The public’s perception of the Kowloon Walled City was skewed by the early history of the settlement - that it was the criminal underbelly of Hong Kong run by triads, a place known for its many crimes through drug trade and prostitution. These perceptions are often seen through large-budget movies and games about the Walled City made by people outside Hong Kong; portraying the place like Hong Kong's unsavoury 'dark side'.

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Both in English and Cantonese, it was known as the “City of Crime” or the “City of Darkness”, and its notoriety has perhaps been exaggerated after its demolishment as people were unable to see it as its real image. Furthermore, Hong Kong has often been portrayed as a city run by triads despite its very low crime rate - it has also been portrayed by Western media as a mix of Hong Kong’s culture and other East Asian countries such as Japan or Korea. Examples of such can be often found in science fiction films such as Ghost in the Shell or games such as Shadowrun: Hong Kong (2015).

View references

Reference materials for Observation

Harebrained Schemes 2015, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Harebrained Schemes

Ocean Park 2017, 海洋公園哈囉喂：城寨驚魂 Ocean Park Halloween Fest: Kowloon Ghost City, festival attraction, 5-8, 13-15, 19-22, 26-29, 31 October

Treyarch 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360,Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Activision

United Front Games 2012, Sleeping Dogs, PlayStation4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Square Enix

Zeque 1997, クーロンズゲートKowloon’s Gate, PlayStation, PlayStationNetwork, Sony Music Entertainment Japan.

余兒., 2010. 九龍城寨 City of Darkness.., Taiwan: 奇幻基地 Fantasy Foundation.

士郎正宗 et al., 1989. 攻殼機動隊 Ghost in the shell., Japan: Production I.G..

王家衛 et al., 1990. 阿飛正傳 Days of being wild, 香港: 鉅星錄像發行有限公司 [distributor].

王雅琳, 劉浩龍, 喻亢, 湯鎮業, 徐冬冬, 黃日華, 吳毅將, Larkin, 李嘉榮, 陳光榮, 雷柏熹, 王晶, 張敏, 關智耀, 甄子丹, 劉德華, 鄭則仕, 姜皓文, 胡然, Larkin, Bryan, 鐳射企業有限公司, Film Distributor, 星王朝有限公司, Presenter, 博納影業集團股份有限公司, Presenter, and 星王朝影視製作有限公司, Production Company. 追龍 Chasing the Dragon. 2018. Print.

理工設計年展 PolyU Design Annual Show 2018

藍乃才 et al., 1982. 城寨出來者 Brothers from the Walled City, Shaw Brothers Studio.

香港動漫展 ACGHK 2018

麥當雄 et al., 1999. 省港旗兵 Long arm of the law, 香港: 寰亞電影發行有限公司 : 鉅星錄像發行(香港)有限公司.

Findings

<text-colour-orange>How is the true KWLC? And How is it different from its stereotypes?<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

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<text-colour-orange>They Call It A HOME <text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

It is realised that the Kowloon Walled City was a very tightly-knit society that housed people who strived to stay alive by working extremely hard to live in Hong Kong. Some of the early settlers were illegal immigrants who were fleeing the Cultural Revolution in China - the Walled City was full of many people from different backgrounds, including locals and foreigners looking for rooms with cheap rent.

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As many non-official immigrants did not hold a legal permit to stay in Hong Kong, they were not permitted to work under the Hong Kong Law - the Kowloon Walled City was the only space in which they could live and work. There were many different businesses that operated from the Walled City - for example, unlicensed doctors and dentists, people raising poultry in their homes, fishball factories operating next to candy-makers and plastic toy factories. People had close relationships to others - many would not lock their doors or close them at night for their neighbours to pass through to get home; they fetched themselves their neighbours' soap through windows when they were running out of theirs (credit went to the 'handshake buildings' for allowing such convenience).

View references

Reference materials for Research

Arranz, A., 2019. Kowloon Walled City: A place of anarchy [online]. South China Morning Post. URL https://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1430050/city-anarchy (accessed 31 July. 2020).

Girard, G. & Lambot, I., 1993. City of darkness : life in Kowloon walled city, Surrey]: Watermark Pub.

Pullinger, J. & Quicke, A., 1980. Chasing the dragon, London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Rthk, 1975. 鏗鏘集 : 城寨 Walled City, 香港：香港電台電視部.

Ho, S., 1993. An architectural study on the Kowloon Walled City : preliminary findings, Hong Kong: Suenn Ho.

2014. The Kowloon Walled City [online]. The Wall Street Journal. URL: http://projects.wsj.com/kwc (accessed 30 Jun. 2020).

也斯 2005. 也斯的香港 香港第1版., 香港: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司.

寺澤一美. et al., 1997. 大图解九龍城 第1版.., 東京: 岩波書店.

潘國靈., 2001. 病忘書 初版.., 香港: 指南針集團有限公司.

蕭國健 & CNPeReading, 2015. 寨城印痕──九龍城歷史與古蹟, HongKong: 中華書局(香港)有限公司.

魯言., 1988. 九龍城寨史話 第1版.., 香港: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司.

Insight

The Kowloon Walled City was, in fact, not a ‘cesspool’ of Hong Kong’s most unfortunate but a place with citizens that held strong desires to stay alive under harsh conditions - This is the new angle the game should bring to the players, as well as the actual lives and stories of the Hong Kong locals and the Chinese immigrants.

Design Goals

To present the rich history and authentic culture of Hong Kong and the Kowloon Walled City that the video game medium has overlooked before
To provide alternative kind of documentation of Walled City's oral history and local culture for the new generation
To bring nostalgia - to provoke resonance about the old times among players

Design Process

The Design Goals help lead a relatively clear direction to design for immersive game experience. Several aspects need to be simulated in order to construct a relatively correct game world and context in terms of chronological consistency. These aspects further define the game elements which make the composition of such the game world and context and therefore should be consistent with the times:

The environment and life style
The sets of value
The way people talk and their accents
The fashions and trends
The pricing and cost of living
The family structure
The possibles and impossibles in the Walled City
The history timeline of the old Hong Kong

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The direction is getting clear on how the game could/ should be in the followings:

Possible mechanics
Character design and clothing
Voice acting
Dialogue copywriting
Environment and lighting
Game resources of abundance and scarcity, e.g. money, food, toys.
Possible rewards
Possible restrictions

Design Decisions

Mechanics

<text-colour-orange>Narrative : Emotion Design<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Emotion-centric timeline approach is applied to design and visualise progression of emotion throughout the whole game. It provides a direction to arrange and adjust story plots. Failed or unexpected emotion provoke, such as boredom and frustration shown in facial expressions and body languages, could be identified. Possible reasons can be deduced by reviewing how the plots trigger player's body cues.

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<text-colour-orange>Item Interaction : Actual Use Simulation<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Item interaction and way-to-use simulate the actual use scenario. For examples, dragging an item from inventory to NPC simulates an item being handed over to a person; a consuming match that represents the count-down of the torch function, simulates an actual burning match.

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<text-colour-orange>Interface : NPC Name Changes over Progress<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Floating names above NPC heads changes over time according to the familiarity between NPC and the PC. This simulates people call others different names in different level of intimacy with their counterparts.

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<text-colour-orange>Navigation : NO Real-time Map<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Despite the complexity of the Walled City map, real-time mini map is not provided so as to encourage player to explore and memorise landmark. This simulates how people navigate while there is no mobile mapping services (i.e. Google Map) available back then.

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<text-colour-orange>Environment : Brightness Adjustment<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Player is allowed to adjust brightness yet there is a suggested level that simulates how dark it is inside the Kowloon Walled City (reviewed by the former residents).

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<text-colour-orange>Realistic Art Style<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Game Art with reference to real photos;
3D assets scale and texture with reference to the corresponding real ones;
In-game real-time lighting

Level Design

Challenges

<text-colour-orange>Materials Collection & Verifications<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Contradictions are often found among Walled City relevant materials, therefore, creditable sources such as the former residents who used to live in the Walled City and the old newsletter are needed to eliminate wrong information.

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<text-colour-orange>Building Connections with the Walled City Community from scratch<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The community inhabited in the Walled City was then scattered across Hong Kong since their home was demolished in 1993. A network with the former residents needed to be built from scratch. As a matter of fact that those who lived in the Walled City long enough to witness changes and experience stories are now at their old ages, interviews hence need to be well designed and carefully handled to cater their various communication and comprehension incapabilities.

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<text-colour-orange>Game Experience Design<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Stories shared by the former residents and the verified map of the Walled City need to be embedded into the game story and create a smooth level design. Cautions need to be taken while including information without hurting the fun.

Iterations

Comments and feedback were collected in every exhibitions. All feedback and comments were later consolidated into an issue list and prioritized in versions.

News Coverage

Hong Kong, playground - STORIES

March 13, 2020

gTV

Ubisoft

Explore the Kowloon Walled City in Cantonese! Post-90s Postgrads design a game featuring local Hong Kong culture

July 12, 2019

Apple Daily

3D Games: Restoring a realistic Kowloon Walled City

November 28, 2018

ATV

Made in HK – PolyU students rebuild the Kowloon Walled City in Game

October 30, 2018

Apple Seed

Apple Daily

Production Crew Interview on Radio

September 17, 2018

Commercial Radio HK

PolyU students designed adventure and puzzle game, demo is now released.

August 30, 2018

Gamicsoft

ACGHK2018 Hong Kong Original Game Exhibition, 4 students recreate the Kowloon Walled City

August 12, 2018

HK01

Explore the Kowloon Walled City in Cantonese! Post-90s Postgrads design a game featuring local Hong Kong culture

August 3, 2018

Next Magazine

Next Digital

Looking forward to becoming Game Designer, Hong Kong Female Postgraduate learns to make game with online resources

August 3, 2018

Next Magazine

Next Digital

PolyU student-designed Local Aesthetic Puzzle Adventure Game ‘CAGE’, demo expected to be released in August

July 30, 2018

Gamicsoft

PolyU students create a game featuring the Kowloon Walled City and Local Culture

July 29, 2018

Ming Pao

Facebook Post - #WeArePolyU

July 27, 2018

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Other mentions

The Many Video Game Versions of Hong Kong

December 19, 2019

Eddie Lau

M+ Stories

Restoring Hong Kong through Digital Game

June 12, 2019

RTHK

Hong Kong Architecture in the Video Game Vernacular

March 2, 2019

Hugh Davies

M+ Stories

Hong Kong Story Series: The ungoverned Kowloon Walled City

December 22, 2018

Beginneros

Mobile game industry flourishes; Google Play helps game developers enter the international market

December 6, 2018

Unwire.pro

PolyU Design is joining Hong Kong Federation of Design Associations’ 'Viable City Shaping' of Hong Kong Pavilion at the Chengdu Creativity & Design Week

November 6, 2018

HK PolyU School of Design

Compressed memories and folded city - the "Hong Kong Pavilion: Viable City Shaping" City x Design Exhibition

November 5, 2018

The News Lens

City Culture: Hong Kong Pavilion - Viable City Shaping - Emphasis on inheriting spirits and culture

November 2, 2018

Hong Kong Economic Journal

Experimental water-pipe-homes work? The "Hong Kong Pavilion: Viable City Shaping" City x Design Exhibition - 5 city imaginations

October 28, 2018

Ming Pao Weekly

Ming Pao

Why Is Hong Kong Such a Popular Video Game Location?

October 15, 2018

Hugh Davies

M+ Stories

ACGHK special: Should Hong Kong made games be more local?

July 31, 2018

LetStartup.HK

29 Hong Kong Indie Games

July 29, 2018

Apple Daily

Hong Kong Indie Games Exhibition – 29 Games Created By Local Game Developers

July 28, 2018

U Lifestyle

Support Local Animation and Comics, ACGHK visit

July 27, 2018

E-Zone

U Lifestyle

Support Local Creation: Introducing Hong Kong Indie Games

July 27, 2018

Great Game

View all

Reflection

<text-colour-orange>Ineffective Debugging<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

Check-point should be set up for making direct pass for tester to dive right in to the testing point. With the absence of check-point in the program structure, our tester always needed to go through the complete the level before reaching the testing point. A large proportion of the test time was spent on the previous levels rather than the newly built ones.

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<text-colour-orange>Premature Media Exposure<text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange></text-colour-orange>

The game should not be promoted on social media platform at such an early stage. The attention garnered by the media also took up an amount of time to answer enquiries, participate in interview and update newsfeed for audience retaining, which could be fully spent on development.

Additional Discussion

Aspects which are not covered in this break-down but could be worth discussing in person.
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Possibility of restoring the actual environment without suggesting unintended implications
Environment Story-telling
Art Production Pipeline
Marketing Strategy

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