Email: @if90.net (yang)
CV: LinkedIn, WORD, PDF
Welcome! You have stumbled upon the online portfolio of designer and developer, Yang Wong.
ABOUT
For the last 5 years I have designed and developed games, social networks, systems and tools, with a focus on the web, collaborative play, and location awareness. Primarily a technical lead, I have also been heavily involved in innovative game and web design – a passion of mine, in addition to: seeing projects through from conception to public release, working well within a team to complete projects under tight deadlines, and ensuring they perform to a high quality at all times, especially during mission critical situations.
The projects I have been involved in have roots in independent games development and/or games research. Works have been exhibited at major cultural, educational and commercial institutions and events, as part of published research papers, and have a public and global presence online.
PROJECTS
The following summaries contain a short project description, a list of roles I was responsible for and the technologies employed within those roles, and a link to a more detailed description of the project.
To jump to a particular project summary, please click on an item in the table of contents below.
- SCOOT – Augmented reality location-based game
- MiLK – The Mobile Learning Kit – Educational social network around location-based games
- CipherCities – Public social network around location-based games
- Free Agents – Cooperative team based augmented reality location based game
- Creative Environments Youth Network – Customisable virtual world and social network
- The Disc – Narrative-driven mystery puzzle augmented reality game
- Ideological Warfare – Multiplayer turn-based strategy game
- Mars Challenge – Educational action game
SCOOT is an augmented reality location-based game that employs mobile devices, interactive multimedia installations, multiplayer virtual worlds, the web and public displays to guide players through unique public places.
Players follow and respond to a series of clues via SMS while encountering SCOOT characters, challenges and activities, in an attempt to uncover interesting and useful facts about a site.
SCOOT is a project of Newish Media, created and led by Deb Polson and developed by a small core team of artists and developers.
[ More: Details, Playable Demos, Screenshots, Video, Links ]
My role is primarily as System Designer but I also partake in other roles, which include:
- Design/Development of the gameplay logic engine, SMS integration, entering and maintaining integrity of gameplay scripts, database design, server administration.
- Design/Development of administration tools to monitor and communicate the state of play during a live event.
- Making sure everything technically runs smoothly during an event including reacting swiftly to rectify/divert play in response to sudden issues.
- Design/Development of the multiplayer virtual world (excluding all graphics, audio, communication server).
- Design/Development of various installations (excluding physical shell, most graphics, audio).
- Design/Development of various Flash games (excluding all graphics, audio).
- Helping in event setup and take down.
- Co-Design/Development of the SCOOT Comics Facebook application.
Technology: PHP, MySQL, Flash ActionScript 2 & 3, Apache, AJAX/JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a variety of open source packages and public APIs.
MiLK – The Mobile Learning Kit
MiLK – The Mobile Learning Kit connects students and teachers through simple and effective web and mobile technologies.
MiLK is a web-based Flash application that enables teachers and students to design everyday learning activities using mobile phones and the Internet within a protected social network. For students this makes events such as excursions, group discussions, and questionnaires all the more engaging. Students can create their own learning profiles, discuss topics with other students and teachers, share ideas, photos, comments, and most importantly, design their own learning events.
MiLK has been acquired by Secret Sauce for commercialisation and distribution.
MiLK was also selected as a Top 3 Finalist (Innovation Award, Secondary Category) at the Handheld Learning Conference in the UK!
My role as the Technical Lead involved:
- Design/Development of the back end systems (excluding forum, blog)
- Design/Development of the event/messaging logic engine
- Development of the administration interfaces
- Integration of SMS services
- Server Administration
Technology: PHP, MySQL, Apache, and a variety of open source packages.
A creative authoring tool and social network where anyone can build, play and share mobile games.
CipherCities was publicly launched in December 2008.
[ More: Details, Screenshots, Links ]
My role as the Technical Lead involved:
- Design/Development of the back end systems (excluding forum, blog)
- Design/Development of the game/messaging logic engine
- Design/Development of the front end systems (excluding mobile front end)
- Design/Development of the administration and moderation interfaces
- Integrating SMS services and Google Maps
- Server administration
Technology: PHP, MySQL, Apache, AJAX, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a variety of open source packages and public APIs.
Free Agents is a cooperative team based augmented reality location based game that is played both online and in the real world.
It is also a game design and development tool enabled by its integration with the Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL) environment.
Outcomes from YAWL’s use in Free Agents was authored in Dr. Ross Brown’s paper; Gameplay Workflow: a Distributed Game Control Approach – published by Murdoch University.
[ More: Details, Playable Demo, Screenshots, Media, Links ]
My role as a Technical Developer involved:
- Design/Development of the back end systems
- Research and integration with the YAWL environment
Technology: Java, MySQL, Tomcat, Apache, and YAWL.
Creative Environments Youth Network
The Creative Environments Youth Network (CEYN) allows users to customise their own virtual space; each connected to other such spaces, forming a community of user built locations within a virtual world.
CEYN is an online interaction system developed in response to a brief by the Youth Internet Radio Network (YIRN) project group.
[ More: Details, Screenshots, Media, Links ]
My role as a Technical Lead involved:
- Design/Development of the back end systems (excluding real-time chat server)
- Design/Development of the front end systems (excluding real-time chat, streaming receiver, user tracker, help)
Technology: Flash ActionScript 2, PHP and MySQL.
The Disc is a narrative-driven mystery puzzle augmented reality game (ARG) that encourages the player to engage in unusual challenges in an attempt to solve the mystery, “What is The Disc?”
The game involves technologies such as Flash, Director and JavaScript, while also incorporating ’simpler’ media such as tactile objects and the Windows Operating System itself.
It is an offline experience. Its entire game world – within a disc, within its case…
[ More: Details, Screenshots, Media, Links ]
This was a Solo Personal Project
Technology: Flash 7, Director MX, JavaScript, Windows OS, HTML, CSS, Photoshop
Ideological Warfare is a multiplayer turn-based strategy game where players attempt to conquer virtual reality by converting all other Ideologies to their own world view.
[ More: Details, Playable Demo, Screenshots, Links ]
This was a Solo Personal Project
Technology: Flash 7, PHP 4, MySQL
Mars Challenge is an educational action game created for English book publishers Daily-Update.
[ More: Details, Link to Full Version, Screenshots, Links ]
My role as programmer involved:
- Co-Designing the game.
- Programming the entire game.
Technology: Flash 7