An ode to Phoenix Game Studios

I had my birthday a couple of days ago. This has put me in a rather melancholic and nostalgic mood.

Before tech, I used to work in the game development industry.

I had the privilege to work in Phoenix Game Studios in Malaysia, circa 2002.

It was a gathering of the best engineers and technical talent in Malaysia, ASEAN and for its time Asia.

I started out as an intern, and eventually freelanced for them. The pay was terrible but it was the coolest company in the Asia pacific at the time, and I would have worked there for peanuts.

If you are familiar with games like World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy, we built Fung Wan Online which was the first 3D MMO out of Asia.

At that time, we were just coming out of the internet bubble bust in Silicon Valley and there was a liquidity crunch.

There was no MAGIC, no Tech In Asia, no DNA, no Golden Gate Ventures etc.

We however got a lot of help from the warhorse of the Malaysian technology startup scene Mdec.

Fung Wan Online was driven by the stubborn vision and men and women like Choong Li Mei, Yoke Chin Dan, Terence Tan, Hafiz Awang Pon, Michael Ooi, Kenneth Chieng, Jarod Lim and many more.

The journey was not easy, we had to build all of our tools, there were no easily available engines like Unity to take advantage of.

We built our own 3D engine, integrations with content creation tools like 3D studio max and our own game server with proprietary communication and encryption protocols to ensure security.

I remember spending sleepless nights working with Hafiz on an IME system for Thai Kedmanee and Pattachote input in order for us to penetrate the then much larger Thai gaming market.

The company was doing well enough that it was acquired by John Galt Games in late 2007, and the founders managed to get a tidy exit.

The sum was not large by today's standards, but enough for the founders to be vindicated.

Today all of us have moved on to different companies and for some of us different industries.

It was a different era before the current startup boom that is being experienced in Malaysia and the rest of ASEAN right now.

So here ends my ode to the crew of Phoenix Game Studios, may you all find continued success in your current and future endeavors.

TC Wu is a Venture Builder at VLT Labs. VLT Labs has worked with more than 50 startups across the Asia Pacific to execute their vision. VLT Labs is based out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia