Smartphone has become an integral part of modern life. Though almost everyone plays mobile games on smartphone, certainly not everyone can make a living from it. VTC alumnus Knuckles Cheung is among those few lucky ones who live the dream as a game developer. Yet, it has not been smooth sailing all along. As a teenage avid gamer, Knuckles was criticized for not putting enough effort in his study. Later on, he found his passion in game development and chose to enrol in the Foundation Diploma in Games and Animation at IVE (Tuen Mun). At that point, his parents thought he was studying a useless subject. When he launched his own business, people did not have high hopes for it. Things took a turn for the better only after his mobile app company earned the first bucket of gold and people looked at him in a different light. Knuckles admitted that managing a company was way more difficult than being a programmer. That being said, he also derived much satisfaction from his business. Just like being obsessed with a game, he wants to keep moving on to the next level.
Knuckles founded the company App Mocha in 2011 after working full time for a little more than two years. As a newbie in the workplace, he made a bold decision to be his own boss because he observed the unfathomed potential of the mobile app market. “I was working in a conventional IT company and was being the only person in the mobile app team. I believed the market had much untapped potential and deserved more investment. But my boss did not agree. That was how I came up with the idea of starting my company.”
First bucket of gold and first accolade
In the beginning, he ran a business sitting at home, communicating with his clients over the phone or online, while developing apps on a computer. Knuckles recalled with a smile on his face, “My parents were obviously worried that I had become a reclusive guy withdrawing from the society.” Being accepted in the Incu-tech programme for Start-ups of Hong Kong Science Park marks the turning point of his company. He finally had a proper office with employees.
Right then, his company developed an online shopping platform for a renowned brand specializing in handmade mooncake. The platform not only solved the network congestion problem during the peak season, but also earned App Mocha its first bucket of gold. He remembered vividly the joy and satisfaction he got from the project – from conception to design and execution. The project was also awarded Best SME ICT (Adoption) Special Mention at the Hong Kong ICT Awards that year.
Newbie business owner who made silly mistakes
Knuckles started App Mocha in his 20s when he was an absolute beginner in running a company. He confessed that he had made a lot of silly mistakes. The most unforgettable one happened when he instructed his subordinate to post a hiring advertisement at the Labour Department. It stirred up quite a mayhem on the internet. “We were hiring a programmer, but my colleague wrongly put down the minimum wage as the salary,” Knuckles chuckles. This advertisement went viral in the cyber world overnight. “Some journalists pretended to be applicants. Some people called our office and shouted, ‘exploitative employer’ at us. People still brought up this incident later on when I exchanged business cards with them. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to leave right away.” Within the six months after that careless mistake, Knuckles chose to refrain from showing his face on any social occasion and trade event. “I could not do anything about it but waited until it was forgotten. And the moral lesson behind the story? As a boss, you cannot delegate a job to a subordinate without monitoring the work. You are always the person held responsible at last.”
His family also noticed how Knuckles worked his tail off running his company. They even tried to persuade him to find a job and be a wage-earner again. “My family is more down to earth. They thought I should buy an apartment when I have the extra cash, instead of investing in a business. They believed real estate was the best way to secure my future.” On the contrary, Knuckles was obsessed with the satisfaction he derived from being his own boss, not unlike the way he was addicted to video games as a teenager. “As an employee, you can only follow the instruction from your boss. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, has the freedom to develop his own products and technologies from scratch. You can help people solve their problem. And you cannot put a price tag on the satisfaction I got,” said Knuckles.
Zero income; surviving the tough times
There is a saying in Chinese: “It is hard to launch a business. But it is even harder to keep it running.” Looking back on the days in the Incu-Tech programme of Hong Kong Science Park, Knuckles considered it the “honeymoon phase” of his company. When the honeymoon was over, he had to face a myriad of practical problems. The Incu-Tech programme lasted for three years, after which, Knuckles had to choose whether to stay at Science Park paying twice the rent, or to find an office elsewhere. Without the connections at Science Park, he had to find new clients and Knuckles started to feel the pressure of keeping the business running. “As the owner of a one-man business, I just needed to be responsible to myself. But when the company grew bigger with employees, I had to think about their livelihood. I told myself, I had to find the money to pay my colleagues even if I did not get paid.” At that point, he had no choice, but to restructure the company and lay off some staff. As the owner, he once made no income whatsoever, just to keep his company afloat.
Fortunately, Knuckles expressed that his company is now growing steadily. He is currently working with local universities to develop a system that enhance the efficiency of data collection. “Such project put my strengths to good use while helping others. This is a different kind of satisfaction from commercial projects.” Moreover, Knuckles is also a partner of another company that develops smart city apps. They are developing a smart system that monitors the temperature change in the power supply components in buildings. There has not been any system of this kind in the market and it could be widely applied to residential and commercial buildings with huge market potential if successfully developed.
Advices for VTC students
Almost everyone plays video games, but according to Knuckles, one must think beyond the mind-set of a typical gamer in order to have a career in game development. “You must view video games as a project. Not only should you consider what kind of pleasure a gamer can get out of it, but also analyse the algorithm and operation values behind a game. You must play lots of games, both from independent developers and from big companies. You should learn from the competitors and use the insights to refine your own products.” In his secondary school years, Knuckles always wrote letters to game developers and told them what could be done better. Most replies he got were just polite acknowledgements without committing to make a change. But as time goes by, he developed his analytical skills that paved the way for his study at IVE, starting from the Foundation Diploma to Diploma and then Higher Diploma in Games and Animation. “When I was enrolled in those programmes, they were not especially popular. Who knows it would turn into one of the hottest creative sectors in ten years? So, I believe young people should pick a programme of study out of their own interest. You will do well when you are passionate about the subject.”
