[SCMP Archive] Students board the games market

[First published on June 02, 1991] What started as a school project may well serve to launch the careers of 10 Hong Kong International School students aged between 14 and 18.

As part of a special school project, the assignment , call “Games – From Mind to Market”, was intended to prove to the participants how risky – and how lucrative – creating, producing and marketing a new game for international consumption could be.

“Games like Monopoly teach you about real life, but it is not always easy to find fun games. Kids basically tend to see movies instead,” said Simon Ingham.

Project leader Mrs Miltinnie Yih, an English teacher at the school, took students to factories, advertising agencies and graphic designers.

Many found it was obvious where their creative inspiration came from – established games, the Gulf War and environmental issues.