I decided to write this story as a sharing to you and a reminder to myself of why I took this journey.
Edison Chow, co-founder of hamochigames.com
On the verge of collapses of my life in business and love, I hiked Mt. Semeru, the highest mountain in Java island, Indonesia. During the two days hike, I reflected and examined my life in every aspects. I questioned myself, "If life can be easily falling apart no matter how much efforts I have placed, what are the things that I won't regret dying for even if I failed." It is surprisingly an easy answer, "Education" and "Games". I had cowardly avoided this path for years. However, they are always there, deeply buried inside my mind.
I was once a Japanese language teacher, but I have lost touch with local public education for years. After six months of rediscovering myself slowly, I decided to find out more about current education system before I plan for anything. I arranged a driving trip from KL to Penang. Two of my best friends followed me to visit teachers and principals along the journey. We tried to understand from every perspectives that we can find. I am a faithful believer of practicality. Those who knows me dearly will hate me for how fast my ideas are evolving. I will throw away an idea swiftly regardlessly of how much efforts we have placed in as soon as I find out it is impractical for the users. The original solution that we had planned is very different from what we are doing today and it will continue to be different for tomorrow.
September 4, 2020 was the turning point. A young lady was attracted by our contest campaign and messaged us on facebook in expressing for her interest to be involved in our games project. During that time, we are called WAH EduGames and our main character Hamochi hasn't really born yet. We lightly discussed about how we may work together and very soon we invited her onboard to be one of our earliest voluntary graphic designer. Her name is Joey and she is still with us after a good 10 months until today when I am writing this post.
Many of my friends and core members had strongly opposed or doubted the ideas of involving strangers. Many serious concerns were raised including time management, lack of skillsets, method of collaborations, etc. Luckily, my past voluntary experiences on Rural Camp, Do Good Academy and Assisi Palliative Care (ASPAC) convinced me to pursue this path and I am glad for the decision I made.
Today we have grown to more than 10 voluntary members who are contributing on different aspects. Members join and leave in their own wills. Together cheer for every little success we have made.