Firing The Passion at NYP
His brother was taking a game development course, so 12-year-old Kong Theng Yeong had a chance to peek into the fascinating world of game characters.
Hooked, he dabbled with programmes like Autodesk Maya and Photoshop.
He jumped at the opportunity to have a head start in Game Art & Design under the Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP) after his N levels, and has not looked back since.
The PFP structure provided him with the fundamental skills he needed for his course, and helped ease him into polytechnic life. He says the friendships he formed over the year-long foundation programme are still going strong, even today.
The NYP experience has been pretty exhilarating, reckons Theng Yeong. He went to Finland’s Kajaani University for his attachment programme. Living there over 11 weeks widened Theng Yeong’s world view, and left a lasting impression.
He’s also learnt to take the initiative to ask questions and take criticisms in a positive way: “NYP has helped me to grow. Not only academically, because I learnt valuable life skills such as discipline, and responsibility for my own actions”.
Theng Yeong was nominated by his lecturer to represent Singapore at the 51st Korea National Skills Competition in 3D Digital Game Art in 2016. Taking on the challenge, he flew to Korea to compete just a week after his internship concluded in Finland.
He had to create a 3-D game character for the competition and bring it to life within a few hours. Competing with participants from Ecuador, Korea, Russia, Spain, Theng Yeong emerged victorious after a gruelling 22 hours and bagged the gold medal.
Well done Theng Yeong.
Because We Can