Meet Haskel Chua, Co-Founder & COO

Haskel has been working in game development since earning a scholarship in 2010 to pursue his diploma and degree. While in school, he worked at Rival Edge as an intern assisting in the development of two games, one for PC and another for the App Store.

Once graduating with his diploma with merit in Digital Entertainment Technology (Games) in 2013, he teamed up with an audio engineer, artist, and production manager to start his own game studio, Psuedo Pixels. Haskel’s company aimed to develop an engaging free-to-play mobile experience at the height of the mobile gaming industry, but Pseudo Pixels was not immune to the roadblocks and hazards met by nearly every indie studio, and when they continued to meet difficulties in securing funding and support, they eventually chose to shut down the company.

With a clearer outlook on the industry and a few years of firsthand experience developing indie games under his belt, Haskel made the choice to pursue a degree at DigiPen in 2015, aiming to further expand his knowledge of game development and design. During his time there, he met Matthew and found that they shared the same sentiments about the lack of support in the industry for indie games. Together, making use of their joint experience, firsthand observations, and expertise in the field, they conceptualized an incubator-publisher hybrid for video games, and, in 2019, The Iterative Collective was born.

What value do you think games bring, and what inspires you to help grow and support the business of video games?

Video games are a unique form of entertainment that bring about interactivity and creativity for players. I feel that everyone can and should enjoy games similar to how movies and television shows are enjoyed. Whether it’s the story of the game, mastering the mechanics, or something else, they bring challenge and joy to their players. I want to help grow and support indie games specifically because I feel like that’s where devs’ creativity can really shine and bring about new and interesting ways to engage with this valuable form of entertainment.

What do you love about working at The Iterative Collective?

Well, me and Matthew did start it, so of course I must love it! But jokes aside, the people I’m working with and the people I have met–whether through working with them or just networking–have all given me very different insights to their lives and how they tackle things. Listening to their stories is always very eye opening to me!