After watching the latest Slopes Game Room Kickstarter scams video on Youtube i just couldn't seem to get one of the entrys out of my mind. How does a company with so much interest turn out to be non existent? How is there no trace of ownership? And why would someone put so much effort and detail into a scam worth so little? ...something doesn't add up, i want to know why!
Golgom Games was a company that appeared on Kickstarter in 2013 with a new title in mid development called Mansion Lord. Theres plenty of info about the game on the good old WWW so i wont go into too much detail about the actual project. But to get the gist, Mansion Lord was a promising Sim based RPG that was successfully funded for $30,000. The project was well managed, very detailed, and seemed to be a sure fire thing.....until the money was handed over and the company disappeared overnight!
Plenty of traces of Mansion Lord can be found on the web, but all traces of source info have now been removed. It seems the domain was hosted by a private server that has since been wiped, though the domain is paid for until 2019. It was reported to of been owned by a Michael Wong but since this info was leaked the domain registration details have been blocked (a service you pay for so im assuming the domain owner was aware the info was leaked).
The Mansion Lord game was greenlit on steam, was announced for play on GOG, and picked up a lot of press interest around the world. The Golgom Games 2 man team seemed to be destined for success, they were well driven and very professional in how the acted. So why disappear?
It was said that the company was housed in Austin Texas, though later the domain was changed and registered to a California address. Was the whole campaign a scam? or was this change of address the start of a company breakdown? With only 2 people in the company its easily assumed that if one half moved state, it would cause problems in developing such a highly anticipated game. Communication would break down, and the companys values could deteriorate to the point of collapse.
But this is assuming only 1 half moved state. Other than Michael Wongs name, we have no idea who the other party was/is! For all we know, its Susie Wong and is currently sat next to Mike sipping tea out of a gold rimmed cup the 1100 backers paid for?
Because of this, we should for now forget a company divide, and just concentrate on Mikes existence in the company.
A record search would show that luckily theres only 150 people in Texas with the name Michael Wong, so if someone wanted to go through each one im sure they'd find a previous address for him. However, i couldn't get a definite number for M Wong in California, but i did discover that a Dentist with the same name had previously operated in Texas. It would seem rather bizarre to assume a dental surgeon would host a scam such as this, so for now im placing Mr Dental Wong to the side!
Certain references to the Golgom company had mentioned the 2 owners had previous experience in the field at large development companies. I decided to look for games developers using the name Wong and quickly discovered Mike Wong, a developer for United Front Games who had previously worked for EA during 2014. His longest role was at Radical Entertainment and served from 1999 until 2012. It seems that between 2012 & 2014 Mike was unemployed in the field and this could place him as a possible suspect. However, Mike lives in Canada, and not California!
Moving on i started to look for traces of email addresses connected with the supposed scam. A Kickstarter user had posted an email address that linked to the campaigns Amazon payments programme. It wasn't long before i came up with a result that matched....a username associated with it dating to Nov 2015. The account was of a user named Simon9531, and linked to just a few accounts on the web. Though none of which seemed to be of someone in the games development field. One trace was of a dating website, though the user was located in Cornwall UK, so i soon dismissed that lead.
The main lead was linked to a GameStop account, and its reference was due to several accounts data being leaked, this is where things got more interesting. Knowing the account data was leaked i started to look for more "underground" info that linked the username to the website directly, and after a short while i discovered that not only was Mr Wongs Gamestop details leaked, but due to him using similar info on the Golgom domain, certain blackhat hacking communities had got a hold of all his servers database details aswel.
With this information i started to wonder if this wasn't a scam after all? was it a case of a terrible hacking issue that lead to everything being lost? but then surely Mr Wong would of come forward and spoke up right?
Analysing the Kickstarter page i decided that the whole campaign is too well put together. Whoever created it must have previous promotional experience & knowledge of the game design industry. Due to the screenshots and video footage of the game it would also appear that there actually is a game, or some form of code written. Its possible the video footage is an animation, but it seems too solid and fluent to not be ran by code. The level of detail given in updates about the games mechanics seem very plausible and not too ambitious for an experienced coder. Therefore i must assume this project wasn't just a dream, and actually did exist in some playable form.
But why is there no other traces of it?
After several image searches i finally located a Google+ account for Mike Wong. All traces have been removed that link to Mansion Lord, but Googles cache was enough to confirm a Mansion Lord image once existed as the main header, and the Google+ account also connects to the administrator account for the Golgom Games domain, so we can definitely confirm its the same person.
The account shows just 15 people in the same circles, but all seem to be developers or designers in the games industry, working for companies such as Treyarch & Griptonite Games. Are these just followers of the original campaign? or are they direct links to Mr Wong? Strangely enough they all seem to of been located in Texas while attending at the Guildhall program at SMU. The programme is one of the largest development schools in the USA and offers students funding for certain programmes.
After some research i discovered that in 2009, Mike received a $10,000 grant to attend the ESA Foundation Computer and Videogame Scholarship Program at the University of Texas. Sadly the website for the programme only goes back to 2012, and no records of Mr Wong can be found.
As i seemed to hitting dead ends i started to wonder about the 2nd member of Golgom Games. I started to look at the campaign updates in more detail. One of the first included a Youtube link to an account that had featured Mansion Lord in a preview video. Having previously overlooked the link i checked it out to discover the account had a mere 112 subscribers. Its feature of Mansion Lord was included in the first of a series that only ran for 1 episode. And then to add to the conspiracy, the user known as ZeckPressStart seemed to of disappeared in 2014, just months before the Golgom Games team vanished. Thinking this surely couldn't be another lead i researched a little more on Zeck and discovered that he was fluent in Japanese which could link him to Michael Wong. Not only that but Zeck (Clifton Choiniere) had recently re-appeared in 2016 promoting himself as a budding RI Web and Games Developer.
Zeck ran the PressStart gaming channel alongside said friend Nelly_D_Relish. Whats strange is she also vanished around March 2014, and her personal YouTube channel has been terminated without any signs of reason. She still seems to be active on Steam communities, but what caused the breakup between the Press Start team? was it linked to Golgom? Could Zeck be part of Golgom? or could it all be a coincidence? Sadly, for now its only conspiracy that connects them together.
Having no further information to go on i started to look into whether the 2nd half of Golgom could of been a family member to Michael. I located a Michael Wong who had resided in Texas but moved to California, and started to look at other occupants of the same addresses. After a while I came across a claimed relative named Daniel Cheng, who still resided in Texas.
Further research showed that Daniel works as a concept artist for Treyarch. And knowing from the Google+ account that Michael knew other people at Treyarch, i had to assume this was a good lead.
So this lead me to wonder if Daniel was the 2nd member of Golgom? After looking into his previous work i found a personal blog post he updated regular from 2006 until 2011. He then seemed to disappear until 2016 when he made a final post showing some work he had done recently. Had he and Michael teamed up to create Mansion Lord? Had something gone wrong and caused the company to divide? If so, then what was so bad that would warrant them both to ignore giving a reason?
I looked at other members of the same addresses and came across an elderly lady of the name Ellen Cheng, who was also known as Ellen Wong. Could Michael and Daniel be brothers? And had a divorce divided the family?
Daniel seems to be an active worker, and has created visuals for games such as Boom Blox and Call of Duty. Thinking he could be linked to the Mansion Lord scandal would be absurd, but it cant yet be ruled out. In any case its apparent that whether hes involved or not, he does appear to be directly connected to Michael.
Its possible Mansion Lord was a creation made by Michael during his years at Guildhall. Its possible that Daniel has nothing to do with the ordeal, and Michael was keen to follow in his footsteps in game development. It would then seem more possible that the 2nd member of Golgom Games could be another Guildhall student.
The idea that Mansion Lord was conceived at Guildhall seems quite possible. This could explain why there are no other traces of the game online, having code written on servers positioned on university campus and not directly connected to the public. If thats the case then were at a complete dead end unless people decide to start contacting official sources.
Whoever Michael Wong is, he is a clever individual who either planned the whole campaign as a scam, or came against some serious issues that completely stopped the project. The idea of a freak accident cannot be ruled out where both partys are now deceased. It would certainly explain the abrupt end of communication.
With so many leads to follow, and so many dead ends already met, i think its time to call it a day for now. The basis for new information is out there and hopefully it is of use to someone. But for now it seems that IF Daniel Cheng is the relative of the same Michael Wong 1100 people are looking for, then only he can shed some light into this can of worms.
In the case of ZeckPressStart i think its just speculation. There are a few coincidences and factors that could link him to Michael. But as nothing can be yet confirmed it should just be taken as conspiracy for now.
Regarding Daniel Cheng, its not 100% confirmed that he is related to the same Michael Wong that ran the Kickstarter campaign. Those angry backers seeking answers should Not contact him unless definite proof can be obtained that they are linked.
After around 12 hours of research ive had to admit some defeat in not discovering what happened. But at least ive bought forward a few new leads that others can build upon. Hopefully in time we will get to the bottom of this conspracy and discover the truth about what really happened at Golgom Games.
Check out the Slopes Games Room Video below, andplease subscribe to his channel.
https://commonsta.com/user/simon9531/1506949411
https://wongmichael.com/tag/games/
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,37265/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22285033/mansion-lord-a-murder-mystery-rpg-business-sim/description
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/31i6ws/anita_sarkeesian_in_a_nutshell/
http://danielchengart.blogspot.co.uk/
https://wongmichael.com/about/
https://plus.google.com/116781027354449912637
https://www.smu.edu/News/2009/guildhall-scholarships-28oct2009
https://www.ninjamanager.com/leaderboards/ninja/ibuse-summon
https://twitter.com/zeckpressstart
http://www.3csonline.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3qfJ37qBgn9_WXeIrLw0A/featured
https://www.youtube.com/user/nellydrelish
https://www.youtube.com/user/zeckpressstart
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