Little DaNang: Young developers tell Da Nang’s story through video game
DNO - Exploring the Dragon Bridge, Son Tra Peninsula and Hoi An Ancient Town, or even stepping into the shoes of a vendor at Con Market, are among the engaging experiences offered by Little DaNang, an experimental gaming project developed by two young Da Nang people.
Little DaNang is a web-based game that can be played directly in a browser at https://littledanang.oryzen.cloud/play/. It can also be installed as a progressive web app (PWA) on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
Designed as a 2D multiplayer farming and social simulation game, Little DaNang is primarily set in the city of Da Nang.
Experiencing rhythm of Da Nang in virtual world
In Little DaNang, players take on the role of a character starting a new life in Da Nang and can build their own lives through various activities.
These include growing crops, raising livestock and harvesting produce on their personal farms before selling it at Con Market; fishing on the Han River; shopping; renting an apartment; and enjoying coffee on the streets.
Players can also make friends and share experiences through the community and in-game chat system.
Notably, the game map incorporates familiar landmarks and destinations in Da Nang, including Con Market, Da Nang Cathedral, Phan Chau Trinh Senior High School, Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, Han River Bridge, Dragon Bridge, Love Bridge, Son Tra Night Market, My Khe Beach, Son Tra Peninsula, Ba Na Hills, Hoi An Ancient Town and Hue T-junction.
Through its in-game business, dining and cooking features, players can also encounter a range of familiar local specialties, such as Quang noodles, banh dap (rice crackers served with steamed rice pancakes), mixed baby clams, chicken rice, seafood, Nam O fish sauce and Dai Loc rice paper.
An invitation for everyone to come to Da Nang
Little DaNang is the brainchild of two programmers living in Da Nang: Hoang Nguyen Dang Khoa, born in 1998, and Vo Chi Long, born in 2001.
Driven by their love for the city alongside their main jobs, the two young developers want to create a multiplayer game without using a single image file or music file.
All pixel art is generated through code, while all music and sound effects are synthesized using WebAudio.
This approach is a source of technical pride for the developers and also keeps the game lightweight, allowing it to load quickly over mobile networks.
To date, the game has undergone five updates. The developers continue to add features and fine-tune the game’s parameters every day to improve the overall experience.
To recreate Da Nang in the virtual world, Khoa and Long have drawn on city maps, real-life photographs and their own firsthand knowledge to build a game map based on the city’s actual street grid and terrain.
We want Little DaNang to be a gentle invitation for everyone to come to Da Nang. For local residents, the game is a place to rediscover their city in miniature, make friends and chat with one another. For those who have never visited Da Nang, they can enter the game, explore its iconic bridges, visit My Khe Beach, Linh Ung Pagoda, Ba Na Hills and Hoi An, and sample local specialties just like a tourist.
Hoang Nguyen Dang Khoa
Opening its doors to its first players on October 7, 2026, Little DaNang had attracted 2,827 registered accounts across various platforms as of October 11.
In the near future, the developers hope to bring Little DaNang to a wider audience, including the community, businesses and investors, and eventually release it officially on a broader scale.
Their ambition is to expand the game map beyond Da Nang to encompass other provinces and cities across Vietnam.