Gamescom Asia 2022 wrapped up its show last weekend. The premiere gaming convention for developers in South-East Asia ran from 20 to 22 October 2022. While the Entertainment Zone (B2C) was held online with 2 livestreamed shows, the Trade Zone (B2B) segment was held physically at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Centre. Red Dot Diva and her media buddy Gwen dropped by the show floor on 21 October (Saturday) for a quick walk-through.
The showfloor was targetted primarily for professionals from the gaming industry, with booths showcasing various game studios, gaming technology and peripherals. Ample space was allocated to provide opportunities for networking and making business connections.
Despite that, anyone with an interest in video games will still find something to engage them, especially in the Indie Village.
The Indie Village had a good range of games. A few of the games caught their interest, like Hexlords: Quantum Welfare, Project Unseek and the sharp, bold graphics of The Gripper (http://www.gripper-game.com. Being the gamer geek of the duo, Gwen tested two of these games, and here are her comments about them.
Hexlords: Quantum Warfare (https://www.tantanmengames.com)
Hexlords is a PVP strategy game that combined tower defense with characters inspired by pop culture icons. The gameplay was fairly fuss free, allowing players to drag and drop their characters to take down the towers. While the quick gameplay did not give us time to dive into character lore, the creators of Hexlords have expressed hope in expanding the backstory of the characters and we certainly hope that will be the case.
Project Unseek (https://unseek.arsanesia.com)
Project Unseek showcased an interesting concept, rather reminiscent of survival games like Don’t Starve and teamwork games like Among Us. The characters reflected the typical high schools of America, with player characters such as Jock, and while gameplay felt a little clunky, it was still exciting enough that you would want to play again. Project Unseek is a multi-player game, and according to the creators, Twitch integration is somewhere in their future. It will be interesting to see this being played on Twitch streaming, given the collaborative nature of the games.
Someone else was already test-playing The Gripper, so Red Dot Diva and Gwen did not manage to try the game. They observed the playthrough of the story-driven action game, where you use a grappling hook to strike down your enemies. Then, they wandered around the other sections of the exhibition hall, noting that there were the dedicated German, Swedish and Singapore pavilions.
Of course, they zoomed into the eye-catching Singapore pavilion. Must support local! The pavilion included booths manned by game studios like Cargo, Good Morning Games, Lionfish Studios, and Ysbryd.
They decided to try Lionfish's web-based Ninja Apprentice that was developed in collaboration with Ministry of Education. You get to control the game's protagonist, who is either a katana-wielding fox or a black ninja red panda? (raccoon?), and by slashing the correct hanyu pinyin pronunciation for the Chinese word displayed, you get points and level up. Simple, cute but quite effective. In fact, perhaps Red Dot Diva should play this more often to improve her atrocious command of the Mandarin language.
Other gaming brands like Mytona, Infinite Studios also showed their presence at Gamescom Asia's Trade Zone. Panels with industry speakers were also scheduled during the convention but Red Dot Diva and Gwen did not have the time to stay on for these.
Dropping by Gamescom Asia for a quick tour was a nice introduction of what the gaming festival has to offer. Gamescom Asia is set to return next year from 19 to 22 Octboer 2023 at Suntec.
Red Dot Diva cannot wait for the Entertainment Zone to be back as part of the physical show. The buzz and excitement as the gaming community gets together, for the first time at Gamescom Asia, will definitely go through the roof!
------------------------
Note: For the consumers, a slew of gaming news and highlights were announced during the online shows PRIMETIME and STUDIO. Don't forget to watch the recorded livestreams at Gamescom Asia's Youtube channel!
------------------------
This article was written by Red Dot Diva and Gwen Ng.
Photo credits: Red Dot Diva and Gwen Ng
Gamescom Asia is the satellite event of Gamescom, the world's largest event for computer and video games and Europe's largest business platform for the games industry. Both events are organized by Koelnmesse, one of the world's largest trade fair companies.
For more information and the latest updates, visit Gamescom Asia website, or follow their social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Discord, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
No comments:
Post a Comment