Being an important platform for game developers in Asia, Taipei Game Show (TGS) has been actively engaging in the international stage and form strategic alliances with major international game shows in recent years. Other than inviting game developers from various countries to exhibit at the Taipei Game Show, Taipei Computer Association—the organizer of TGS took seven local developers to attend Japan’s BitSummit and South Korea’s PlayX4 Game Show to promote high-quality original games designed by the teams from May 10-13.
BitSummit 2018, Japan’s largest indie game festival, also ran May 12-13 this year in Kyoto. Other than 53 Japanese Indie teams, there were also teams from Brazil, Demark, Australia, Canada, etc. This time, TGS sent three indie teams to exhibit at the festival: Nobody Studio, Langonlas Search For Gold, and THEMEr.
The original soundtracks and opening animation of “Echo”, developed by Nobody Studio, successfully attracted Japanese teams to the booth to exchange views with Nobody Studio. The studio mentioned that by providing game demos in four languages, they hope to receive feedback from players of different types. Meanwhile, Gametropy Studio “DESERTOPIA” and Sunhead Games “Carto” from Taiwan had showcased their games individually as well, which “Carto” won the award, Visual Art Design, with its remarkable illustration skills.
“THE SONG OF TERMINUS”, developed by Langonlas Search For Gold, also received positive feedback regarding the game’s comprehensive worldview, and art design. THEMEr’s “Alleys” is a 3D room-escape game in third person narrative which puts emphasis on storyline development. Many parents and children came to the booth to experience the game’s simple click-and-swipe mechanics.
Marking its 10th anniversary, PlayX4 ran May 10-13 in Gyeonggido, South Korea. This year, the show consisted with B2B zone, B2C zone, and conferences. Many major buyers of the industry, including Garena, Kakao, Nexon, and Tencent, were at the game show seeking potential business opportunities. This was also the first time TGS participated as an exhibitor to promote games designed by Taiwanese developers.
TGS promoted four games at PlayX4: “The Chinese Zombie Villa”, developed by The Barking Dog ARVR Entertaining Studio, uses a Hong Kong zombie movie series as its backdrop. The game opens with an abandoned mansion wreathed in mist, and has Taoist elements such as coffins, paper offerings, conjurators, Myrtle Swords, etc., which reminds players from Taiwan and South Korea the classic scenes from the series. “Lyrica”, developed by RNOVA Studio, won Best Meaningful Play at the International Mobile Gaming Awards, Southeast Asia in Singapore’s GameStart last year. Visitors at PlayX4 are intrigued by the game’s ink painting style and Chinese literary culture game content.
WOWGAME, the developer of RPG game “oblivious”, stated that being able to receive player’s feedback at the game show was really important and useful for the team in that players in Japan and South Korea pay more attention to game art design and storyline development of games. “Tyrant’s Arena”, developed by ELEPHANT JUMP LTD., is a game that requires team work to come up with the best strategy to win victory. Many visitors came to ask about the game’s future distribution plans in South Korea since the game fits Korean player’s preferences.
