SPEAKER & TALKS SUMMARY

Speaker & Talks Summary

External Development Service Providers have the experience and expertise to match the trends in the industry, using it to thrive in a very competitive space. In their panel, they discussed the different advantages and other multiple factors that differentiate how Asia handles the external development market. Moderated by Keywords Studios’ Ashley Liu, Sri Ram Chandra (Little Red Zombies), Ken Lai (Brandoville), Mufizal Mokhtar (Virtuos KL), and Walter de Torres (Pixel Mafia) share their experiences in this special panel.

Creating an Environment for Effective Communication

Shiew Yeu Loh’s years of experience in handling internal and external teams has made her a master at coordinating work tasks between two separate companies. She outlined how she was able to do this at studios like her current company, Riot, which engages with numerous partners on their massive games.

Unlocking the Power of External Partnership Collaboration

Kim Aava and Erik Petersen of EA lend their own thoughts and expertise on engaging with external partners for games. They talk through the stages of going through these external collaborations, and what it means for their own internal operations plus the processes they need to keep in mind.

Indie Games Track

The games industry talent has led to the development of the indie scene - young and ambitious teams with innovative ideas are ready to take on the blistering growth of the gaming market.

GDS is the catalyst for the GameDev.PH 5-phase development plan.

Upon building the indie game community and having all of the stakeholders 

Main Stage

The main stage of the Indie Games Track contains talks that address the wider crowd of participants in the indie games ecosystem, including investors interested in the opportunities in this space.

Former senator Bam Aquino introduced himself to the crowd not as a politician, but as a gamer - one who believes in the transformative power of this relatively young medium of entertainment.

The International Trade Center’s Attorney Rami Hourani shared about the organization’s work in helping businesses in the games industry find success but opening opportunities in international markets, through the ARISE Plus project in the Philippines. On the Main Stage, companies such as Mata Technologies and Yangyang Mobile shared their experience with the support that they received from their collaborations with the ITC - with their attendance at GDS being one of these efforts.

Kristian Roberts, CEO at Nordicity, covered the possible forms of support and incentives that governments and authorities can provide to carry through in their respective games and creatives ecosystems.

Jason Della Rocca and Thierry Baujardshared the respective perspectives on what it means to be an investor in original IP development in the gaming industry right now.

One of the foremost areas of support for financing, production, and marketing for indie games is a publisher. Juney Dijkstra served as moderator to a variety of indie game publishing voices, which included Team17’s Meg Clarke, Toge Productions’ Sarah Johana, and Playpark’s Apol Dionglay.

Juney also covered the many ways of getting work done on your game on a budget, through her solo mainstage talk on “Leveraging External Development Creatively.”

Jun Shen Chia of Xbox spoke on the support that the platform is taking to make sure that the Southeast Asian games ecosystem is thriving. Aside from funding, Xbox also has activities like its Game Camp to ensure that underrepresented game development communities have a chance to learn and show their talent on a global level.

Franco Varona of Foxmont Capital also shared about their activities as a Philippine-based Venture Capital firm, their forays into the world of e-sports and gaming, and the place they hope to have in the world of indie game development.

The main stage program was wrapped up by Chris Natsuume, who described the journey of his game development studio Boomzap and how they are able to survive for years making their signature games.

Workshops

The workshops of the Indie Games Track is a special part of the program that focuses on equipping indie developers with specific knowledge and skills from different perspectives.

Game design workshops from different perspectives were given by two veterans to provide different ways of thinking about design. Chris Natsuume shared the do’s and don'ts that he trained beginning game designers in his team for, and Alex Mandryka shared his process of creating user stories to plan games better.

We also explored the business side of indie games with the topic of “indie gold” and budgeting these precious resources and pricing products correctly by Kimberly Rodatos.

Sho Sato also listened in to various pitches in order to provide on-the-spot feedback that would help indie studios make effective pitches that will elevate their chances at success of finding publishers, investors, and other partners in their game development journey.

Jason Della Rocca gave a meaningful rundown of things indie developers need to keep in mind in order to make sure that their one-time big-time release is a success, by building up and keeping in mind different workstreams other than game development on their road to launch.

Sarah Johana lent her expertise at marketing and community building in indie games, sharing her experience as the head of marketing at Southeast Asia’s most successful indie studio and publisher. By being aware of the customer journey of the players, you are able to take the steps towards getting the loyal advocates that your games deserve.

Mentorship is one of the hot topics being thrown around in a burgeoning games industry, and Alex Mandryka also shared his thoughts on the difference between a coach and a mentor, and which one you might need in your journey.

Clara Sia delivered her talk on her experience working with influencers - a hot topic in marketing with indie games. Meg Clarke also shared her own time with indie developers in order to provide more insight into working with publishers!

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The ExDev Track and the Indie Game Track provided talks that made audiences think and believe in the potential of games, both as a creative pursuit and a profitable business.

The goal of the programs was to deliver and share knowledge that will uplift the talent in the Asia Pacific region, showing their competitive advantage in the global gaming industry that deserves a significant place on the global stage and conversation.

We’re looking forward to the mind-blowing speakers and conversations that we’ll have on our stage in the next editions of the GameDev Summit!