Game developers need to network and learn from each other once in a while to keep the industry competitive and growing, and what better way to do that than doing a developers conference. While the annual Games Developer Conference (GDC) attracts most devs from North America and Europe, developers from South East Asia also have their own little event, initiated by MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation), a local government agency under the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia.
See, we do have government support for video games! Well, for video games development that is.
With the growth of talent and many new studios supporting the development of the biggest games even in Malaysia alone, from Passion Republic’s work on Uncharted 4 for art assets to Streamline Studio’s contribution on the upcoming Final Fantasy XV, there’s plenty of potential to get Malaysia, and South East Asia, to be a major player in the game development industry.
With events like Level Up KL, industry veterans as from worldwide as well from South East Asia share their knowledge and passion via various talks and panels being held. About 40 speakers will be there for the two-day event. Other than that, the event provides a good place for networking to get the people in the industry know each other, opening opportunities to come.
While Level Up KL might not be something impactful directly to the average gamer, it will help in the long run as the establishment of a strong video game industry in South East Asia not only helps provide more job opportunities, but will also allow us gamers to directly contribute to the economic growth of the nation. Buy more games that studios from our country makes, they land more projects and get higher revenue, the country will benefit either directly through taxes and indirectly through the attraction of foreign talents and more workforce. See, we too can contribute to our country with our (expensive) hobby!
Let’s hope more local talent can step up to the challenge of working on a AAA title. Maybe one day we will see an original AAA release from a South-East Asian studio.
(Header picture courtesy of MDEC’s Twitter)