In its second edition, IndiaJoy has become one of the mosted noted hotspots in the world for Digital, Media and Entertainment Corporations to engage in business, DIY, and networking.
The four-day event attracted thousands of big players from the industry and a huge contingent of International and domestic delegates.
Plying over 30,000 visitors that converged over the course of four days, IndiaJoy became a catalyst for Indian media, gaming and digital entertainment companies on the world stage.
Indiajoy 2019 had a power-packed line up of nine world-class events that include IGDC (India Game Developer Conference), Desi Toons, VFX Summit, InfluencerCon, Investor-Publisher Connect, E-Sports, OTT Pulse and the Indiajoy Music Fest.
VFX Summit
On the VFX front, the summit saw a starry gathering of experts and leaders that have set benchmarks in the content business. Having created complex imagery on celluloid, the speakers spoke about the nuances of creating simulations and images that enhance the process of storytelling. Setting the tone of the VFX event, Technicolor Country Head in India Biren Ghose, in his keynote speech, touched upon the frontiers of stunning possibilities opened up by visual effects technology over the years. Between subjects like de-aging, simulations of actual human beings being created on screen, environment simulations and computer generated animals that look distinctly alike, Biren Ghose showcased MPC’s best works right from Seven World of Ridley Scott to Jaguar Advertisements and Disney Movies.
The hot line-up of speakers who spoke about their landmark projects included VFX supervisors, VFX creative heads of games, Oscar-winning VFX veterans and visionaries that congenially enlarged on the current state of the VFX industry and where it is headed. While there were hundreds of elements discussed over the course of two days, the importance of previz and storyboarding was a recurrent theme throughout the sessions.
OTT Pulse
The first day of IndiaJoy festival played host to the OTT Pulse stage. Consisting of presentations from some of the biggest OTTs around, the event gave way to discuss about what the market in the country has to offer. Some of the interesting points included localisation, multiple language release and monetisation. Global player Amazon Prime also revealed trailers for three of their upcoming Telugu originals.
Desi ToonZ
Presented by Sony YAY!, a day long conference around the Indian animation ecosystem under the DesiToonZ banner brought in attendees in abundance. With the opening ceremony graced by stalwarts of Indian animation like Rajiv Chilaka, Anu Sikka, Leena Dutta, Ashish Kulkarni and even; Government of Telangana Information Technology (IT) Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, the day went on to punch an amazing lineup of speakers. The keynote was delivered by Star India Infotainment, English and Kids Anuradha Anuradha Aggarwal, who stressed on the points on how amazing it was to have a convergence of industry professionals under one place.
The day saw some interesting discussions around theatrical releases, scope of creation, best practices in licensing and merchandising, producing and many more.
IndyWood
Dubbed as cinema professional’s paradise, Indywood Film Market connected delegates with service providers, filmmakers, producers, exhibitors, distributors and other stakeholders of the global film industry.
IFM 2019 saw a flurry of interactive sessions, diverse exhibition arenas, B2B awards function and high profile networking parties.
InfluencerCon
With the boom of digital space, Influencers have carved a space of their own. The onset of advertisement and promotional opportunities and brand partnerships that have emerged for influencers has brought on a huge demand for education on the crests and troughs of the market and how creators and brands can find creative ways to form partnerships.
InfluencerCon emerged as the connectivity platform that served as the holy grail of market information and reports and ongoing trends. Some of the interesting panels at OTT Pulse, were about Rise of Regional Content On OTT, Creative writing for OTT, Storytelling for New Age Media, popular film Directors – Mallik, Anish, Sankalp, Tharun Bhascker, TVF Rajesh, Viren Thambidorai of VIU, Prasad of ZEE5, Director Nandini Reddy and David Freeman were seen participating enthusiastically.
India’s Gaming Developers’ Conference (IGDC)
The gaming industry has only grown bigger in a rather short space of time, thus the conference was dissected into six sections in reverence of gaming business, game design, game art, the technology used in gaming, applied games and gaming career.
Indian parents thinking of gaming as a hobby is starting to become a thing of the past with dozens of school and college students showcasing their game projects to veterans in the industry from all around the world.
Seeing three large eSports stages raised by ESL, Electronic Sports League, Nodwin Gaming for gamers to compete professionally for trophies and prize money, it seems safe to say, when Olympics counted in eSports, India will be ready with its champions to compete on the global arena.
Epic Games, the creators of arguably the most popular and powerful Unreal game engine, presenting the IGDC event, is a clear sign of rich game development talents available here. Unreal Engine’s Quentin Staes-Polet expressed surprise of India’s talent availability and community exceeding their expectations, shared by many of the international delegates and game developers at the Indiajoy, India Game Developer Conference. He also said Unreal Engine focus in India is to partner with education institutions to create a pool of quality game developers and game architects.
of Kabam Games CEO Tim Fields on his second visit to India and at Indiajoy, IGDC expressed the need for indie game developers to think about user engagement and user retention by developing games that is lasting by making the user fall in love the game with the first 10 seconds.
Miniclip Anh Luong said the company is really excited by the passion of Indian Game Developers and mobile users who continue to grow and consume quality games.
One of the Italian delegates expressed his delight about the growing game development community in India and also the rise of game development that is happening in India.
The biggest spotlight was to see the great executions of VR technologies by Indian developers and students in spite of VR hardware being unavailable to India. This is a clear indication of how tech-hungry and on the cutting edge our youths are in spite of all the odds, all they require is to know that their parents are proud of the feats that they are accomplishing, and as always, more funding never hurts.
The investor publisher connect attracted 50 active investors and 60 gaming start-ups to tap potential investment and publishing opportunities. IGDC has seen a record 100% increase in number of global and local investors and startups at the gaming startups conclave – Investor-Publisher Connect.
Nazara Technologies, a leading interactive gaming and sports media company, stated it would invest up to $20 million in 2020 in startups and the CEO mentioned that his company is keen to expand its portfolio in India.
This year’s edition attracted some top names in the global gaming industry. The list includes Walter Devins of Imangi Studios (the TempleRun developer), Time Fields of Kabam Studios, Anh Luong of Miniclip, Unreal Engine’s Quentin Staes-Polet of Epic Games and Anish Aravind, of Tencent Games (creator of Pubg games).
With several talks, workshops, panel discussions, esports tournaments, the two-day conference at IGDC has everything to ensure an adrenaline rush to its attendees.
Exhibition Stalls
The venue was dotted with a variety of stalls, displaying diverse offerings from all over the world right from animation series, unique hardware to real-time motion-capture technology and upcoming games. A dedicated open section of the venue saw a passionate gathering of participants vying for the first prize in a string of creative competitions like face-painting, sketching, gaming etc.
Esports Arena
One of the main attractions of day two of IndiaJoy was the esports arena that saw immense participation in the gaming line up. The arena welcomed everyone to try and play classic PC games, console games, mobile games and new games. Games like God of War, Fifa 2019, Spiderman, DOTA 2, CS:GO, Call of Duty, PUBG Battlegrounds and many more were free to take part in.