With the gaming sector on a surge, the number of indigenous indie studios has spiked up to almost double than it was a few years back. And with the numbers being such, the competition is more than ever with giving a game the required publicity being one of the biggest challenges.
However, various events have sprung up, providing the new indie developers and studios with platforms to showcase their game as well as get funding for their projects.
One such initiative was Game Fest 2016, which was held in Mumbai, today. Hosted by GameDoora, a platform for people involved in the production pipeline such as programmers, animators, developers, writers, musicians, and designers, the event saw participations from veterans of the gaming industry and three indie game developers (studios) whose games were selected as the final ones for the competition.
underDOGS Gaming, CEO, Vaibhav Chavan shared his experience about the creation of underDOGS and their journey since then. He concluded his session with a simple thought, that it is passion which drives them, and they do what they actually want, while being oblivious to the negativity around.
Photon Tadpole Studios, CEO, Hrishi Oberoi enlightened the attendees on the topic of “Customer engagement with gamification”.
Soon came the time for the three finalists to showcase their games, each game was unique in their own way while the game-plays being pretty basic. All the games catered to the serious gaming categories and the game that won the first prize was a learning app which uses virtual reality to bring physics experiments to life.
Here’s the list of finalists:
Winner : Rupesh Pamaihgari – Maxin Games: Unreal Lab
First runner op : Ashish Daga – Psypher Interactive: SuperFit Me
Second Runner Up : Gaurav Duby: Edifice
The winner was presented with the GameFest 2016 Trophy, a spot in the international Indie Prize showcase that includes: two free tickets to the conference, a free spot to showcase a game and free accommodation in Asia during the conference for two developers, entry to ET Changemakee Challenge of Catapooolt, Rs 10,000 credits if they are able to raise Rs 2 lacs on Dreamwallets via crowd funding.
The event concluded with Gamedoora, co-founder, Devang Parikh congratulating the winners. He said, “I would say that the final’s that we anticipated went very well and to our expectations. We were sure that we will not have a huge crowd as this is our first event and we have to build our brand, however we saw a good response on the registration and games that came in out of which we selected 3 teams to showcase in the finals in front of a decent crowd and Awesome Judges.
I would like to extent a huge thanks to the judges who came on a Saturday and that too being a Christmas Eve, along with the folks who joined us which includes AnimationXpress and Workloft team. A big Thanks to Bhavesh and Shraddha from The Mentorpreneurs to be with us and getting GameFest to rock.
Our team at Gamedoora are committed to make the creative fraternity more connected and open. Thus we will work to get GameFest back in the new year and continue our efforts to Create – Connect & Collaborate.”
Events like these can really be a saviour for enthusiasts who are just joining the industry, as this gives them the much needed exposure and networking while boosting their morale. Although this edition received a lukewarm response, it was organised well. We hope more such events see the light of the day.
