IDA and MDA jointly launch Singapore Game Box initiative to promote local game titles

The Singapore Game Box is a one-year pilot initiative jointly mooted by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA). The initiative aims to promote awareness of Made-By-Singapore game titles and allows local game developers to test and gather feedback for their game prototypes.

The first manifestation of this initiative is the Singapore Game Box@E2Max which is located at Orchard Cineleisure, a popular venue where gamers try locally produced titles at no cost. This initiative also promotes interaction between gamers and developers. The Singapore Game Box will also serve as a showcase for potential publishers to get acquainted with Singapore game developers.

Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of IDA said, "The Singapore Game Box initiative is in line with the IDA Connected Games Programme that aims to develop Singapore as a regional centre for developing, managing and distributing games content and related services. Besides leveling up the capabilities of game developers in Singapore, this initiative will provide a platform for more Made-By-Singapore game titles to be established both locally and internationally."

Christopher Chia, CEO, MDA, added, "The Singapore Game Box provides local game developers an opportunity to showcase their newly developed games or game prototypes, in order to gauge gamer reactions to their work. As part of our effort to grow the local games industry, the Singapore Game Box is one of our initiatives to raise awareness and appreciation of locally produced game titles. We welcome more game developers to come on board."

For a start, 20 Singapore-based game companies are participating in this initiative to exhibit over 20 games.

Talking to Animation Xpress Asia Pacific, Gerald Tock, Director, Nabi Studios "I think SG Gamebox is a great way to promote locally made games. Our community outside Singapore is close to 500,000 with 35% being European and 40% being North American so SG Gamebox gives us the opportunity to plug Singapore into the thousands of users who play Toribash every day."

Zaki Mohamed, CEO, XuQa/Game Ventures shared,"We just relocated our development from San Francisco to Singapore and theGame box was the perfect platform to show local and regional talent that Singapore can be a powerhouse in the production of social games. We think we managed to achieve this by showing off the first beta of our multiplayer online cricket game - HowZat.com.

"As an indie game developer, I was invited to showcase my games at the Singapore Game Box(SGGB) over at E2MAX. The event was mainly to help and support local developers like us to get some much needed publicity. As a younger start ups like myself, we might have some problems getting the attention needed for our games, and SGGB have helped us establish a good start, at least with some of the local media. Personally, I thought it was a great idea when I first heard about it. So as an artist / design, I offered to design the official SGGB logo in support of the idea. So far, there has been some events and we get to chat up with some of the other developers about the different market everyone has been working on and looking into." Shared Raymond Teo, Founder, RayTeoActive

Giving his opinion on the Game Box initiative Alvin Yap, CEO, Nexgen added,“Much needs to be done to establish a vibrant video games economy in Singapore. Local development with original IP will be key to driving the industry. And this is just the tip of the ice berg. Singapore has such a small market and in such an open economy, virtually impossible to support a lot of locally made titles. The local developers therefore need to forge a lot of international partnerships to distribute their products. Some local companies have already used the internet as a distribution model and thus internet based products have seen some success recently. Sustenance will be another element of the equation.”

Aric Lim of Media Freaks shared "In recent years, the creative industries in Singapore are showing signs of maturity with the emergence of more internationally distributed animated content and social media platform games. Being a new media and animation company with our feet wet in both kinds of content, we hope to do our part for the local gaming industry through our latest offerings - Carto's Magic Maps (http://www.cartosmagicmaps.com), an online hidden object game, and The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World (http://www.wiglingtonandwenks.com), a massive online virtual world for kids"