SEA GAME DEV COLLECTIVE DIGEST - August 2024 Edition
Editor’s Note
The SEA Game Dev Collective is a group of passionate game industry professionals from across the Southeast Asia region, working to uplift and support our developers, our games and ecosystem.
Many of us participate in our own communities in each country - Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, but we think that more can be done to join hands at a regional level. Since December 2023, we’ve been gathering as a collective regularly to discuss ideas and initiatives, stay up to date with developments across the region and also break down barriers to information.
The SEA Game Dev Collective Digest is one such solution. Thank you for subscribing.
Jun Shen
Game Releases, Launches, Updates
We’re excited by all the upcoming releases from Southeast Asia in August including:
Aug 8th - Cat Quest 3 by Gentlebros (Singapore)
Aug 8th - Let Me Out by 4Happy Studios (Indonesia)
Aug 21st - My Lovely Empress by GameChanger Studio and Neon Doctrine (Indonesia)
Also check out all the games that have launched and are coming soon from the region on VirtualSEA’s amazing resource here.
In other gaming news…
Weyrdlets from Weyrdworks (Malaysia) is celebrating National Cat Day by joining forces with Noobzilla (Indonesia) to give players a cute cat from Cats and Seek as a free mini-pet in Weyrdlets.
Arsanesia (Indonesia) just announced their upcoming new roguelike tower defense title Garden of Wandering Souls!
Monstronauts (Philippines) launched the Steam page of their first PC/Console title Potion Punch Rivals!
Fallen Tear: The Ascension by CMD Studios (Philippines) Kickstarter campaign launches on August 27th.
Trueworld Games (Singapore) announced their upcoming game UNYIELDER will be published by Shueisha Games globally.
News, Programs and Initiatives Roundup
The Southeast Asia game communities continue to be instrumental for their own growth and success:
The Asosiasi Game Indonesia (AGI) just launched the Hari Game Indonesia 2024 Steam page dedicated to Indonesia-made games like Troublemaker, DreadHaunt, Hello Goodboy, and A Space for the Unbound.
Women in Games Asia Chapter have unveiled their roster of mentors for their upcoming Career Mentorship Program for underrepresented genders in Southeast Asia. Applicants have the chance to be mentored by professionals and indie pioneers from Tencent, Hoyoverse, Ysbryd Games, and Toge Productions.
The Philippine Game Dev Expo (PGDX) recently held their second event at the end of July 2024:
VirtualSEA covered the full extent of the event here.
“A special quality of the Philippine Game Development Expo is not only its focus on the game development industry but also a general celebration of the power that gaming has for different people. Professionals and students, AAA employees and indie hobbyist devs, e-sports athletes and cosplayers have been united by the ubiquitous love for gaming – and are eager to share their excitement with like-minded peers.”
Rappler wrote about the 6 exciting games and demos from PGDX this year.
GameDev Summit 2025 (to be held on February 5-7 in Boracay Island, Philippines) is accepting Indie Game Developer applications to get free passes for the event. Deadline of applications is on November 30, 2024.
SGGA recently held their monthly SGGA Drink Up and also announced the incoming Exco for the 2024 - 2026 term.
Suan, Co-Founder and Studio Head at CtrlD Studio (Malaysia) was recently featured on the GGWP Podcast by BFM News. She discussed about the studio’s “unconventional” start in the industry, making Overhours, and building a game dev community in Sarawak.
Kakuchopurei published their Best Video Games Made in Thailand list this month. Just last week, they published their Best Video Games Made in Singapore list. We can’t wait to see what country they go to next.
Southeast Asia Game Aesthetic has some new updates:
They issued a survey on their Southeast Asia Game Onward! Showcase from last year, and are looking for feedback for the next one.
The Southeast Asia Game Wiki just got updated with Brunei game dev history
In collaboration with Daybloom Project and Not_Digitan Game, they also hosted the SEA RPG Maker (SEARM) Showcase (on July 14), featuring 34 RPG Maker games from Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
At the global level, we’re saddened about the closure of Game Informer. It is important for us to support worker-run media outlets such as Aftermath, game criticism outlets like Critical Distance, and local media like VirtualSEA, Kakuchopurei, Gamer Braves, GeekCulture, Rappler, One more game, PlayPrime and more.
Game Dev Learnings
Here are some interesting resources this month to help devs get started making games, thinking about Steam demos and more:
Kris Antoni, CEO and Founder of Toge Productions wrote a new blog post on A Holistic Approach to Game Making that dives deep into “finding the vision”, the “why” and a game’s “value proposition”.
“Based on my own experience making games and mentoring other game developers, many of the issues that emerged can be traced to one thing: Not understanding or not knowing “The Why.””
Here’s a cool cheat sheet from Matt Hackett on Steam demos (emailing wishlisters, appearing in new and trending, and more).
The UI database has launched a 2.0 version with brand new features like filters, videos, and more!
Upcoming Events
A 2-months look-ahead at what’s coming up in the region:
Aug
7 - 8 - ThaiGameCraft (Thailand) is organized by the Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, and is taking place at EmSphere in Bangkok. The event features over 30 games from Thai developers. More details here.
9 - SarawakGDC (Malaysia) will be holding their 2024 SwkGDC Game Jam and Open Day from Aug 9 - 11, at the TEGAS Digital Village, in Kuching, Malaysia. Check out the event details here.
11 - 31 - Indie Games Group (Philippines) will be hosting a heritage jam in celebration of the many languages and dialects of the Philippines. Submission info here.
17 - Donut Dev Day (Malaysia) - IGDA MY will be hosting a casual talk-conference event featuring local developers. More info here.
17 - Indonesia Women in Games are hosting a meet up for women devs at Connect and Play. Follow their channels for more details.
21 - 23 - Gamescom (Germany) - Several studios and games from Southeast Asia will be headed to the premier European games event, including Toge Productions, Ysbryd Games, and more.
23 - The Ghosts of the SEA Showcase (Virtual), presented by SEAGamethetic, HorrorVisuals, and VirtualSEA will launch their presentation via the SEAGamethetic YT channel. Check out all the games on the showcase via their Steam page here.
31 - Sept 7 - Bad Game Jam (Philippines) will be holding a week-long hybrid game jam meant to produce shorter games with worse graphics. Registration opens this week.
Sept
13 - 15 - Level Up Play 2024 (Malaysia) - Malaysia’s premier B2C Gaming, Animation, Esports, TCG, Toys, Merchandise, Digital Tech event is selling tickets now.
18 - 21 - Game Devs of Color Expo (Virtual) is an online conference showcasing new voices in gaming. Hop in for some insightful talks from the devs of Venba and more.
26 - 29 - Tokyo Game Show 2024 (Japan) - TGS is back and there’ll be a whole host of games from Southeast Asia in attendance.
Oct
1 - 3 - Level Up KL 2024 (Malaysia) - Southeast Asia’s premier game development conference. Register your interest here. More information available on MDEC's website.
Job Openings
Philippines - Ubisoft is hiring interns in various departments for the Taguig, Philippines office.
Singapore -
Trueworld Studios is hiring a Gameplay Programmer.
Ubisoft is hiring for a number of roles including Senior Gameplay Programmer, Senior Rendering Programmer and more.
Garena is hiring for a Game Graphic Designer for Free Fire, and a Software Engineer intern.
Hoyoverse is hiring a Junior Game Engineer (Fresh Grad) and Game Simulation Engineer (Fresh Grad).
Share your stories: If you’ve got ideas, news, updates, event info to share with us, please DM anyone from the Collective below. We’ll endeavour to get it added to the next edition of the digest. Thanks so much for your interest.
Please help share the newsletter: If you found the content in this issue valuable, please help share the newsletter to more folks in the SEA game dev community (and beyond).
The SEA Game Dev Collective (and Digest Editorial team) are: