Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 2

Here's the photos for Part 2 of the Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009. Following the same practice as last year, the various artists painted on the blank boards just outside the convention halls.

Star Wars items (toys, comics...etc) have always been a popular draw for the crowd. This year we had a number of 'life size' troopers walkign around in the costumes, which made it quite interesting. They even had a 'dressed up as Star Wars characters' for a fee that is donated to charity.

What I liked was this robotic R2D2 (life sized) that moved around the place. Quite cool! Imagine having one such toy at home. I guess I could fix a vacuum machine to this toy and have it move around the house. That should make housecleaning more fun.

Besides Star Wars, the other popular games / toys with the crowd are the World of Warcraft (WoW) items. Want to make your own WoW figurines? Here's a photo that shows the different stage of crafting the figurines.

Not forgetting the free posters (and collar pin, & fake tattoos) , and even life sized figure boards for people to take photos!

Of course, there were also transformers, 'Revenge of the Fallen' (a movie where I think the plot sucks).

Ok that is about all I have for STGCC '09. I guess next year there will be equally interesting toys / comics / games for the STGCC 2010!

See also:
- Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 1

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 1

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 (STGCC) was held at Suntec Convention Centre (level 4) this past weekend. I think it was a great event! :) It is always fun to see many displays of figurines, toys, games, comics... etc at one place, and see the many people ogling at their favourite toys.

Like last year, the Devilrobots designer was here to sign autographs and 'drew' something for those who purchase the toys. I was quite amazed by the variety of the To-Fu toys actually.

What was equally amazing is that To-Fu toys have invaded the stamps collecting circle! Thus there are now stamps sets (with competition organised by SingPost)and related game board sets for To-Fu Oyako.

Of course, the cute toys are not limited to To-Fu, and others like ugly dolls also made their appearance. It is weird to see so many of the ugly dolls piled up in the container. Mass ugliness? Lolz.

For those who are gachapon fans, there are plenty of capsules to choose from. Visitors can even change their notes for coins at the event.

Beside the collectible toys, there were also huge 'toys' walking around. Yupz, it was really fun to take pictures together with this pair of Mario Brothers. I didn't go to the event on the last day where the cosplay competition was held, or else there would be other more interesting photos. Nonetheless, there is a part 2 coming with more photos.

See also:
- Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 2

CommunicAsia 2009 - Quick Pictures

I was at Communic Asia 2009 today and took some pictures of the phones as well as the event itself. I didn't have enough time to really tour the place or ask more questions about the phones. The number of booths seems to be less and I didn't see any Sony Ericsson or SingTel booth. The CommunicAsia 2009, together with Broadcast Asia and Enterprise IT 2009, will be held from 16th to 19th June 2009 at the Singapore Expo.

Here's the pictures from the LG booth. I guessed I was impressed by the new LG GD900, the latest crystal slider phone with transparent keypad. It comes with a 8 megapixel camera!

Other than the booth girls, we also have the cute mascot! I think there was some lucky draw where lucky participants could walk away with free phones.

he new Viewty model (pic above) looks good. Of course, there were also display of the new phone models. Some were rather weird, e.g. these wrist phones. I think it is not the culture yet to have people speaking to their wrists. T

Of course, we also have the Samsung Mobile booth!

Omnia series continued to be the main highlight I believe.

Yupz, we have the Samsung Galaxy powered by the Google Android. More applications coming for wider range of phones.

Ok that is a very quick post about the CommunicAsia 2009 event and we will definitely see more blogs about it over the next few days. :) Other than phones, there were also a number of interesting announcements, including an extended Wireless@SG programme with higher speed of 1Mbps, that will last until March 2013. So yupz this will be an exciting week!

Afternote:
Here's two more pictures, one of the Powerwave racing car, and the Yahoo! free drinks. Not sure why are there racing cars actually. Free drinks are great crowd pullers, but the two times I was there Yahoo! said their slurpee had not frozen enough yet. Hmm.

NHB Mission Darkstar - 5 Finalists Awarded

National Heritage Board has announced the 5 finalists for the online games competition to develop a Singapore heritage related game! The details of the Mission Darkstar - Heritage Gaming Redefined can be found in the NHB news release (16 Dec 2008).

These 5 finalists, having passed the first stage of this competition, will each get $4,000 seed funds to develop their online game on social media platform, that 'raise the awareness and appreciation of Singapore’s unique heritage and culture.' The competition will run until October - November 2009, when the top winner will be selected, and total prizes of $13,500 will be given out (top prize has a payout of $8,000). The judging will be done by both experts and public votes, with criteria linking to quality of the game and how the game resonates with the users and Singapore’s history and heritage.

More information about NHB's Mission Darkstar can be found on their website: www.missiondarkstar.com.sg and there is even a Youtube on the site about this competition!

Growing Online / Gaming Content Market in Singapore

Last year in August 2008, there was an article on Business Times about a Frost research estimating Singapore's online content market to see robust growth reaching US$23.82 million in 2008. It seems the figure is estimated to reach US$120million by 2013. Some more details about the Frost research can be found in this article.

I was pretty skeptical about the figures initially. However, these few days there were reports of Singapore developers earning big bucks with their online games. One such group of developers is the Tyler Projects who developed Battle Stations on Facebook. According to this Straits Times article they are cashing in monthly sales of over $50,000. Not bad for a group of relatively new games developers. It does appear that online gaming (whether via gaming clients or social networking platforms) is fueling online content growth.

The growth of gaming locally has attracted the attention of big boys as well. Another Straits Times article (20 Feb 09) noted that Japanese gaming giant Koei has decided to hire 30 to 60 more staff for Singapore office. I think they had pretty good experience developing the 'Romance of the Three Kingdom Online' in Singapore. What is weird is that the Romance of Three Kingdom Online is not available to the Singapore gamer.

Other than the gaming developers, there are also more exhibitions planned for Singapore. Aside from the annual Games Convention Asia, there is also the Games XPO 2009 scheduled for July 2009 (see article). With all these activities, no wonder even the 9 years old kids are dabbling with games development (see article about 9 years old iPhone apps developer).

Seems like the August 2008 article is quite reliable after all. Maybe I should think about quitting my job to be a games developer, lolz.

Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Free Posters!

Like the cube above? Cute right? There are many other designs available, and this cube is among the freebies that one could get at the Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec City. There are plenty of other freebies, and I've collected quite a number of posters. Let me share the pictures of some of these posters.

Cherry Credits gave away quite a number of posters (pics below), Rohan, Trickster, Habbo, Fresbo, Bots...etc.

Nope, I do not play all of these games. So far I've only tried Trickster Online. :) Posters are also given for other non Cherry Credit games, for example Baja (racing game) & Zeng Tu (their official website not working somehow). I didn't take a photo of the Elan Online though they also gave away free posters and bookmarks. Too many freebies.

Other than posters, free installation disks, post it notes, notebooks, nicely designed cubes...etc, there are also free magazines. I got these two magazines, both featuring Star Wars (on Wii) on their covers. Yupz, there are demos of this game at the convention as well.

Like the above goodies? Get them at the Games Convention! The last day is this Saturday, i.e. today! So hurry while stocks last, lol.

Related Posts:
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Short Tour
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec City Convention

Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Short Tour

Games Convention Asia 2008 is here! Today I popped by the event during lunch, and spent quite some time on the 4th floor of the Suntec Convention centre. There were a lot of games, covering online MMOs, standalone PC based, consoles (XBox, Wii), handhelds, and even card games.

This year the exhibitors are quite generous with their posters and game disks, and I've collected a pile of these items. Will likely share them around since I would not be interested in playing all of them.

Let me show some of the photos taken today, and perhaps snapshot of those posters / freebies in another post.

Here's the booths of Cheery Credits and MOL. I'm quite glad that these companies exisit to fill the gaps of micro-credits for online games. Their existence will help players, especially those young players with no credits cards. These companies allow for consolidation of game credits that can be used among different games. Essentially, buy 1 card from them (I got a free Cherry Card!), and you can use it among their supported games.

Here's the booths for others, e.g. card games, handhelds (yes, that is a handheld game about SpongeBob). It is useful for gamers to try out these games before deciding if it is worth it to buy. Different games suit different people. More importantly, one could try out the different game consoles (which will determine what are the games one can play) before committing to one.

With all the craze about Formula 1 night racing, of course there are game booths about racing.

For students considering their future education paths, there are also education providers like the polys in this event. Guess the event covers almost all aspects of gaming. Those high level issues of laws, virtual properties, social behaviours ...etc etc are covered in the conference. There were also news articles about games development locally, including one where they mentioned that there are now more female games developers. I guess that explains why there are now more games targeting female players as well?

Related Posts:
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Free Posters!
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec City Convention

Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec City Convention

Games Convention Asia (GCA) 2008 is here! It will be held in Suntec Convention (Singapore) from 18th to 20th Sep 2008. The full schedule can be found here. General public visit to the convention is free, but you will have to pay about S$ 200 plus to attend the conference.

They have also organised a special Students' Day on the 20th Sep, where students get to enjoy a separate conference for free. Topics include 'Free to play MMOs' and 'The future of games', 'GAMBIT Internship', 'Assassin Creed' ... by speakers from Nexon, MIT...etc.

Well, while public visitors can attend the event for free, some folks have given me the pass which I could also use for the event. Wonder if entry to the event via this pass would entitle me to any free goodies? I know last year they gave away some rather cool t-shirts, but any other types of goodies, e.g. free installation disks for MMOs, posters...etc are equally welcome!

Related Posts:
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Free Posters!
- Games Convention Asia 2008 @ Suntec - Short Tour

WCG 2008 @ Suntec

Finally got a chance to visit World Cyber Games 08 at Suntec City level 4. I missed the first two days due to heavy work commitments. The event is held from 7th to 10th August 08. Well, the admission is free and I actually expect a much larger crowd. I guess the smaller turnout may be due to the National Day Parade, which is a huge crowd drawer.

Nonetheless, it is still fun to see fellow gamers engaging in competition with adrenaline pumping excitement. The event is not all about cyber games, since there are also booths for the WoW TCG competition. In fact, the goodie bags came with a few WoW TCG cards thrown in! The goodie bags also came with magazines like Playworks and EGM.

The big events are held at the end of the rooms, where a stage with two huge displays are mounted. Players and visitors could look at the game play, and there were much cheering and clapping as the games proceed.

Due to the nature of the event, there are plenty of sponsors, e.g. Samsung, Microsoft, and Intel. You could see the list of sponsors, as well as the prizes for each game category at this WCG site. The site only shows the prizes for local category, but navigate around and you see the related Open Category site.

Surprisingly, accompanying the car racing games are booths selling actual car accessories. Hmm I thought booths selling games, and related merchandise like magazines, toys...etc would make more sense.