KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 87 passionate mobile gaming players worldwide participated in the inaugural Sea Games Jam 2017 annual hackathon competition.
The participants were required to develop new game prototypes based on two of Media Prima Bhd’s successful intellectual properties, Mak Cun and Ejen Ali, for 36 hours starting today.
Championed by Media Prima Digital and Media Prima Labs, the objective of the competition was to develop game prototypes that could be potentially developed into business models in the mobile gaming industry, to nurture new talents and serve as a platform for all game fans to further equip themselves with new knowledge through exchange of ideas between the participants.
First timer Hannah Hiew Ying Heng, who is one of the few women participants in the competition, said her passion towards game designing drove her to join the competition.
“There are only a few women who are passionate about the gaming industry and it is not so popular among the gender. But, I want to prove to everyone that we can also do what men can do and because of my passion towards game designing, I decided to join this competition and to show off my talents,” said the 20-year-old student.
Indonesian Ruzanir Fardo, 20, said the competition was a good platform for gamers to show off their talents in the industry.
“Parents think that playing games does not bring any benefit or knowledge. But I think that playing games can make a profit. Everyone is now moving towards the digital era and most of the younger generation play online games.
“I think this would be a good platform for gamers like us to showcase our talents in producing good online games which could benefit us,” he said.
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Sdn Bhd Creative Content and Technologies vice president Hasnul Hadi Samsudin said the gaming potential in Malaysia grew by 2.9 times between 2014 and last year.
“While the revenue in 2014 was RM262 million, last year it was RM516 million. The revenue had doubled within the three-year period. This is a good platform for business opportunity. We need to create that awareness that gaming can make money,” he said.
Media Prima Labs group general manager Nicholas Sagau said the company hoped to inspire more talents to be involved in game development and bring out the best of Southeast Asia.
“Through Sea Games Jam, we managed to gather a lot of individuals with great potential to become not just Malaysia’s leading mobile game developers but also within the region,” he said.
Some of the participants, who are working adults and students in the country, are from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea.
The participants will present their ideas and game prototypes in a special pitching session tomorrow and the winning team will receive RM8,000 in cash, with the second and third placed teams walking away with RM5,000 and RM3,000, respectively.
The teams will also stand a chance to have their games selected by Media Prima Labs and receive additional investment funding of up to RM50,000 to further improve the demo product and undergo mentoring in various areas such as Game Design, Development and Go-To Market Strategy.