You know, they weren't kidding when they said that the (local games industry is 'in its infancy'.
When I first read the quote from (somebody) in (some) article, I couldn't fully comprehend what it meant.
Now that I've attended my first Games Con in what it is a very, very long while, I think I see.
I don't mean that in a bad way.
But (candidly speaking) I don't mean it in a very, very good way either.
There really is a lot of room to grow.
I think I'm (somewhat) qualified to say that.
Many of us in the industry (who are passionate about games and ACG and community and all that kind of thing) hope it will grow well in form and strength and stature.
You could sense the confidence after a round (or two) in Hall 404 of Suntec City Convention Center.
It might have been the presence of the European chapter right near the entrance- where you almost immediately found out that Games Con next year would be in Cologne, and there'd be another Games Con in SG come late 2023 as well.
Then, of course, there was the entire section dedicated to the studios, all of whom took the opportunity to showcase their works, whether through wall paneled stickers showing (video) game characters in dynamic motion, or video game titles printed on standalone banners.
There were booths with huge TVs showing trailers of their published or produced games.
And there were booths that decided to put up display shelves for the figurines, and the merchandise.
There were areas for panelist talks.
And there were areas for interaction.
I hung out a little at the panelist stage area- to take my bearings, and because there were some really cool tables there.
It was a great spot.
From my seat I could look over to the easy-bench area where students huddled together with open laptops, and I could look across to certain booths where server and cloud storage companies (from Europe, mostly) were busy speaking to people who stopped by their booth.
This being SG, of course it wasn't only the Europeans who were there.
AWS was there (although I didn't stop by their booth)
And so was a production studio from Zhejiang, China, whose staff sat by the table quietly working on their laptops not really speaking to anyone except those who made first approach.
Ah yes, the Koreans were there, of course, in a rather large booth that (I think) offered services for the monetization part of (video) games and all games alike.
My colleague and I stopped by two booths where the Japanese were anchored.
One was the booth for the Tokyo Game Show, which, if I recall rightly, will be held in June of 2023, and they've got the T-shirt all prepared already. Manned by quiet personnel, they let the video on the little TV do the talking, one segment of which showed very pretty Japanese (influencers) playing a game on their mobile phones.
Amidst all the intensity-driven games surrounding them, it was cool to find one booth specializing in a platform for easy, colorful HTML5 games that definitely have a market and a space in the gaming world.
I can't quite recall what else, or who else in the convention hall was there.
There might have been Tiktok.
Whom, if they had been there, (because of the food) were right at the back in an exclusive interactive space open to participants and people holding designated passes.
I didn't hold that designation.
Not today.
So I roamed around and, from my seat between the sharing stage and the SG pavilion, watched the synthwave-lit lion dance troupe make their way from the entrance of Hall 404 all the way to the back.