Game Development Fair showcases emerging talent

Friday 1st of June 2018

G2E Asia this year launched the event’s first Game Development Fair, put together in collaboration with Asia-based consultancy Dynamic Partners, to target emerging game developers interested in commercialising new online and land-based game content in Asia.

The concept was to provide new companies a subsidised platform to enable them to showcase their new or unique products without requiring a big exhibition or marketing budget. G2E provided the exhibition space and set-up, plus included the companies in promotional communication to an established audience interested in exploring new products and companies.

“We hope this year’s Game Development Fair is the start of a new approach to welcoming innovative new companies to G2E Asia,” says Project Director Vera Ng. “Our intention this year was to establish the level of demand and to refine the approach for future events. We learned a lot from the event. We proved there is a core demand for the service from both potential exhibitors as well as show attendees and we will be refining and enhancing the Fair for future events.”

Companies showcasing products came from across the globe including from Hong Kong, Budapest, Malta, London and Sofia demonstrating the diversity of experience and breadth of creativity contributing to independent games innovations.

“We have really seen strong support and interest from independent game developers at this year’s inaugural Game Development Fair,” commented Harmen Brenninkmeijer, Managing Partner of Dynamic Partners. “There are many smaller companies really innovating in our industry, to be able to give a select number the opportunity to present their ideas to the market is really exciting. We hope that this is the start of an established feature of G2E Asia.”

The companies that featured this year ranged from games studios creating culturally sensitive games, to a skill-based chess platform introducing an innovative wagering mechanism for real money as well as virtual currency play, to games studios creating localised online scratch card content.

A full roundup of participants:

Latersoft Corporation Limited (www.latersoft.com)

Latersoft is founded by a group of professional game developers and designers with members that have developed console games for PS4 and Xbox. The team consists of skilful designers that create special effects for 3D films with the team made up of multiple cultures with talent from the games and movie industries. To enhance performance, Latersoft take great effort in tuning and program details. Latersoft Game Program Department engineers come from famous software companies and are committed to make the finest masterpiece products for gamers.

D-Tech (https://www.dtechint.com/)

D-Tech is a new game studio with a long and successful pedigree; based in Hong Kong and China with local teams that understand the requirements of Asian players.

D-Tech has a highly experienced international management team and strong industry backing through an agreement with one of the largest gambling companies in the world. Using proven math models with an original approach, D-Tech builds games for third party clients in both online and land-based verticals in addition to its own games for distribution to its core player demographic.

Combining its international experience with local knowledge, D-Tech provides a cost-effective turnkey front-end game development service, delivering innovative concepts, original math, enriching sound and cutting edge mobile interface.

D-tech showcased two of its releases at the Game Development Fair, presenting its Chinese New Year themed game ‘Year of the Dog’ and Chinese legend game ‘Dragon Pearl’. Daniel Wang, Head of Production said: “Being able to demonstrate our products and service offering without the costs of exhibition space is an excellent opportunity at our stage of development. The Game Development Fair has enabled us to showcase our first games perhaps one year sooner than planned which has helped with sales efforts.”

KontraChess (https://kontrachess.com/)

KontraChess is an eSports-style chess platform, available on mobile and web. KontraChess integrates a unique in-play betting system, to standard gameplay, that allows players to double an initial stake and force their opponent to accept the higher cost or concede the game. KontraChess doesn’t change anything about the game of chess itself, it only allows players to stake their own ability to beat their opponent and apply further pressure during game-play. The betting system is similar to that which is used in Backgammon and also tips the hat to Hold’em poker.

KontraChess is also about speed. On this platform, games are played at the shorter time controls, between 10 mins and as low as 15 seconds! With these timings, the concept of currency on the line and a way to turn up the heat during a game, KontraChess takes an evergreen sport and turns it into a mental martial art, perfect for eSports consumers.

The KontraChess platform will be available in two separate instances; a virtual currency and a cash-in/ cash-out version. The virtual currency version of the game allows players to buy coins which they can use to enter one-on-one challenges or tournaments for which the prizes will be virtual currency or real-world prizes. Players will be able to spend the coins they win on small upgrades or customizations of the user interface (new boards and piece sets etc). This version of the game will be available on both web and mobile and distributed through the app stores. The cash-in/ cash-out version allows customers to deposit on their account and play for real money. This version of the product will only be available on web.

For both versions, there will be a variety of ways that players can engage in competition. From one-on-one challenges, to sit-and-go type tournaments, to high liquidity announced events. Players of all levels and risk profiles will be able to find a suitable arena for their enjoyment.

The game will be monetised through the sale of virtual currency bundles and through rake/ tournament entry fees on the respective platforms.

Generally speaking, in most jurisdictions, chess is legally classified as a game of skill, and therefore, it is not considered gambling. Consequently, tournaments of chess, online or otherwise with prizes or cash-out, in most countries (even those countries where gambling is NOT legal) can be held without any special permits or violations of law.

KontraChess is currently in open BETA and has some traction with early adopters including a number of IM's and GM's from the chess world. Notable supporters of the project are Judit Polgar (highest rated female player ever) and Andrew Tang (one of the strongest players in the world right now at short time-controls).

Matt Di Giorgio, CEO: “"The Game Developer Fair at G2E Asia was a unique opportunity for a start-up such as ours. Without the usual high costs associated with exhibiting at conferences, we were able to meet potential partners, distributors and investors relevant to our business."

Lotto Instant Win by Pin Projekt (http://lottery.live/)

24/7 Live lottery draws!

COO Vedran Katic said: “Lotto Instant Win Live games are a revolution in the lottery betting industry which required great effort to develop.

After market research we have come to know that what we need for the organization of our games currently does not exist anywhere else and, as such, everything had to be built from scratch. This venture has meant great engagement of engineers to meet the conditions that we are proposing in the quality of the machines and the software required for four different studios.

Today we can boast that we have a unique product, whose development and testing lasted several years. According to the results and the acceptance of the games we see that we have filled the space with new industry games and a new kind of offer.”

This approach was rewarded at G2E as Pin Projekt received industry recognition for its innovative approach after scooping the Best Lottery Solution title at the 2018 G2E Asia Awards.

The Lotto instant Win (LiW) solution saw off stiff competition to claim the title at the prestigious awards ceremony, held at the MGM Cotai, Macau.

Judges were impressed with the company’s market-disrupting live streaming service, which allows players to bet on the outcome of a variety of lottery draws, broadcast continuously and 24/7 with no buffering from its four certified studios.

LiW offers 17 different games with a variety of sidebets and jackpot options through a range of devices.

Pin Projekt CSO Zdenko Ninkovic said: “We are thrilled to have won the Best Lottery Solution title at the G2E Asia Awards. Winning this award reflects the hard work our team have put into developing an innovative product, which provides players with an exciting and engaging experience.

“Lotto instant Win was established to bring something completely new to the lottery industry, and we are looking to build on its early success by improving it even further with exciting enhancements in the coming months.”

The Games Company (https://www.thegamesco.com/index.html)

The Games Company is an independent casino games development house, with a mission to deliver high quality gaming content.

TGC has recently launched a new RGS with four integrations to date. Powered by Black Cow software, the RGS allows TGC to supply in house content and content from 3rd party suppliers, quickly and timely onto a growing number of operators.

TGC is a UK company with a wholly owned development team based in Portugal, creating HTML5 casino games for desktop, mobile and tablet.

TGC supplies content to casino operators globally and offer both bespoke content or portfolio games, the RGS allows for a simple integration and deployment of games.

TGC showcased its innovative Lucky 8 Keno game, recently released in Canada with Loto-Québec. CEO Hans Winkelmann commented: “It was great have an area to exhibit and gain exposure to the market. We look forward to seeing the event grow and mature in coming years.”

Revolver Gaming (http://www.revolvergaming.com/)

Revolver Gaming is a London-based games studio providing premium quality slots and other innovative gambling games for online and mobile. Our speciality is the creation of world class, cinema quality 3D content that offers big entertainment value combined with solid math for proven results. All games are HTML5 cross-platform, multi-lingual, multi-currency and independently certified. We also offer a customised game development service to cater for individual operators and different regions.

Anakatech (https://www.anakatech.com/)

The Anakatech Group is a leading online soft gaming developer, specializing in state-of-the-art online, HTML5 scratch cards, slots machines and instant win games.

With a new game airing every two weeks, its variety of thematically, creatively and mathematically exciting cross-device HTML5 games, slots, and scratch cards are full of unique features that appeal to a diverse range of players. With all RND and games inspected and certified by QUINEL’s iTech Labs, not only are Anakatech’s games customizable to virtually any language, country, and currency, but priding ourselves in technological and artistic ingenuity, we are able to customize numerous additional features and elements to fit the particular needs of different markets and clientele.

Primarily built to attract casual players and gaming audiences (bingo, lottery, scratch cards & casinos), Anakatech has cracked the scratch card market, delivering high performance measures, profitability, and high user lifetime values. We have managed to extract remarkably high player values via consistently excellent content rich in exciting and varied themes, game versatility, unique features and different mathematical models designed by some of the industry’s top Game Mathematicians. Our games have high conversion rates and create surprisingly high player LTV and average rounds per player. Always looking ahead, we are driven to enhance our player values even further through regular and frequent introduction of inspired content.