THE BOLT WON SEA GAME JAM 2016

(marketingmagazine.com.my) – -The Bolt emerged as the champion of SEA GAME JAM 2016, which was held in Makespace, Quill City Mall on the 5th and 6th November last week.

The result was announced during the closing ceremony of Level Up KL 2016, in Intercontinental, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

With a kid-centric game, ‘Who’s The Best’, their game designs and presentation wio the hearts of 4 professional juries, who were the experts from the mobile game industry.

Deemed as the most ready games for the market, ‘Who’s The Best’ features a few mini games and challenges that suit kids’ development and learning, as early as 5 years old.

The Bolt, consists of Scott Thoo, Yean Junn Tseng, Robert Wong Ji Kin from Malaysia and Steven Ng from Indonesia walked away with RM 8,000 cash prize together with virtual reality device, Samsung Oculus VR.

They beat two other teams, The Escalator with their games Letters as well as The Rotan (Parental Guidance), who came in second and third respectively. They received RM 5,000 cash prize as a runner up and RM 3,000 cash prize for the 2 nd runnerup as well as Samsung Oculus Gear VR, a virtual reality device.

Apart from the prize monies allocated, the top teams also stand a chance to have their games commercialized via the upcoming Alpha Startups: Game Pre-Accelerator programme by Media Prima Labs and 1337 Ventures where they stand a chance to receive additional funding to further improve the demo and undergo mentoring in areas of Game Design, Development and the Business side of Games.

SEA Game Jam aims to nurture new and young talents as well as serve as the platform for all game fans to further equip themselves with new knowledge through the sharing session and exchange of ideas between the contestants who are not just from Malaysia, but also from the South East Asia including Thailand, Indonesia, Phillipines, Singapore and Myanmar.

SEA Game Jam 2016 also attracts participants from Egypt, Poland and Taiwan. This two-day event, happening in Makespace, Quill City Mall managed to gather 82 talented participants who were passionate about the mobile gaming content.

All of the contestants brought their best games in order to develop new game prototype based on a few interesting themes, which mostly based on Media Prima’s original IPs.

Working their best, non-stop for 36 hours, all of the participants showed great enthusiasm.

The main objective of SEA Game Jam 2016 is to develop mobile games within a short period of time as well as showcasing some great teamwork between local and international talents.

Nicholas Sagau, Group General Manager, Product & Media Prima Labs said “We have been seeing a significant growth and great potential in the mobile games industry in Malaysia whereby there is an increase in demand of the content.

Not only the players, games developers in Malaysia also start to see this industry as a money-making industry that can be commercialized”.

“Through SEA Game jam, we managed to gather a lot of individuals with great potential to become not just Malaysia’s leading mobile game players but also within the region.

“We hope this event would become a good stepping stone for these inspiring youngsters to further equip themselves with knowledge about the mobile game industry.

“Media Prima Labs hope to inspire more talents to get into game development and bring out the best of South East Asia.

“We’re glad that our effort paid off and it’s good to see there is potential in Malaysian made game.

“The success of this second GAME JAM will definitely encourage us to invest more resources into the mobile game industry in Malaysia” adds Nicholas.

Apart from SEA GAME JAM, Media Prima Labs also organized an exclusive sharing session with 3 significant panelists; Alexander L Fernandez, the CEO and co-founder of Streamline Studios; Hasnul Hadi Samsuddin, Director of Creative Content and Technology, MDEC as well as Daniel Pang, CEO of App Annie to discuss on the mobile games commercialization in Malaysia.

Both SEA Game Jam and the sharing session were among the interesting events happening in conjunction of Level Up KL, organized by the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Media Prima Digital.

Level UP KL is one of South East Asia’s premier industry event for game developers which gathers local, regional and international industry key players.

With the increasing demand for mobile application & games, Media Prima Group has taken the step forward to champion the development within the industry, hence the establishment of MP Labs has to-date primarily leveraged and successfully developed products based on the Group’s unique intellectual properties, such as Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan, Harian Metro Mountain Bike Grand Prix, Ejen Ali and more.

Aside from developing mobile products for the Group, MP Labs also welcomes external ideas. MP Labs aims to develop 13 mobile apps and games by the end of 2016.