Game Start Asia 2018 – The 5th Anniversary

Earlier this year, Eliphant Pte Ltd who are the organisers of Game Start Asia, made the BREAKING LEVEL UP news… they were locking arms with another home grown convention power house – SOZO Pte Ltd… the creators of Anime Festival Asia, then Anime Matsuri spin-offs as well as Japan Music Festival (JMF) among other signature events. It was MEGA TEAM as if the Avengers teamed up with the X-Men to take baddies from another galaxy!! South East Asia’s premiere gaming event joins up with South East Asia’s one stop Japanese Pop Culture Experience! EPIC just got multiplied!

RELATED: AFA & Game Start Asia UNITE!

After this big announcement… we’re expecting more from Game Start 2018 & they are already on track to deliver from what announcements they’ve already made. If you’re like me, I always excited to know who are the guest are… so here it is in short!

GUEST LIST
1) MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD – Director = Yuya Tokuda
2) MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD – Executive Director + Art Director = Kaname Fujioka
3) SOULCALIBUR VI – Producer = Motohiro Okubo
4) Celebrity Gamer – New Japan Pro Wrestling IGPW Heavy Weight CHAMPION – Kenny Omega (The GS folks have really gone over board this time!! OMG!!)
5) Celebrity Voice Actor – OVERWATCH (Mei) = Elise Zhang (I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry)

Whats NEW this year?
1) 3 HALLS in SUNTEC!
2) Shadowverse Contenders Cup 2018
3) Tekken World Tour 2018
4) ArcRevo World Tour 2018
5) Gaming Workshops: Build Your own Arcade Machine / Create Fun Animations
6) Masterclasses by Jax Jocson & Carlo Arellano

Here’s the official press release!
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GameStart 2018 (#GameStart2018), Southeast Asia’s Premier Game Convention, celebrates its 5th year on 13 & 14 October 2018 with the ultimate gaming content at Suntec Convention Centre. Organisers Eliphant announced a series of returning favourites as well as new and exciting content for everyone, including game showcases and previews, tabletop gaming, esports, indie games, retro gaming, and cosplay. Esports fans can gear up for exciting competition as SEA Major (SEAM) 2018 plays host to more international tournaments. Mobile esports also takes centerstage as SEA Mobile Major (SEAMM) plays host to the very first Shadowverse Contenders Cup for the Southeast
Asia & Oceania region.

An exciting guest lineup awaits visitors at GameStart 2018. Organisers revealed a guest appearance by voice actress Elise Zhang, who is best known as the voice of Mei, a character from one of the world’s most popular games, Overwatch. Please see Annex C for her bios.

New additions to GameStart include the debut of GameStart Masterclasses, where well-known creatives and personalities from the international games industry are invited to run specialised masterclasses. GameStart Workshops, developed in collaboration with No Average Joe, is a series of workshops and talks that focus on a range of general gaming-related topics. GameStart MasterClasseswill be held on 10 and 12 October while GameStart Workshops will be held during the convention.

Crowd Favourites to Delight All
In addition to previewing new games, visitors can immerse themselves in the action-packed halls with a slew of game-related returning favourites, including:
● Gather round and immerse yourselves in fantastic worlds of board games, old and new, as the GameStart Tabletop returns to bring gamers the discovery of new analog worlds.
● Doujin Market, Singapore’s largest community curated youth arts and illustration fair, is back for the third year with 43 artist tables. It is curated in partnership with Neo Tokyo Project, Singapore’s first dedicated pop-culture marketing collective.
● The 3rd Secretlab Grand Prix will be held for 2 sessions on 13 and 14 October, and the
competitor with the fastest timing EACH DAY gets to bring home their own Secretlab Chair!
● Cosplayers can put their best game cosplay forward at the GameStart Cosplay Runway on 14 October. Pre-registration is now open at http://bit.ly/gscosplay18
● Unwind, chill out and grab a bite in the fantasy-themed Sanctuary – A selection of awesome vendors, with great food and tasty beverages including specially selected craft beers, welcomes all within the convention grounds.

Celebrating Indie Talent
GameStart visitors will get to vote for their favourite indie game for the GameStart Indie Award, and play a part in helping the winners take their first steps to prominence. The winning game developer will win a sponsored trip to exhibit in Taipei Game Show 2019 in January 2019, as well as a high-end creative pen tablet sponsored by WACOM. Both 2017 GameStart Indie Award winners went on to clinch international awards in Taipei Game Show and beyond.

See what the future of gaming can offer at The Founders Base, GameStart’s special indie area, with subsidized booths to individuals, start-ups and small companies that create or work with games. Limited booths are still available on a first come first served basis, and interested applicants can find out more at https://gamestart.asia/landing/#exhibit.

World Class Tournament Action at Our Doorsteps
SEA Major (SEAM) 2018, one of the largest fighting game tournaments in Asia, returns to GameStart 2018 bigger and better! Expect to see high-level tournament action, as top players from around the world convene to fight for over USD 60,000 in prizes! This year is extra special, as SEA Major will play host pitstops for four major events – the Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals, Tekken World Tour Master event, one of only 7 Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour SAGA events, and the only ArcRevo World Tour event announced for Southeast Asia.

The inaugural Shadowverse SEAO Contenders Cup, where the top 4 players in the South East Asia Oceania (SEAO) Region fight for the right to represent the region at the Shadowverse World Grand Prix in Japan, for a top prize of USD 1,000,000, will also be held during GameStart 2018.

More details of key highlights in the tournament line-up, announced to date, is available at Annex A. To join the tournaments, check out BeastAPAC.com.

Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity to Learn from Legendary Game Artists
Take your Game Art to a whole new level with the GameStart Masterclasses on 10 and 12 October. For the first time, two acclaimed international game artists, will be in town to conduct exclusive intensive sessions for budding and professional game artists in Singapore.

Jacqueline A.X Jocson, Art Director, Concept Artist & Instructor at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco will share insights on visual storytelling and the concept behind creating iconic and memorable characters on 10 October. Carlo Arellano, Art Director at Super Evil Megacorp, will focus on Advanced Character Design on 12 October. Details of the speakers are available in Annex B.

The Masterclasses are organized by GameStart Asia and held at *SCAPE, the venue sponsor. Seats are priced at SGD120. Registration will open on the official GameStart site closer to date.

GameStart Workshops, powered by No Average Joe, will be held on 13 and 14 October within the GameStart halls. Sessions range from a hands-on workshop by Retrocade for those who are interested in building their very own mini arcade machine, as well as learning basic game animation. The full schedule will be available from 24 September onwards when pre-registration opens.

A Weekend of Fun, Games and More
GameStart 2018 will see its most diverse offerings to date, with mobile and PC games having a bigger presence at the convention. The first batch of exhibitors and sponsors announced for GameStart 2018 include The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia, who will be exhibiting at GameStart for the first time, Japanese mobile giant Cygames; Mihoyo, publisher of popular mobile game Honkai Impact 3; WB Games, Taipei Game Show, Battlebrew Productions, 3DSense and gaming apparel brand Xmashed Gear.
HyperX leads this year’s sponsor list as Official Gaming Headset, Armaggeddon as Official Quest Sponsor, Wacom will sponsor the GameStart Indie Awards, and MyRepublic returns as Fibre Broadband Sponsor. Sponsors also include Monster (Official Energy Drink), Central City Brewers & Distillers (Official Alcohol Beverage Sponsor), Razer, Twitch and Xsplit, the official streaming software of the event. Tickets and official merchandise are available for sale at gamestart.asia/ticketing

“Esports has been garnering huge interest and publicity in recent years. Coupled with the popularity of mobile gaming and as celebrities openly play games such as Fortnite, gaming is now more mainstream than ever. In GameStart, we have seen a gradual shift in the demographics of GameStart attendees -from hardcore gamers when we first started to a wider variety of visitors, from esports fans, competitive gamers, to families with young children. Our content has also evolved to be more inclusive of different interest groups, such as our partnership with Doujin Market and the introduction of our
Tabletop area, which was very well received last year,” said Elicia Lee, Founder of GameStart Asia.

More information and the latest updates on GameStart 2018 are available on http://www.gamestart.asia, and
http://www.facebook.com/GameStart.Asia.

GameStart 2018
Venue: Suntec Convention Centre Halls 401 – 403, Singapore
Event Dates: 13 & 14 October 2018
Opening Hours:
● VIP Ticket Holders: 10am – 9pm
● General Public: 11am – 9pm

GameStart 2018 MasterClasses
Dates: 10 & 12 October 2018
Venue: *SCAPE

#GameStart2018 #GS2018 #SEAmajor #GameStartAsia #Eliphant #AFA #Sozo #AnimeFestivalAsia #TekkenWorldTour #Shadowverse #ArcRevoWorldTour #DragonBallFighterz #YuyaTokuda #KanameFujioka #MonsterHunterWorld #MotohiroOkubo #SoulCaliburVI #KennyOmega #EliseZhang #Overwatch #OverwatchMei #masterclass #GameStartMasterclass #JaxJocson #CarloArellano #TheCaptain #PopCultureFunMY #CosplayFunMY

Annex A: Tournament Line-up (As of 20 September 2018)
[Please refer to the official website for the latest updates]

SEA Major (SEAM) 2018 Tournaments include

ArcRevo World Tour – 13 & 14 Oct
Announced at EVO 2018, the ArcRevo World Tour will make a pitstop in Singapore. Watch as participants in ArcSys’s marquee games, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and BlazBlue: Central Fiction, fight for the chance to call themselves the best of the best.

Capcom Pro Tour Asia (Finals And Last Change Qualifiers)
Last chance qualifier on 13 Oct, with the Asia Finals on 14 Oct. After a year of intense competition, Asia’s best descendon the SEA Major Stage to duke it out for a chance to
call themselves the best in the region.

Dragon Ball FighterZ SAGA Event – 13 & 14 Oct
The fifth in a line of Saga events, competitors from all over the world gather to decide who will go on to fight for the title of World Champion! at the pinultimate event in January 2019.

Tekken 7 – 13 & 14 Oct
With the Open Tournament, the stage is set for you to emerge the victor as you pit your Tekken skills against the best from around the region for the prize pool of USD$15,000!

Special Tournament Highlight

Shadowverse Contenders Cup – 13 Oct
After a year of competition, the top 4 players in the South East Asia Oceania Region gather to prove themselves and fight for the right to represent the SEAO region at the Shadowverse World Grand Prix in Japan, and vie for the top prize of USD 1,000,000.

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Annex B: GameStart MasterClasses – Trainer Profiles

Carlo Arellano, Art Director, Super Evil Megacorp
Carlo began his career as a creature and character designer, working on such movies as Van Helsing, Spider Man, Evolution, Tremors 3, Hollowman and Tim Burton’s Planet of The Apes.

In entertainment design he has worked on amusement park projects for Universal Studios Japan, most notably the Water World Experience. Carlo has provided concepts, textures and models for many Video Game projects including: World of Warcraft, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, and God of War. His illustrations have been featured in Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Horse Comics and in the books Nuthin But Mech, MetamorFX and Costume Design And Illustration: For Film Video Games And Animation. He has taught Concept Art and Figure Drawing at Art Institute, Concept Design Academy, Concept Design Workshop, Computer Graphics Masters Academy and Laguna College of Art And Design.

Carlo Arellano’s teaching methodology concentrates on design and the use of it to efficiently communicate ideas and provoke specific emotional responses in the audience. By using proportion, form, storytelling, color and focused design creation rather than sprawling ideation, the student is shown how to create strong archetypes which resonate with the viewer. The student is given tools to communicate important storytelling ideas and skills to create production ready concepts which take into account not only artistic concerns but pipeline, animation and gameplay needs.

He is currently the Art Director at Super Evil Megacorp in San Francisco, California.

Jacqueline AX Jocson, Art Director & Concept Artist
Jacqueline Jocson is an Art Director & Concept Artist specializing in design and storytelling. Originally from Houston,TX, she moved to Los Angeles to work in the Entertainment Industry. She graduated from University of Southern California with a Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Art & Animation.

Over the past decade, Jacqueline has worked in film ,game, VR/AR ,television, advertising, and IP creation for the past decade with clients such as Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, SyFy Channel, Digital Domain ,Super Evil Megacorp, and Psyop. Projects include Capcom’s Lost Planet, Super Evil Megacorp’s MOBA Vainglory, Supercell’s Clash of Clans advertising campaign with Psyop, and creating and pitching IPs for Stan Lee.

Jacqueline teaches & writes courses for the BFA & MFA programs in the School of Game Development at the Academy of Art University San Francisco. Some of her courses include Monsters vs Mechs, Character Design, Digital Painting, & Digital Figure Painting.

 

Annex C: Elise Zhang, Voice Actress – Profile
Voice actress, best known as “Mei” in Overwatch. Being a Chinese voice actor, she dubbed for Mei in both the English and Mandarin versions, and Symmetra in the Mandarin version. She is Lily in Heroes of Storm, and Alleria Windrunner in HearthStone. She also voices a lot of cartoons in China, such as Power Puff Girls, We Bare Bears, P King Duckling, Lego NEXO KNIGHTS, Lily’s Driftwood Bay, Ruby Gloom.