Singapore, November 23, 2010 – Singapore GameFEST (SGF) is the nation’s premiere gaming event of 2010 and will be held over four days, from the 25th of November to the 28th of November, at *SCAPE. An initiative of the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), it is organised by Singapore’s Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) and will be officiated by the Chief Executive of MDA, Mr Aubeck Kam.
One can expect many activities and programmes in SGF. Here are some of them.
There will be three award ceremonies over four days. The first is the Singapore Games Creation Competition (SGCC) hosted by Nanyang Polytechnic. Its aim is to provide an environment for secondary school students to learn about games creation and digital media development, giving them an opportunity to create their own games. Participants will also receive an overview of the digital media industry.
The next award ceremony is for the SCOGA-initiated Young Cyber Wellness Achiever Programme. This programme was started to highlight the importance of educating gamers and youth alike on responsible and healthy gaming. Students from six participating schools will be awarded their Young Cyber Wellness Achiever Awards for completing a set number of tasks concerning cyber wellness. These tasks aim to impart life skills to the students with emphasis placed on communication, and stress, time and people management. The best of their works will also be showcased at *SCAPE’s Cache on Level 5. The *SCAPE Cache will also serve as a Rest Area for gamers who are attending the overnight LAN parties.
The final award ceremony is a truly unique one. The Digital Youth Awards (DYA) will be combining a celebration of excellence in gaming with other achievements in the field of robotics and music. Fresh from six months of activities at the Shanghai World Expo anchored by our Swedish partner Dreamhack in the Swedish pavilion, the game segment of DYA will come to Singapore for the first time ever at SGF, and will feature the grand finals of a worldwide Heroes of Newerth tournament. This tournament has traversed many countries, and the finals will feature the best of all participating players – a total of six international and two local teams fighting for e-Sports glory at Singapore GameFEST for the grand prize of US$10,000.
But that’s not all the Digital Youth Awards are celebrating. They also recognise that courage marks a gamer especially in the face of adversity, and will be donating $8000 via the Make-A-Wish foundation to send Gabriel, a 10 year old with germ cell tumours, to Disneyland Hong Kong together with his family.
Apart from the DYA finals, there will be other tournaments at SGF. The EPIC e-Sports Convention is a series of tournaments organised by People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM), and will feature the following games: DotA, StarCraft II, Blackshot, and Super Street Fighter IV. The EPIC e-Sports Convention Finals will be held on the final two days of SGF.
Contrary to popular belief, gamers do not game in isolation – each gamer is part of a bigger social graph, and EPIC is a community building partnership that aims to connect and strengthen ties between different gaming communities as well as the wider community at large. A stronger community translates into a stronger nation, and likewise, a competitive community also makes for a competitive nation. This commitment to competitive gaming excellence is proudly brought to you by the Telok Blangah Community Centre Youth Club.
One of SCOGA’s main objectives for organising SGF is to engage with local gaming communities. This has been part of our mission from the start. This explains our partnership with Telok Blangah Community Centre Youth Club and why we are actively engaging the various communities online. We are proud to announce that SGF will see a myriad of community activities, from the cosplay community having their own community event called the SGcafe Cosplay Party, to the arcade community with the Rampage Series Tournament, where celebrity players of Super Street Fighter 4 will be matched up against the public. Approximately 200 to 300 attendees and participants are expected. Community registrations are ongoing for this.
The wide variety of games that SGF offers will appeal to an entire spectrum of gamers with different skills and preferences, and activities are in store for casual and community-focused gamers at the overnight Gamers’ LAN Party with a casual StarCraft II 4v4 tournament and World of Warcraft timed raids. Community registrations for these are ongoing, with an estimated total of 80 attendees. Spending an entire night without sleep might not be the healthiest of things, but with cyber wellness as a priority, gamers can take a break with Kit Kat by Nestle should they feel peckish, and take a rest at the Cache on Level 5 of *SCAPE .
While not the first of its kind to be held in Singapore, the Gamers’ Party aims to be the best. The event will double up as a social platform for seasoned gamers to connect, and for newcomers to immerse themselves in the local gaming culture.
Arcade game fans of JuBeat and Taiko Drum Master can also look forward to activities at the festival. Turnout is expected to number 300, while there have been over 100 signups for the competition. Community registrations are ongoing for this as well.
Local game publishers IAH Games will also be hosting some ad-hoc and casual competitions centred on Dragonica, Fifa Online 2 and CounterStrike Online. The star of IAH’s show is definitely the Dragonica competition, which will be held in a 5v5 PvP format.
StarHub will be making an appearance as well, with the launch of its Games Store on 25th November. Its partners include industry players like Microsoft, Asiasoft and IAH Games, so visitors will be in for a treat.
Dragonfly Interactive’s Special Force will be at SGF too. There will be mini games crafted around Special Force and other Dragonfly published titles like Quake Wars Online; be sure to pick up promotional bundle deals only available at the SGF booth! Gamers will also be able to pit their skill against one another in a Special Force Feature. Players will stand to win collectibles and goodie bags.
Last but not least, there is the launch of the Singapore Game Box Inter-Tertiary Challenge (SGGB ITC). The Singapore Game Box is a joint initiative of Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and aims to showcase made-by-Singapore games. It was also intended to help developers create better games by connecting them with gamers for feedback. SCOGA has adopted the Singapore Game Box and will showcase the five selected games for the SGGB ITC at the SGGB ITC launch at SGF. The SGGB ITC itself will run every Saturday from 11th December all the way to March 2011.
The games selected for competition are Straw Hat Samurai 2, Tactics Anthem Online, CarneyVale: Showtime, Darkgrounds and ORCganic. More information on the Singapore Game Box, the game developers and the Singapore Game Box Inter-Tertiary Challenge can be found at http://scoga.org/itc.
For more information on other selected programmes as well as on the abovementioned activities, go to http://www.gamefest.sg or contact any of our personnel listed below. SGF logo can be found here. SCOGA logo can be found here.
Media Contact:
Reuben Conceicao
[email protected]
+65 9230 8880
About Singapore’s Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA)
SCOGA was founded by a group of enthusiastic gamers and leaders who wanted to make a difference in the local gaming scene, especially in promoting Cybersports, or more commonly known as eSports. Today, our initiatives include cyber wellness and digital literacy programmes and we have worked with various government bodies, industry players, media, schools, gamers, parents and voluntary welfare organisations. SCOGA was formally registered with the Registry of Societies on February 2008 and we are honoured to have the patron of Singapore National Olympic Council, Dr Yeo Ning Hong as our patron.
