By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

AN EXECUTIVE from the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) said it will hold its Pinoy Indie Games game development competition from Feb. 1 to 3, nearly a month after the event was postponed.

In an interview, GDAP president Gabby Dizon said the delay was due to the low number of participants who could form a group, which is a major requirement for joining the competition.

Dizon said they are currently marketing the event. So far, about five teams of three have signed up.

The event will still be held at the iHooked Café in Recto.

The independent game development contest is organized by GDAP, with the support of Intel Philippines, and the Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CreaM). The idea of the project is to entice budding game developers to create games using a set of provided applications within a 48-hour period.

The project is the third in a series of activities that GDAP, CREAM and GDAP and conducting to promote original digital arts creation. The first two were on comic book development and machinima, a concept wherein mini-movies are made using video games clips.

INQUIRER.net/hackenslash one of the event partners for the competition.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

AFTER showing positive growth in 2007, kid’s channel Cartoon Network (CN) revealed its plans for the Philippines in 2008 that will include the introduction of several new shows as well as a relaunch of its localized website.

Turner Entertainment Networks Asia general manager Soumitra Saha described their growth in the Philippines as phenomenal as over 80 percent of children watching cable TV are tuned in to CN, with their target market tuned in for an average of 44 minutes per day.

Saha attributed their success to strong content, which they have continued to localize for the Philippine market.

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I DISCOVERED this series of YouTube clips thanks to my multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla. Check out these “Street Fighter: The Later Years” webisodes — they’re hilarious Lots of effing profanity, OK (hey, it’s the Web).

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

DE La Salle-College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) is taking steps to implement a full degree on game development, starting with preparing to secure a permit from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to allow them to offer the course hopefully by school year 2009.

CSB’s Game Design and Development will be a 10-term program spread throughout the school’s trimestral system. In an interview, CSB Dean for School of Management and IT Benhur Ong said the course will cover all the basics of game development, software programming, digital arts, animation and storyboard development.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

There will even be programs on designing game engines, the building block of all video games. Creative writing will also be integrated to help future students of the course in developing stories for video games.

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IT was quite a crowd last Saturday at the Mall of Asia Music Hall, where gamers were on hand for the commercial launch of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Lineage II.

Check out this video taken by INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla, as Asian Media Development Group COO Ronald Allan Aquino talks about the Lineage II commercial launch. hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania conducted the interview.

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Philippine-based Asian Media, the regional publisher of Lineage II, held simultaneous events at the Mall of Asia, Baguio, Cebu, Davao and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.