By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Amped Games, the gaming division of ABS-CBN Multimedia, has announced the Road to Amped Fest, a series of gaming events that will lead to the Amped Fest in November.

In an interview, Amped Events Supervisor Aimee Rabago said the regional events will lead to qualifying contests for Visayas and Mindanao players. Winners from the regional qualifying events will also be brought to Manila to compete in the finals, which will happen in November.

Half a million pesos in prizes are at stake for the series, which will feature all of Amped’s published games, such as Tantra Online, GetAmped, N-Age, and WarRock.

The month-long event will start on September 27 in Bacolod then it moves on to Cebu on October 4. The event will then be held in Cagayan De Oro on October 11, in Davao on October 18, and Quezon City on October 25. The series will end on November 8 in Baguio City.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IF there were any great equalizers in new digital media, it would be video games and piracy, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Co-Director for Comparative Media Studies Henry Jenkins III.

In an interview with hackenslash at the recently held Games Convention Asia (GCA) in Singapore, Jenkins said video games have converged different entertainment platforms that allowed producers of these contents to exercise new ways to stretch the viability of their intellectual properties. Jenkins refers to this as “transmedia strategies.”

Though video games started out as a stand alone entertainment platform, with stories and characters of their own, they eventually became a convergent platform. There are now tie-ups among movie studios, book and comics publishers, and music recording companies with video game developers to come up with convergent content.

Jenkins said that this trend will continue on as more people who are seeking specific content find out releases regarding their favorite material, be it books, music, movies, TV series, video games, and even toys.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Level Up! Philippines has launched Grand Chase, a side-scrolling, arcade-style, online fighting game that can be played by up to six players on three-versus-three mode, an executive said.

The action, similar to the popular Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros, is set to compete with other similar fighting games published by rivals, including Gunbound from Mobius, GetAmped from Amped Games and the locally developed game Bangu-Bang from VITAS.

In an interview, Level-Up! Marketing Manager for Casual Games Carlo Ople said the closed beta test of Grand Chase will start in October.

The open beta test will start in November, immediately followed by its commercial launch in November.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

SINGAPORE – Singapore video game publisher and distributor Cherry Credits said it is launching Black Shot, a team-based, an online first-person shooter game, in the Philippines soon.

Cherry Credits CEO Addison Kang said they already have a partner in the Philippines to publish the game though he did not mention the company’s name.

“We’ll reveal it in mid-October this year when we start the close beta test. We’ll do an open beta by November,” Kang said.

Black Shot is similar to Counterstrike in terms of game play. Most of the controls are even following the same pattern as CS.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

SINGAPORE — Game developer Peter Molyneux, known as one of the pioneers in the “god game” genre of video games urged developers here to continue pushing the envelope of game development.

Having been credited for making god games like the seminal Populous, Molyneux shared his past experiences, his thoughts about today’s development trends, and his company’s new project that he claimed will be a big surprise for gamers.

Molyneux has been in the business of creating “god games,” which lets players act as a divine or omniscient entity controlling the creation of an entire world that can affect units in a make-believe, virtual world.

Speaking during the Games Convention Asia 2008 here, the soft spoken Molyneux said he has seen a lot of changes in the way games are developed — not just on the programming but also on the business aspect of developing games. [Read the rest of this entry »]