GDAP holds gamers' cosplay competition

By Alexander Villafania INQUIRER.NET MANILA, Philippines -- The Game Development Association of the Philippines (GDAP) is holding costume play (cosplay) competition opened to participants portraying characters from any video game. Characters can come from games of any gaming platform, including PC, PlayStation or Xbox, Nintendo platforms and handheld gaming devices. Ranulf Goss, International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Philippine Chapter chairman, said the competition highlights gamers' endearment to their favorite video game characters. The cosplay competition is part of GDAP's Game Craft, which also highlights a series of business sessions and classes for developers and artists during the entire BPO Summit. For the past three years game development has been one of the latest highlights of the BPO Summit, largely due to a number of outsourced projects that local game development companies have been receiving. GDAP has been promoting game development as one of the sunshine industries in the Philippines. The competition will be part of the BPO Summit at the Crowne Plaza, Mandaluyong City in on December 2. The competition will be divided into three categories. Best Male, Best Female, and Best Armor/Mecha cosplay. Scores will be based on Accuracy, Craftsmanship and characterization. Winners in each category will receive P5,000. However, a grand champion will be chosen and will take home P10,000. Goss is the first president of the GDAP when it was formed a few years ago. He was succeeded by Flipside Games President Gabriel Dizon. Meanwhile, the GDAP event during the BPO Summit will highlight the visit of Chris Natsuume, producer of the high popular first person game Far Cry. Natsuume will speak on game development and will also be one of the judges during the cosplay competition.