KUCHING: Team Uchiha from SMK Sungai Tapang IB Word School became champion with their fun and interactive games in the Second Tabletop (Board Game Creation) Competition Kuching 2018.
Team Uchiha managed to come up with their crazily funny and interactive board game that enticed the jury for the first place spot while Team Random Seed from SMK Green Road came in second followed by SMK St. Teresa’s Team Ex-X in third place.
The champion walked away with the coveted Tabletop 2018 trophy and prize money of RM2000, while the second and third places won a trophy and RM1000 as well as RM500 cash prozes respectively.
“Cat” was selected as the theme for this year’s competition, whereby participants had to “shop” for a variety of materials that would form the board or cards, playing pieces or tokens for their games, and at the end of the second day, the participants were given 15 minutes to present their ideas and explain their rules and game-play mechanics to a panel of judges.
According to Tan Chin Ike, Chairperson of MyGameDev EPP14, who is also the chief judge, the Global Video Games Market reached $99.6 billion in 2016, and it is expected to grow to reach $118.6 billion by 2019.
He said Asia Pacific is the largest single region, with China alone predicted to generate $27.5 billion, which is a quarter of global games revenue, and in total APAC territories will generate $51.2 billion (47% of the global total) in 2017, as it is also expected to be the fastest-growing region in the world in the coming years, with total game revenues growing to $10.5 billion in 2020, up from $4.5 billion last year, even without the participation from China, Japan and Korea.
“The primary measure of success in any digital game region is a critical mass of talent. Without critical mass, it is difficult to find support, retain talent, and attract international visibility and credibility.
“As more and more consumers are picking up a games controller these days, the video game industry shows no signs of slowing down, and as such, the demand for such high-level skills will only grow in the years ahead.
“This is the reason why Malaysia has to up the ante to retain a part of that US$100 billion market share. As it stands, South East Asia represents around 4% of the global video games market and is also forecast to grow at a staggering 30% rate until 2018,” said Tan.
He also noted that one of the initiatives taken was Tabletop, a board game design competition open to secondary school students.
Tan elaborated that it is a two-day eent where students will be given a theme to work with and using that theme, they would have to create a table-top game that’s fun, creative and innovative.
“Participants would have to think up the idea for the game that’s fun to play; then, decide what the board and pieces look like, figure out the rules and how to play and design a sample of the board and pieces.
“This task brings together teamwork building skills of participants, a component in a student’s learning of soft-skills, together with grit and determination to cross the finish line with a working prototype,” he said, adding, finally, the participants would have to present it to a panel of judges who will then play-test their board games to evaluate re-playability, fun-factor, balance and ease-of-learning.
Meanwhile, co-organiser of the event in Kuching, education manager of EduQuest Education Services Michael Yii said the competition was organised for the second time in Kuching.
“As the largest board game creation competition in East Malaysia, I am really grateful to both MYGAMDEV and KDU University College to have EduQuest as the co-organiser in Kuching. We see a significant increase in the number of participating teams this year.
“This competition has opened a lot opportunities for students who were not exposed to board games to be involved as well. In fact, we have been playing board games since young, the likes of Monopoly, UNO and Chinese chess are some of the common board games which we are familiar with.
“Through this competition, we have witnessed many young and creative talents to come out with new board games, and it’s truly encouraging to see these phenomena among the students,” said Michael.
He also pointed that one of their objectives is to connect both the universities and school students through the competition.
“This event has seen a very fun interaction between the organiser and the participants,” he said.
MyGameDev is an Entry Point Project (EPP14) spearheaded by KDU University College under the Performance Management & Delivery Unit’s (PEMANDU) National Key Economics Area for Education (NKEA- Education).
The Game Development Cluster represents the start of a strategic collaboration between educational institutions, industry sector and relevant government agencies to create a High-Income, Sustainable Creative Economy in the area of Game Development.
