After two days, GameStart 2014, Singapore’s first gaming convention has finally come to a close.
As you enter the convention hall, while it was pretty dark, and you see the game booths everywhere – with huge signs featuring big time game companies, you feel like you’re at a gaming convention. For me, it was surreal and the atmosphere was just amazing.
As I started to walk around the booths to see what games were being featured, to my surprise some big games such as, Evolve, Bloodborne, Dragon Ball Xenoverse and many more were available for play even before they’ve been officially released.
What amazed me was that, as a gamer, you had the opportunity to get your hands on games in various stages of development from soon to be released to Alpha, Beta and some pre-Alpha even. It’s the perfect opportunity for the public to have a feel of what’s to come in the following months in the world of gaming.
Along with the chance to try out new games, Gamestart brought in game developers from Sony to speak about the upcoming games in the near future, as well as a several other periodic events such as cosplay competitions, game previews, tournaments that included FIFA and Street Fighter.
Next up, there were quite a few booths dedicated to various types of companies that, one way or another, have done something to contribute to the gaming industry. From local game developers such as Witching Hour studios to IMBA Interactive who have done sound effects for various titles. You also had other booths such as Kinetiquettes, a company that does handmade statues and displayed a beautiful Evil Ryu statue that was just mind blowingly awesome!
The vintage game booth run by Versus City, was definitely a head turner – they not only sold vintage games and consoles but also brought it classic arcade machines for fans to play with – how could any real gamer say not to that kind of nostalgic opportunity!
As a whole I think GameStart really did very well for a convention – especially one in its first year. I could only fault it by saying that it might have underestimated the amount of people who would attend as at it got really crowded and it was difficult to manoeuvre around the convention hall.
The last thing that really impressed me is that it did not focus much on selling merchandise but just wanting the people to test out as many games as they can, this really made me feel like it was a real convention. To sum things up, I would say the justsaying crew and I definitely had a blast and cannot wait for next year’s convention, cause this one definitely left us hungry for so much more.