ESGS continues to be one of the biggest gaming conventions in Southeast Asia, with big games such as the remastered Resident Evil 2, the access to play the Devil May Cry 5, and a merchandise booth for Kojima Productions. In the midst of all the chaos, the hype, and the long lines, Indie Fiesta continues to support the independent game development scene by providing spaces to showcase their games.
Whether you’re planning to stop by, or waiting in line before a tournament, here are some games for you to play:
DESKTOP
Those who enjoy sandbox and management games, Squeaky Wheel’s Academia: School Simulator is currently on sale for 300 pesos during the event. It might remind some people of the game Introversion Software’s, Prison Architect due to its art style, but that’s because these two games share the same artist. If you enjoy arcade games, the newly released Blambox by Heavenward games was impressively made within six weeks.
Play a love child of Undertale and Papers, Please with Invert.io which offers another fresh take. You are a customer representative who filters spam mail and the game has a lot of pop culture reference, and deals with internet privacy. If it’s pure bullet hell mechanic you’d want to delve into, Good Knight developed by Baguio’s RetroFuture has amazing aesthetics with a dash of local culture. For fighting game enthusiasts, Garrison: Archangel is a love letter to the mecha genre and allows people to customize their own for battle.
International indie game publisher Another Indie, brings 4 games to Indie Fiesta. The corporate RPG Yuppie Psycho, the beautiful Nairi Tower of Shirin, the newly released Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, and our very own point and click assassin simulator, Shots Fired.
If you have more time to sit and play, indulge in one of the most successful Kickstarted visual narrative projects, Yangyang Mobile’s The Letter, and get a peak of the recently funded, Love Esquire. DagitabSoft’s text-based adventure game The Excessive: Trilogy is a product of multiple game jams. For fans of platformer genre, there is Pollie Potts, The Crop Circle Warriors, and Max and the Invasion of Alvarez.
TABLETOP
The award winning game designer Tobie Abad is back with a new RPG, Once Upon a Time in Jiang Hu, which is set to release its Kickstarter campaign in 2019. The community favorite RPG, Tadhana is back with 4 different game modes for people to choose and play.
Balangay Entertainment’s Nico Valdez designed a psycho thriller card game, Puti. The cards’ art style is reminiscent of children’s drawings. The Epic Gaming Regiment is back with RefrigeRaidors, and a game based off Berlin Magsaysay’s Combatron, which is also available in Ludus’ booth.
Pawikan Patrol by the Tabletop Traveler with its beautiful illustrations aims to educate the public about conservation of our endangered sea turtles. A quick and gateway game for first time tabletop players would be 9Lives, where you battle to become the last cat standing. Another game you could play and introduce to your non-gaming friends is Rapids, wherein players are in a white water adventure trying to catch up to the river guide’s command.
Student projects from Asia Pacific College, Datextravaganza and Love Struck highlight the process of traditional and modern dating, and the investment and challenges of building a relationship respectively.
MOBILE
If you’re waiting in line or about to head home, take games with you on your mobile devices. It’s time to relive the Everwing craze and play with your friends on Facebook Messenger, with Taktyl’s Over Easy, Egg Jump! Jump Squad, which is also a finalist at the local Game On! Awards, has adorable characters. Bacolod based Tapatap Games is taking hyper casual by storm with two games, Haloes and Pillars. From Davao, Battle in the Blood aims to educate the public about HIV Awareness through puzzle mechanics.
For those transitioning from casual to mid core genres, ThinkBIT’s Brawl Quest and Cereal Box’ Sorcery vs Savagery has some very novel game mechanics and tons of replayability. Chryse is expanding to mobile publishing, with the stealth game Data Breach, and a student led project on local food culture, Street Feud. If you want some rhythm game with a quirky theme, The Bread Adventures of Butter is a bread eating competition where you tap the buttons in sequence to the conveyor belt.
With over 40 games exhibiting and the support of AOC Gaming, there’s bound to be a game that you can find and enjoy! And if you’re looking into getting into the game industry and learning more about game developers, download the zine, Downtime Filler, available on itch.io.