Day 2 of gamescom asia 2023 has wrapped up and it was jam-packed with all things gaming from business to play and everything in between. We got to attend more insightful conferences from studio leaders and interview key developers. But the biggest news of the day was the grand opening of the gamescom asia Entertainment Zone. Here’s what it was like.
Let’s talk games
During the morning, I was able to catch 2 stage presentations. The first belonged to Janine Campbell, Game Producer at Riot Games, where she talked about the communication practices within the League of Legends team. As a producer, her job is to guide over 100 developers across multiple time zones to see one unified vision.
Similar to a lot of what was talked about during day 1, game development and collaboration can be a massive challenge in the new age of remote work. Campbell gave 3 core pillars that every team should be built upon: trust, structure, and encouraging (constructive) feedback. She describes these as the “Collab health bar.” If one is missing, the team isn’t healthy enough to function optimally.
The second conference presentation I was able to attend was done by Kacper Niepokólczycki, Lead Environment Artist at CD Projekt RED. He talked in great detail about how the team was able to design Dogtown, an all-new location in the recently released Phantom Liberty expansion. Despite the rocky launch, there’s no denying how visually distinct and impressive Cyberpunk 2077 is. However, Niepokólczycki mentioned that the team wasn’t completely happy with it. And so, Dogtown became the result of every lesson they learned.
Niepokólczycki explains that world design is as much a technical job as it is a narrative one. For every visual element, there has to be a tangible reason as to why it exists. Whether it be as noticeable as a war-torn building or as simple as grass that grows in between the street cracks, there’s a story being told. “The smallest details make the biggest difference. It pays to be a perfectionist (sometimes),” said Niepokólczycki.
Let’s play games
The biggest star of the show for day 2 is the opening of the first-ever gamescom asia Entertainment Zone, a whole area dedicated to live shows, tech showcases, cosplay, and game demos. This officially opens to the public from Saturday to Sunday, October 21 – 22. Media folks, games industry representatives, and Super Fan ticket holders were given one-day early access.
Capcom had by far, the biggest floor area taking up almost 1/3 of the whole Entertainment Zone. One half was a massive area dedicated to Street Fighter 6 tournaments while the other was for game demos for various Capcom titles. Dragon’s Dogma 2, Resident Evil 4 VR, Resident Evil Village on the iPad, Exoprimal, Devil May Cry, Ace Attorney, and Street Fighter 6 all have their own designated play areas. The agenda for day 3 is to try out most of these as much as I can. Stay tuned for that.
Some of the other major players in the Entertainment Zone were PlayStation (Gran Turismo, EA FC, and of course, Spider-Man 2), Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Skull and Bones), and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Equally as exciting is the ocean of up-and-coming indie titles that are also free to try. A lot of the developers were just hanging around, willing to engage in conversations about their own games and what their visions are. The Entertainment Zone is a great place to not only talk about games but play them for yourself. And of course, tons of freebies.
If anything, I can’t wait to see how the Entertainment Zone operates on the full public days. I can already tell that there is going to be a lot of fun to be had with even more people checking out all the cool stuff at gamescom asia 2023.