Tag Archives: LEVEL UP KL

LEVEL UP KL 2022 Reinvigorates Malaysian Gaming Industry

LEVEL UP KL has been a hallmark event for the Malaysian Gaming Industry since the conference ballooned into a regional event almost a decade ago. The regional conference brings together gamers, developers and publishers under one roof for a week on a yearly basis. This year, the conference returns to form with its first physical conference held from the 4th until the 7th of October 2022.

LEVEL UP KL 2022 2
[Source: MDEC] Tan Sri Mahadhir Aziz, CEO of MDEC, delivering his welcoming speech at LEVEL UP KL 2022 

This year’s edition of LEVEL UP KL saw over 1,500 participants, 80 speakers and over 100 exhibitors from all around the world. The conference also saw the participation of developers such as Streamline Studios, Metronomik, Larian Studios, Bandai Namco and PlayStation Studios. The conference saw these studios, among others, sharing their approaches to developing industry-leading games and the techniques they used behind the scenes.

Additionally, LEVEL UP KL was, once again, ground zero for the SEA Game Jam and SEA Game Awards. The former saw young, aspiring gamers put their mettle to the test in an arduous competition to build a game in a mere 48 hours. These aspiring developers had their hard work shown off at the exhibition in LEVEL UP KL 2022 among the many industry leaders present there.

The SEA Games Awards also crowned winners in multiple categories highlighting the talent and capabilities of developers in the region. This year’s nominees and winners raised the bar in each category with many of them achieving commercial game standards. The winners are listed below:

CategoryWinner
Best TechnologyDeterminant
by Khor Chin Heong
[Malaysia]
Best Visual ArtsCoffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
by Toge Productions
[Indonesia]
Best Game DesignCuisineer
by BattleBrew Productions
[Singapore]
Best AudioRhythm Doctor
by 7th Beat Games
[Malaysia]
Best StorytellingCoffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
by Toge Productions
[Indonesia]
Best InnovationRhythm Doctor
by 7th Beat Games
[Malaysia]
Best Student GameEnd of the Line
by University of Wollongong Malaysia, KDU
[Malaysia]
Best International GameThe Legend of Tianding
by CGCG
[Taiwan]
Rising StarFaerie Afterlight
by Clay Game Studio
[Indonesia]
Grand Jury AwardCoffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
by Toge Productions
[Indonesia]
Sponsored AwardEndura
by IFIO Studio
[Malaysia]
Audience Choice AwardPostknight 2
by Kurechii
[Malaysia]
Winners of the SEA Games Awards

MDEC Forges Key Partnerships at LEVEL UP KL 2022

Amidst the furore and celebration of LEVEL UP KL 2022, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) also announced the forging of new partnerships which are geared toward positioning Malaysia as the regional game development hub. These partnerships not only forge open markets between Malaysia and other game development industries worldwide but also mark MDEC’s first steps into exploring the viability of the Metaverse in the Malaysian Gaming Industry.

LEVEL UP KL 2022 3
[Source: MDEC] MDEC launches LEVEL UP KL 2022 to empower Malaysia’s digital video game industry towards becoming the regional gaming hub.

MDEC signed a partnership memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nine66, a gaming company based in Saudi Arabia to explore and promote collaboration between the gaming industry in both countries. The MoU covers areas such as talent development and co-development.

Aside from Nine66, MDEC also signed an MoU with SEA Gamer Mall (SEAGM) to launch the Malaysia Game Fest (MGF). The Malaysia Game Fest will span a period of three months starting in October 2022 until December 2022. During this period, MDEC will be driving efforts with SEAGM to promote local game products and increase the commercialisation of Intellectual Properties (IPs) across Southeast Asian platform partners.

LEVEL UP KL 2022 1
[Source: MDEC] (From L-R) Datuk Fadzli Abdul Wahit, Head/Senior Vice President, Transformation of MDEC; Gopi Ganesalingam, Senior Vice President, Ecosystem Development, MDEC; Mohan Low, Director of Digital Creative Content, MDEC; Ts Mahadhir Aziz, CEO, MDEC; Raymond Foo, Senior Marketing Manager, SEA Gamer Mall; DC Gan, Managing Director Magnus Games Studio; Kadri Harma, CEO of Nine66

Finally, MDEC signed an MoU with Magnus Games Studio, a home-grown game studio to promote initiatives and projects involving the “Metaverse”. In this agreement, MDEC will be leveraging Magnus Games’ Metaverse to market and promote the upcoming Malaysia Digital Content Festival 2022 which will be happening on the 17th and 18th of December 2022 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

[Podcast] Tech & Tonic Episode 16 featuring Hasnul Hadi – It’s All About the Playstation 5 Baby!

This week we had the pleasure of speaking to Hasnul Hadi Samsudin of the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). You may recognise him from the many, many press appearances he’s done and also from our social media and around the internet.

Hasnul Hadi is currently the Vice President of the Digital Creative Content Division over at MDEC. He has spent nearly a decade advocating and championing the game development and creative industry in Malaysia. He and his team have been tirelessly working away behind the scenes pushing policies and connecting companies to build the creative industry. Aside from his dedication in making Malaysia a creative powerhouse in the Southeast Asian region, he’s also an avid gamer. He’s spent many hours honing his gaming skills behind a keyboard, on a controller and on-the-go!

In this episode, we sat down with Hasnul to speak about the recent unveiling of Sony’s upcoming gaming console, the Playstation 5and the growing Gaming and Creative industry in Malaysia.  Hasnul shares with us his insights into the industry and shares how much the industry has grown over the years as well as some of the plans his team has for Malaysia’s LEVEL UP Gaming Conference which is still slated to happen this year!