Tag Archives: MDEC

LEVEL UP KL 2022 Reinvigorates Malaysian Gaming Industry

October 12, 2022 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

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:

Category	Winner
Best Technology	Determinant by Khor Chin Heong [Malaysia]
Best Visual Arts	Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly by Toge Productions [Indonesia]
Best Game Design	Cuisineer by BattleBrew Productions [Singapore]
Best Audio	Rhythm Doctor by 7th Beat Games [Malaysia]
Best Storytelling	Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly by Toge Productions [Indonesia]
Best Innovation	Rhythm Doctor by 7th Beat Games [Malaysia]
Best Student Game	End of the Line by University of Wollongong Malaysia, KDU [Malaysia]
Best International Game	The Legend of Tianding by CGCG [Taiwan]
Rising Star	Faerie Afterlight by Clay Game Studio [Indonesia]
Grand Jury Award	Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly by Toge Productions [Indonesia]
Sponsored Award	Endura by IFIO Studio [Malaysia]
Audience Choice Award	Postknight 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.

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.

Business, Lifestyle, Podcast

Tech & Tonic Kre8tif! 2020 Special featuring Hasnul Hadi Samsudin

September 4, 2020 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

The Malaysian creative industry is climbing up the ladder! Since it’s nascent years, the industry has been working to create innovative content and share Malaysian stories. The Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has been hard at work promoting and upskilling the industry’s key players since 2009 and it has been endeavouring to create an international platform to grow and progress the ASEAN region’s animation and emerging media industries. Kre8tif! was their chosen platform to marry regional talent with international players.

Kre8tif! 2020 is happening on the 7th to 10th of September 2020! This is an interesting conference that highlights the Malaysian Digital Content industry. It is happening virtually now, with over 700 participants from all over the world. You can even attend it for free. Participants will be able to gain insights from companies like Netflix, Epic Games, Pixar and Disney!

In this podcast, we spoke to Hasnul about this year’s Kre8tif! conference and how they are pivoting themselves around the current pandemic. We got a little insight too on what we can expect from this year’s virtual conference! You can find more information on Kre8tif on https://kre8tif.com.my/!

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!

Editorial, Gaming, Podcast

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

June 16, 2020 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

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.

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!

Business, Gaming, News

Gaming Studio, Double Eleven, Expands to Malaysia

April 11, 2020 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

If you are a gamer, it’s more than likely you already know who Double Eleven is. If you don’t, they are one of the UK’s largest game development studios. Yep, game development. They have produced a number of games including the Pixel Junk series on the PC, Goat Simulator on Xbox and Playstation) and the LEGO Harry Potter series.

“Malaysia’s high calibre talent and its great ecosystem between governments, universities and businesses are among key reasons for our entry. We’re excited to be taking our people first approach with this expansion and tapping into Malaysia’s highly capable local talents, hoping to become an integrated and active member of their burgeoning games industry,”
Lee Hutchinson, founder and CEO of Double Eleven

As the next step in their expansion, the studio has recently established an office in Bangsar South, Malaysia. Recruitment for the studio is currently ongoing. However, Double Eleven has officially opened its studios in Malaysia with the appointment of Ian Ng as the Studio Head of Double Eleven Malaysia. Ian Ng brings over 20 years of experience in game development. Previously, Ian worked at studios such as Tap4Fun, Ubisoft Singapore and LucasArts. He has been credited in a number of gaming titles including the Assassin’s Creed Franchise.

“I look forward to building a studio that embodies the same culture and values as the Double Eleven studio in the United Kingdom. After a number of years working in Bangkok and Singapore, I’m excited to make a positive impact on the fast-growing games industry in my home country of Malaysia”.
Ian Ng, Studio Head of Double Eleven
Kuala Lumpur

The studio has been around since 2009 and was a Sony exclusive studio until 2012. The company has now grown and is expanding their global footprint to support more development. Having worked on big titles such as Little Big Planet Vita and the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the popular platformer LIMBO, the studio is now developing the popular game, Rust, for consoles, co-developing Minecraft Dungeons with Mojang and working with Paradox on Prison Architect.

“Malaysia has developed a vibrant and successful digital creative content industry over the past 15 years, with numerous international companies choosing to set up studios here. The current focus on realising the Digital Content Ecosystem Policy (DICE) reinforces Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN for animation and games content development.”
Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, Vice President, Digital Creative Content, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)

The establishment of Double Eleven’s new Malaysian studio comes after the announcement of Sony Interactive Worldwide and Lariat’s announcements late last year at the LEVEL UP Gaming conference in Kuala Lumpur. Double Eleven joins a growing number of game developers who are using Malaysia as a launch platform for their Asian presence. Malaysia’s government announced their Digital Content Ecosystem Policy which was spearheaded by the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Ministry of Technology. The new policy aims to make Malaysia the “Heart of Digital ASEAN”.

techENT