GameStart 2016 was at Suntec and well, at least from my own knowledge, no hijinks occurred involving any random aunties this year at this location.
Also, you probably could called GameStart as Overwatch Convention since yessssss. OW EVERYWHERE.
Because I’m biased, here’s a solo shot (hah!) of Ana.
Ok, OW everywhere and Mystic Messenger too but I don’t play MM.
Once you entered the hall, it was Xbox galore.
This year also had a trade in your own console for a ‘discount’ to buy newer consoles in front of the main entrance. That was pretty unique for events here.
Secret Lab chairs made an appearance with really good discounts and for some, you could have one a chair during a lucky draw or their race.
Yes, they had an actual chair race in the mornings where you tried to beat the timing of others and be the number one chair racer.
One day Secret Lab… One day maybe I’ll be able to afford you.
Here’s Alyse! From Game Start side, they got a cosplayer to portray her.
Ok like.
I AM IRKED BY ALYSE THOUGH. If you’ve been following Game Start, you’d follow Alyse’s journey and…
DID SHE SAVE THE GAMES LAST YEAR? She was stuck in this land where she had also Singa and other characters fighting stuff in a side scroller.
Can I assume she managed to defeat them and went back to her space ship gamer thing?
This year Alyse is tougher perhaps by the angst and fellow characters she lost in her fight (???) and then eventual “Goodbye Singa, may we meet again… in SG100 maybe”?
I WANT TO KNOW.
Game Start, please make a wiki for her or some comic to summarise her previous adventures with an ending please.
I can also write a comic for you if you hire me for it. (Self promo jio, my email and contact is on this site.)
The stage is packed with interviews and activities. There was ample space for people to chill and watch while drinking some Monster.
Monster!! They’re a drink sponsor and ok, in my own opinion though that flavour wasn’t there at the convention, I like the blue one.
What they had was their ‘default’ flavour for people to try out.
Or chill with the drink and stare at the ceiling because it was that trippy.
Do gamers like super bling rainbow colours or something?
Cause there were keyboards, mouse, mousepads, headphones and all sold and they were so blingy too.
I like.
But is it a gamer thing to have everything that lights up?
Meanwhile, Ubisoft made an appearance this year but as an… art exhibit?
It was the art of Assassin’s Creed.
Nice to see them but it was a bit overlooked amongst all the games showcased there.
Maybe next year they could come up with some showcase of some of their games?
We don’t mind if you bring your older AC games too, you know…
And hey, an Alyse marquette. It lights up too.
/whispers the guy behind her works at Ubisoft (from what I remember?) and he’s a sculptor for these marquettes and statues.
RetroDNA had a space where you can play these retro games on custom wood mini arcade cabinets.
You don’t have to be a 3d game to get people interested to play, in fact that whole section had people coming by to just spam at the buttons to defeat space invaders and play Megaman.
Next to it was a printed diorama of an arcade and you could have won a lucky goodie bag from No Average Joe if you were one of the shots that was awesome enough to capture their attention.
Which I went hmmmm and asked my friend to help take a picture for me.
AND OK I WON IT AHAHAHAHHA. That’s the close up if you ever wanted to know what’s in the bag.
Not gaming related but The Company of Cats was there with (Halal) food and cute cat merch.
St Games was next door too providing good like instant noodles, chips and buns.
Basically you didn’t have to go out if you wanted to eat food and they were actually affordable.
Going about and I got a wristband freebie of Tekken 7 from the Bandai Namco section.
Masquerada had its own booth too but LOOK AT THAT.
A large poster just for $20SGD.
Too bad I didn’t have space for it, else I’d get it.
I would like if they had book sized stuff or postcards at their next appearance? I would buy those.
Let’s not forget the indie games at the Games Solution Centre too.
Besides this section, other indie games were showcased.
By the way, there was a quest card thing happening there but I don’t know if anyone played it. What I noticed at the bottom part was that you could vote for the best (?) indie game there and drop it into the box.
Hmm, I didn’t complete my quest card and I was all “Uhh, can I vote if I don’t complete?” and thus meh.
Maybe it could be a separate thing next year?
More Armaggeddon stuff.
They had a super large presence there since they were hosting an Overwatch tournament.
This side was the choke point when the really intense battles were had and everyone wanted to watch.
Walking around and there’s an artist alley which is a big difference compared to last year.
And you can tell which games are the current trend for now…
Also, acrylic stands are the thing for now.
Did you know, even if you’re not participating in the cosplay runway, you could have won an official Overwatch business card holder if you were in the first 15 OW Cosplayers at the Neo Tokyo Project booth?
So fancy and nice! It’s official Blizzard merch of Overwatch business card holders.
Maybe I’ll put my coscards in there or something for the next event (yes, I was one of the first 15).
Anyway, here’s a panorama of the place.
Click to embiggen!
TL;DR
Game Start can always improve but woah, this year was pretty fun to me?
Cosplayers enter for free. First 300 people who came in daily get free loot bags.
If you wanted to trade in your old consoles, this was pretty worth it to upgrade with their deals.
Food was available inside, toilets too. Free Monster drinks. GAMES (duh).
And on stage activities.
I really don’t know what they can improve with at the moment besides the quest cards thing, that one definitely needs to be tweaked more so that people know what to do with it.
Anyway, congrats Game Start! You did good.
