The 2008 Vietgames Awards held by Vinasa was the first-hand opportunity for ‘Made-in-Vietnam’ games to catch attention of the people. That these games are coming soon is arousing new expectation for a brighter future of the domestic gaming industry. It is now high time for expectation that Vietnam is capable of developing online games which are appealing enough to join the harsh competition with foreign-originated games.
The pioneers
VinaGame is an online game publishing company. Its ‘Made-in-Vietnam’ online game project named T812 is now in the final stage, preceded by a one-year period for developing. It is revealed that the game will be launched in Quarter 1 of 2008.
‘T812’s plot is based upon a chaotic era during Later Le Dynasty in Vietnam, when the life-and-death power struggles between medieval officials were brought to climax. Player will choose one of the clans provided such as Trung Hung, Thien Dao, etc to play the game. During the development of T812, we had to collect a great deal of materials related to Vietnamese history and culture. Our game designers mulled it over how to transform popular Vietnamese historical tales into game features in the most novel way. We see the first Quarter of this year a pertinent time to launch this interesting quality game into the market,’ said Mr. Dang Hong Quang, Project Manager.
Meanwhile, another company based in Ho Chi Minh City called GlassEgg is also secretively implementing its Viet game project. GlassEgg has been operating in game outsourcing industry for a long time. The company successfully developed some racing and golf games for foreign clients. “We GlassEgg have developed 17 games for prestigious names such as Microsoft, Midway, etc. Experience is one of the rewards for our working with these giants. Now we are able to tell why a game is good or bad. We also soon approached the latest global technology that no school can teach. I planned to produce two games: one for domestic market, one for a foreign company. The domestic game will soon appear in 2008,” Phil Trần, Managing Director of GlassEgg is quite confident. According to him, this game drew inspiration from a very successful published game overseas. GlassEgg reconstructed it based on a Vietnamese plot. With this game, GlassEgg’s staff handled all stages themselves from the concept framing to the implementation. “My outlook about Vietnamese game market is different from that of many. That’s why this product will be unique. How unique? - I’d like to keep secret. People will have their own evaluations when the product is launched. I am extremely confident in this project,” shared Phil Trần.
Joining the rat race
Not until VinaGame and GlassEgg ‘uncovered’ their own game projects did we discuss about ‘Made-in-Vietnam’ online games. In the context of the Vietgame Awards held in May, 2006, some Viet-made games did have debuts, such as ‘Thoi Loan’ (Chaotic Era), ‘Long Menh’ (Dragon’s Fate), etc. However, according to an educational expert, the Vietnamese then-developers were just small groups, and outstanding names have yet to set hands on this domestic field. These facts explain why the final products were not attractive. Beside, the lack of financial investment has been erecting major barriers to the commercialization of Viet online games. To become a game producer, first, Vietnam should be a game publisher and outsourcer for foreign countries to gain experience.
Both have advantageous reasons to start production. VinaGame has published online games for a long time; GlassEgg has had many years experience in game outsourcing for foreign clients. However, their common worry, as admitted, is about the human resource for this industry. Phil Trần shared, ‘Game production is dissimilar because it requires both artistic and technical merits. In my opinion, game outsourcing has extremely stringent requirements. Not everyone can fulfill them. Human resource is always my major concern.’ Recently, GlassEgg has cooperated with Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University in a training programme for 3D game artists. It is solving the manpower problem by itself.
Mr. Dang Hong Quang said, ‘The main resources VinaGame is training for project T812 are selected from our current staff team. We have sent some employees to foreign game studios where they work as interns to gain experience. Also, we have Mr. To Vu, Traditional Music Professor, cooperating as music advisor; and Mr. Si Hoang, cooperating as costumer advisor.’
It is obvious that both VinaGame and GlassEgg are fully aware of the importance of human resource and they had meticulous preparations before developing Viet games. Now that the two pioneering game businesses have obtained remarkable achievements and experience in game publishing and outsourcing, we can cherish high hope of success for Viet games. The forth-coming appearance of Viet online games made by VinaGame and GlassEgg in 2008 may generate more excitement in the market and stage more competition: domestic games versus foreign games, domestic games versus domestic games. Competition would be one of the necessary stimulators for development; before that it would be early to dream about the ‘crowning’ of Viet online games on ‘home pitch.’
(Source: eChip Magazine)
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