Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU)’s hosted its largest MADFest x GAMEFest at its campus in Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil recently. The festival saw participation APU students, secondary school students, industry partners as well as members of the public who were interested in gaming, design and multimedia.
“Through this festival, we aim to provide exposure to students and members of the public on the wonders of design, gaming and multimedia. At the same time, we want the wonderful essence of this industry to be exposed, where everyone learns about the benefits of games in their daily lives,” said Darren Pang Wen Horng, Project Manager of the event, who is also a student of the BSc (Hons) in Computer Games Development at APU.
The 3-days festival comprised a wide array of activities, ranging from competitive eSports tournaments, industry talks, and experiential booths revolving around the theme “Game Culture”. A total of 600 university students and around 500 secondary school students took part in the festival.
The eSports tournaments that took place were in relevance to the SEA Games, where titles such as Counter Strike: Global Offence (CS:GO), Defense of the Ancients 2 (DoTA 2), League of Legends (LoL) were played to nurture players and discover hidden talents within the Malaysian eSports ecosystem.
Renowned personalities from the media & production industry such as Eddie Putera (professional photographer and visual artist), Jarold Sng (well-established concept artist), Zulkarnain Azhar (Film Director of ‘JRevolusi’), Jordan Suleiman (VFX Director of Studio Voxel) and Elvis Chew (Production Manager for Anima Vitae Studios) conducted industry talks as part of the MADFest x GameFest, exposing students to the potential job opportunities available within the industry.
In addition to design skills, students who organized the event were exposed to the essence of event management. “Apart from giving us an opportunity to showcase our technical skills, by managing the MADFest x GameFest, we learnt a lot in terms of event planning, budgeting, resources managing, marketing, branding.These are skills that give us an extra value and I believe these skills will help us to increase our competitiveness in future,” said Nithya Devi Ganesan, student of the BA (Hons) VFX: Visual Effects and Concept Design programme, also the Assistant Project Manager of the event.
Leroy Fong Kien Ynn, Project Advisor cum lecturer, commended the organizing committee: “The entire event was conceptualized, planned and executed by students from the School of Media, Arts & Design (SoMAD). In overall, the students did a very good job and we witnessed them improving the grasp of time management skills as time went by. Such skills are essential for employability, and we are happy to train them towards becoming a highly-employable graduate.”
The MADFest x GameFest at APU also involved the participation from secondary school students.
Participants were brought on a journey of exploration through different realms of gaming, including Virtual Reality (VR) gaming at the MADFest x GameFest.
eSports tournaments took place at the MADFest x GameFest, with aims to spread the awareness of the importance of healthy gaming.
Students from multiple disciplines were given opportunities to explore design skills at the APU MADFest x GameFest.
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