Sonkwo, a well-established digital gaming platform, presented 24 games developed by 14 studios around the world at the Chinese online game show Bilibili Game Charging Festival. Besides the gameplay and trailers shown, Sonkwo also provided 12 free demos for gamers to download.
The festival has attracted an audience of 3 million who watched the game trailers of FPS game Scathe, farming sim AKA and 2D hand-drawn Adventure game Stars in the Trash. Additionally, Steam wishlist numbers for the survival game Survival: Fountain of Youth have increased by the thousands due to the massive exposure brought by the demonstration during this event. The other exhibited games also drew a lot of attention.
According to Wuli, CEO of CE-Asia (which operates Sonkwo), Chinese gamers are eager to play more high-quality indie games, but a lack of communication between developers and gamers hinders their ability to experience many of the games. It’s especially a case for non-Chinese-speaking developers. The language and cultural differences make the process more difficult. As a B2C company, Sonkwo is glad to bridge the gap between developers and gamers. For developers, Sonkwo provides a platform to showcase their work. For gamers, Sonkwo brings more splendid games and a better gaming experience.
Supporting indie games has been Sonkwo’s mission from day one. Since it launched in 2013, Sonkwo has successfully promoted Chinese indie pioneers such as Runestone Keeper and Gaokao.Love.100Days. In the dawn of modern Chinese indie games, Sonkwo has committed to advocating for indie gaming culture and carrying the mission of promoting indies.
Meanwhile, Sonkwo has established solid partnerships with foreign developers and provided localization services for several titles such as To the Moon, Sheltered, The Escapists 2, Overcooked, Yooka-Laylee and The Darkside Detective. Sonkwo also produced a Chinese dub for the family game Worms W.M.D.
In 2017, Sonkwo launched a program designated to discover and help indie developers around the world called the“Yue” funding project. It helps indie developers to fully realize their concepts as games via support in technology, funding and consulting.
Banner of the Maid, the first game hatched by the “Yue” funding project, was launched on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch in 2019. It has been recognized and highly praised by gamers internationally as one of the early successes made by a Chinese developer.
The program not only helps Chinese indie titles to “go global” but also “brings in” foreign indie games. Hoa and Blazing Chrome, two indie games made separately by Vietnam-based and Brazil-based studios, are localized and marketed to China by Ce-Asia. They are profound examples where CE-Asia brings authentic Chinese versions to Chinese gamers and provides professional localization services for developers. In the future, Sonkwo will continue to play its role as a bridge linking Chinese and international gaming communities to bring the industry as a whole to the next level.
For more information, please visit the official website: CE-Asia