SINGAPORE — This year’s Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity introduces Gaming as one of its categories and at its helm is Octopus & Whale’s Founder and CEO Joey David-Tiempo. As its inaugural year, the jury sets the tone for the category and the expectations from the hotbed of gaming.
Among the exciting things about a young category, Joey tells adobo Magazine the importance of striking the balance between authenticity and excellence and elevating the standards for the industry.
This is the first time that there is a gaming Spikes and you are the first jury president. How does that feel in terms of being the yardstick for the following years to come?
Joey: It’s a new category for the region with the largest gaming population. It is the inaugural jury’s role to set the benchmark this year. There’s certainly pressure, but there’s also immense excitement about how this category will develop as gaming continues to evolve in the Asia Pacific.
How can brands add real value to the experience since gaming is very big on community and authenticity?
In gaming, there always has to be symbiotic relationship between the brand and the player. Is the brand enhancing the gameplay, or is it disrupting the experience? This is a highly passionate, protective community and for a brand to thrive here – it first has to be accepted.
However, fulfilling only the community’s desires risks compromising quality. At Spikes Asia, we prioritize balancing authenticity and excellence.
Entertainment is often cluttered with mediocre content. Do we simply give people what they want, or inspire audiences with exceptional content? Creativity is the core of this industry, so we strive to strike a balance between meeting expectations and pushing boundaries. As part of the creative industry, this is our core responsibility.
How was the judging experience?
It was an amazing experience! Sitting in a room full of experts with diverse perspectives and different backgrounds is an unbelievable learning experience. I was very lucky to have
Seamus [Higgins], Lulu [Lu], Chris [Chen], Mansha [Tandon], and David [Lister] in the jury. They did not leave any entry uninterrogated. We are very proud of the work we elevated to metals: beautifully crafted work where the technology is almost invisible and genuinely connects with humans.
How do you know when the work has reached its maturity?
You can compare it to the global benchmark, like the Cannes Lions Grand Prix, “Clash of the Past”. I’m quite passionate about representing this region because it’s the hotbed of gaming, but there’s still a huge opportunity for us to raise the bar. This is only the first year; we will get even better.
What are the standout entries you’ve seen? Can you talk about them?
This year, many gaming companies such as Sony PlayStation, miHoYo, and Tencent submitted their work – highly popular content that, as a fan, I am quite aware of. However, the jury questioned why these endemic gaming brands still choose to create passive content (films) when some of the most advanced innovations come from gaming.
What truly caught our attention were entries like the “Taiwanese World of Warcraft,” which ingeniously blended modern gaming with Taiwan’s traditional Pili Puppet Show. This unexpected approach appealed to young Taiwanese audiences and showcased exceptional craftsmanship.
And then there’s Unbranded Menu from the Philippines. This project has been winning awards everywhere, and I’m proud to see it continue to excel at Spikes.
Apart from gaming, you are also heading the music and entertainment juries. How is it like with entertainment considering that there is so much to mine about culture in this region. What is the value of entertainment in today’s landscape where it’s almost a pre-requisite to almost every output?
We chose to elevate the work that not just entertains, but is created in service of human craft and creativity. It’s not just music that you listen to, but adds real value to the listener. It’s not just a film, but it offers new ways of experiencing a narrative. It is not just passive content, but it involves the fans and inspires them to participate. The real value of Spikes Asia is that it does not only award success, it provokes us to keep looking for ways to push this industry forward in unexpected ways
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