Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Zagreb Games Week, a new gaming fair in Zagreb. The place and date were the same as the legendary Reboot InfoGamer, and expectations were quite high. The fair took place in pavilion 10a and housed several stands with geeky merch and gaming equipment such as Carta Magica, Puna Kolica and Bit Force.
Highlight of the event were exhibitors related to refreshing drinks, namely Monster Energy, Steam Coffee and Crni Macak. Along with its energy drinks, Monster had a display with rally cars and their signature Monster truck. The Black Cat offered a rich assortment of refreshments and also, to match the energy of their cafe, many board games that could be tried in their corner. Steam Coffee, as always, offered countless specialty coffees with various aromas, and in the conversation with them we also learned that they are soon opening their own location in the center of Zagreb!
There was always something happening on stage, from rap battles to various giveaways. Most of the content at Zagreb Games Week was Fantastic e-sport events, only a few places for playing games and a couple of places for playing board games. But of all, we were most excited by the cosplay competition. With minimal delay, the cosplay competition had excellent and entertaining narrators, an experienced jury and many quality cosplays.
Only two local indie games were showcased at the event, but both look promising. The game that caught our eye the most is 2Person, a fun co-op 3D platformer where you look through the camera of another player and use limited information to navigate through levels and traps while the other player does the same. The difficulty of the game is in the communication between the players, and it will definitely test your navigation skills, but also your friendships. The second game is “The Dunkers” which is a simple 1 vs 1 basketball game where the main detail is that the whole game is hand drawn and looks great.
The event lacked content that would keep people engaged for longer periods unless they occupied one of the few computers, or a table for board games, and it would definitely help if there were more interactive events and competitions like at Infogamer. We hope that next year the event will have more time to prepare, more space and a little more barriers between the stands to reduce noise.
