- Game Culture Festival to be held at Everland in Yongin for ten days from the 27th to October 6th
- A new story and mission game in the form of a webtoon with the mascot ‘Hotam’
- Expanding gaming culture, from excellent gaming experiences to e-sports competitions and cosplay parades
- Special attractions exclusively for the game culture festival in conjunction with Amazon Express
The ‘2024 Game Culture Festival (GCF)’, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Yoo In-chon) and co-hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency (Acting President Yoo Hyun-seok, hereinafter referred to as KOCCA) and Samsung C&T Resort Division (President Jung Hae-rin), will be held at Everland in Yongin from the 27th to the 6th of October.
The Game Culture Festival was created to spread a healthy game culture and expand opportunities to enjoy games, where all generations can communicate through games. Various programs are operated that all visitors can enjoy, such as ▲mission games based on storytelling ▲game IP exhibition and experience ▲amateur esports competition ‘GCF League’ ▲cosplay.
◆ A mission game to save the future game world by following the webtoon with Hotam
‘Hotam-i’, the mascot of the Game Culture Festival, returns with a new story this year. With the theme of , he has completed a fun webtoon-style story. Together with Hotam-i, who has traveled from 2024 to 4202, you must find clues and complete mission games to save the game world that has become chaotic due to an error.
Mission games follow the webtoon story and are conducted in an online/offline combination where you find hints located in Everland to complete missions. Everyone, including family, friends, and lovers, can enjoy them together, and after completing the mission game, you can obtain various Hotam goods. The mission game will be operated at Global Fair until October 6 and at Rocksville until October 20.
◆ Various experiences including popular domestic and international games, functional games, and special attractions
This year’s Game Culture Festival has minimized the movement between major experience zones, such as ▲ the ‘Game IP Exhibition and Experience Zone’ and ‘GCF Arcade’ at the Global Fair (near the main gate of Everland), ▲ the ‘Mission Game Experience Zone’ at the Rocksville space (near the Double Rocks Spin and Rolling X-Train attractions), and ▲ the ‘GCF League’ amateur e-sports competition held at the e-sports experience zone (near the Hurricane attraction), so that visitors can enjoy themselves more easily.
In particular, the Global Fair will feature experience zones for the Grand Prize winners of the Korea Game Awards: Neowiz’s
and Com2uS’s , as well as photo zones for Smilegate’s and . You can also experience zones for this month’s excellent game winners: Netmarble’s and , Epigames’ , and I.M.Game’s .
In addition, you can experience ▲Brain Academy , a KOCCA-supported production work and a functional game for the developmentally disabled, ▲MapleStory World Education> sponsored by Nexon Foundation and operated by the Computing Teachers Association, and ▲Gen.G Global Academy will provide 1:1 coaching for ▲League of Legends and on site.
The special attraction experience zone that can only be experienced at the Game Culture Festival is also gathering anticipation. ▲ Blizzard Entertainment’s , which is scheduled to be released as an expansion pack on October 8, will be linked with Amazon Express to provide a realistic experience of being in the jungle zone of the game. The Amazon Express, which has been transformed into the jungle zone of the game, can be experienced from 6:30 PM when the sun sets from the 27th to October 20th.
◆ Spreading gaming culture through amateur e-sports competitions, cosplay parades, etc.
The amateur e-sports competition ‘GCF League’ will hold the main competition between four teams from each category that have passed the online preliminaries for three categories: , , and .
Starting with Tekken 8 on October 4th, the finals of League of Legends will be held on October 5th, and Valorant will be held on October 6th. Each match will be broadcasted through the official KOCCA YouTube channel. In addition, the winners of Valorant and Tekken 8 will have a special match with promising prospect from the strong Valorant team Gen.G and Tekken YouTuber ‘Appa King’.
On the afternoon of September 28, a cosplay parade will be held. Cosplayers dressed as major characters from and will walk around the entire venue, from the Global Fair to the esports experience zone, and take pictures with visitors.
KOCCA Acting Director Yoo Hyeon-seok said, “The Game Culture Festival, which has established itself as a festival where all generations can communicate through games, will be held with an even richer program this year,” and added, “We will continue to work to promote the cultural and artistic value of games and create a healthy game culture.”