This weekend marked the second time MultiplayEvents have brought their Insomnia Gaming Festival to the NEC in Birmingham. I went along to see what was going on.
Upon entering (and being pushed side to side by the kids running in) the event, I first walked around the exhibition hall before the opening ceremony. After a sweep of the exhibition hall, I headed to the main stage to see the opening ceremony.
There it was dark but was soon lit up by the stage lighting. I stood around at the bar to take my photos and watch the events unfold. The opening ceremony was mostly video clips from previous events and short previews of the Minecraft YouTubers that were at the event- the crowd (kids) went wild.
Soon after, there were some giveaways courtesy of GAME UK. Mostly hats but they were tossed into the crowd left right and centre, you can't complain, right? Someone even won the cardboard box that contained the giveaway prizes!
Back in the exhibition hall, I went straight to the Indies section. Disappointingly, it was a very small section, however the quality of the games was really good.
I first met Ben Wilson from Zerofityone, demoing his latest and first Steam Greenlit game, Button Frenzy. Based around Simon Says, Button Frenzy is an arcade score attack game which uses the input of an Xbox 360 Gamepad. An early 2016 prototype version of the game can be downloaded for free here. I am honestly really excited to see the development for Button Frenzy- it’s incredibly simple but addictive so I can see myself sinking hours upon hours into this game.
The full game should release this year on Steam for about £3.50
I later went around the corner and met Oscar Clark, the “Chief of Curiosity” (that’s what is on the business card) and Ella Romanos “Chief List Maker” from Rocket Lolly Games. The duo were demoing their first game, The Rocky Horror Show: Touch Me. Ella and Oscar are working with the original music producer of The Rocky Horror Show, Andy Leighton to create a brand new touch rhythm game set for release on mobile and tablet platforms in 2017.
The game starts with giving the player “Riff Raff” along with a few basic dance moves to go with the song “The Warp.” New tracks, characters, stage sets and more can be unlocked through completing missions and challenges as well as unlocking achievements along the way. Players are also able to create their own dance routines for friends to try or improve.
After walking round various exhibitors such as ASUS, Razer and OverclockersUK, and then the Retro Zone, I went over to the eSports section to see what was going on up there.
Right ahead of me was the Truesilver Championship, a new $30,000 Hearthstone tournament hosted by Multiplay on its own stage.
Of course, it was completely free to spectate- just grab a seat and cheer for your favourite players (Na`Vi's Xixo and Ostkaka obviously). There was also a free Hearthstone in-game card back to be collected, pretty neat. While I attended the event in person, I didn’t have enough time to spend it all watching the Hearthstone tournament though I did get to watch some more of it online. So I don’t spoil it for anyone, if you want to see the bracket and results, check out the tournament's Liquipedia page.
Multiplay were also hosting Dota 2, League of Legends, CS:GO and Rocket League tournaments throughout the weekend. I watched about an hour of Dota 2 3v3 games with players from the audience, It was quite entertaining. These games on the main eSports stage were streamed on Twitch too.
The retro zone was filled with “retro” consoles which were all hosting classic titles such as Timesplitters 2, Mario Kart 64 and Pac-Man. Ready to feel old? Okay well they even had Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on a couple of Xbox 360’s. I mean.. The game’s 9 years old but surely that’s not considered as a RETRO game? Mini-rant over, it was really lovely to see younger generations playing Street Fighter III on a Dreamcast.
Popular YouTube stars from The Yogscast were signing at their booth for the whole weekend, giving fans the opportunity to meet the video producers they have been watching online for so long. The signings were free, with queues that weren’t actually that long. It was great to see them at the UK based events again to meet their fans.
Look out next week for my coverage of The Gadget Show Live 2016!
Lastly, a thank you to Multiplay for allowing us to bring coverage of their event to our site.