Last night, we were given an opportunity to visit the Synergy88 Digital studio and we got to see a glimpse of how our local talents create top-notch art and game designs.
Synergy88 Digital is the first and only Microsoft certified studio situated in the Philippines which is composed of homegrown talents. The group provides a wide variety of services such as 2D digital animation as well as 3D asset designs used for games. They have been able to contribute to AAA games such as Gears of War 4 and The Witcher Wild Hunt, which tells the level of quality that they put in to their creations.
They also create their own games with their in-house development team and publishing group; the most notable and latest game, which we had made a review on, is Barangay Basketball for mobile devices. The group also have their own data center that takes care of the rendering of their artists’ work, which means they can produce more output without waiting too much for the rendering to complete. Everything that they need as a digital studio is just within the building itself and efficiency and self-sufficiency is what’s nice about Synergy88 Digital.
Along with the tour, we were able to meet and interview two legends in the game development and design field: Hong Ly, senior concept artist at Riot Games; and Daniel Cabuco, principal artist at Sony Interactive Entertainment and also worked on notable titles such as Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and some of the Tomb Raider series, to name a few. The two artists paid a visit to the Synergy88 Digital studios on their own personal advocacy to impart their knowledge and help the aspiring Filipino digital artists.
It is nice to know that within just a humble studio lies a great amount of talent putting out world-class creations, people who pay back and inspire others to do well and succeed, and that there’s a great amount of potential within the country when it comes to digital design and game development.
Special thanks to Ms. Sheila Rada of Dominguez Marketing Communications, Inc. and Jackie Chua from Synergy88 Digital for the wonderful tour.