Vietnam

Example of video games created by Vietnam developers

According to an article from RMIT University, Vietnam emerged as one of the significant players in the Video Game Industry, boasting one of the largest markets. The article mentioned that in the year 2020, the total revenue generated by Video Game Industry in Vietnam is approximately $530 Million. . Additionally, according to VIRESA's reports, a significant portion of gamers, amounting to 85%, engaged in online gaming originated from Vietnam. Most of Vietnam Video Game Industry focused on PC games and Mobile games . Game studios in Vietnam are primarily recognized for their outsourcing services and extensive collaboration with studios beyond Southeast Asia.

Due to the increasing popularity of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), numerous game studios in Vietnam have created games that leverage this technology, resulting in revenue growth for these studios. The adoption of DLT has enabled these games to generate significant income, bringing in thousands of dollars through innovative features and functionalities provided by the technology .

## Game Development History

### The Origin(2003-2008)

#### Rise of VinaGame Game Studio / VNG Game Studio

VinaGame Corporation or VNG Corporation is a vietnamese technology company specialized in digital content and online entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce. The company founded in 9th September 2004 by two founder Lê Hồng Minh and Bryant Pelz. Their first step on video game industry is publishing games for local audiences . In 2003, VNG Corporation collaborated with Tencent Games to release MMORPG game based on Vietnam culture called Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ / Swordsman Online.

Lê Hồng Minh saw the potential of Vietnam games rise from Vietnamese game developer. The quick popularization of Swordsman Online caused Founder of VNG Corporation Lê Hồng Minh, to start a new project named T812 which later known as Thuận Thiên Kiếm / Phoenix Dynasty Online. The project was developed by part of a team from VNG Corporation under the name South Studio. While some parts of the team working on T812, other team is working on simpler game called Zing Play. Zing Play is a game developed by VinaGame / VNG and released in 2008, the game is a card play casino where players can take on bet to win high rewards .

#### MMO Games

With the massive popularity of Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ / Swordsman Online, many people worried playing online games as in early 2000s as Vietnam media considered online games are new social evil . Nevertheless, this doesn't prevent South Studio from actively developing Phoenix Dynasty Online. In 2010, Phoenix Dynasty Online released as open beta and receiving positive feedback from local players. Thuận Thiên Kiếm / Phoenix Dynasty Online is one of the first MMORPG game made by Vietnamese game developer. Thuận Thiên Kiếm or Phoenix Dynasty Online was awarded during ISGAF 2008 Software and Video Game Fair under The Best Story award, and The Most Impressive Graphic Award .

### Local Market(2008-2013)

#### Desktop Games

VNG Game Studio is recognized as one of Vietnam's leading game development companies. To consolidate their games within a single platform, they created a game portal named ZingPlay, akin to Steam. In 2008, ZingPlay launched on Vietnam and becoming one of the largest gaming portal in Vietnam for over 30 million users . Most of the games on ZingPlay consist of mini-games created by VNG Game Studio, including match3 games and even tower defense games.

Many of big Vietnam game company starts to appear, such example is Emobi Game (now Hiker Games). The team had been working on the game inspired by popular franchise Call of Duty. According to CEO of Emobi games Nguyen Tuan Huy, the game set in alternative history where the Vietnam battle against the French and the reason why the game called 7554 is because it's the day of French army surrendered during Battle of Điện Biên Phủ . 7554 is proven to be one of Vietnam-made game fatal to reaching the international market. The development starts with the team using state-of-the-art game engine called Vision and utilizing Havok's Physics alongside with Nvidia's PhysX engine . According to Emobi Games, the game will be released on Vietnam on 16th December 2011 and worldwide on 20th July 2012. The game received overwhelming positive reviews from Vietnam players to worldwide players and considered one of the game recognized by worldwide as stepping stone to international market.

#### Mobile Games

Mobile games are getting broader alongside with its market. According to market analysis, smartphone usage rise in 2012 for over 85%. The rise of smartphone creates an opportunity to many game developers from big company such as Pine Entertainment to small developer such as DotGears. In an attempt to reach the market, Pine Entertainment released a 2012 game called Pocket Army . The game is a strategy game managing your troops and battle with online opponent. Pocket Army received thousands of users download, however the game did not able to reach popularity that they wanted until Flappy Bird released on App Store and Play Store. Flappy Bird is a game developed by Dong Nguyen under his game development team called DotGears . The game received incredibly positive responses from players both in Vietnam and internationally, which has opened up significant opportunities for the Vietnamese gaming industry to enter the global market.

### International Market(2013-)

#### Rise of Indies

Vietnam game development industry has becoming bigger after overwhelming success from its successor. Many game developers and indie game developers tried to develop their own game and appeal to global market. In one instance a developer by the alias Amonotes released a game called Magic Tiles 3. With the popularization of mobile rhythm note game, the team decided to develop a game based on popular game with the same name called **Magic Tiles**. On 24th February 2017 the game released on Play Store and receiving downloads for over 500 Millions users.

Another title that has been considered a spotlight to Vietnam game industry is **Thần Trùng (The Death)**, a game developed by DUT Studio. On 16th March 2021 a teaser of Thần Trùng released on DUT Studio's official facebook in which receiving reaction for over 2,000 likes . According to later post made by one of the team, the game heavily inspired by cultural and environment from Vietnam. The game released on 15th September 2022 and receiving high reactions from public and locals as one of the successful game created by Vietnam developer, reaching for more than 2,000 reviews from Steam.

#### Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

With the rise of cryptocurrency and DLT, a team led by Nguyen Thanh Trung, Tu Doan, Aleksander Larsen, Jeffrey Zirlin, and Andy Ho create a special game based on the trend of cryptocurrency. Nguyen, one of the CEO of Sky Mavis stated the game is entirely based on a previous game he played called CryptoKitties in which he would like combining the gameplay of CryptoKitties and Pokemon into single game called Axie Infinity . COVID-19 pandemic caused the team and everyone to stay at home however the results of the pandemic creates a new currency based on Non-fungible Tokens. According to report by Cekindo.vn Vietnam is one of the biggest country for possessing Distributed Ledger Technology for 17,4% .

## Thuận Thiên kiếm / Phoenix Dynasty Online

### *Thuận Thiên kiếm* (2010)

**Thuận Thiên Kiếm** or Phoenix Dynasty Online is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) developed by VNG South Studio. The game released in open beta on 27th March 2010 . The game is based on Vietnam history and cultures. Thuận Thiên Kiếm or Phoenix Dynasty Online starts its development on 2006 under the code-name T812. According to founder of VNG Corp Lê Hồng Minh the game designed to be huge with factions separating the map and many designs soon added to the game to increase quality of life.

## 7554: Glorious Memories Revived

### Release date

16 December 2011

***7554: Glorious Memories Revived*** is a first-person shooter video game developed by Emobi Games (now Hiker Games) for the PC. It was released on December 16, 2011. The game is set during the Franco-Vietnamese War from 1946 to 1954. The title is a reference to May 7, 1954, which was the date of the Viet Minh's victory over France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Emobi Games started the project in October 2008 amidst relative secrecy. The development team used Havok's Vision Engine 8 graphics engine, Nvidia's PhysX physics engine, and Xaitment's XaitMap and XaitControl AI programs to create the game. Despite the high system requirements such programs needed, the development team is reportedly optimizing the game to run on systems with much lower hardware configurations . Following after its release, many people pointed out the game as Vietnamese Call of Duty.

## Flappy Bird

### Release date

24 May 2013

**Flappy Bird** is an arcade game developed by Dong Nguyen under his game development company .Gears/DotGears. The game was released initially for iOS on 24 May 2023 and re-released for android on 30 January 2014 . The idea of Flappy Birds starts when Dong Nguyen looked at Angry Birds and thought the game was too crowded for visuals. The idea what he propose is a game where the character is always on the move by tapping the phone screen . The gameplay of this game drew inspiration from the act of bouncing a ping pong ball against a paddle, aiming to keep it in motion for as long as one can. In the early stages of development, the game was relatively easier to play, but it underwent adjustments to increase its level of difficulty.

## Magic Tiles 3

### Release date

24 February 2017

**Magic Tiles 3** is a rhythm game developed by Amanotes. The game released on both Android and iOS on 24th February 2017. Even though the game does not tie to any Magic Tiles installment, the game is inspired by cult-classic Don't Touch The White Tile. The creation of Magic Tiles 3 considered as one of the biggest reach to the developer as the game has been downloaded for over 500 Million users. Furthermore many songs that released to the game are part of collaboration such as 2 Phút Hơn by Pháo song in the game .

## The Death | Thần Trùng

### Release date

15 September 2022

**Thần Trùng/The Death** is a psychological horror adventure game created by DUT Studio from Vietnam. It was released on 15th September 2022 on Steam. The game tells a story of a young man finding in a strange events in Hanoi, one of his hometown. The game was teased on 16th March 2021 and receiving overwhelming reaction . Many of the elements are based on creator hometown in Hanoi, Vietnam.

## References

1. ↑ [1] Rmit.edu.vn article "Game industry can become a pillar of Vietnam’s digital economy" written by Dr. Renusha Athugala, Hoang Bao Long and Christian Berg
2. ↑ [2] Vero. 2021. *Gaming and ESports in Vietnam - A New Arena For Brands*. Decision Lab. Hồ Chí Minh
3. ↑ [3] Fortune.com article "How one blockchain unicorn turned Vietnam into the world’s most surprising crypto startup hotspot" written by Grady McGregor
4. ↑ [4] ThanhNien.com article "Giấc mơ Internet mang tên VNG" written by Anonymous
5. ↑ [5] Nguoiduatin.vn article "Game Việt đầu tiên thông báo đóng cửa" written by Tuan Khanh
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 [6] Thietkegame.com article "Lịch sử phát triển của ngành game Việt Nam" written by Christian Nguyen
7. ↑ [7] Tehrantimes.com article "Vietnam cracks down on Internet gaming craze" written by AFP
8. ↑ [8] Dw.com article "Vietnam: gaming nation" written by Marianne Brown
9. ↑ [9] VNExpress.net article "Giải thưởng VietGames 2008: Game online vẫn áp đảo" by Nguyễn Huy
10. ↑ [10] 2game.vn article "Cổng game giải trí ZingPlay và những chuyến đi vươn xa tầm Đông Nam Á" written by TieuManThau
11. ↑ [11] Kotaku.com article "Vietnam Makes its Call of Duty" written by Brian Crecente (archived on 7th December 2011)
12. ↑ [12] Gameinformer.com article "Vietnamese Shooter Coming Stateside" written by Matt Miller
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 [13] Telegraph.co.uk article "What is Flappy Bird? The game taking the App Store by storm" written by Rhiannon Williams
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 [14] Thegioididong.com article "Trailer Thần Trùng, game kinh dị bối cảnh Việt Nam" written by Hà Minh Quang
15. ↑ [15] Kr-asia.com article "This Vietnamese developer is behind one of the world’s most popular blockchain games: Profiles in Tech" written by Thu Huong Le
16. ↑ [16] Cekindo.vn article "A Comprehensive Overview of the NFT Sector in Vietnam" written by InCorp Vietnam
17. ↑ [17] Thanhnien.vn article "Ra mắt game dã sử Thuận Thiên Kiếm" written by Trường Nghi
18. ↑ [18] VTC.vn article "Muốn tìm kiếm Thuận Thiên, game thủ phải… xuống Âm Phủ" written by Thế Giới Game
19. ↑ [19] Hiker Games announcing 7554
20. ↑ [20] Rollingstone.com article "The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out" written by David Kushner
21. ↑ [21] Amanotes.com article "Introduce trending song “2 Phút Hơn” in Magic Tiles 3" wirrten by Amanotes