Overview of Antelus Online EXPO — a video game festival in the metaverse format

This Sunday, the Antelus Online EXPO exhibition took place in the virtual space created by the «Voltep» company. And by the words “virtual space,” I am not simply referring to the usual format for such online events with a website and several channels streaming presentations all day. I mean a dedicated platform created on a server, accessible via the website https://voltep.online, where users could create their avatars and wander among the virtual stands.

Of course, the platform from «Voltep» is still far from Deep Town. The browser engine lagged, especially when a lot of people entered the exhibition. The stands themselves were not particularly impressive — a couple of screens showing trailers (again, loading slowly), and sometimes, characters and games, most often just standing in a T-pose (only Sea Walker Saga had a shark-man demonstrating some moves). Additionally, to communicate with developers, one had to manually enable voice chat in a separate menu — you couldn't just approach a stand and automatically connect. And if you wanted to play the demo version of a project at a stand (yes, most of the games on display had demos), you had to switch from the browser to Steam (though this was done automatically if you clicked on the stand in the middle).

But despite the technical limitations, many, including myself, had a pretty good time at the exhibition. The mentioned voice chat was divided into several channels, each corresponding to a stand, a game, or a community. Many have joined the festival — not only video game studios but also anime dubbing studios, the unit of Soyuzmultfilm responsible for motion capture, and departments from the Institute of Business and Design and IT-Hub College (where the video game development department is just part of the educational program), as well as several separate channels for well-known (and not so well-known) bloggers.

Personally, I spoke with a representative from IT-Hub to find out how things have been since I interviewed a couple of instructors at Bubble Comics Con. I also listened to the everyday realities and career nuances on the Anidub channel (in general, if one has the desire and skills, anyone can grow from an amateur to a professional in this industry). And I downloaded a couple of demo games on recommendation. The developers of True Thief even helped me complete their demonstration. I had a brief conversation with a representative from «Soyuzmultfilm», but that was more about future prospects — they opened their Telegram channel, where they plan to talk about projects utilizing motion capture (yes, we have such now, but it's rare).

There are rumors that even the President of Russia attended the virtual space of Antelus Online EXPO, but I didn't run into him. However, I exchanged greetings with the organizers and also met acquaintances from other exhibitions. Everyone assesses this format quite positively — on one hand, you can comfortably attend the event without leaving home, and on the other — there are more opportunities for both communication and evaluating projects right from your computer.

According to the statistics compiled by the organizers, the festival was attended by more than 685 people — precisely that many avatars were registered. However, there were a total of 2,447 visits without registration and views. Not that it’s a lot, but considering the experimental format, it’s not too little.