Philippine Game Dev Expo 2025 continues to remind us about Pinoy game developers’ untapped potential

Over the weekend, we dropped by the Philippine Game Dev Expo or PGDX which was held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay to see what they had to offer particularly in the indie gaming scene and we liked what we saw.

The event organized by CBZN Perspective and the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) and was considered as a “groundbreaking event that united the gaming industry and showcased the wealth of talent within the Filipino gaming community. It featured engaging panels, a vibrant indie game scene, international exhibitors, and a wide range of events and activities.”

It also aims to bring together the local and global gaming industry while at the same time shining the spotlight in the Filipino indie gaming scene, letting more people see their games and testing them out as well.

Developing the Gaming Community

It’s not a secret at all that the Philippines has a massive gaming community that spans Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, just check any big game title’s social media and you’ll see the number of downloads those games got from the Filipino market alone. So it’s no big surprise either that there will be young ones who will dive head first into making their own games rather than just be a player for games made by other people. And that’s exactly what we saw in the indie game section at PGDX.

We were quite happy with what we saw, games of different genres, of different influences and based off of different fandoms. There were games that were more of an acquired tastes and other games that were still in development but looked like it would appeal to the masses.

Some of the games were obviously “inspired” by AAA games of the past even sharing the same game engine while others were more attuned to the local, Pinoy pulse. Without PGDX, we wouldn’t be aware of games like Hypurxxx a cat-themed shooter game for example. This was a testament that we NEED expos and events like the Philippine Game Dev Expo and hopefully next year they continue to foster this care for the indie game developers and indie gaming community.

Let’s Workshop that

Also another highlight from last weekend was the gaming-themed workshops that would catch the attention of any Filipino gaming developer and enthusiasts with a wide range of topics that’s evenly spread out throughout the weekend. One of our favorites had to be that talk discussing character designs in games.

On a sidenote, it’s also nice that they designated an entire room just for the workshop and seminars a little bit away from the hustle and bustle of the main function room. Being relatively more peaceful helps in soaking up all the information and makes the discussion more interesting without having the deal with the distaction.

Cosplay Galore

Of course this wouldn’t be a gaming convention without cosplayers. For PGDX 2025, you could see a great number of cosplayer turn out all decked out as characters from a number of popular game franchises and titles such as Marvel Rivals, Street Fighter and HoYoVerse titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail!

Fostering a Community

Whether its the latest MMORPG or tabletop games, PGDX made sure that there’s something for everybody. We did like the placing of the main stage and the various gaming areas including gaming brands.

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Overall PGDX 2025 was such a good show and melting pot for different aspects for gaming whether its RPG games to fighting games and more!