Narvalous Holiday Party Post-Mortem

Events for Gamers usually takes a look at larger events through the spectrum of the game industry, both in and around it. But, what about the role of seasonal parties and other smaller, more ecosystem and company-focused events? We zero in on one company, multi-platform game developer and publisher, Narvalous, through the eyes of their CEO and Co-Founder, Toni Xu, who was willing to take a look at the role of their holiday event and what they did to make the most of it.

Events for Gamers: Toni, thanks for taking time to conduct an interview with Events for Gamers! Tell us about Narvalous, what role your company takes in the game industry, as a starting point

Toni Xu: Hi, thanks for having me for the interview!

Narvalous is currently focused on bringing AAA-class to gamers and provide the best gaming experience online and on mobile.  Our ultimate goal is to complete building a game platform that can facilitates more developers to reach more audience and achieve their goals, and provide gamers with one-stop community for best game play experience, gaming discovery and rating, and player communications.

E4G: As a growing company, you hosted an event recently, a holiday game reception and showcase. Tell us about this event, what you hoped to accomplish and if you felt you did accomplish what you set out to do with it.

Toni:  One reason we decided to host such an event at last minute was to honor our guests from Gamewave, from Beijing, China to sign the game publishing license of Chrono Wars.  This is the #1 selling browser game in China with most advanced 3D browser engine.  The event has achieved our goals of announcing and demo our latest game: Chrono Wars to the US market.  We had a good turnout with key guests, considering it was a short-notice in a holiday season.

E4G: What did you learn about Narvalous as a company, and the community interested in it and your games, by hosting this holiday event?

Toni:  As a game publisher, we are fortunate to be located in the heart of Silicon Valley, with access to vital resources to the success of a game publisher company.  By hosting a holiday event, we got to gather at the end of year and beginning of another year, a good time for planning future company growth and partnership opportunities.  To be specific, we celebrated signing of Chrono Wars, and signing up the Diablo II producer Matt Householder’s new company as our partner in the game publishing business.  We also started discussion with potential partners in game channeling (Netherfire), marketing (SNK and BoomInsiders), big-data analysis (Datavisor), and connected with our investor and other partners and friends.

E4G: Is there anything you might have done differently in creating and carrying out the event?

Toni:  Plan much earlier in advance!

E4G: Overall, what are your plans for Narvalous in 2015? What role do you expect events will have with your company during the year alongside these objectives?

Toni:  Make a couple successful games online and mobile, and have our platform (xGamePlatform) recognized as the best game platform in US.  We hope to leverage events as opportunities to build our brand and network with friends.

Thank you, Toni and Narvalous, for sharing your insights about leveraging a holiday event for creating opportunities down the road.