From The Red held the 'Game Aicon Mixer: Busan Edition' today (the 13rd) at the Arirang Island Hotel in Haeundae, ahead of the opening of the BIC Festival.

Game Aicon is a B2B-focused event for Asian game publishing and global partnerships. It is characterized by a seamless blend of networking parties where industry professionals eat and drink, alongside live game demonstrations and presentations. Since its inception in 2025, the event has expanded from Seoul in 2026 to Busan.

This event featured various domestic and international indie publishers and partners, including Japan's Toei Games, China's Whisper Games, the domestic testing platform Pleaders, and X-Stage, an AI 3D motion solution and motion data distribution platform. Simple demo booths were set up for indie games represented by these publishers, allowing attendees to experience the games naturally. In addition to the partner companies, a space was provided for developers in attendance to introduce their own games to other developers and publishers.

Seo Sang-wook, CEO of From The Red, explained the significance of the event, stating, "We wanted to create a space where game developers, publishers, and other stakeholders could have more meaningful encounters beyond just eating and drinking together." He also hosted short sessions on-site.

First to present was Toei Games, which is participating in the event with three titles: 'Killa,' 'Hino,' and 'Debug Nefemi.' Toei Games is a game publishing brand under Toei, a Japanese entertainment company founded in 1951. The company has adopted a strategy of creating new original IPs rather than adapting existing famous ones. As a first step, it has secured a lineup of three titles: 'Killa' by the Korean indie game development team Gumgyuldan, 'Hino' by Ungloom Studio, and 'Debug Nefemi' by Nefemi Studio. Presenter Hiroaki Nagashima, a manager at the company, explained that they plan to expand their publishing lineup while preparing to move into in-house development, global distribution, and IP expansion in collaboration with other departments at Toei.

Regarding their decision to attend BIC following BitSummit since their founding in April, they noted that the Korean indie scene is home to many studios developing high-quality, original games. They expressed a willingness to discover more such studios and actively support them with localization for the Japanese market, as well as multilingual support and marketing for the broader Asian region. In particular, they explained their plan to support participation in major Japanese game shows like BitSummit and TGS, as well as other overseas events, to help these studios enter the global market and build a foundation for mutual growth. They also expressed their ambition to create new, emerging IPs by leveraging the know-how of their parent company, which has long been involved in movies, animation, and various other media, while expanding into events, merchandise, and media franchises.

X-Stage followed with a session on the theme of accelerating 3D game development. They pointed out that while AI advancements have made it possible to generate 3D character models quickly, the process of applying motion to those models remains difficult. Although big tech companies like Tencent and NVIDIA are introducing various text-to-motion technologies, applying that generated motion to one's own work is a separate challenge. Some motion data requires a separate conversion process to be applied to an engine, and some data can cause errors, such as breaking or floating in mid-air, when applied.

Because of these issues, even when developers try to purchase verified motion data from asset stores, they are often forced to buy it in packages. In other words, to buy one or two motions they need, they might have to purchase 10 or even over 100 motions together. To resolve this, X-Stage highlighted a system that allows for pre-verification via web preview before purchase, as well as a policy that lets users buy only the specific motions they need. They also explained that by using AI retargeting and expert CS, they can help build a 3D motion pipeline within a day or up to three days.

They cited 'Maid Cafe Simulator' by Accelis as an example. While the developer was able to generate character models quickly for Maid Cafe Simulator, they struggled with creating and applying motions suited to each character's traits. However, using X-Stage's AI retargeting, they were able to quickly apply motions to each character and submit a demo version, with a release scheduled for this October.

The testing platform Pleaders introduced its IGIB program, which goes beyond testing to include incubating and publishing. The IGIB program consists of three stages: the 'Seed' stage, where they verify a project's potential and provide feedback through playtests using know-how accumulated from operating a testing platform for a long time; the 'Bridge' stage, which involves submitting to major exhibitions and connecting with industry partners; and the 'Beacon' stage, where Pleaders handles direct publishing to verify market fit.

Finally, SuperJoy, a developer recently focusing on HTML5 games, was introduced. Established in 2017, SuperJoy has released various casual games for PC and mobile. They entered the field aggressively after their HTML5 game 'Grow Hero', released on Toss in 2025, achieved 1 million users within 70 days of launch. Furthermore, ahead of BIC 2026, they are also hosting a 'Game Talk Night' at The Penthouse in Haeundae to build a network and share know-how among HTML5 game industry professionals.

Detailed information about Game Aicon, which facilitates networking, demos, and presentations for indie developers, publishers, and industry professionals, can be found on the official website.