Published Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Demonstration booths will be popping up in the mall on Thursday and will remain until Saturday as part of the first ever CultureTECH festival.
It's a unique event which celebrates all things digital, including the North West's vibrant and ever-expanding games development scene.
Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend the festival's various conferences, music events and film screenings over the coming days.
But for videogame fans, much of the focus will be on Foyleside where local companies including Troll Inc, Black Market Games and Zombiesaurus are hoping to impress as they give free, hands-on demonstrations of their latest releases.
Troll Inc.'s debut title Jellyflug - a bacteria-themed 2D platform game which has been likened to the Nintendo classic Yoshi's Island - is one of those on display.
It launched on the App Store in June on iPad and has already become a viral hit, with sales going strong and an Android version in the pipeline.
Company CEO Jim Murray said he hopes the showcase at CultureTECH can help introduce his game to an even wider audience.
"Basically anyone can walk in from Foyleside and they can play any of the games they want to play," he explained.
"It's getting it to the sort of people who normally wouldn't be sitting around on sites or anything like that - this might get them a bit interested."
Jim is also hopeful of catching the eye of the thousand-plus industry delegates who will be flying into Northern Ireland from all across the world this week.
He continued: "Because the festival is on there's going to be a lot of delegates and everything moving in and out of the place, so if they want a bit of downtime they can play a few games.
"We've a few banner ads and posters made up to bring down and the big monitor should help - I think when people see the game playing it draws them in."
The four-day CultureTECH festival was masterminded by Digital Derry, the group in charge of championing local digital businesses.
Organiser Mark Nagurski hopes it can help the Maiden City's talented start-ups forge valuable connections with industry representatives.
But he also pointed out the importance of showcasing the more light-hearted side of life in the digital sector.
"Having fun in business is completely under-rated and the creative industries like gaming, TV, music and animation are huge fun," he explained.
"We don't do enough to celebrate that. Making things fun also means making things accessible - and we hope that kind of approach will help get kids excited about working in the media and technology industries.
"That's why so many of the public events are free and taking place in very public places - from the games arcade in Foyleside to Duke Special's free gig on Saturday."
The Belfast singer-songwriter's performance in Guildhall Square will bring this year's CultureTECH to an end - however organisers are already making plans for its return in 2013, to coincide with Derry becoming the first ever UK City of Culture.