Beyond *Escape from Duckov*: Why Beijing Playforce Is Worth Visiting

Offline gaming events in Beijing over the past two years have increasingly come to resemble an expanding sandbox map: players, developers, and investors are no longer each doing their own thing, but are starting to enter the same shared space and collide. In mid-March, Zhihu Games and Game Xingfan jointly announced the launch of “Game ‘Play Field’ — Assemble! 2026 Game Demo Party,” scheduled for April 25–26, 2026, at the ZGC National Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition and Trading Center in Beijing.

On the surface, it looks like a demo expo; but once you break down its content, you’ll find it functions more like a multi-layered simulation system: the top layer is player experience, the middle layer is industry exchange, and the bottom layer is investment and financing matchmaking. The core information released officially is very clear: more than 100 games will be available for hands-on play on site, with the focus not on “quick stop photo-op check-ins,” but on allowing players and developers to interact up close and create a more immersive experience.

That is also its biggest difference from ordinary mall pop-ups and standard trade shows. You’re not just there to queue up and try a few machines — you have the chance to feed your feedback directly back into the development process. This is especially important for indie games, because before many projects truly take shape, what they lack most is never ideas, but high-quality, real feedback.

Industry content is not just there for decoration, either. This event features two in-depth salon sessions, both requiring an expo ticket for entry. The theme for the afternoon of April 25 is The Birth of a Crafted Game, with participants including Escape from Duckov producer Jeff, Cyber Manhunt producer Jiang Xun, Murders on the Yangtze River co-producer Chen Zhen, Zoochosis City producer Tiantian, and AI LIMIT producer Yang Bin. At the same time, Zhihu will also launch the fourth season of its online roundtable series on April 25, effectively extending the offline discussion into online follow-up content.

By April 26, the event will clearly shift into a more “industry-level” mode. The morning will feature a dedicated salon on game investment, financing, and publishing, while the afternoon will host the “Game Play Field — Investment and Financing Roadshow Session,” organized by Game Teahouse. From projects openly recruited nationwide, the organizers will carefully select 8 products with relatively high completion, playable demo builds, and BP materials for presentation, and will specifically invite around 30 investment institutions to attend. Senior professionals from organizations such as Kaituo Core, Game Teahouse, Light of Indies, and Coconut Island Games will also take part in the exchange.

From a trend perspective, this kind of event is replacing the old exhibition logic of “talking only about exposure, not connection.” Players want to see new things that haven’t yet been flattened by algorithms, teams want testing, word of mouth, and resources, while capital is looking for earlier-stage but more genuine signals — and Play Field happens to place all three parties into the same experimental arena.

If you’re a player, my advice is straightforward: if you want to go, buy your ticket as early as possible. Early bird tickets went on sale on March 17 and will remain available through April 6, after which regular ticket sales will run from April 7 to 26; in addition, venue capacity is limited, and neither tickets nor spots for the internal salon sessions are particularly plentiful. If you’re a developer, you should pay even closer attention to the timeline: the exhibitor registration channel will close on March 27, and confirmation feedback will be sent out before March 31.

For players in Beijing, the value of this event lies not only in “being able to play more than 100 games,” but in being able to witness the full chain of a game’s journey from demo, to discussion, to commercialization. Names like Escape from Duckov and Cyber Manhunt may draw attention, but what may truly be worth looking forward to are those works whose names you still can’t recall right now — yet which might suddenly hit you right there on site.