Breakthrough of Bali Indie Game Developer in Global Game Jam 2014 Denpasar!

Bali, the island of Gods which is so close with spiritual and traditional atmosphere now finally has its turn to hold out the Global Game Jam 2014 (GGJ 2014). This event cannot be free from effort and hard work of the Global Game Jam 2014 committee in Denpasar this time, Bli Nyoman Darma Kotama and Bli Kadek Sudiartha are both officials and Chairmans of Indonesian Game Developer Community (GamedevID.org) in Denpasar. Other cities participating for this GGJ 2014 in Indonesia this time are Jakarta, Bandung, Depok, Semarang, Jogjakarta dan Surabaya. Curious? You wanna know what Global Game Jam actually is? Well, let’s follow my investigation in this event.

Global Game Jam 2014 Denpasar successfully attracts interest of 15 young game developers who want to sharpen their abilities in this event. Taking place in STIMIK Primakara (Tukad Street, Badung), the participants are active joining the event series for three days. This event is opened with introduction and sharing session from Bona Akbar (Slabgames) and representative from ex personnel of game developer from Bali, Dragon Games Studio. Bona’s amusing sharing session about his experience developing the games get very good response from the participants who don’t stop laughing listening to “heart stories” of a game developer. For those who want to know what games are created by Slabgames (http://slabgames.com) and Dragon Games (http://www.dragongamestudio.com/), you can directly check it.

Okay, on the first day after introduction session finished, group drafting to develop game starts. There are three teams formed: Napi Team, MAX Team, and Ana-to-Me Team. At first maybe it is a bit stiff because there are some participants who don’t really know each other but thanks to ice breaking and guide from committee who only consists of only two people, these young game developers can be close in short time and cooperate in creating an inspirational creation. It’s just by chance, the theme promoted in GGJ Denpasar is “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are“. An interesting quote taken from a female writer from US named Anais Nin. “The quote from Anais Nin is closely related with game world development in Indonesia especially in Bali which is still not really considered by most people in society. This becomes challenge for each participant, to create a game which is not only attractive, but also meaningful and inspirational for those who play.”, state Bli Sudi and Kotama.

Well now you are more curious about the creation of these Balinese youngsters? These are their games:

Ana n The Shadows

An action adventure 2D platformer game with mobile basis has a heroine named Ana (Anais). She feels inferior and unsatisfied with herself, that one day she was trapped by a mysterious witch in a magic mirror. This mirror has power to emerge bad personality in someone, Ana is no exception. Ana has to defeat all her bad personality with a magic wand and becomes a better person. Can this girl do it? Let’s help her by playing it through this link.

This game is developed by MAX Team consists of:

- Gofar (عبدل غفر/Abdul Gofar) as Game Programmer

- Rolldone (Donny Rolanda) as Game Programmer

- Danang Dodoh (I Made Danang) as User Interface Designer

- Superkudit (I Gusti Putu Aditya Pratama) as 2D Artist

- Assassin (I Gede Suta Lascarya Astawa) as Environment Designer

Another

This is a mobile game with endless vertical run genre which uses phone sensor to move the character to left and right. It tells a story about a Devil’s adventure who tries to be Angel by collecting Angel balls, but be careful don’t let the Devil take Devil ball because it makes him more evil. Come on, let’s try this Angel game through this link.

This game is creation of Napi Team (Anak Muda Tampan dan Kreatif –Handsome and Creative Youngsters) who consists of:

-          Root aka Edo Halim as Audio Designer

-          Trunk aka Arie Pratama as Programer

-          Branch aka Yudi Haryasa as Programer

-          Flower aka Orlando Nandito Nehemia as Game Artist

-          Leaf aka Wahyu Ryanata Putra as Audio Designer

-          Fruit aka Bayu Virgun as Graphic Designer

The Lost Diary and Lost Quotes of Anais Nin

Last but not least, from the last team who does very special thing by creating two creations which has puzzle genre (Lost Quote) and 2D platformer (Lost Diary).

Lost Quotes is a mobile based puzzle game which demands us to be creative making flow so that letters splash can get into Anais’ inspiration zone. This will create one of Anain Nin’s quotes in each level. Wanna know what are the quotes? Play this game here.

Lost Diary is an interesting platformer game which tells a story about Anais’ adventure in searching for her lost diary pages. Therefore she has to travel her dream world avoiding her bad thought while looking for the missing pages also collecting inspirational coins. Let’s go visiting Anais’ dream through this link

This game is a tribute from Ana-to-ME which consists of:

- Eric Sanjaya

- Sudi Artha

- Ferdy Primanata

- Leonard Bogard Papilaya

- Yana Adnyana

Last word, I want to thank you for Committee’s event  and participants who are very cooperative and very potential in the future.

Keep advancing Indonesian game developer!