Year on Local Games, Indonesian Game Developers Kaleidoscope for 2013

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Indonesian Game Studios dalam Tokyo Game Show 2013 lalu[/caption]

2013 has passed. There are so many interesting events both on national and international scale that involve Indonesian game developers. To them, those events must be really valuable to introduce their game to Indonesian gamers and prove that they are on par with foreign-made games in term of quality.Additionally, their involvement in those events also proves to the world that Indonesia’s game industry is rapidly growing in recent years and worth anticipating.

Other than those events, 2013 sees so many Indonesian game developers released their game. These games are targeting different platforms such as mobile, web, and PC. Continuing our tradition, we present you the summary of those events, activities, game releases from Indonesian game developers and other interesting news from them in 2013 through this Year on Local Games article. Happy reading!

January

January was started by the good news from Toge Productions’ HQ. One of their games, Infectonator 2, was named as Best Game of 2012 by Armor Games. Not only that, the game also grabs another title, Best Action Game. Other than Infectonator 2, Indonesia also represented through Evilgeddon Spooky Max (developed by Firebeast) which was nominated in Shooting Game category. Regrettably, Best Shooting Game title goes to other game, Strike Force Heroes.

Other great news comes from DreadOut which was developed by Digital Happiness. This game – often discussed by both domestic and international gamers – shown what they are capable of by entering Steam Greenlight’s Top 100. In related news, Binus University – an Indonesian university – opened Game Application and Technology major to accommodate Indonesian youths that wanted to enter game developing world. The major’s learning focuses are game art, game design, and game programming. Last but not least, there is Garuda Riders – interactive comics made in Indonesia – debuting internationally by entering iTunes Japan market.

January was also chosen by several Indonesian game developers to release their game. There are Cute Kill by TouchTen Games, Beneath the Well by Own Games siblings, also Hungry Oni by Futuretro Studios (created by Ferdi Trihadi and Andrzej Zamoyski, who formerly is the game designer at Lionhead Studios).

February

February becomes a remarkable month for TouchTen Games since one of their games, Infinite Sky, was successfully entering international market. Specifically, this game is entering Chinese market through a partnership with a Chinese game publisher, Yodo1. By this market penetration, TouchTen changed the game title to Sky Beauty and add social features by integration option to China’s most popular social network, such as Weibo and QQ.

Other good news comes from DreadOut confirming that they were ready to implement voice acting in two languages, Bahasa Indonesia and English. Amber Lee Connors was chosen by Digital Happiness as the voice actor for the game. Amber Lee Connors is no stranger to voice acting since she has many experiences under her belt such as voice acting as Ginger, the female protagonist in Dust: An Elysian Tale and doing voice acting for Toge Productions’ Planetary Conflict.

Following Binus University’s footstep in opening game developing major, the biggest polytechnic in Indonesia, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya (PENS), also opened game technology major. February also marked the start of INAICTA 2013 with the theme Teknokrasi: Nation of Possibilities.

From Flash Gaming Summit 2013, the year also becomes the substantiating time for 3 Made in Indonesia games that named as the finalists. Those games are Infectonator 2 and Relic of War from Toge Productions, also Pirateers! from Labu Games. Each games was named as finalists in different categories.

Infectonator 2 was nominated for Best Cross-Platform Game, Relic of War was nominated for Best Sound Design while Pirateers! was nominated for Best Shooter Game.

Last but not least, several new games created by Indonesian game developer also released on February such as new episodes for Titok dan Kawan-kawan by Agate Jogja and Legend of Majumaru from Altermyth which was released for Blackberry 10.

March

Two events held in March are similar in theme and goals, to contribute in Indonesia’s game industry development. The events are Gamechanics Talk and Game Indonesia Bersinergi. In Gamechanics Talk, everyone agreed thatserious game and gamification is the answer in determining Indonesia’s game industry direction in the future. Meanwhile Game Indonesia Bersinergi – organized by Duniaku Network and Binus University – invites all Indonesia’s game industry stakeholders such as academics, government, game developer, game publisher, and media to synergize in order to create a brighter future for Indonesia’s game industry.

March also a month full of pride for two Indonesian game developers, Agate Studio and ArtLogic Games. Both developers successfully form a partnership with international published. Agate Studio works with Chillingo – EA’s subsidiary – to release Up in Flames while ArtLogic Games partnered with Gamenauts to release Castle Champions. Tinker Games’ much anticipated INheritage: Boundary of Existence, also shown its existence by releasing new trailers and details.

Several developers chosen March as the month to release their creations, starting from interactive comic The Adventures of Wanara: Garuda Riders releasing its second volume titled The Chosen One, Alegrium that expands its Icon Pop dynasty by releasing dengan Icon Pop Brand, Agate Jogja releasing new episodes for Titok dan Kawan-kawan by the title Titok: Menerjang Meteor, also Slab Games that released a lighthearted game titled Klompencapir (yep, THAT mega-famous quiz from our childhood).

April

On April, Digital Happiness starts responding to gamers’ curiosity on DreadOut by releasing its demo version.  At the same time with the demo release, Digital Happiness also confirmed DreadOut’s crowdfunding campaign at IndieGogo. Digital Happiness set USD 25,000 as the target fund to fully develop this game.

Other great news of the month comes from Toge Production who managed to grab The Mochis in Flash Gaming Summit 5. Infectonator 2 fromToge Productions awarded as the Best Cross Platform Game, beating two other nominees(Paladog from Fazecat and Bloons Tower Defense 5 from Ninja Kiwi). Although there are three Indonesian games nominated, only Infectonator 2 brings home the award. Two other Indonesian games, Relic of War which also developed by Toge Productions and Pirateers! From Labu Games didn’t succeed.

TouchTen Games who formerly focused on game development expanding to game publishing business. April saw two Tinker Games creations, PAWS! Cat Attack and Soccer Girl Adventure, release in iTunes as themark of TouchTen debut as game publisher. Gempon.net, A WAP game portal, was introduced on April. This game portal offers a wide array of WAP game that can be played for free from our phone.

Several developers also chose this month to publish their creation, such as Chocoarts released Keto Fantasy for Nokia,Agate Studio released Perang Mistis (Mystical War) for Gempon, and Own Games partnering with Project Pop to release Power Pop.

May

There are so many international events, where Indonesian developers participated in, were held this month such as Casual Connect Asia 2013, Nikkei Game Networking Jakarta 2013 and Game Developer Gathering 2013. During Casual Connect Asia 2013, several Indonesian game industry players were invited to share their experience during the three-day conference. Stefan Damasena – Alegrium CEO and Ihsan Wahab – Altermyth Director of Publishing were spoken at the first day while Rachmad Imron – DreadOut’s Game Producer, Anton Soeharyo – TouchTenCEO, Wimindra Lee-Creative Director of Agate Studio and Jason Christian-UMN Game Development Club Chairman at the third day.

Other than giving speech, several Indonesian game developers also participated in Indie Showcase, such as Tanoshii Studio with Garata, ArtLogic Games with Castle Champions, Toge Productions with Infectonator 2 and Infectonator for mobile, Agate Studio with Valthirian Arc 2, Digital Happiness with DreadOut, Ant Pixel Studio with Duelers, UMN Game Development Club with its members’ game creations, Dragon Game Studio with Balified-Word Game of The Gods, and Menara Games with Momomayhem.

The second event, Game Developer Gathering 2013, was presented in a slightly different format with the previous event. In Game Developer Gathering 2013, conference was divided into three classes with different themes. Game Developer Gathering 2013’s main focus is not only in the material shared in the classes. In the corridors, the visitors can see Indonesian game developers’ creation. The games ranged from prototype games, games ready to be launched, or games that already successfully launched in the market. There are many Indonesian developers participating in the showcase, such as Toge Productions, TouchTen Games, Altermyth, Anantarupa Studios, Mintsphere, Digital Happiness, Agate Studio, Little Giant World, UlinGameworks, even Binus University students with their game prototype game.

Meanwhile in Nikkei Game Networking Jakarta, several Japanese game developers introduce their strategy to partnering with and entering Asian market. One of the publishers is Square Enix who confirmed their latest studio in Surabaya, named Square Enix Smileworks.

The month May also the time where Digital Happiness happily announced that they have reached the targeted fund at IndieGogo and they can continue developing DreadOut. Several games released on May, such as Zico The Official Game (by TouchTen Games), Icon Pop Song (by Alegrium), Nuclear Outrun for iOS – a remake of a flash game (by Nightspade who partnered with Gamenauts and Malaysian developer Nerdook Production), also INheritage: Boundary of Existence for iOS (by Tinker Games).

June

After confirmed during Nikkei Game Networking Jakarta 2013, June 2013 saw the launch of Square Enix Smileworks in Surabaya. Square Enix also partnered with a Bandung-based developer, Agate Studio, to open Sengoku Ixa game service in Indonesia. Altermyth Pandawa also adds merriment to this month by launched a mobile game portal based on Google Play and Apple Store which was called Nampol: Mainan Jempol.

DreadOut, which previously had reached the funding target at IndieGogo, continued its success story by entering Steam Greenlight. This means DreadOut is officially marketed through Steam, the world’s biggest PC game platform. June also utilized by ArtLogic Games, who released The Bravest Hunter for Flash platform.

July

Rock Star Dev 2013 was held to accommodate the startup companies in game developing and technology. The event was consisted of a string of activities where there chosen 10 best developers, named asRock Star Developers, both professional and rookies.

Great news in this month also comes from Solite Studio that represents Indonesia at Microsoft Imagine Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia. Through their game, Save the Hamsters, Madura-based Solite Studio that consists of Asadullohil Ghalib Kubat (Team Leader), Miftah Alfian Syah (Programmer), Tony Wijaya (Graphic Designer) and Mukhammad Bagus Muslim (Game Designer) grabs the 2^nd winner title from the event.

July also marked the start of Closed Beta service of Sengoku Ixa, a collaboration game from Agate Studio and Square Enix. In this month, a Bandung-based developer, Ekuator Games, tried their luck in crowdfunding at Kickstarter for their game, Celestian Tales: Old North. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the targeted fund thus making the game development delayed.

August

On August, Indonesia was visited by one of the top game developer and publisher from Japan, Namco Bandai. Namco was represented by Kanako Okura, Daisuke Omori, Makoto Asanuma and Shin Unozawa while Shinri Endo and Hitoshi Nakamura of Nikkei and Yoko Takebe also present as translator. The purpose of the visit is to study the game market in Indonesia and open the opportunity for partnership with Indonesian developers and game publishers.

In this month, several developers released their game for the market, such as Agate Studio that officially released Sengoku Ixa, their collab game with Square Enix and TouchTen Games that released Ramen Chain through a ramen eating competition. I Play All Day Studio also released their beat ‘em up game, Kung Fu Quest: The Jade Tower.

At the end of August, INAICTA 2013 was officially opened. This event offers so many different experiences to choose for two days run at the Assembly Hall and Lower Lobby of Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan. More than 100 ICT works chosen and the nominators were shown to public. Several ICT industry experts gave speech on conferences and taught some subjects at workshops during the two day event. This event also utilized by Indonesian game developers to showcase their creations to the event visitors through Duniaku INAICTA Showcase and Duniaku INAICTA Showoff. Several developers participating this year are Digital Happiness, Agate Studio, Creacle, TouchTen Games, and Amagine Interactive.

September

September was started with the second day of INAICTA 2013. During the two days event, there are many interesting topic covered by the conferences such as “Memasuki Industri Game Di Indonesia” (Entering Indonesia’s Game Industry) by Wong Lok Dien, Altermyth CEO. INAICTA 2013 also announces the winners for each game category. The winner for Advergames is Cerebrovit Academy from Agate Studio, Edugames won by Educa Studio’s Marbel while the Game category won by Own Games’ Own Pet Dragon.

The next much-anticipated event is Indonesia Game Show 2013 in Jakarta. Other than games from publishersshowcase, several Indonesian developers also showcasing their creations. The developers participating are Agate Studio, Amagine Interactive, Mintsphere, TouchTen Games and Altermyth. This event also becomes the venue to announce Game Developer Award 2013, an appreciation for game developers.

Another major event happening on September is JGJ48 or Jogja Game Jam 48 Hours in Jogjakarta. As hinted from the event name, this game jam requires participants to be able to create a game from scratch to finish in a mere 48 hours. Also, Kreon – a major MMO game publisher – held a mobile game developing competition for Indonesian game developers titled Gemfest 2013.

Last but not least on September 2013, Indonesian developers are once again invited to participate in Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2013. Other than a special booth called Indonesia Game Studio with five Indonesian game developers in it (Altermyth, Agate Studio, Artoncode Indonesia, TouchTen Games andToge Productions), Indonesian game developers also represented during Asia Game Bussiness Summit discussion panel themed “Sudden Rise of the Game Market in Asia”. Wong Lok Dien, AltermythCEO, had the honor to represent Indonesia in the discussion.

October

GAT Festival 2013 held by Game Application and Technology major of Binus University opened October 2013. October also saw another installment of Duniaku Checkpoint, a talkshow titled Play in The Global Market. The event presents top Indonesian game developers as the speakers, such as Dien Wong (Altermyth), Indra Gunawan (Artoncode), Anton Soeharyo (Touchten), and Arief Widhiyasa (Agate Studio).

The next event is Lyto Game Festival where Lyto introduces Lyto Mobi, a new mobile gaming platform for Indonesian gamers. One of the games prepared for this platform isArtoncode Indonesia’s Faunia Paw! which previously won Game Developer Award 2013 at IGS 2013. Mid-month, Jogja Game Session Meetup was held in Jogja to gather all Jogja-based game studios and developers in a forum.

Other October news are the registration start for Mobile Games Developer War 5 held by Nokia and a fake version of TouchTen’s Ramen Chain surfaced at Google Play Store. Lastly, the new releases of this month are Studio Selamat Pagi’s Berangkat! #Streetfood with the ambition to introduce Surabaya’s delicacies and Infectonator: Hot Chase was released by Toge Production for mobile platform.

Whoops, one more thing! To celebrate the Youth Pledge on 28 Oktober 2013, Duniaku talks with several young Indonesian game developers about their thought on Youth Pledge, such as Mahdi Bashroni Rizal, Fandry Indrayadi, Arief Widhiyasa and Eldwin Viriya.

November

One of the events worth noting on November is Pekan Produk Kreatif Indonesia (PPKI) 2013 which were held on the last week of November 2013. One of its highlight is a talkshow on interactive game, taking the theme “Connecting the Puzzle to Create a Better Game Industry”. In this talkshow, we have the chance to discuss the theme with Marlin Sugama (Main Studios), Arief Widhiyasa (Agate StudioCEO), Dien Wong (Altermyth CEO), KrisAntoni (Toge Productions CEO), Anton Soeharyo (Touchten Games CEO), and Ami Raditya of Duniaku.net.

Other November news is the release of Gemstore, a new mobile gaming platform by Kreon Mobile. Gemstore was planned to be one of the main platform used by Indonesian game developers who wanted to publish their mobile game. Two Gemfest 2013 winners, Luminov and Powerof2, are ready to launch their game, Wafer Factory and GoGoGong, through Gemstore. Luminov also released a game titled Tooth Invaders, a collaboration project with a major toothbrush and toothpaste brand in Indonesia.

Other interesting news comes from Tinker Games who successfully entering Japanese game market through INheritage. The Japanese version was available since 12 November 2013 on iTunes. There was no gameplay or storyline change, only name change (Inheritēji or Inheritēji Lite) and the language localization to be better understood by Japanese gamers.

November also saw Toge Productions’ phenomenal collaboration project with Iris Worldwide called Taman Anggrek Monsters. Taman Anggrek Monsters is a social interaction showcase on the giant LED screen at Taman Anggrek mall. This interactive LED screen was awarded as The World’s Largest LED Illuminated Façade by Guinness World of Record.

The end of the year is nearing, yet developers are still busy churning out games. November releases are Eremidia: Dungeon!, a crossover RPG by Enthrean Guardian and RPG Maker Indonesia, Cosmo Ship by Elago Tech, The Adventures of Wanara’s game version called Astra Mantra by Elven Games, and Majapahit Online Kshatriya Varna by Anantarupa Studios.

December

Several great events happened this month, one of it is game developing workshop held by Altermyth. What makes it different is the participant, since they aged 8 to 14. There’s also Surabaya Animation and Game Expo (SAGE) 2013, where a game developing competition was held for middle high and high school students. Other than competition, SAGE 2013 also presents a seminar on game developing, where Radik of Elven Games participates as the speaker, and showcase from Game Developer Arek Suroboyo (GADAS), a Surabaya-based game developer community.

Other happy news comes from TouchTen Games who scores funding from Japan, CyberAgent Ventures to be exact. This means TouchTen Games no longer merely develop games, but also develop a game platform that can be played worldwide. Mobile Games Developer War 5 also announced the winners at the month, where Own Games and Floo Games won Professional and Rookie category, respectively. DreadOut also released its latest trailer on December, alongside a comic (in collaboration with CAB).

December game releases? Oray Studios and Inmotion Digital’s Angkot the Game: Kudatang Lagi, ArtLogic Games’ Sugar Tales, Toge Productions’ Infectonator Survivors: Christmas, Educa Studio’s CERI (Cerita Anak Interaktif), and Agate Studio’s Valthirian Arc 2.

Go Indonesian game developers! Hopefully the next year we can see more creative games and more –national and international – success!