Young Indonesian Game Developer: Arief Widhiyasa

It is undeniable that Indonesia’s game development advancement in recent years saw a promising growth. For such growth, we got game developers to thank. In the spirit of Youth Pledge Day on October 28th, 2013, Duniaku present you special featured articles on young game developers in Indonesia.

For this round, we have Arief Widhiyasa, CEO of Agate Studio. In the midst of Youth Pledge commemoration, we got the chance to talk with Arief from on what Youth Pledge means in this modern era to what are the ups and downs in managing Agate Studio, one of the top game studios in Indonesia. Curious to know what his answers are? Here we go!

Duniaku (D): What do you think about the meaning of Youth Pledge in modern times like now?

Arief (A): Hmmmm, in such a modern times, the most obviously felt changes in our everyday life are the globalization and how easy it is to exchange information in the internet. Our youth is bombarded by so many information, cultures, and influences from all over the world. In this context, I’m certain that the Youth Pledge will remind us to always highly respect our nation and homeland, as in keeping nationalism in our heart aflame. I am sure that by respecting our homeland, we can face the globalization and taking more positive than the negative impact.

D: Can you share to us what made you got into game developing and when?

A: I personally interested in game development since I was a child XD. I started playing RPG Maker at elementary school then learned programming at high school. Only then I started to create some simple games. I was really inspired by game industry seniors at GamedevID and one of the most iconic products that really inspired me is Inspirit Arena by fellow friends at Altermyth. I was really awed and saluting the seniors that were able to create such game and it convinced me to be seriously involved in this field.

D: As a game developer, what have you done to bring the Youth Pledge to life?

A: As simple as the fact that we’re still at Indonesia since honestly we were flooded with offers to move to other country with very interesting support proposal, hahahaha. But our initial intention is that we really want to stay with our friends at Indonesian game industry and build Indonesia’s game industry together.

D: Collaborating with top developer and publisher such as Chillingo and Square Enix must be a valuable experience. What’s the best thing about it for Agate Studio? And what can Indonesia’s game industry as a whole can get from it?

A: Oh yeah of course there’s a lot of valuable things. One of it is that we can learn a lot from their expertise and maturity. The more we interact with them, the more we can learn. For Indonesia’s game industry as a whole, we really hope that experiences and knowledge that we gained can be useful for our fellow game developers. And hopefully with this partnership, overseas companies can see that Indonesia’s game industry is an industry that is ready to partner with overseas top players in gaming world.

D: Any word for Indonesian youths that choose gaming world as a means to make Indonesia better?

A: Always stay positive and keep up the spirit! Since the struggle in this gaming world is full of exciting challenges.

D: You must be having a dream that you wish will come true in the future. What is your biggest dream as a game developer?

A: Surely that we always want to make our fans/customer to be happy with our creations and services.

D: Thanks for your time and we wish you and Agate Studio a lot more success in the future!