I was honestly kind of worried that my five days trip to Bali for IGDX was going to be a flop. I prepared basically nothing for it, had no idea what to expect, and there weren't any buzz about it on social media or anything. Nobody in my circles (admittedly, only a few of them are game developers themselves) were talking about it; yet it's supposed to be the biggest gaming event in the country (admittedly only from developers' perspective, not players').
Eh, I thought. I got paid to go. At worst that's five days I can spend not working. I was in need of a vacation anyway and Bali's a good place for it regardless.
Well, this is now five days later and I just got home from that trip. Past me, your worries are unfounded. The event was actually pretty fun! I got a much better feel of the local game industry and, after over two years making games for a living, I feel more strongly that I'm a part of it (my shy, introverted self has always had trouble feeling like I'm part of something). I also played some cool games and get more motivation to work on my own game! I'm really glad I went.
Backing up for a sec. IGDX (that's short for Indonesian Game Developer Exchange) is a yearly event that's meant to connect local and international game developers together. It's kind of halfway between a more informal "convention"—the ones that are usually meant more to market games before they are released— and the business/academic-like "conference". It's held in Bali, which is pretty far from where most of the industry is, but it's a popular tourist destination that can accommodate for international visitors better. While it's meant for industry professionals, it's also open to the public, so it's set up like a game expo where visitors can freely try out demos and talk to the developers. It also got rooms to facilitate business meetings and a stage for some panels and talks.
My studio had a booth last year for Kidbash: Super Legend where our demo was playable, but we're pretty deep in development now so we didn't have a booth this year. Without a booth to watch over, and since my boss and seniors were already handling the business meetings, I spent the three-day events wandering about, trying out as many demos as I could and sometimes chatting with the devs.
I was honestly really impressed by most of the games I've tried! Most of them has a level of polish that I wouldn't have expected for a demo. Even the ones I didn't manage to try had strong visual identities that made them all stand out among each other. I'm really impressed by how our local industry is going... I'm so glad we're moving forward...
Anyway, I want to talk about the ones I remember the most.
Asbak (by Vivth Floor)
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2932110/Asbak/. Demo available on Steam!
I really like the feel of this, the hacking and slashing and the art style, the UI (much better in the demo I played than on Steam screenshots btw), the concept of being crushed by capitalism and forced to be a part-time exorcist, hunting demons based on Indonesian ghost stories... Among all the other action games I played during the event, this one has the best gamefeel—even if it still could use a little polishing—and the one that immediately clicked with me. I'm almost annoyed at how good it is play. I might be jealous.
Don't quote me on this, my memory isn't that good, but I talked with the dev and he said this was made by only 4 artist-animators and one (1) programmer. Insane. Oh I am jealous.
Teller's Duty (by Hirscory)
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3428570/Tellers_Duty/. Demo available on Steam.
I'm a pessimist when it comes to games that try to emulate Papers, Please. They tend to be too grimdark or try too hard to be like it even though the thing with Papers, Please is that it's a singular experience. Once you've had it, you kinda don't need to have it again.
From what I played of Teller's Duty though, it's a little more satirical, has a pinch more humour, and also has a more involved "gameplay" than Papers, Please. Checking documents and counting money was pretty fun for me; I wouldn't mind if they have an endless mode of it. The game also, I feel, leans more on the funny-sad political reality in Indonesia than the Eastern European dreariness in Papers, Please; unsure if this one is deliberate, but I welcome how reality seeps into the things we make.
By the way, the demo booth for IGDX has these bank notes for you to write your feedback on, and you can use APPROVE or REJECT stamp like in the game. Very cool.
Where is My Cat?: The Adventure (by SLAB)
This one is already out on Google Play Store, and the previous game is already on Steam. Just check out their website.
This game is so fucking funny, you guys, a whole row of sensible chuckles when my sister and I played it. I don't know what sorcery they did considering the whole game is a bunch of still images of cartoonish environment—no text whatsoever. It's actually so clever even with—or perhaps because of—the stupid Monkey Island logic. Just go play the game, it's free to play on mobile right now. Find that little creature of mischief we call a cat.
Unseen Escape (by Hikayan Project)
No Steam page for this one yet! Here's the developers' Instagram though.
This one has an unfortunately generic name and aesthetic, but it's great to play. You're trapped in a haunted house and has to escape by finding two keys and the door while avoiding the monster, but the house is laid out as cards on the table with each card being a room. Your move is turn-based and you have limited visibility of where the monster is so it's a game about making tactical risks: should you go left or right? Which one is riskier, and if it is, would you take it anyway? Very nice art and sound too, to befit the horror experience.
It took me about four tries to beat it, which totaled to maybe only ten minutes? It was pretty fun, but it also feels like a self-contained experience; I don't really need more than what I've played. The devs said they're going to make it a roguelike where the cards in the deck (that is, the rooms you can encounter) can be shuffled through play, but I'm worried that's gonna be a lot harder said than done. Well, best of luck to the team!
Cursed Legacy (by GrinSmile studio)
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1435500/Cursed_Legacy/. No public demo available though.
Okay this one has an even more generic name and aesthetic, but hear me out... I know this is also a roguelike and there are one billion of them in the market already but hear me out!!
It's fun! It's also a little slower and more careful than other roguelikes of this type: your regular attack needs to charge before you can hit a big swing that kills everything in your way. It kinda has that feeling that you are the boss that everyone is having a battle with. I don't know, I've kinda gotten used to more fast-paced games so this was a nice diversion.
Other than that, uhh, I got nothing. The gamefeel is good but nothing to write home about. There's not much of a story, at least in the demo I played. Chatting with the devs, this has kinda just been their side project for the last two or so years. Hey, look, sometimes I just need to play a game that's just plain good and clicks with me and this seems to be it.
TypeCaster (by TBA Studio) (yes, that's actually the studio's name)
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3975280/TypeCaster/. This one also has a playable demo on Steam.
Speaking of action games that are slower, this one is also slow. Enemies' attacks are slow and telegraphed, with visible gaps for you to take advantage of. However, you attack by opening your spellbook and typing directly with the keyboard. You can't move with your spellbook open and if you type incorrectly, or if you just want to close your spellbook, you're stunned for a few seconds. It's pretty simple, but deciding when to open the book and how confident you are in your typing ability adds a layer to the otherwise pretty standard gameplay.
It also has the adorable backdrop of being sort of a play on a stage with paper-cut characters and cardboard props. The story is pretty light-hearted from what I've seen; a nice backdrop but not something that gets you to play the game. It's a very nice backdrop though!
Andalas: Realms of Eternal Light (by Busy Beaver Studio)
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3367720/ANDALAS__Realms_of_Eternal_Lights/
This one seems like it's aiming for higher than it can shoot, but hey, I can appreciate ambition.
It's basically a Zelda-like (run around exploring a world and sometimes exploring a dungeon, solving puzzles and fighting monsters), with the main gimmick being that your character, this little boy, can take on forms based on classic RPG classes. The knight hits hard but walks slowly, the ninja has ropes that can pull enemies in, et cetera.
The gamefeel in the demo is still lacking, but the environment feels nice to walk around in and the general atmosphere and animations are well-done. The devs showed me their "design bible" that has all their worldbuilding and art direction and monsters/dungeon/character designs and they really thought out a lot of things. I don't think they'll be able to pull this off within the next year, but I am looking forward at how far they can take this.
Talks
On the last day, they had a stage set up and had some talk panels with some developers. I couldn't stick around to watch the whole thing, and frankly not all of them were worth sticking around for, but some were pretty insightful or enjoyable to listen to.
There was a talk panel between someone from Poland-based 11bit Studios (This War of Mine, Frostpunk) and France-based DigixArt (Valiant Hearts, Road 96). It was nice to see the contrast between the two—both of them having made story-centric games about horrors of wars—and what they both have in common. I was going to leave after that but the next talk was surprisingly nice. It was from the director of Polish Foreign Trade Office and he basically glazed Poland to high heaven, telling us about how well the game industry is running there, but the guy was so enthusiastic and full of energy, it was really nice to listen along to. Glory to Poland. May they continue to fund the gaming industry forever.
There was also what I thought was going to be a similar talk from a representative of Russian gamedev association, but his talk was honestly pretty lame. He only talked about what the consumers play, not what the developer scene was like. He also pressed the importance of alternate payment method and having local Russian partners, while trying not to speak of the elephant in the room that is, well, why is Russia's market so isolated? Ooh, I wonder why...
I only got the second half of this talk from a Tencent guy about localizing their games; it's mostly stuff I already knew in theory like understanding the local market, getting to know the local culture, but it's nice to see how they realistically applied it, like how they had local brands like indomie or gojek to have a collab with PUBG. The one really interesting point was how they were developing some way to translate player-to-player chats in real time. Machine translation, obviously, but they also had voice clips re-voiced by popular esports players, the kinds of which I'm, err, not fond of. It was extremely funny to hear basically toxic shittalking on stage.
Last talk I really liked was by Chin Yong Kian, a solo developer from Singapore. He was really nice and friendly and humble on stage and his games were crazy good to see on the screen. He talked about not quitting his day job, aiming to release one game a year, scoping as small as possible, eventually meeting with Apple higher-ups, getting his games featured, and now going multiplatforms, and a lot of other things I don't remember right now haha. After a few talks that felt a little too corporate it's nice to see someone being very personal on stage.
I hope I can get to IGDX again next year...
Aside from playing games and listening to talk I also get to reconnect with some friends, old and new, there. I also got to wander around the city a bit, found a really nice cafe in a corner, watched a beautiful sunset. I also allowed myself a lot of leeway and spent more hours than usual just resting and chilling out. It was nice.
If things go well, we'll have our game released before next year's IGDX. I hope I can still go by then, maybe to showcase our next game?
