Online adventure: Adventure games like Master of the Secret Sea are among casual web-based games that appeals to many. (JP/Wandah Wibawanto)

Three years ago Kalista Hartono used every minute of her quarter of an hour break at work to play games she downloaded for free from the internet.

These days, she is among some 7.5 million Indonesians who plug in to the World Wide Web to play online games. This tremendous surge has led to the growth of a rising creative industry.

But even frequent gamers do not realize that part of the addictive fun they enjoy is made in their own country.

Little does Kalista know that “Burger Rush”, a game she streams from a US-based website, was actually developed by creative Indonesian minds.

“It’s kind of addictive but doesn’t require too much energy. You are simply entertained by the cute characters and there is no rush to get to the next level,” Kalista said.

“And there’s no hours of downloading the game like I used to have to wait for,” she said, adding that she hated waiting for a conventional 20-Megabyte game to download.

Developed by Menara Games, the entertaining web-based game was launched by renowned publisher Game House. Menara Games is among the many Indonesian registered studios working in the industry.

“There are probably a lot more, if you count the freelancers. This is a rising industry with a lot of potential, as we have a wealth of talent,” said Marlin Sugama, coordinator of the Jakarta Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

IGDA Jakarta is comprised of companies, large studios as well as freelance concept artists involved in the creative game developing industry.

The Indonesian Game Catalogue, launched by the Information and Communication Ministry last year, includes details on 20 companies, ranging from large-scale professional enterprises with 50 employees, to home based individual operations. Most of them are located in Jakarta, Bandung or Yogyakarta.

This seemingly all-about-fun industry is actually a serious (and seriously lucrative) business. But the pie is still large enough to welcome new players, Marlin says.

While buying a gadget or at least downloading a game is a prerequisite for conventional console and PC gaming, an internet connection is the only requirement for online gaming.Kalista fits the target demographic of the casual games industry, which offers games as simple as aligning bubbles of the same color to simulations of beauty salons aimed at more niche markets (in this case women).

Meanwhile, more hard core online gamers can be found in the ubiquitous internet-cum-game cafes across the country. Here these (mostly youths) spend hours indulging in multiplayer online games like Ragnarok, the country’s first hit online game.

Locally produced games include Li’l Online Games’ Lilo Friends, Menara Games’ Balloon Express, Matahari Studio’s Cubis Gold, IplayAllDay’s Motorama and the as yet unpublished In Spirit Arena from Altermyth.

“A simple web-based game that takes a month to develop could sell for US$6,500,” said Marlin, who co-founded Altermyth only to move on to manage game projects for Main Games.

Her most recent project is developing adver-gaming for UK-based online game website Miniclick. Adver-gaming is basically advertisement through online games, where characters and items in a game bear the logo of its sponsor.

It took just a month and two people – a programmer and an art effects developer – for her company to develop its last project, which they sold for $6,500.

Main Games earns monthly revenue of at least $5,000 and, with eight people on board, categorizes itself as a small studio. The biggest player in the industry is the country’s oldest game developer, Matahari Studio, an Australian company with studios located in Indonesia. It was founded in 1999.

In early 2000, a wave of developers entered the Indonesian market, quickly gaining recognition in the international game and animation world. Caravan Studio, for example, supplies work to Marvel and the Cartoon Network.

There are those though who prefer to work alone.

Wandah Wibawanto is among them. The 26-year old was a gamer who became interested in developing his own games. His freelance work has made its mark on the international game industry.

Armed with his self-taught online game developing skills, he submitted his work to a UK-based company and ended up working at their branch in Dubai.  

“I work from scratch, from developing game concepts, drawing and rendering the characters, adding sound effects and inserting programming codes,” Wandah said.

His work ranges from one-week, $2,000 projects, to longer-term developments worth $15,000. All that is required is a computer and a lot of creativity.

Developing more complex and realistic online games, however, can involve teams of up to 20 people.

Concept artist Abraham Wongso works for one such team.

“I specialized in developing sketches for characters or items in a game,” said the man who graduated from Bina Nusantara University two years ago.

Abraham is currently working on sketches of spaceships for a science fiction web game, an order from an India-based company to be marketed in China – this is how borderless the online game industry is.

As the virtual world knows no geographical boundaries, the online game industry is a rather complex international network.

Usually the chain goes like this: a US or European company orders a game through a Singapore-based company and the job of developing is outsourced to Malaysia, Thailand, the Phillipines or Indonesia. The top of the chain is of course the one who reaps the most profits from advertising revenue, the sole income source for the free online game industry.

Sometimes things worked the other way around. Wandah offered his work directly to a company in the UK.“At first, [companies in the] US and UK outsourced work to Australia. But, as the workforce there  got more expensive they moved to New Zealand and later to South East Asian countries,” Marlin explained.

And the reason is too obvious.

“A game developer in those developed countries is paid ten times as we are here in Indonesia,” she said, adding that even in Malaysia the rate is four to five times higher than in Indonesia.

In South East Asian the Vietnamese are known for their great coding and programming talents, while Indonesians are sought for their more artistic, creative traits. Indonesian’s are in head-to-head competition with developers in the Philippines and Thailand, Marlin said.

Given the increasing number of online gamers in the country, which has grown more rapidly than in neighboring countries, perhaps it is time for Indonesia to shift from being consumers to the ones who actually feed the market.

The growth of the online gaming industry has created quite a buzz.

But, the question remains as to whether Indonesia will continue to be used by outsourcers for its cheap labor or whether it will gain a higher bargaining position.

“The problem with the online games industry is that Indonesia cannot market itself as a country,” coordinator of the Jakarta Chapter of the International Game Developers Association Marlin Sugama said.

Until recently, the industry has not received the attention it deserves.

It was not until a couple of years ago that the Information and Communication Ministry began to support this kind of industry through the Indonesia Information and Communication Technology Award (INAICTA), which scouts for and supports talented developers.

“It will serve as a space to show off quality and competitive works in ICT,” the ministry’s director general for telecommunications and information application Cahyana Ahmadjayadi said.

Then in 2008, the Indonesia Game Catalogue was launched, providing a database of the country’s game and animation developers.

It seems however, that the industry requires more to strengthen its position in the international market and move beyond its position a simply a source of cheap labor.

Freelancers like Wandah Wibawanto and Abraham Wongso feel their talents are not appreciated as they are abroad – dollar-wise that is.

Meanwhile, domestic game publishers are also keen to buy games from South Korea, as they are cheaper. And thus, the middlemen (the developing studios), which are supposedly the foundation of Indonesia’s game industry, are stuck.

“The South Korean government can afford to subsidize its game industry, thus lowering the amount of start-up capital needed by game developers there. And their own domestic market is already huge,” Marlin said.

At least Indonesia has a significant sized market. Internet penetration has increased to 10 percent and will grow as connections become more affordable. Currently, 7.5 of the nation’s 30 million internet users are online gamers.

Unfortunately, most are still playing imported games and the country has very few local websites accommodating locally made online games.

Another problem, Marlin says, is that the players in the country are still working on their own.

Perhaps we are reminded that, like with the games of our childhood, the more the merrier.

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President