Local game developers are getting their game on

Moving from the front of the game console to behind the keyboard, local developers are hustling to transform their pixel addiction into cash, launching start-up companies aimed at making games for websites and mobile phones.

Gamer-turned-managing director Anton Soeharyo, 26, of TouchTen said that his penchant for games stemmed from his childhood, when he tinkered with game consoles along with his brother and cousin.

Seeing a potential to sell games for the iOS operating system used by the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the trio began to develop games in 2009 while completing their studies in Australia and Japan.

“My father gave my brother and me US$1,000 each. Instead of blowing our money on unnecessary stuff, we decided to develop applications,” Anton said.

Although their first few efforts fell flat, the trio’s subsequent efforts, Sushi Chain and Hachiko, have garnered millions of paid downloads from Apple’s iTunes Store.

Anton and his partners then hit the jackpot when a venture capitalist reportedly gave them $500,000 last year.

“I initially saw this activity as a hobby, especially since I did not experience financial gains before Sushi Chain,” Anton said.

Agate Studio is another group of young people venturing into the emerging local game development industry.

Around 70 of the 100 or so games developed by Agate have been web-based, with more recent products geared for mobile phones.

The company’s games have been downloaded more that 1 million times, while their free, web-based games have been played more than 30,000 times by more than 200,000 registered players.

Agate’s latest two mobile games, Sexy Witch and Smash Mania, have been supported by mobile phone manufacturer Nokia.

Arief Widhiyasa, the CEO of Agate Studio, said that the company has grown past the early stages since he co-founded it in 2009.

However, like other start-ups, Agate Studio was still in the “survival stage”, he added.

“We have taken up the challenge to expand,” Arief said, adding that Agate’s revenue in 2011 would likely be twice that of 2010.

Revenue from advertisements embedded in the games accounted for 30 percent of the company’s
revenue.

Agate Studio, which also designs advertising games for specific brands or companies, remains a start-up.

“Our company is still too small to expand using venture funding,” Arief said.

Hasna Tsaniya Rananti, the spokesperson of the game developers at Nightspade, said that the local ecosystem for start-ups was developing as more university graduates chose to establish their own companies.

“But they still need to build vast networks to support the growth of their start-ups,” she said.

Hasna added that the government could support entrepreneurs by easing the legal requirements for establishing new companies, considering that start-ups were “absolutely green” businesses.

“The process of establishing a company should be eased, and if possible, made free,” Hasna said.

“Telecommunications companies could also simplify their content provider requirements.”

Nokia developer manager Narenda Wicaksono cautioned start-ups to remember that they were developing brands as well as games.

“An example of this is Angry Birds,” he said, referring to the mobile game and merchandise line designed by Finland-based Rovio.

Rovio launched a Facebook version of its quirky addictive game in Indonesia on Tuesday.

The company reportedly favored Indonesia due to the local population’s fanatic use of the social networking site.

Approximately 17 percent of the nation, or 43 million people, have Facebook accounts.

Narenda said that start-up game developers had to be specific when developing their business model, choosing to become either developers that launch products under their own brand or a company that builds custom content for others.

Most developers were still designing games for websites and smartphones when, Narenda said, most local users had low-end phones.

“Those at the bottom of the pyramid are also hungry for entertainment. Meanwhile, competition in the global market is no joke.”

Japan a major hub of the global gaming industry. Two of that nation’s gaming giants, Gree and DeNA, recorded millions of dollars in sales in 2011.

DeNA earned $451 million in the second quarter of last year, while Gree expected sales of $1.8 billion for 2011, as reported by technology start-up blog techcrunch.com.

Looking for more opportunity, Japanese venture capitalists are showing interest in local tech start-ups.

Takeshi Ebihara of Batavia Incubators said that investors were interested start-ups developing games and e-commerce and social media applications.

“We draw on experience from our portfolios in Japan and so, we are eager to get into this market,” Ebihara said.

Arief was optimistic that expansion in the global gaming industry was an opportunity for local start-ups.

“Simple math shows that Indonesia will be pulled into the trend,” he said.