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local game developer brings ogoh-ogoh, the giant papier-m'ché effigies usually paraded on the eve of the Hindu Day of Silence or Nyepi, to the global stage by designing a game focused on the scary yet colorful monster.

Titled D’Kala, the game can now be downloaded free of charge from the Android market. As of Thursday evening, fewer than 100 people had downloaded the game, but those who had done so graded it four out of five stars. Two users posted reviews, pointing out that the game doesn’t have any musical accompaniment and one of the reviewers asked the developers to use Balinese gamelan as the sound track.

“This is the world’s first game about Nyepi. It is our effort to introduce Balinese culture, customs and philosophy to the world,” Bamboomedia owner Putu Sudiarta said.

He said that the game would be officially launched next week during CeBIT, the world’s largest annual computer expo, in Hannover, Germany. This year, the expo will run from March 6-10 and Bamboomedia will be one of four Indonesian IT companies that will participate in the event.

Ogoh-ogoh was selected as the main character of the D’Kala game due to its iconic quality. It was also the perfect symbol of the human journey of self-purification.

“The game comprises six stages, symbolizing Balinese Hinduism’s Sad Ripu [Six Enemies Within], namely anger, greed, lust, envy, intoxication and confusion. A human being must overcome this enemies in order to gain inner peace,” he said.

The game has a very simple plot. The head of an ogoh-ogoh is balanced on varying combinations of blocks and columns. The player must make the blocks and columns disappear by touching them one by one without disturbing the head. The player loses the game if the head falls and touches the ground.

“At the completion of the Level 6, the ogoh-ogoh will assume its final form and will be paraded before being burned,” he added.

In the actual ogoh-ogoh parade, youths torch the ogoh-ogoh in a symbolic act of destroying the evil characters represented by the dolls. This year, Nyepi will fall on March 23 and the ogoh-ogoh parade will be held on the night of March 22.

Sudiarta admitted that he was inspired by the wildly popular game Angry Birds in developing the D’Kala.

“Angry Birds is a very simple game that exploits the law of gravity, the same law that lies in the heart of the D’Kala,” he said.

It took Bamboomedia two months to develop the game. “We were assisted by students from several vocational high schools who are doing their training period here,” he said.

Sudiarta said that he planned to develop games based on Balinese folklore and traditions.

“Games could serve as a medium of cultural conservation, tourism promotion and, most importantly, cultural sharing between people from different regions of the world,” he stressed.

Anak Agung Gede Rama Dalem, one of the students involved in developing D’Kala, said that it was a valuable experience.

“This is the first game that I was actively involved in the process of making. I drew the penjor [decorated bamboo pole] and the frangipani tree that become the primary background of the game. I also drew the ogoh-ogoh characters,” he said.