A village in Kurusetra'€™s game world

An Indonesia-themed mobile strategy game titled Kurusetra: The Mighty War has been released with one main goal '€” to attract game lovers worldwide.

The game, released by local game developer Qajoo Studio, aims to serve as an answer to the growing gaming industry around the world, especially in Indonesia.

'€œIndonesia has a huge number of gamers. Unfortunately, only a few games that they play are developed locally; most come from foreign developers,'€ said Qajoo founder and CEO Alexander Budiman.

Qajoo'€™s chief creative officer, Ariel R. Widjaja, said the role-playing game (RPG) offered a colossal battle experience with a background of the Bharatayudha war in a region named Kurusetra.

So far, the game, which was developed over two years, is available for download for iOS and will come to Android in the near future.

To play the game, gamers must get resources as capital '€” money worth 500 points, plants of 750 points and emerald stones of 500 points '€” in addition to a thatched house in preparation for the long war.

Then, they must choose one of five heroic characters '€” namely Satria, Kandini, Juna, Trisna or Anom '€” who have different powers and characteristics.

Juna, for example, is described as the most skillful warrior with an amazing talent for archery. Satria is the kind of warrior with physical strength; Kandini, the only female character, is known to be a fast learner; Trisna has strong magical abilities and Anom is an agile monkey.

Ariel said that Qajoo'€™s 3D artists had to create 2,000 pieces of animation to make the heroes in the game, which consists of 10 levels.

Gamers will also have to build a village, train an army with various unique characteristics, defend the village and join other gamers to win an epigraph, Segaragni Baybhumi village.

Gamers can transfer resources to other players

To win the epigraph, gamers must form strategies by using the existing resources they have.

'€œInstead of intensifying and training the army, gamers also have to stay focused on the story plot in addition to making strategic decisions,'€ Ariel said.

At a glance, it looks a little bit like other popular RPGs, such as Clash of Clans (CoC). However, Ariel said that although they were inspired by CoC, Kurusetra had lots of features that distinguished it from other RPGs.

'€œWe have 14 unique features that make this game special. For example, gamers must only choose one hero to play, and that hero character is upgradeable, defined by accessories and costumes,'€ he said.

Moreover, gamers can accept challenges from other gamers, get epigraphs by participating in monthly interclan tournaments and can be sentenced for attacking other gamers at night, he said.  

To enhance the local touch, the team, comprising 20 individuals, also dressed the characters in Indonesian traditional costumes.

The musical element of the game is also rich with traditional sounds as Qajoo explored real traditional music from all over Indonesia in order to make interesting sound effects.

'€œWe have sound engineers that explored and processed the raw sounds into artistic ones, while adding the richness of traditional sounds,'€ said Ariel.

Steve Kristanto Listiawan, an avid gamer who had the chance to try Kurusetra before it was launched, said the game was a breakthrough in the local gaming scene.

He said it was the first time a local developer had built a game as extensive and detailed as Kurusetra.

'€œI was skeptical when I first heard about it, thinking that it would be the same as other RPGs. It turned out that Kurusetra has many significant differences, such as customizing the heroes and more armor,'€ Steve said.

Although Kurusetra may not feature the best graphic animation, he said that it was very addictive and fun. '€œI personally would recommend this game to play,'€ he said.

So gamers, game on!

Anom, one of Kurusetra'€™s heroes

'€” pictures courtesy of Qajoo Studio