TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Game enthusiasts envision Indonesia
Up close: A team from Surabaya uses an augmented reality application on their Waroong Wars board game
Change Size
Up close: A team from Surabaya uses an augmented reality application on their Waroong Wars board game.(JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak) (JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak)
Up close: A team from Surabaya uses an augmented reality application on their Waroong Wars board game.(JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak)
Twenty-five teams gathered at the Bintaro Xchange Mall in Tangerang, Banten, to exhibit their board game prototypes ' the embryos of the home grown tabletop game industry.
The two-day exhibition, which runs until Sunday, was the final leg of the first-ever Board Game Challenge, organized by Kompas daily together with Bandung-based game design and consultant company Kummara.
The teams ' from Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya ' designed the games based on the following themes: The Story of Yogyakarta, The Taste of Semarang, The Spirit of Surabaya, The Beauty of Bandung and The Dream of Jakarta.
Each city is represented by five teams while the winning design, to be announced on Sunday, will be that with the highest playability and best concept.
'The box is not ready yet,' said Tama, who works at a game developer company, late on Friday, as he was revealing his design to other finalists.
He and Desyanto are part of Jakarta's Masbro team, which created Lagak Jakarta (Jakarta Style), representing the struggle of newcomers to the metropolis. Players climb the social ladder by collecting money, pride and skills.
'Players can start earning a living in Jakarta as a kerak telor [traditional snack] seller and may become a member of the House of Representatives. The highest level they can reach is a candidate in a presidential election,' said Tama.
Surakarta's Mantu Mapan community represented Yogyakarta with their intriguing Pagelaran Yogyakarta. In the game, players have to compete to save the art house from being destroyed and turned into a shopping mall by throwing as many cultural shows as possible and attracting large audiences.
'We created sabotage from the audience, who turn off the lights during the show,' said Erwin Emji, a writer and creator of the game along with Eko Hari Siswanto, Adhit WP and Diah.
The Board Game Challenge was born in response to existing Indonesian-themed board games designed by European artists. There are titles such as Java, Bali, Borneo and even Indonesia, but none feature accurate information on the country.
'Indonesian board games still do not exist in the international community despite the vast selection of content on cultural and local wisdom that can be transferred through games,' said game designer Eko Nugroho, founder and CEO of Kummara.
He lauded the finalists for their ability to capture the required themes in their design and transform them into games.
Sura Lan Boyo (Shark versus Crocodile in Javanese) is a game inspired by a legend that has become the icon of Surabaya city. It is a two-player guessing game with a board design emulating Battleships, with players unable to see their opponent's side.
Balap Semarang (Semarang Race) revolves around the three majority ethnicities in the city racing to build the city.
Bandung's Jomblo (Singles) offers witty tips on how to get a girl in town. 'There is a lot of life philosophy in the game,' said creator Hamzah Alfarabi from Congkak&Co.
Waroong Wars designers Adhicipta R. Wirawan, Aditya Pradana, David Santoso and Wikan Prabowo added an augmented reality application to their game, with classic Surabaya dishes popping out from players' smartphone screens.
Iwan Prasetya and Ivan Pratama, who both work at a digital game developer company, created the game Prambanan ' a resource-management game that requires players to collect bricks to build temples.
'We worked overnight to finish the game, cutting the cards and painting the bricks one by one,' said Ivan, with other finalists commenting that the completion of the game thus perfectly emulated the construction of Prambanan temple, which is said to have been worked on at night.
'I was not into board games at first, but I realized how many advantages they had over digital games,' Ivan said.
Although there are both digital and tabletop versions of same game, his teammate Iwan said they didn't feel the same.
'There are plenty of things in board games that a digital version cannot emulate,' he said.
'And that's bullying the opponents,' replied Erwin.
