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.
‘Anak Sholeh’ sets out to prove not all religious-themed media is bad
Have faith: A screenshot of Game Anak Sholeh (Religious Kids Game) from Agate Games
Change Size
Have faith: A screenshot of Game Anak Sholeh (Religious Kids Game) from Agate Games. (Courtesy of Agate Games)
Tapping into the mobile gaming phenomenon that has gripped the country’s youth, local developer Agate Games aims to take advantage of the trend by coming up with a game that teaches children the values
of religion.
A “one-stop solution” for all your children’s moral needs, the Game Anak Soleh (Religious Kids Game) mobile game has been downloaded around 100,000 times from Google Play and iOS App Store since it became available in 2017.
The point of the game is to teach preschool-level children the basic values of Islam in a medium they are able to understand.
“The game [aims to be] a solution for the lack of regulation on positive and negative content on the internet for children,” said Agate strategic business advisor Ardita Silvadha Erlangga.
“We believe that the best way positive values can be conveyed to children is through a medium that they find enjoyable.”
Agate is known for its interactive and cutesy mobile games such as Kota Kita (Our City), Juragan Hantu (Lord of Ghosts), Love Spice and Kuis Iseng Kaesang (Kaesang’s Just For Fun Quiz), the latter of which features President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep.
With Game Anak Sholeh, the target market is obvious, but even beyond the religious aspects, it is an enjoyable game nonetheless.
The game features Japanese-influenced animation and the kind of cute drawings that are present in many Indonesian games and animation. Its loading screen playfully displays encouraging phrases such as “the patient is favored by God”, and it doesn’t even take a long time to load.
The gameplay is akin to a role-playing game, as the player helps the main character, named Ali, navigate through everyday life through Muslim rituals and values, with pop-up tasks interposed with simple Quran verses related to the situation at hand.
It also includes arranging prayers like a jumble, and the player can navigate Ali through the virtual world. The reward for completing the tasks are points dubbed poin anak kebaikan (good child points). It has more than 100 mini games available for play.
So far, the game has a review score of 4.1 out of five stars. Some users, such as Fauzi Malana, praise the game for its religious content in their reviews. However, it seems that the game is still a bit buggy because several users complained that they could not log in to start playing the game.
It is not hard for adults recognize the relatively good intentions the game has.
Adults from a liberal, upper-middle class background are usually very skeptical of any form of media that uses religion as a core and method, because most feel that religion should not be pushed onto children.
Game Anak Sholeh is likely not a game they would approve of, but it could be suitable for devout parents who want their children to learn the simple values of Islam in a way that is easily understood.
Unfortunately, the game’s heavy Islamic concept will appeal to the radical believer as well.
Even as Ardita conceded that the best way to teach children the values of religion is through direct parental guidance, she wants Game Anak Sholeh to be an interactive method in which children are not aware that they are being taught, but have fun in the process.
“We discovered that sometimes, when it comes to teaching religion, some children don’t really like to be told what to do directly by their parents. The solution here is to offer a method where children can enjoy the learning [process],” she said.
