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Indonesian game developers endure trolls, tough parents
Even as the local gaming industry has global successes, the country’s developers struggle to be taken seriously.
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A image from Toge Production's 'Coffee Talk' video game. (Coffee Talk/Courtesy of Toge Production)
I
ndonesians who dream of working in the video game industry face a number of challenges, including dealing with people who don't consider it a promising career.
But some local video game developers have found success and have made Indonesia a force to be reckoned with in the global video game landscape, all while battling the doubts of family members.
"Find a real job"
Syahroni "Roni" Musthofa is an indie game developer who works two jobs, one as a game programmer for Alegrium—a Jakarta studio known for its Icon Pop Quiz series – and the other as an independent developer of his own games.
"During my school days, I programmed games mostly as a hobby or in competition for prizes," Roni said. Then, he read an article about Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds, a role-playing game in the Japanese style developed by Indonesian studio Semisoft.
Roni was so taken aback that a local studio had made such a complete and globally recognized game that he left “a wall of text [filled with] feedback on the [studio website's] comments section".
Roni recalled, laughing, that he joined the company a few months after posting his comments, and he began carrying out the changes he had proposed.
