Game Developer Media Exposure

After a great full three pages articles about Indonesia game developer last Thursday, 4 December 2008 (featuring Menara Games and Sangkuriang Studio) on Kompas- as the leading newspaper in Indonesia.

Now, Pikiran Rakyat, one of the main newspaper in Bandung, wrote an article about Indonesia game development industry, this time we are fortunate because they have the online version here :)

Selamat Datang Profesi Masa Depan!

*my apology because the article is in Bahasa*

GDC 2009, Open Registration

The GDC returns to San Francisco’s Moscone Center March 23-27, 2009. It is a week of learning, networking, and inspiration as over 18,000 developers convene to further the digital entertainment industry. The GDC hosts top sessions, panels, roundtables and keynotes from select speakers worldwide. Evening events include the 11th annual Independent Games Festival and the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

Adding to the improved navigation and networking opportunities this year is the revamp of myGDC — the Game Developers Conference professional networking tool—which features a database of over 5,000 game developers, an advanced scheduling/meeting tool, and premium GDC content.

Find Out More....

Chapter Meeting Report: 16 November 2008

IGDA chapter meeting report
16 November 2008

Meeting agenda:
1. face- to-face meet up among developers around Indonesia
2. recognize different challenges loval developers experience

Meeting result:
1. database of game developers
2. IGDA committee volunteers and their roles
3. IGDA and SIGGRAPH role in Indonesia
4. preparation of other city IGDA chapter
5. IGDA next activities

Details:
1. Game Developers Database
the meeting was held in the middle of the first Indonesia Game Show, which by report
attracted more than 50.000 visitors in total. Almost all the game developer studios and
publishers were participating in the events. So, it was a perfect moment for existing game
developers and game developers enthusiast to come to us and revealed themselves.

what we did was basically, open up unofficial registration in IGDA booth, which was supported by 5 studios:
1. Menara Game Studio --> representing casual game developers
2. Main Game Studio --> representing webbased game developers
3. Caravan Studio --> representing art outsourcing developers
4. Abox --> representing arcade game developers
5. Agate --> representing students developers team

with all the variety of studios presenting their works through show reels, demos and mini seminars, we got alot of visitors. We classified the visitors into two class: game developers and non-game developers. As the result we got 52 game developers registered their data scattered in 19 studios and 3 universities.

We also managed to gather students, academics and other game enthusiast. As overall result, the meeting met our short objective to grow the chapter.

2. IGDA volunteer commitee and their roles
among the meeting participants, there are several people who are interested to help running IGDA in Indonesia.

Bullit Sesariza
Arief Widhiyasa- Public Relation
Ramadona
Oka- Students Relation
Andi Martin

3. SIGGRAPH Jakarta Chapter
we have been informed that SIGGRAPH is also starting a chapter in Jakarta, and the reason
it become our concern is because many of interested game developers (especially artists)
asked us about the different between SIGGRAPH and IGDA.
So here is the stand point we explained to them:

• basically IGDA has no right to decide which organization a game developers need to follow
• so, to make things clear we explored both IGDA and SIGGRAPH vision and mission,

IGDA vision is to improve game developers quality of life while SIGGRAPH vision is to spread computer graphic education. We leaved the choice to game developers, they also have the freedom to choose both.

4. IGDA other cities chapter
as the topic been discussed a few time before, we finnaly reach a new step to solve this,
and they are:

• for IGDA mothership, we are preparing 2 chapters Jakarta and Bandung, since the 2 cities have the biggest interest on IGDA, the election of both chapter coordinator will be held shortly after the 2 chapters understand what to do
• for Indonesian Government there will be just 1 IGDA (legally), stands for Indonesia Game Developer Association (like GDAP in Philliphine). This is basically include commitee from both chapter as steering commitee.

The reasons for these decisions are:

1. There are other cities tha are starting to have interest and willing to organize IGDA as a chapter city
2. There is better 1 legal IGDA for Indonesia Government in order to avoid confusion in maintaining government relationship
   

5. IGDA next activities

18- 20 November 2008
Videogame and Interactive Media Symposium
Cyberlodge Resort, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
IGDA will send 6 Indonesian delegation to this events to update and build networking with
other south east Asia countries and also French (as the organizer of the event)

22 November 2008
Hello: Fest v.5
Balai Kartini, Jakarta, Indonesia
IGDA will send representative to attend to the annual festival to show support for related
animation community

3-4 December 2008
Institute Teknologi Bandung (ITB)
ITB Bandung
IGDA will open booth and also build relationship with the university,
through students and lecturer. ITB is one of the active university in building faculty
for game developers.


Participants of the meeting:
1. Marlin Sugama - chapter coordinator
2. Andi Martin - co-founder Main Games Studio
3. M Fardiansyah - co- founder Main Games Studio
4. Bullitt Sesariza - Founder Bullitt's Logic and Game
5. Chris Lie - Caravan Studio
6. Oka - Producer Sangkuriang Studio
7. Victor - Programmer Sangkuriang Studio
8. Arief Widhiyasa - Founder Agate Studio
9. Ray - Programmer Agate Studio
10. Beatrice Nauli - Artist Agate Studio
11. Cahya Daulay - Producer Matahari Studios
12. Pitra Satvika - Stratego Corp Studio
13. Daniel Simon - 3D Artist Freelancer
14. Alwin - 3D Artist Funline Studio
15. Susan Angela - 3D Artist AMP
16. Christian Simon - IT Student Bina Nusantara University

VIdeo Game Industry Intro for Students

I spoke at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya last Thursday, as always my favorite topic: The Intro of Video Games Industry. I spoke infront of 65 wonderful university students from IT major, and few honorable lecturer from the university.

This is the 5th time i introduced video game industry to university students, it might seem small, but after i gave it a thought, it doesn't. This is why. Back in 2006 i spoke at Universitas Surabaya, for the opening of Multimedia Major, i represented video game industry. The audience were students, lecturers and parents (ouch). At that time most of the parents didnt have any clue about the video games industry, they even had negative perspective on how video games will only ruin their children life. After i spoke, i received a few frontal question regarding this matter but fortunately survived the session with a smile on everyones face.

Last week, when i arrived at Juanda airport, i got a call from my Universitas Surabaya friend. She asked my schedule, which sadly very packed and didnt allow me to see her. We ended up talking on the phone, and she updated me with current students work. Mostly students who heard my talk back in 2006. Most of them chose to do video games projects, she had no idea how this made me happy, what i thought was small and useless turned up to be a starting point for videogames industry in Indonesia.

I know, this might sound very "retarded" for many countries, that we are still at this stage of the industry. But we are moving, slowly but sure.

Marlin Sugama

(Videogame) Business: The Next 20 Years.

I last spoke there in 2006 (when the conference was in London, Ontario), and the FuturePlay audience is a great mix of game industry professionals and university students committed to the craft of making games. The conference is sponsored by Algoma University, UOIT and ACM (which I first joined as a student in 1971!). Their blog post about my session is here.

Why the topic of planning the next 20 years of your career in games? Ikeep reading articles describing the various twists and turns of the industry from the Wall Street and Bestseller Chart points of view.

Noticeably absent are articles about the professional and personal future of people who practice our craft, aside from the stereotypical posts that proclaim "Keep your resume up to date because people get laid off a lot!"

As industry veterans I think it's our job to give people more perspective on how games career paths really work, especially now that games have become thoroughly entrenched in cultures around the world.

I've been creating games for almost 40 years, so it feels comfortable and normal to try to look ahead at the next 20 years of my career. And it can feel normal for everyone, not just long-time game developers.

Don Daglow

Video Game and Interactive Media Symposium

EVENT CONCEPT

Encouraged by the success of the previous Video Games and Interactive Media Symposium 2006 and of various regional events on animation industry and education in the region, HELP University College, the Asia Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FMFA) are pleased to present the 2nd Video Games and Interactive Media Symposium 2008.

This important event will be taking place at the MSC Innovation Center, Cyberjaya, Malaysia, on the 18-20 November 2008. The Asia- Pacific (AP) region is leading the world video game market and should soar to US$23 billion of revenue with a 18% growth whereas the global market will rise US$55 billion by 2009.

The types of gaming platforms are expanding so as to respond to the demand of the increasing number of gamers. From the hard gamers to the casual one, online, on PC, on consoles or on mobile phone, the industry should adapt itself to the diversity of this huge market.In 2007, China counted 37 millions of gamers. In 2009, the number of gamers should rise 60 millions from around the globe. And in 2011, 50% of the mobile market revenue will come from Asia.

The video game and the multimedia industry will have a major impact over the
broadcasting market and the whole entertainment and interactive sector in the years to come. This provides an excellent opportunity for partnerships between education and industry players.

This second edition of the Video Games and Interactive Media Symposium intends to serve as a platform to foster collaborations between professionals from Asia and Europe as well as to promote the international schools/universities involved in.

We are waiting for participants from Malaysia, Australia, France, Singapore, Thailand, Hong-Kong, Indonesia, Korea, China, Philippines and some others countries.

THIS EVENT AIMS

• To bring together representatives of video games and interactive media companies, schools and universities from Europe & Asia
• To foster knowledge sharing in the areas of video games and interactive media between Asian & European companies & institutions
• To support the market and the development of the new technologies in this area
• To offer a platform fostering co-operations, collaborations & research

CONTACT PERSON

• Mr. Yeow Wei CHOONG, Vice President & Dean HELP University College choongyw@help.edu.my , www.help.edu.my
• Ms. Juliette Vivier, Programme Manager, Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development AIBD juliette@aibd.org.my , www.aibd.org.my

GCA 2008 Singapore- Exhibition

GCA (Games Convention Asia) held in Singapore last 18-20 September 2008, maybe over but there are alot of homework for Indonesian delegates to start.

The 2 days exhibition and convention was packed nicely by a collaboration between LMI (Leipziger Messe International) dan MDA (Media Development Authority).  More than 90,000 visitors were coming to see the "big boys" exhibition and the "start ups" companies in game developer. 

The exhibition had opened alot of opporunities for South East Asian game developers, hence to make things more concrete GCA also provide a matchmaking program, professionally supported by a software which can tell exact time and date for parties to meet.

IGDA Indonesia had the honor to organizing Indonesia Pavilion, and managed to get 4 developers joined in; Menara Games, Caravan Studios, Main Games Studio and ABox. More than 200 developers and publishers from around the world came to visit the booth. 

Sony Ericsson Content Awards 2008

Pertengahan bulan September 2008 ini akan dibuka pendaftaran untuk kompetisi Sony Ericsson Content Awards 2008 sebuah kompetisi untuk membuat konten2 mobile yang disponsori Sony Ericsson.

Pada kompetisi ini terdapat kriteria game, jadi untuk mobile game developer Indonesia ini kesempatan yang bagus untuk masuk ke event international.

Untuk lebih detail bisa akses kesini

Games Convention Asia

The Games Convention Asia is the first and only platform for the entire electronic game market in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region. The organizer’s target is to firmly establish what will be the Asia-Pacific region’s biggest convention devoted to digital media, computer games, entertainment and educational software as well as hardware.

The 4 pillar concept of the show is unique – it brings together the whole market chain in only one event. Starting with the Game developers – having their own platform with the GC Asia Conference – over the publishers – finding their place in the business centre – to the casual and hardcore gamer – enjoying the latest games in the dazzle of the public hall.

And the concept works as statistic shows. During September 6 to 9 2007 the first Games Convention Asia attracted 1,000 professional visitors and media representatives and 70,000 public visitors. In addition, 300 international experts from over 20 nations listened to 65 renowned local and foreign speakers during the first GC Asia Conference.

Word Search Extreme by MAX Studio

A simple game of searching word. Act as the hero in search of her beloved which is kidnapped by the unknown Extra Terrestrial using only the clue available. Travel from faraway island into the E.T.'s mothership and rescue her as you search for words.

Running at devices with OS.Windows Mobile 2003; Windows Mobile 5.0; Windows Mobile 6 Pro

ITB Digital Media Festival

Add another gaming event to your year end schedule, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) Digital Media Media Festival will be held at Tuesday-Wednesday, 25-26 November 2008.

The event will consist following activities:
1. Game Contest, for Game Development and Game Design
2. Multiplayer Online Game Competition, for Counter Strike and EA Sports
3. International Workshops
4. Exhibition
5. Cosplay Competition
6. Other entertainment

Many academia, related industry players, and the government will be invited to attend this event. With the topic "Developing Digital Media (Game and Animation) Potential ITB Digital Media Festival will open for public, specially those who are interested to game and animation development.

Why Game and Animation?
Because both industry has big potential to be one of the biggest contributor to Indonesia Creative Industry content. Solely, this event is a follow up for the initiative from Department Pendidikan Nasional RI (National Education Department) who already start developing education infrastructure from secondary school to university levels for Game and Animation Developers in Indonesia

Trade Expo Indonesia 2008

Another opportunity to show off Indonesia's Game Developer's Products,
Trade Expo Indonesia 2008, an annual exhibition host by Departemen Perdagangan RI (Trade Department) with buyers from all over the world in invitation list, will be held 6 full days, from 21-25 October 2008 at Arena Pekan Raya Jakarta, Kemayoran.

All Indonesian Game and Animation Developers are welcome to open their booths at Zona Ekonomi Kreatif (Creative Economy Zone) Hall D1, right beside the Anjungan Produk Utama (Primary Products Zone), on an area of 3000 sq M for all 14 sectors of creative industry (same as in PPBI-JCC last June)

So, for all game developer studio who are interested please contact:
amaleo@gmail.com

or directly to
hastjarjobw@yahoo.com (Exhibition Coordinator)

Once again details for the event:

Trade Expo Indonesia
21-25 October 2008
Hall D1
Arena Pekan Raya Jakarta- Kemayoran

Further information about the event will be send to personal email for those registered.

Hope we can have a better preparation this time, see you all at the event.
Dont miss it.

Indonesia Game Show

Catch up the latest event from Megindo (Indo Mog), Indonesia Game Show, by participating in exhibition, competition and shows.


For more information, please contact:
Lucky- lucky@indomog.com
Brenda- brenda@megindo.net
Yogie- yogie@indomog.com

Blaster- Another Main Games Release

Another casual game from Main Games Studio.
Blaster is a puzzle-shooting combo, wrap up in Caribbean pirates ambiance. What Main Games tried to achieve are:
1. 3D feel on 2D platform (water, shading etc)
2. unique- casual game play

PLAY BLASTER

Restaurant Rush - A new product from Menara Games

After the success of "Burger Rush" at Big Fish games, collaboration between Menara Games and Gamenauts are now back with a new looks of the game with "Restaurant Rush"


Another Indonesia's product released to the market, congratulation and we wish all the success to Menara Games

Congratulations to INAICTA 2008 Game Category Winner

After a long journey participating in INAICTA 2008 (Indonesia ICT Awards), from more than 20 registered products (raising from last year 8 products) under game category, 5 nominees were selected and had a chance to present their game in front of the judges.

INAICTA 2008, selected judges came from different diciplines, list of judges name are as following:
1. Bullit Sesariza- Founder of A Box Studio
2. Boy Avianto- Interactive Software Application Software Lecturer of Bina Nusantara University
3. Wendy Chandra- Owner of Gamestation (Game Magazine)
4. Teguh Anantawikrama- Vice Chairman of KADIN Telecomunication Industry
5. Juliana- Representative from Hotgama (Game Magazine)

All INAICTA 2008 nominees

and the 2008 winner is
LiLo (Lost In Love) by PT Antar Mitra Prakasa
represented by: Pahala Basuki, Sobar Herdiman, Alif Wijayakusumah, Yanuar Triwibowo

winner received:
1. INAICTA trophy
2. Rp 30.000.000,- cash rewards
3. Sertificate from DEPKOMINFO RI

once again, congratulation to the winner :)

First Chapter Meeting

Finally.....

Yes, that's the right word for it,
not because of the efforts but FINALLY we can arrange our time to gather and sit together,
it might be easier if Indonesia is a small country, but for studio representatives from Surabaya (east Java) and Bandung (west Java) to come and sit in one room that is what i called dedication.

All these, thanks to Allan Simonsen from IGDA Singapore, Allan came all the way from Singapore to helped us jump-start a chapter in Indonesia. With Allan's guidance we were able to:
1. formed the chapter first comittee
2. got in touch for the first time with Jason and Joe at IGDA HQ
3. had a brief overview about a chapter activities
4. lastly, we finally named the chapter "IGDA Indonesian chapter" instead of Jakarta Chapter :)
because we also want to gather game dev studios friends from other cities, that we havent know.

What's next?
There are alot to do next, but gathering more and more Indonesian game developers under IGDA is the most important one (really wish we can do that correctly)

To all game developer friends out there,
We are just a group of people who are lucky enough to get the chance to formed the Indonesian chapter, but without you guys, we are nothing.
So please, for all the game developer studios out there, when you read this, contact us so then together, we can nurture Indonesia Game Developer Industry

A brief information about the meeting:
Attendees:
Bullit Sesariza - A Box Studio
Ricky Suryo - Max Studio
Yanuar Tanzil - IPlayAllDay Studio
Satya Hodi- Menara Studio
Ellen and Cahya Daulay- Matahari Studio
Andi Martin, Fafan, Mario, and Me - Main Games Studio
Allan Simonsen- BoomZap/ IGDA Singapore
Brata T Hardjo subroto- Asosiasi Penyelenggara Multimedia Indonesia (APMI) as the host
Selliane Ishak- Departemen Komunikasi dan Informatika RI
and other parties, who is interested to see Indonesia's game developer industry grow.

Location:
Meeting Room:
Menara Multimedia Lt 17, Jl Kebon Sirih no 12
Jakarta Pusat 10110

Networking:
Blitz Megaplex
Grand Indonesia Lt 6. Jakarta Pusat

See you guys soon :)

PPBI

PPBI (Pekan Pameran Produk Budaya Indonesia), is one of the follow up action for Creative Industry FGD held by Indonesian Trade Department. It took place at JCC (Jakarta Convention Center), Senayan. Which is the place for almost all big events.

Pekan means "week", so for one whole week we can see all creative products from all around Indonesia in JCC. From paintings, handycraft, batiks, to film and photography. Games and Animation was the last to join Indonesia's Creative Industry, we entered as Digital Creative Business.

Four studios joined the exhibitions, Matahari Leisure, A Box, Stratego and Main Games, and due to the short noticed information about the exhibition, we cramed ourselves to two booths. Surprisingly, our booth was the most popular booth for children.

A-Box brought "jungkat-jungkit" and "F1 racing". Stratego with its "virus annihilation" interactive floor, 2 arcade machines from Matahari and Blaster a puzzle-shooting game from Main Games.

It was - like any other exhibition- needs effort, but it was wothed, because we finally have a chance to:
1. network with fellow game developer studios, not in the official way, but now at least we have something to talk about
and
2. prove our existence to the government :)

i really hope next year we will have the chance to participate again and hopefully there will be more studios to join us

FGD with Ministry of Trade (Departemen Perdagangan RI)

nGood news for all game developers in Indonesia. After an active approach made by Ministry of Communication, Information and Technology by including "game developing category" in the national competition event INAICTA two years in a row (2007-2008). Last Tuesday, 1 April 2008. Ministry of Trade held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with several Indonesian Game Developers Studio.

Fulfilling the invitation from the ministry, there were
Bullit Sesariza from A Box
Chatarina Dian from Matahari Studios
Ricky Suryo from Max Studios
Marlin Sugama from Main Games Studio
David Setiabudi from Divine Kids

The objective of the FGD is to gather information, that "cant be find" by asking professor Google, by the ministry consultant Indonesia Design Power.

Several output discussion from the FGD are as following:
1. IndonesiaMinistry of trade are ready and willing to facilitate Indonesia Game Developer Industry
2. Game developers in Indonesia need to form an association immediately
3. One of the "quick win" step that can be taken immediately is including game developer as an industry that in the annual national exhibition October 2008
4. The ministry of trade will next develop a road map for game developer sector

Let's hope this is a spark of the beginning of Indonesian game developer industry