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MANILA, Philippines – Since 2013, Microsoft has supported independent game developers via the ID@Xbox program, providing game makers access to development kits, game creation tools, and an easy way to get their games on Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows gaming platforms.
In 2024, about 1,000 independently made titles were published via the program, and since its inception, it has paid out about $5 billion to developers that do not have the backing of the big studios. For Xbox, it allows them to offer a more diverse set of games, with possibly exciting new ideas not seen on mainstream titles.
Two years ago, Microsoft expanded the support to provide financial backing, further technical instruction and prototyping assistance via the ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program.
Again, cultural underrepresentation in games was a key issue that the program was trying to address.
Case in point: Agni: Village of Calamity, a horror title currently in development by Indonesia’s Separuh Interactive. While it bears strong influence from the likes of established horror giants like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the game is one that tells a uniquely Southeast Asian tale.
Players take on the role of Agni, an investigator from a covert Indonesian police unit, who defies orders and carries out her own investigation of a remote village, wherein she encounters the sort of horror stories unique to the region.
Chief among them is the “algojo” or executioner in Indonesia. The creature serves as “the mystical, unkillable manifestation of the dark forces in Desa Purba,” says Leo Avero, creative director.
The algojo is Agni’s take on the unkillable-appear-from-anywhere Nemesis survival horror trope.
“This terrifying entity lurks in the shadows, relentlessly pursuing Agni throughout the game when she acts too loudly or recklessly during her investigation. It cannot be killed, only momentarily stunned with considerable effort… Algojo could emerge from any corner. Listen carefully for subtle sounds that herald its approach,” Avero says.
Avero says the game doesn’t draw on any one specific Indonesian story or folklore. Instead it forms a framework around the panakawan from the traditional Indonesian puppet theatre called wayang. The panakawan are the clown servants of the wayang hero.
Alvero explains, “So there’s no particular folklore that we draw from, but we do have a framework that we work off of, which is… if you know the story of Semar, Patreng, Petruk, and Gareng, those sort of things, that’s the framework that comes into play. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to take all of these folklores, and kind of ask the question, okay, what if there’s an institution that takes care of these things that happen.
Like the panakawan, “imagine if there’s a police task force that investigates maybe, I don’t know, like a local ghost or something like that. So that’s actually the main concept of it.”
To see these Indonesian folklores come to life in videogame form highlights how many other world mythologies games can draw from beside the usual Roman and Greek classics, or Japanese ghost stories.
Aside from Agni being a hero with a deep traumatic past a la Silent Hill protagonists, Avero also admits to drawing a lot of inspiration from the late American filmmaker David Lynch, and his style of atmospheric, surreal horror.
Separuh is also going big with the presentation as the game’s visuals aspire for a moody, realistic look with fixed camera cinematic angles like the original Resident Evil games. The game pays a lot of attention to facial expressions, with 90% of the animation being done through motion capture.
Gamers are spoiled with pretty visuals, and that Agni looks and plays like the usual survival horror stalwarts may just buttress its chance of being a hit — allowing its Indonesian story to reach a bigger audience.
Players will be in for a good time as Avero says, the game has “the advantage of the unknown.”
“I think we have a lot of perspectives and stories, and living in Southeast Asia, we have ghost stories… you can walk around, and you can stumble into a random ghost story for some reason. So there’s a wealth of perspectives and stories that we can tell… I think we have the advantage of — because we’re not yet exploring too much on that in this medium — we have the advantage of the unknown because you don’t see this often… and I think with Southeast Asian perspectives, that’s going to be even more amplified.”
An imaginary Southeast Asian war in the ‘70s
Another title in Microsoft’s 5-game SEA showcase is Indonesian developer Toge Productions’ Kriegsfront Tactics, an unofficial spiritual successor to the classic tactical RPG series Front Mission, whose last mainline entry came out in 2005.
Front Mission 3 (1999) is particularly popular among PlayStation 1 gamers for featuring a mission set in Batangas — a rare Philippine cameo in a game that would have had players saying “Uy, Pilipins!” if the meme-term had existed back then.
The Front Mission series is set in different regions around the world where battles are won and lost through mech warfare. Front Mission 3 was set in an alternate Southeast Asia.
Kriegsfront Tactics takes players back to that setting, in an “alternate 1970s during an era of conflict in Southeast Asia.” The mechs return, the grid-like movement system return, and likely all that political drama returns too.
In the reprise of the setting, Ivander Emlingga, project manager, believes their take offers a unique perspective because the team is from Southeast Asia.
“So because we are from Southeast Asia, and we believe that the Vietnam War back in the ‘60s was a very, well, you can say, interesting way to put a narrative. And not just Vietnam, but there’s also a lot of conflicts all around Southeast Asia during that point in time. So we think that it would be a very interesting setting to put our base of narrative on, and especially because we are Southeast Asian, we can offer our unique perspective regarding the conflicts and we hope we can provide an interesting alternative experience that people can also enjoy,” Emlingga says.
“With Kriegsfront Tactics, we are not only bringing back mecha turn-based tactical RPG and ambitiously modernizing the game mechanics, but we are also setting the game in a world inspired by the history and culture of Southeast Asia and taking the players to see the perspective of Southeast Asians,” he adds.
The Kriegsfront Tactics team said Toshiro Tsuchida — the Japanese creator of Front Mission — has played the demo, and said that he is looking forward to the game, this time from the unique perspective of the Toge Productions team.
The mech and war-oriented Kriegsfront is also quite the stylistic change from Toge’s past work, the cozy game Coffee Talk.
Other games Microsoft showcased are the roguelike 13Z: The Zodiac Trials (Mixed Realms, Singapore) where players embark on a quest to be the 13th Zodiac; Nightmare Circus (Fairplay Studio, Thailand), an isometric action game where players take on the role of a puppeteer trapped in the nightmare realm; and the beautiful 2D Souls-like action title Vapor World: Over The Mind (ALIVE Inc., South Korea).
Last year, a Philippine-made game was showcased by Microsoft, Fallen Tear, along with India’s Brocula, Japan’s InKonbini, and Australia’s Go-Go Town. – Rappler.com
