6 Pinoy-made indie games to look forward to

Pinoy indie game developers are a talented group, a fact made obvious at this year’s Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit (ESGS), where Indie Fiesta 2018 showcased some of our local studios’ most fascinating projects.

Here are six of those games.

Shots Fired, Street Feud, and Data Breach

Chryse brought the latest build of its award-winning assassination/photojournalism game “Shots Fired” to Indie Fiesta 2018. The game is nearing completion, so expect it to be released for PC via Steam and the Nintendo Switch soon.

In addition, Chryse also introduced two more new games, “Street Feud” and “Data Breach” to the event.

Chryse is publishing AB Productions’ “Street Feud,” a cooking and restaurant management game with a Filipino twist.

You play the owner of a food cart that serves the usual Pinoy street food items — kikiam, fishball, kwek kwek — to customers. While waiting for you to finish cooking, customers can get impatient, but you can keep their “patience meter” in check by giving them gulaman or turning on the fan.

“We got the idea for the game while eating at a street food cart near our school. We saw how popular street food is in today's culture so we decided to make a game out of it,” said AB Productions producer Victor Tan.

AB Productions plans to add more kinds of street food as well as upgrades to “Street Feud.”

“We plan to release the game on the Google Play Store as soon as possible,” said Chryse co-founder Ronnie Legaspi.

“Data Breach” meanwhile was developed by Chryse during an internal game jam.

“The game itself is a stealth roguelite mobile game inspired by the likes of ‘Metal Gear,’ wherein you are trying to hack into the major evil corporations and retrieve data in order to survive in the desolate and harsh cyberpunk world,” explained Legaspi.

Excessive: The Trilogy

DagitabSoft’s “Excessive: The Trilogy” is a series of text adventures inspired by those choose-your-own-adventure-style PC games that were popular in the '80s. It compiles Benedict John Rey Villariaza’s self-written materials and previous Ludum Dare game jam entries.

“As the game emulates how text adventure games were made then, there are no graphics and there is no sound. Imagination is the key,” said Villariaza.

Villariaza learned to program using BASIC and LogoWriter back in elementary school. He created the “Excessive” games after he was inspired to revisit his roots by the YouTube channel “The 8-Bit Guy,” whose videos focus on 8-bit computers such the Apple II and Commodore 64.

The full version of “Excessive: The Trilogy” will be released in fall 2018.

“I also am seriously thinking about a limited-release physical edition for DOS, if I can get my hands on an old PC that can run DOS, as well as lots of 3.5-inch floppy disks,” said Villariaza.

You can check out Villariaza’s games in the DagitabSoft itch.io page. 

Good Knight

“Good Knight” is a challenging bullet hell shooter from Retro Future Studios. You play a warrior who must go through hell to revive a loved one murdered by a Spanish soldier. You’re also stuck with a cursed helmet that not only talks to you, but has a penchant for reviving you and rewinding time.

You tap one button to change direction, and use the analog stick to aim with your weapon. Because you're true goal is to survive, you’ll have to dodge hundreds of bullets and fight mythical monsters from the Philippines and other countries. Unless you’re facing a boss, killing is optional.

“I also like to call it an impossible game,” said game designer Alex Valdez, “because the game is very difficult yet very rewarding.”

The game supports 4-player coop.

Valdez and fellow Retro Future Studios CEO and game designer Zaid Al-Shaheed are huge retro game fans. “The design philosophy I've given Retro Future Studios is to be simple, minimal, and creative,” said Valdez.

While “Good Knight” was originally meant for mobiles only, positive feedback from ESGS 2018 attendees nudged them towards prioritizing a build of the game for the Nintendo Switch.

The team also plans to add more Filipino elements to the game. “Filipino myths and Filipino words are a joy to the players,” explained Valdez. “Whenever they read Filipino words they just end up smiling… Filipino myths were just an extra frill to the game, but it seems like we want to focus on those monsters now as they gave a positive impression (of) the game.”

TESSERACT

Development studio Team Theta Games describes “TESSERACT” as a “first-person puzzle-adventure game set in deep space.” The developers count games like “Portal,” “Myst,” and “The Witness” among their inspiration for the game.

“The player must make their way through alien locales to solve the mystery of a missing alien race,” said Team Theta Games’ Game Director Vinny Layog.

“TESSERACT” is the follow-up to “TESSELATE,” a similar game which was the thesis project of Team Theta Games in 2015. “TESSELATE” was awarded the Game Developers Association of the Philippines’ GameOn 2016 – Game of The Year (Student Track) award.

The studio plans to add more levels to “TESSERACT,” as well as create an overarching story that explores themes such as creation, creativity, ancient artifacts, and art as expression.

Team Theta Games regularly updates its blog, where you can follow the development progress of “TESSERACT.”

Giving Filipino developers a platform

ESGS 2018 was another success for event organizer Gariath Concepts.

“The turnout this year was better than last year’s,” said Joebert Yu, the Managing Partner/Business Development at Gariath Concepts. “We had at least 24,000 people.”

He added: “I was happy a lot of booths were thinking outside the box. If you give (the exhibitors) a lot of time, they will really build something unique.”

Among ESGS 2018’s most impressive exhibits were the Barangay 143, Asus, and Predator booths. The latter even had virtual reality rigs and a second floor. 

“You don’t always see these kinds of booths in events in the Philippines,” Yu said.

But ESGS 2018 proved of particular significance to Pinoy game developers. Not only could they let huge audiences play their games and thus receive valuable feedback, they also got to network with fellow exhibitors.

“I’m really happy we were able to give them a platform to showcase their games,” said Yu.

“ESGS once again delivered a great and fun experience representing the gaming side of the Philippines,” said Chryse artist Elisha Job Ramos. “This shows that whether you're a big or a small brand, the country's gaming community will gladly acknowledge and support your creations." — LA, GMA News