'Balete City' role-playing video game aims to promote Philippine mythology and culture

In 2018, "God of War" was released, putting a spotlight on Norse mythology.

Filipino artist/game designer Niley Bacolcol hopes to do the same for Philippine mythology with his game, "Balete City."

The game is still in the early stages of development, but Bacolcol envisions a third-person role-playing PC game boasting all the elements of modern RPGs, including an engaging narrative, story-driven quests, lots of exploration, and complex character advancement.

All that, and you get to encounter aswang and diwata for a change, and perhaps even epic beings such as Minokawa and Bakunawa.

It's an ambitious project that'll require serious funding. Bacolcol has already set up a "Balete City" Patreon page for that purpose. It helps that his 2D and 3D artworks have left netizens impressed, and eager to offer their support.

The last Asog

Bacolcol is basing "Balete City" on his online graphic novel "Balete High," whose story begins with the main character's brother dying under peculiar circumstances in Balete High School.

In the "Balete City" game, you'll be playing as Makisig "Aki" Flores, who enrolls in the school to solve the mystery of his brother's death. Eventually accompanying Aki on his quest are newfound friends Luban Garcia, an intelligent yet haughty student with a shock of white hair; and Theodore Matias, who eventually becomes Aki's best friend and trainer.

Thus begins Aki's journey – one that'll have him unraveling the school's darkest secrets, as well as discovering inherent powers he never thought possible.

As the story goes, Aki is actually the last "Asog" – a male priest with a connection to the gods and goddesses of precolonial Philippines.

But before he can achieve his true potential and become a full-fledged "Babaylan," he'll need to master a number of skills, including the use of symbol magic and spellcasting, the concoction of powerful potions, and the summoning and control of spirits that can accompany him and provide assistance in rituals.

Aki will need these skills to identify and, if necessary, do battle with entities from unknown planes of existence. Other creatures he'll have to give a wide berth, as causing them injury can inflict illness, disease, or a variety of other unpleasant conditions upon him.

Because Bacolcol wishes to highlight to Philippine mythology and culture in the game, "(players) will get to know ancient stories and beliefs of different cultural groups of the Philippines," Bacolcol said. Filipino symbols and other cultural arts like weavings, tattoos, and pre-colonial writings will also be incorporated in "Balete City."

READ: Film director tries his hand at comic books, writes about the 'pre-colonial glory of the Philippines'

The birth of an idea

The seeds of "Balete High" were planted during Bacolcol's days as an undergraduate student, while working on his thesis.

"I fell in love with how vast and magical the culture of the T’boli group is," he said. "They are connected to everything in nature, from spirits that live in trees to gods and goddesses that visit them in their dreams… From then on, I craved for more information on our local supernatural beliefs and ancient mythology. I started to research and read more and more about these characters and personas."

At the same time, Bacolcol discovered the works of great komiks artists whose works revolved around Philippine mythology, turning stories about creatures like aswang into beautiful works of art: Kael Molo ("Agla"), Mervin Malonzo ("Tabi Po"), and Julius Villanueva ("Ella Arcangel"). 

Inspired, Bacolcol decided to take the plunge and create his own story revolving around the Philippines' "lost culture."

His initial efforts resulted in a novel that he wasn't too happy about. With the help of writer Geordane Tabo-oy, however, they were able to turn the "trash novel" into the graphic novel "Balete High."

The journey to Balete City

Bacolcol has loved art ever since he was a child, doing a lot of sketching and joining many art-related competitions. As a young man, he also grew interested in 3D and began experimenting with 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation.

These skills would serve him later, when he took up a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in University of the Philippines Baguio. Here, he used his accumulated skills to create his thesis project – a 3D animated short entitled “Nganemuhen" which was inspired and based on the T'boli people.

Bacolcol also spent years developing his own unique 2D art style. "I am not a fan of perfection – you can see from my pages some erasures and some lines beneath the figures," he said. "Somehow I feel that showing the strokes of pencils reveals the process in the final output. It also adds drama and a natural feeling."

After graduation, work took him to the United Arab Emirates, where he gained experienced designing websites. This was also when he began browsing the internet for coding tutorials, and studying the programming language behind specific software. Years later, he dove into learning the basics of game development, as well.

Before long, Bacolcol realized he had acquired enough skills and knowledge to create his own video game – which brings us to today.

Bacolcol's priority is to complete the "Balete High" graphic novel and "Balete City" video game.

No deadlines have been set as of yet — Bacolcol is looking at a couple of years at the most — but "Balete City" has been getting a lot of positive attention, impressing many local game designers including Gwendelyn Foster of the Philippine chapter of the International Game Developers Association. 

He is now also working with a "Balete City" core team, which consists of himself, Junaid Tan, Geordane Tabo-oy, Doddie Householder, Ella De Los Reyes, Wapah Sandigan, Jc Pacion, and Cecille Knapp. This team is under Studio Enero, the company producing the game.

Bacolcol is hoping his initiative will motivate others to create their own Philippine mythology-inspired works of art.

"I really love that my little project is igniting the curiosity and interest of every one, and putting our mythologies into the hearts of Pinoys everywhere," he said. — LA, GMA News