Games and Gaming from Southeast Asia
In Stagehands! we take on the tasks of a backstage crew in the film or theater business. Our job is to prepare the stage for the production. This works best with teamwork and so Stagehands! Will be a co-op game for 2 to 4 players in local and online mode. Together we create backdrops, put the scenes in the right light, and move stage elements to their correct place – always with a wicked timer ticking down!
A young girl wakes up in her bed. Is she in a hospital? She leaves the room and we quickly notice that something is wrong here. Clinically clean environments, strange machines and dangerous robots on patrol. What is going on here? Let’s leave this unpleasant environment as soon as possible! In Timelie, the first game by Thai studio Urnique, we are looking for a way out and how to get there is the puzzle we have to solve. Fortunately, time is on our side!
Due to the current corona pandemic, UOW Malaysia KDU has decided to have this year’s summer showcase of its student projects take place digitally. It is an ideal opportunity for us to introduce you to the games made by students of the Bachelor of Game Development at the School of Computing & Creative Media. It is impressive what Malaysia’s future game designers have achieved already: from a culturally inspired point & click adventure, to a musical brawler or even a Souls-like, everything is there to delight a gaming enthusiast’s heart and what’s the best: all games can be downloaded free of charge, the links can be found below. We have picked five highlights for you, but the other projects are also definitely worth a look.
At the end of our series of the most anticipated games 2020, we are going to Thailand. Here are three indie highlights that could not be more different. Here’s why think you should look out for Gunman and The Witch, Timelie and The Last Bug this year.
What games can we expect from the Southeast Asian metropolis of Singapore in 2020? In addition to many new titles from aspiring solo developers and studios, we also note continuity and progress, because some developers have been routinely publishing high-quality games for years. With gamescom asia, Singapore is finally getting a games convention of international format – the perfect stage for game developers from Singapore and all of Southeast Asia. You can read which games we think are particularly noteworthy now.
The year 2020 has already started so it is about time to look at the upcoming game releases. And what a year it will be for fans of the Indonesian gaming scene! Indonesia has by far announced the longest list of games for 2020. In recent years, it has been shown that Indonesia can produce quantity as well as quality. Will this trend continue in the new year?
Lately, our wordsmith Andreas has been commuting by subway frequently and therefore has more time to play on his mobile phones.This short mobile game mash-up features three gems from Southeast Asia that entertain him every day on the way to work!
Transferring own biographies and emotional experiences into videogames has been a hit and miss so far. One of the challenges is to make the story fit with the gameplay. We can often discover a discrepancy between both parts, leaving the narrative and the interactive elements in dissonance. With “She Remembered Caterpillars”, we see another attempt to link the heartbreaking testimony of Malaysian writer Cassandra Khaw with a clever puzzle mechanic. Does it succeed to deliver a satisfying union?
Silence. A strange ambience. A void. This is what awaits you at the beginning of Memoir, the latest game from Paperdoll Games (Malaysia). You start as a little deer, who must face an unknown quest and is only barely told to awake the ancient kingdom. But, how is he going to that?
All in all, “Jump, Step, Step” is a charming little game, which offers challenges for both puzzle lovers and more casual players. And of course, there’s Bob the bot. Bob is great.
In ‘Home Sweet Home’, we have to think of ways to survive, by being stealthy, hiding from evil spirits and also solving some puzzles. The storyline is unique, and I think it’s one of the freshest story-lines I’ve ever played in Asian horror games.
This passively controlled indie platformer is a blast with its gorgeous screens and the ability to tell stories without any audio sample or too many words. Every little chapter has a story, only told by pictures or a few sentences – and it works. The colors keep it magical and are evoking memories of the stories of Scheherazade.
Review of Wanda – A beautiful Apocalypse.
We take a closer look at Asva The Monkey from Cambodia and Cambodian Games Development in general.
