Majapahit Online, Historical Games on Facebook

If you’re an Indonesian parent who can’t get your kids off Facebook to do their homework, we might have found a solution for you. Check out Majapahit Online, a Facebook game that lets young people have fun while at the same time learning about history too. The game tells players all about Majapahit, an ancient kingdom which is often seen as the predecent of modern Indonesia.

Anantarupa Studios, the game’s developer, took the story from the historical novel by Indonesian author Setyo Wardoyo entitled Senopati Terakhir (or Last King). This novel was released in March of this year, and received good reviews for presenting a chronological and accurate history.

Majapahit Online adapted the novel into the first chapter of the game, with various information about life, art, culture, customs, social life, and even war strategy during the Majapahit period. In the end it proved to be a great medium for promoting the nation and its history as well, a wonderful mix of technology, education, and gaming.

Ivan Chen Sui Liang, the director of Anantarupa Studios explained a little more to me in a phone call:

We tried to dig values from ancient Majapahit, just like Indonesia gets a national ideology from it – diverse cultures and social levels of society, and merged it into one union. These values are the basis of our game concept and hopefully people can about cooperation and statehood. Soon after we release this game, we also will develop Majapahit Online into a multi-facet game. It means this game will be available in Android, iPhone, and Java with different characters.

Given the popularity of Facebook in Indonesia, the Majapahit online game certainly chose the right platform for its initial release. And judging by all the subsequent enthusiasm on its Facebook page, it was definitely a wise move.

Here is the trailer of this game with the theme song in old Kawi (Sanskrit) language, which you can enjoy before the game is officially released at the end of July.

[Via e27]