These 4 Indonesian game developers are kicking ass with crowdfunding

Google Play and the App Store have given mobile game developers a global reach. This is exciting for developers in countries like Indonesia, where interest in game development is quickly on the rise. Even though the local market is promising with 41 million smartphone users, six million tablet owners, and 30 million teenagers on the internet, it’s still interesting to know that gamers around the world can also turn to the archipelago for unique titles.

Game development in Asia as a whole is experiencing a renaissance with crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo upping the ante, and becoming viable options for raising capital. But how many Indonesian game developers have actually reached their goal with crowdfunding campaigns? In no particular order, here are the four that Tech in Asia is aware of.

Touchten Games

This week, local game development firm Touchten announced it had successfully raised US$10,000 on Kickstarter for its latest game Target Acquired.

The successful campaign marks Touchten’s first attempt to deploy a game via crowdfunding. However, Touchten founder Anton Soeharyo concedes that his firm has enough money to launch the game with or without a Kickstarter campaign, but claims that using the crowdfunding platform has been an interesting way to engage its users prior to launch.

On Target Acquired, the main character is a female cat police officer tasked to safeguard the city from a notorious thief robot. Touchten describes the endless side-scrolling runner game as a combination of Temple Run and Mega Man.

See: How TouchTen touched the hearts of gamers

Tinker Games

In June, Tinker Games pulled in a whopping US$52,700 on Kickstarter for its game Pale Blue in what is so far Indonesia’s biggest game-related crowdfunding campaign.

Pale Blue is the story of Ellen, a normal girl who is kidnapped by an evil organization and endowed with superpowers. Ellen proceeds to bring fear and chaos upon the world; brawling with superheroes and carrying a hatred for mankind. Bandung-based Tinker originally set the target for its PC game at US$48,000, and was pleasantly surprised when the funding exceeded expectations.

Digital Happiness

In May of 2013, Bandung-based game development firm Digital Happiness successfully raised more than US$29,000 on Indiegogo to develop the now famous (within gamer circles) 3D horror title DreadOut.

Ekuator Games