Why this Boomzap employee has a ‘fuck you’ poster to her boss

If you’re working in the Southeast Asian games industry, you’re likely to have heard of Boomzap Entertainment. Founded by Allan Simonsen and Christopher Natsuume, the approximately 70-strong company has staff working out of home offices in 26 cities in eight countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, and Japan. It’s best known for its hidden object puzzle adventure games.

Boomzap has been looking to break out of its shell, though. This year, it announced the Boomzap Fight Club, a name under which it will publish different genres of games. The games Pillage People, Rescue Quest, and Super Awesome Quest have since been published under this brand.

Boomzap Entertainment certainly has had quite the journey in the games industry. It started with just S$6,000 (US$4,566) and its founders have bootstrapped the company to where it is now.

Boomzap Fight Club

Christopher Natsuume (mid) and Allan Simonsen (R).

Though Boomzap is best known for hidden object puzzle adventure games (HOPAs), co-founder and technical director Allan Simonsen says the games were actually a late addition to the company’s portfolio.

Boomzap’s initial games were match-3 puzzles, and it branched off to work on a 2D MMO game with a company called K2. This MMO had puzzle mini-games and user-editable holiday islands that friends could visit. But a financial crisis halted the project, and by the time 2008 rolled around, no one was interested.

Boomzap ended up pitching different projects to publishers, and one of these projects – a HOPA game titled Awakening: The Dreamless Castle – which was pitched to PC game publisher Big Fish, did very well. It was a natural decision to focus on building a relationship with Big Fish, and many more HOPA games were produced by Boomzap for the publisher.

But things are changing with the Boomzap Fight Club brand. Simonsen says, in a way, its new games like Rescue Quest – available in the US and Europe – are a throwback to its roots. Boomzap’s original games all had an Asian feel to them, with some of them even being set in Asia. “There’s a couple of other really exciting things in the pipeline, but I can’t really talk about them yet,” he says. “What I will say is that 2014 is the year Boomzap finally returns to Asia.”

See: Let’s talk about Fight Club: Boomzap Entertainment’s latest brand

The hidden object puzzle adventure games Boomzap has been putting out have always been more appealing to specific demographics in the Western market. Simonsen says that the company’s goal now will be to return to its roots: “making fun, mechanics-based games, and supporting [its] home base in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines.”

But what made Boomzap decide to go down this route? After all, a solid publishing deal is sanctuary in this often-volatile industry.