There Is An Indonesian Element In The Fantasy Town Game

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) supports game producer Garena, in bringing Indonesian elements to the mobile game titled Fantasy Town. The presence of landmarks or distinctive Indonesian characters will be an effort to digitally preserve the nation's culture.

"This game can be an educational medium how this Fantasy Town game incorporates elements of Indonesian culture, even local characters, is a tremendous potential," said Acting Deputy for Marketing of Digital Economy and Creative Products, Josua Puji Mulia Simanjuntak. , as quoted from Antara, Friday, July 30.

Support for the Fantasy Town game is also in line with the Proud Made Indonesia movement which carries the culture of the Indonesian nation. Furthermore, according to Josua, the potential for Indonesian mobile gaming is very high.

"There are 337 million mobile users or more than 126 percent of our population. So that is how many mobile phones have the potential to play gaming," said Josua.

Moreover, according to Josua, mobile phone users in Indonesia are on average online for 8 hours every day. Seeing this potential, Josua revealed that the Indonesian game market is around US $ 1.1 billion, although mobile games are still dominated by the largest market share.

However, continued Josua, the current challenge is that local game consumption is only one to two percent, the rest is still dominated by games from the United States and Europe.

In an effort to encourage the local game industry, Josua said Kemenparekraf strengthens the skills of game developers by providing a knowledge-sharing platform that is attended by game developers and game publishers from abroad.

So, it is hoped that it can open the game developer insight and find out what the market wants not only Indonesia but also internationally. In addition, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy is currently preparing a strategy in terms of funding.

"We need to build an ecosystem how this game developer can meet with investors, because game developer talent is extraordinary but talent is not enough, but it also needs capital funding that can encourage the presence of these games," said Josua.

Meanwhile, the Director of Garena Indonesia, Hans Kurniadi Saleh, saw the potential of the casual gaming market, which prompted Garena to create the game "Fantasy Town." Not only the potential for mobile games, Hans also saw the potential for local Indonesian content.

"With the development of the game industry, the potential for games is not only played by gamers, but also non-gamers. We see market research that this farming simulation game is one of the most popular in Indonesia," said Hans.

"Here we want to highlight the culture and art of the Indonesian people. The initial stage includes several Indonesian characters and buildings, and this is also supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy," Hans continued.

Garena Fantasy Town presents a number of historical places in Indonesia to get to know and preserve Indonesian culture.

Historical places in Indonesia that are officially presented in Fantasy Town today include Borobudur Temple, National Monument (Monas), Lawang Sewu, Kota Tua Jakarta, Rumah Gadang to Traditional Houses of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, North Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Makassar.

Officially launched in mid-July, "Fantasy Town" has also presented various characters and costumes from Indonesian folklore such as Kabayan, Iteung, to Radu which were inspired by traditional Madurese clothing.

Through these characters and costumes, players in "Fantasy Town" can learn Indonesian culture from home in a fun and enjoyable way through farming, raising livestock, trading, exploring mysterious areas, and building a dream city with nuances of Indonesian culture.