Gaming
Press Start! – Start Making Games

Gaming: Press Start

How do you create an interesting game? What is the process for becoming a game developer and the steps for production-to-marketing your own game? The PRESS START! podcast invites us to explore the world of game development. Listen to inspirational stories from players in the gaming industry in this podcast!

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The Journey of a Solo Developer

Episode 15 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Mohammad Fahmi (indie game developer) started his own game studio after successfully helping develop the internationally renowned game “Coffee Talk”. He shares his experience and challenges in building his own studio.
 

Episode 15 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Mohammad Fahmi — Indie Game Developer

Biography:
Mohammad Fahmi is an indie game developer, consultant, and freelance writer based in Jakarta. He was the chief editor of a local Indonesian gaming publication called Tech in Asia and was the director of Coffee Talk. He is currently working on other games while trying to help other indies in Indonesia.
 

Becoming a Café Singer in a Video Game

Episode 14 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Dinia Ridanti (Rolling Glory) is a voice actress, community manager, and studio manager in the gaming industry. She recounts her experience playing a bard in a game where she sang three songs in the game’s tavern.
 

Episode 14 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Dinia Ridanti — Studio Manager, Rolling Glory

Biography:
Dinia Ridanti is a studio manager at the digital creative company Rolling Glory in Bandung. Her interests and experience in the gaming industry in Indonesia range from being an MC for Indonesia Bermain 2011 (Indonesia Game Festival), being a voice actress for various local game characters, content administrator and model for the text-based simulation game Salah Sambung.
 

Gamification for Education

Episode 13 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Ardhan Fadhlurrahman (Pahamify) specializes in gamification in education. He explains the strategy of creating gamification projects that impact users.

Episode 13 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Ardhan Fadhlurrahman — Product Manager, Pahamify

Biography:
Ardhan is a product manager specialized in gamification at Pahamify. He is also program manager at Asosiasi Games Indonesia. He started his career as a teaching assistant at Universitas Indonesia specializing in software engineering subjects and game development. He later became UX researcher lead for an IoT startup to further immerse himself in human computer interaction. He obtained his postgraduate degree from University of South Wales in Cardiff majoring in Games Enterprise (Design & Production) with a focus on animation and VR. Ardhan is determined to support Indonesia’s game developers in general as well as game research and collaboration between campuses.
 

 

What to do to Start Your Career in the Game Industry

Episode 12 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Oscar Clark (Fundamentally Games) has many years of experience in developing games. He shares his wisdom on how to design and monetize your games.
 

Episode 12 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Oscar Clark — Chief Strategy Officer, Fundamentally Games

Biography:
Oscar Clark is Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at the living games publisher Fundamentally Games LTD and has been a pioneer in gaming services since 1998. He helps developers (and investors) design, deliver and monetize games and authored the book Games As A Service published by Routledge. He also helps find speakers and hosts at PG Connects.
 
 

Becoming a Voice Actress in a Game

Episode 11 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Dewa Ayu Larassanti (EmberLab) is the voice of Kena in “Kena: Bridge of Spirits”, a story-driven action adventure game. She retells her voice acting experience, talks about culture, and how games are different from movies.

Episode 11 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Dewa Ayu Larassanti — Voice Actor, EmberLab & Producer, WACsmash at UCLA

Biography:
Dewa Ayu Larassanti is a dancer, musician, singer and voice actor. Ayu grew up in the Bay Area and in Bali and loves studying different forms of music and dance, including choral music, jazz dance, and hip hop. She is a senior at UCLA and studies World Arts and Cultures, Ethnomusicology, and Entrepreneurship. Ayu trains with world-renowned composers and choreographers and teaches young artists at Çudamani in Bali. She has toured with Çudamani internationally teaching and performing in Japan, Greece, and the United States. She hopes to be able to continue studying and performing with Çudamani and use her knowledge and training to teach young artists all around the world.
 

The Essence of a Game Narrative Designer

Episode 10 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Lydia Ho (Metronomik) has experience writing for games and elsewhere. She delves into the techniques of designing a narrative for a game and how to balance gameplay and writing.
 

Episode 10 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Lydia Ho — Narrative Designer & Writer, Metronomik

Biography:
Lydia Ho works as a narrative designer & writer at Metronomik, where she is responsible for developing the story of a game. Lydia enjoys various kinds of stories and writing. Her writing ranges from in-game descriptions to marketing copy, crafting narratives, and building worlds. Throughout her career, she has been a game designer and producer among other positions. Her passion is to create while discovering more ways to convey meaningful and memorable stories through games. No Straight Roads, Postknight, and The King's League series are some of the games that Lydia has worked on.
 

Understanding the Live-ops Phase in a Game

Episode 9 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Ardita Silvadha Erlangga (Agate International) has worked in the game industry in Germany and Korea. She talks about how to manage the live operations (live-ops) phase in gaming.
 

Episode 9 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Ardita Silvadha Erlangga — Head of Service Operations, Agate International

Biography:
Ardita Silvadha Erlangga started her career in the game industry in 2015 as server head at Min Communications Inc. in South Korea, joining the global publishing service of a PC-MMORPG game, Ran Online, to manage the community. She studied media and digital games at Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany, where she earned her masters in Media and Communication Science. She worked at Travian Games in Germany at service of another MMORPG project before finally becoming Head of Service Operations at Agate International​​​​​​​.
 

How to Build Your Skill in Game Development

Episode 8 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Astrid Refstrup (Triple Topping Games) talks about Game Jams, the spirit of collaboration, her experience building her own game studio, and how to increase skill.

Episode 8 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Astrid Refstrup – CEO, Triple Topping Games

Biography:
Astrid is the CEO and co-founder of Triple Topping Games and advisor to the game fund Kowloon Nights. Formerly, she was Nordic Game Jam head organizer. She was named one of the top 100 Game Changers by Gamesindustry.biz for her ongoing efforts to create a transparent, climate-friendly, crunch-free and family-supporting workplace. She loves game jamming, tax reports, and hotdogs. She hates crunch and is redesigning the startup indie game culture.
 

Using Games to Promote Local Culture

Episode 7 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Azizah Assattari (Lentera Nusantara Studio) merges games and local cultures. Her love for Indonesian culture and games led her to use games as a medium for promoting local cultures.

 

Episode 7 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Azizah Assattari - CEO, Lentera Nusantara Studio

Biography:
Azizah Assattari is the founder of Lentera Nusantara Studio, an intellectual property house that unveils the beauty of local Indonesian heritage. She believes that the uniqueness of Indonesian mythologies derives from the mix of many different world cultures and that this mix represents how global cultural diversity works on a large scale. She obtained her masters in Game and Interactive Media Design from Bandung Institute of Technology. She is also a lecturer at Binus International School of Arts and Bandung Institute of Technology.
 
 

Creating Hubs to Connect People

Episode 6 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Lorenzo Pilia (BerlinGameScene.com) has worn many hats in the gaming industry. He has managed several events, meetups, and festivals that connect game developers from many backgrounds. He shares insights on creating hubs for networking game developers where they can learn from each other.

Episode 6 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Lorenzo Pilia — Executive Producer of Maschinen-Mensch & Founder of BerlinGameScene.com

Biography:
Lorenzo Pilia is the executive producer at the Berlin-based indie game studio Maschinen-Mensch, currently working on Curious Expedition 2. He is also the outreach manager at Codecks, a project management tool for game developers, and is responsible for a number of game-related initiatives and events in the German capital, such as BerlinGameScene.com, Talk & Play, the Civic Game Jam series, Join – Local Multiplayer Summit. From 2014 to 2019 he was the program manager for A MAZE. / Berlin – International Games and Playful Media Festival.
 

Game as an Interactive Medium

Zarisya Aziz (Everidea Interactive) is using games as more than just entertainment. Her projects use games as an interactive tool for brand activation, virtual concerts, online exhibitions and more.

Episode 5 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Episode 5 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Zarisya Aziz — Head of Marketing, Everidea Interactive

Biography:
Zarisya Aziz graduated as a statistician from Padjadjaran University, Bandung, after which she turned her attention to the creative industry. She entered the game development industry with Everidea Interactive in 2018. She went from knowing only a little about game development to being in charge as a Head of IP Character Development for Lembayung Comics. Now Head of Marketing at Everidea Interactive, she is passionate in making an impact through digital interactive work.
 

Adapting from Physical to Digital Event

Episode 4 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Valentina Birke (Super Crowd Entertainment) manages digital interactive experience projects. She shares her experience managing Indie Arena Booth and switching to digital event.

Episode 4 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Valentina Birke — Director, Indie Arena Booth & DreamHack Beyond

Biography:
Valentina Birke works at Super Crowd Entertainment, where she manages the Indie Arena Booth, the world's largest joint booth for independently developed games. Her focus is on curating the Indie Arena Booth to reflect the entire creative and artistic spectrum of indie games. She also manages DreamHack’s digital sister DreamHack Beyond, which is an at-home all-digital free interactive experience showcasing the best of DreamHack.
 

Game Developers in the Eyes of a YouTuber

Episode 3 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Dito Wangsa (anak tua) is an avid gamer and YouTuber. He spends his time reviewing games on his YouTube channel. He shares his opinions on what makes a good game from a gamer’s perspective.

Episode 3 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Dito Wangsa — YouTuber, anak tua

Biography:
Dito Wangsa is a content creator and YouTuber. His YouTube channel, anak tua, regularly publishes videos focusing on, among others, game reviews. He graduated from Quantum College majoring in Movie Animation in 2011. He is an avid entrepreneur in the event and wedding organization business and in the food & beverage business.
 

Diversity is Super Power

Episode 2 - Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art © © Goethe-Institut Indonesien Episode 2 - Season 2 - Press START! © Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Allan Cudicio (Twin Drums) has designed several games for various studios in Berlin, including Candy Crush. He talks about balancing art and science in a game and how diversity is a super power.

Episode 2 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Allan Cudicio — CEO & Game Designer, Twin Drums

Biography:
Allan Cudicio is an Italo-Ghanaian game designer who founded his own development studio, Twin Drums, after about a decade of gaming experience in large and smaller companies. He is currently working on the PC game “The Wagadu Chronicles”, the first Afrofantasy MMORPG. He has worked as a game designer at several game studios in Berlin, including Wooga, King, and Games Academy. Allan's big passions are Dungeons & Dragons, fried plantain, dogs, cycling and justice.
 

The Important Role of Data in a Game

Episode 1 Season 2 - Press START! Cover Art
© Goethe-Institut Indonesien
Saskya Irena (Electronic Arts) used to not like coding, but now coding is her main job. She talks about the role of data in a game and how high-level design is an important skill for a software engineer.

 

Episode 1 - Season 2 - Press START! Podcast

Guest:
Saskya Irena - Senior Software Engineer, Electronic Arts

Biography:
Saskya Irena received her masters of Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University in 2104. She graduated cum laude from Bandung Institute of Technology, majoring in Information Systems and Technology. Originally from Jakarta, she is now working as a software engineer for Electronic Arts in Austin, Texas, where she handles the company's data pipeline. Her previous work experience includes software engineer intern at HDE Inc. Tokyo and CRM analyst intern at Microsoft Indonesia.
 

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