Bari Silvestre: from Philippine factory worker to world-famous indie developer
Everyone loves a good rags-to-riches story, and Filipino developer Bari Silvestre, the man behind Keybol Games, has a great one.
Silvestre began his career in the game’s industry while working in South Korea pressing LCD screens into shape for Samsung. He spent his time combing through Google for games people wanted walkthroughs for, and then filling the gaps he saw. It was during this time that he realized the money-making potential of internet walkthroughs, and decided he needed a new way to dramatically increase traffic through his sites.
He decided that the quickest method was to embed walkthroughs in the games themselves, something Silvestre had noticed some flash developers doing already. Realizing the potential of this model, he began to make his own games. Silvestre is self-taught, so his initial attempts were quite basic, as you can see here. Despite their simplicity, the games provided the traffic Silvestre had wanted and helped put him on the way to becoming a full-time developer.
(See: An indie game developer’s guide to game development…sort of)
In 2010, Silvestre discovered flashgamelicense.com (now known as FGL.com) and realized that developing games for their own sake, rather than just to boost traffic to his walkthroughs, was an option for him. FGL.com helped Silvestre connect with publishers like Armor Games and Kongregate, who opened new doors for Silvestre and other indie developers.
That same year, Silvestre decided to leave South Korea and return to the Philippines, where he founded the one-man studio Keybol Games. Within the studio’s first year, Silvestre published his first game as a full-time developer: a browser-based adventure game called Belial: Chapter 1. Belial was originally supposed to be a platformer, but due to his lack of experience Silvestre decided to settle for making it a point-and-click adventure, a genre more suited to his abilities at the time.
Silvestre may not have been the most technologically-adept developer, but he was prolific, and to-date has nearly 100 games to his name. Silvestre jokes that he is known in the industry as someone who can make several games per day.
Keybol’s gaming catalog features everything from superhero physics puzzles in Vanguards, to the relentless bouncing of Ballsy Bird. Not all of Keybol’s games were great and Silvestre himself admits that “a lot were dumb,” but they paid the bills and gave him the practice he needed to hone his development skills.
(See: Bari Silvestre made me think “what’s my excuse?”)
Silvestre relied on flash games to make money, because flash sponsorship allowed him to “focus on the gameplay and not worry about the science behind monetization and visibility.” Throughout this time, Silvestre hoped to achieve his dream of having a game that went viral and hit the big time.
In 2012 Silvestre’s dream was realized when Keybol’s Prententious Game caught the attention of the gaming community, and Silvestre quickly rocketed to international fame. Pretentious Game’s unique charm, excellent scoring, and innovative use of gameplay, color, and shape made it an instant indie favorite.
Silvestre attending Casual Connect in America.
Shortly afterwards Silvestre was invited to speak at Casual Connect in Seattle and San Francisco, and Pretentious Game got coverage from sources including Touch Arcade and Rock Paper Shotgun.
(See: How the Pretentious Game trilogy taps on gamers imagination)
In order to capitalize on this success and push Keybol forward, Silvestre decided to port Pretentious Game to mobile devices and eventually to Steam. This was Keybol’s first attempt to sell on multiple platforms. Silvestre admits that this was a steep learning curve for someone who had previously relied on flash games to pay the bills.
He found the most difficult part of this process to be working with Steam’s upload service: Steam Pipe. Unlike the iOS app store and Google Play, Steam’s upload procedure requires a lot more from developers, something which Silvestre was not expecting, and had not allowed time for.
Very different from Google Play’s “click to upload” button.
He had to learn how to edit and make .bat files work, and even had to create executable commands for DOS, but Silvestre explained: “even if you follow the step by step tutorial video, there’s always was always another error.” As a solo-developer Silvestre notes that “it’s always been this way,” because any changes to iOS “take time away from the creative side.”
With help from Bulkypix, Pretentious Game’s publisher, the game did make the deadline, and Silvestre is now determined that his next major release will also be on Steam. Luckily, his next game won’t be a solo venture.
Silvestre described working with Bulkypix as a much-needed educational experience, stating: “I learned about discipline, marketing, and app support. It was like getting a crash course on app publishing.” It was during this time he discovered that free-to-play was the right direction for him. Silvestre said that he tried paid apps at first, and found that “it’s only good for the first few weeks during the features and press coverage.” After that, he shared, a premium game’s sales drop dramatically.
Next year Silvestre will open his new studio, Ferryman, which will focus on developing fantasy-themed games. The first game to be developed by Ferryman will be a remake of Keybol’s original Belial game: Belial: Ars Demonia.
(See: Filipino developer Silvestre opens fantasy-focused studio: Ferryman)
Belial: Ars Demonia is Silvestre’s greatest challenge yet, because it exchanges the simplicity of his earlier flash-based titles for the retro complexity of the metroidvania genre. It’s a big challenge, but Silvestre is committed to his “tribute to the golden age of gaming,” and with his track record, I can’t see any reason to doubt him. Silvestre has proven himself one to watch, whatever the game may turn out to be.
Check out some of our other founder’s stories:
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The post Bari Silvestre: from Philippine factory worker to world-famous indie developer appeared first on Games in Asia.
The post Bari Silvestre: from Philippine factory worker to world-famous indie developer appeared first on Games in Asia.
