5 made-in-Malaysia games to put on your to-try list as we go into 2023

Malaysia has a thriving gaming industry that has produced countless gems. Whether it’s Lemon Sky Studio’s remaster of Warcraft III: Reforged for Blizzard or action brawler GigaBash, the country has slowly built itself a rep for making games in Southeast Asia.

With the video games industry in Malaysia expected to reach almost US$500 million in 2022 and an 8.7 per cent revenue growth rate from 2022 to 2027, it’s a potentially huge market that has room to grow.

While there's still some way to go before the country catches up to the US’ video game market with its US$51 billion revenue in 2022, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on what's coming out from the local studios in Malaysia.

As 2023 is around the corner, here are 5 great made-in-Malaysia games you can put on your list to play in the new year.

Eximius: Seize the Frontline by Ammobox Studios

Eximius is a competitive 5v5 game that combines the First Person Shooter (FPS) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) genres.

In this game, each team will have a player nominated as a Commander, who can switch between fighting on the frontline and strategising for their team by building bases, direct troops, and calling down support abilities to help their team. The rest of the team will be Officers, fighting their way through the battlefield with weapons and the guidance of Commander.

The gameplay feels a bit complex at first, but as I continued playing it, I had a feeling that this game had successfully combined both RTS and FPS genres into an engaging game.

Eximius: Seize the Frontline is currently available on Steam.

Kabaret by Persona Theory Games

Kabaret is a visual novel game based on Southeast Asian folklore and mythical monsters like Pontianak, Jinn, and Nabau. Persona Theory Games collaborated with Indonesian band, SambaSunda and Hello Universe from Malaysia to create this game’s soundtrack.

I had the opportunity to experience a bit of the game’s story with its different dialogue choices, and played a mini game of Performance.

The soundtrack in this game sounded fantastic and I had fun playing the multitasking mini game of Performance, juggling between moving the spotlight onto the singer, Nabau, handling the smoke machine, and timing pyrotechnics from two fiery fish.

Kabaret is set to release in March next year on Xbox, PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store, and has a free demo available on Steam.

Amnesiac Adventurer by RoundTable Games Studio

As its name suggests, this game is about an amnesiac adventurer who has to retrace his steps.

RoundTable Games Studio puts an interesting twist on puzzle games: The player has to “unsolve” the puzzles by figuring out how the puzzles were supposed to be in the levels.

The gameplay felt refreshing and intriguing to play, it was regrettable I could not spend more time solving the harder puzzles in the playtest.

Amnesiac Adventurer is currently available on Steam.

DeLight: The Journey Home by DreamTree Studio

DeLight is an episodic storytelling game about a blind girl, Sammy trying to reunite with her parents through a warzone.

Sammy can only sense her immediate surroundings, but her guide dog can assist her by sneaking past soldiers, tracking paths and giving her emotional support.

The player’s choices will affect the story of the game. You’ll be impressed with how the game conveys the story via dialogue and gameplay.

DeLight will have 5 chapters in total, with Chapter 3 released on September 28 earlier this year. DeLight: The Journey Home is currently available on Steam, Google Play Store and App Store, with Chapter 1 free for everyone to play.

Malice by Nimbus Games

Malice is a two-player escape room game about two characters who got plunged into a mysterious underground mansion after the ground crumbled beneath them.

The players have to communicate with each other to piece the clues together and explore the mansion grounds together.

Think of it as a virtual escape room and you’ll slowly get the hang of it. It was a bit difficult to understand the clues at first without external help, but it still felt fun to play Malice and solve puzzles together with a friend.

Also check out our interview with the developers here.

Malice is available on Steam.

This story is the work of student contributors working with Yahoo Southeast Asia.

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