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This New Game Combines Wayang Robot Battles with Indonesian Folklore

garata
garata

We’ve seen quite a few Indonesian-made games recently, and this mobile browser-based game made by Depok game developer Tanoshii Studio is still a refreshing one. The game is called Garata, and it is now made available on gaming platform Kotagames. Two things I instantly noticed when playing the game: first is that Garata combines Indonesian folklore with robot characters! And second, the game has very nice graphics in comparison with the usual games meant for feature phones.

In a nutshell, Garata looks like the Indonesian version of Gundam which is set in its own folklore universe. Garata itself is the name of the robot species. The team describes Garata as Wayang Robot Battle species who are living in the Bharatayudha galaxy. That theme is chosen in the hope of attracting both local and international gamers.

Garata’s story is inspired by the Indonesian shadow puppet story “The Battle of Bharatayudha.” You will also find legendary Indonesian characters inside the game like Garata Gatot Kaca and Garata Hanuman. But most of the famous characters are premium items available via in-app purchases.

garata 2
garata 2

After giving the game a try for a bit, I found Garata offers the usual social gaming experience found on Kotagames platform. You would be able to do quests, buy items, obtain new characters, and battle with the other players. One more thing that I have to give props to the game developers for is how they pay attention to details. Besides the very nice graphics and interesting Indonesian robot battles, I found the storyline to be quite intriguing and entertaining as well.

Tanoshii Studio co-founder Oscar Kurniawan explains about the game’s progress so far:

We put some love into the game. Hopefully, players will feel it and play it like crazy. On the first day of Garata launching , we already made sales of our in-app purchase items and there are hardcores gamers playing it . [As of this morning,] Garata players now are in around 1700, with conversion rate (paying user) of two to three percent.

Garata was one of Indonesia’s representatives at the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Asia 2013 held in Singapore last week. And the game was crowned as the winner of the professional category during the recent XL GameHack 2013.

Besides Garata, Tanoshii Studio has built several apps such as children’s game Room of Disaster for Nokia phones. The game has been downloaded over 80,000 times from the Nokia Store and has made its way to the Blackberry 10 platform too.

The team is currently working to bring Garata to Android and iOS platforms. In the meanwhile, you can try playing Garata on Kotagames here.

garata 1
garata 1


The post This New Game Combines Wayang Robot Battles with Indonesian Folklore appeared first on Tech in Asia.