Indonesian, German Game Developers Launch 'Jermania': A Digital Peek Into Life in Germany
Jakarta. Indonesian and German developers are working together to build a game app that will attract more tourists to Germany, representatives said on Thursday (06/10).
The initiative — led by Goethe Institut Indonesia and Germany's Foreign Ministry — features Indonesian developers Teddy Pandu Wirawan and Magdalena Marlin Amanda from Bandung's Nightspade Studio and Linda Kruse and Moritz Lehr from Germany.
The new game app, called "Jermania," will provide much-needed information for tourists unfamiliar with life in Germany.
"Jermania is a game about traveling to Germany. It will help introduce German culture to tourists," Teddy said. "The game will feature many aspects of daily life in Germany — useful information that has been adopted and adjusted to become the game's content," he added.
The project began in early August this year when the game developers got together for an ideation workshop in which they figured out the target audience’s interests and the initial game concept.
During the sharing session on Thursday, Teddy and Magdalena showed audience the first prototype of Jermania. The app at the moment features three German cities: Cologne, Freiburg and Berlin. The team behind the game — comprising 3 artists, 2 programmers and 1 game designer — plans to feature seven cities by January 2017.
The game app, which will run on most mobile platforms, will focus on highlighting German architecture, culinary traditions and daily life. Each city will have its own mini game. Players will be able to unlock features by blowing on their gadget, turning it around or shaking it.
The sharing event also featured presentations from two Indonesian game developers, Michael Elwin Setiadi and Steven Aang, who attended Gamescom with Goethe Institut's assistance earlier this year.
Gamescom is the world’s largest gaming event, attracting over 300,000 visitors, more than 6000 journalists and 700 exhibitors from across the globe. Michael and Steven were able to attend Gamescom through another initiative by the Goethe Institut called Game Mixer, which gave the developers an opportunity to interact and network with important figures in the gaming industry, and eventually led to their participation in one of the most exciting events for game fans.