Designing a game around local folklore | My Gamer Life - Destined For Greatness? - video Dailymotion

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Andrew and Adam are the creators of Ghostlore - an action-RPG where players can take on supernatural monsters from Southeast-Asian folklore. We find out how this two-man team created one of Singapore’s most successful indie games.  Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video

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00:00But like you know this like UI kind of stuff you can do better here and you can do better

00:05so I guess I was very direct with him and in hindsight it was probably not the best way to meet someone.

00:10Ghost Lore is a game developed by me and Adam with me being the one who originally came up with the idea.

00:31It is a retro game made in the style of games that came out in the 90s like Diablo 1 and 2.

00:37But instead of like in Diablo where you are fighting western demons right we're having like

00:43angels and demons and all that stuff right it's more of like an Asian flavor and it's more

00:48it's more focused on the demons that are found in Singaporean, Southeast Asian folklore such as the

00:55the Toyos and of course the Jiangshi, the Chinese hopping vampire.

01:00Hi I'm Andrew.

01:01Hi I'm Adam.

01:02And we are the creators of Ghost Lore.

01:05When I first saw Andrew post about Ghost Lore on Reddit

01:09I thought it was a really interesting idea and I also thought that

01:13it was something I could really help him with because he was not very strong technically

01:18and I thought I could contribute in that way to make sure that it reached its full potential.

01:24So I messaged him I was like okay like I'm interested in this game I want to work with you on it and we met up.

01:31Adam because after seeing the Reddit post he actually sent me a DM and and asked me

01:38hey you know would I'm a programmer would you like to collaborate on this game so

01:44at the time I thought I guess there's no harm in meeting a new person.

01:49So when I first met Andrew I was like criticizing like part of the game I was like saying that

01:54okay this is like great but like you know this like UI kind of stuff you can do better here

01:59and you can do better so I guess I was very direct with him and in hindsight it was probably

02:04not the best way to to meet someone so Ghost Lore has very much been an online production I guess so

02:10I've actually barely met Andrew in real life we only meet just to hang out basically and most of

02:15the work is done online on Discord and that's how we met Sarah as well so she's just someone who's

02:21been really successful in the US and she just wants to give back to the indie gaming scene in Singapore

02:29and so she's been helping us with Ghost Lore's marketing as well online.

02:33Hey Sarah!

02:34Hi Sarah!

02:35How are you?

02:36How are you doing?

02:37I'm good I'm good nice to see you guys again.

02:40How are you all?

02:41Yeah good good.

02:42How's the Discord for Ghost Lore going?

02:47It's getting a bit chattier in recent weeks which is always nice to see.

02:52It's going to be like more the bigger publications maybe like newspapers

02:56versus streamers and it's going to be more targeted towards like the local people.

03:09Welcome to my house this is where we started working on Ghost Lore.

03:13We usually have meetings here.

03:15So this was something which I worked on around the same time as Ghost Lore because I guess I

03:20like building things in general so this is something we did from scratch.

03:25I actually built all the wood by myself.

03:31Welcome to my kitchen.

03:34Usually after working on Ghost Lore we might like cook a meal together to eat together and

03:39I do like to eat chai tau kueh.

03:41This is my office and most of the programming work for Ghost Lore is done here.

03:53It is actually very very difficult to say what a good game actually is because what we think about

04:02actually is because what we think about as games right or video games in particular

04:10are actually a very very wide range of activities.

04:14You would find that it's a bit like trying to compare basketball with chess with solitaire.

04:21To me a game that is a game that is actually good will be one that is

04:27easy to learn but difficult to master.

04:30So for me to create games which are easy to play but difficult to master

04:36from a very simple rule set there can be a lot of strategies.

04:41This is actually something that I try and design in my own games.

04:51So actually the game is 2D but it still looks 3D.

04:55We are a very very like retro game.

04:57We sought to be very very faithful to that look.

05:01Not only did we try to replicate the look just from the outside looking in

05:04but we also tried to replicate the workflow that they were using back in the 90s

05:11in order to make the game look very very faithful.

05:13Right now they could equip a variety of weapons that are also inspired by some of the local weapon sites.

05:17For example you got the parang here, you got the kukris which is kind of like the

05:22I think it's more commonly known as the Gurkha blade and you have those magic paper talismans

05:27and you have the kris which is the very very distinctive curved sword.

05:32One thing that players were asking us about was that

05:35you know why are the characters all just you know dressed in black?

05:38You know I cannot change the look of my characters.

05:40So what I did was I actually went back to go in to actually create

05:44kind of like different styles of clothing for the 3D model.

05:47So now based on this right Adam has actually created a software that will actually

05:54like randomize the colors of the clothing.

05:56So I don't have to do it by hand.

06:02Something I'm passionate about for Ghost Lore is the procedural generation in Ghost Lore.

06:07So it's something we put quite a lot of effort in

06:10and something which is I think quite true to the roots of Diablo-likes.

06:14The maps are all procedurally generated which means that the computer generates it each time

06:20and every time you play like the map is made from scratch.

06:24So all the artwork which Andrew does is it makes it very fresh each time

06:30even though it's the same few pieces of artwork every time

06:33but every time you play it's something completely different.

06:40When we launched the game I had a like small kind of party at my place

06:44and it was quite funny because like Andrew was really really stressed about it.

06:50Like I don't even know what to say about that.

06:52Everyone was just like are you okay dude like are you okay

06:55and like he just locked himself in the room the whole night

06:58and he was just like oh my goodness like what if this person hates the game

07:01and like you know like no one's gonna like the game

07:04and there was nothing anyone could do to get him out of the room.

07:07When the game launched and like there were a lot of sales

07:11and there were a lot of positive review and positive press

07:14I felt a tremendous amount of relief that I was wrong about my own game

07:19and Adam was right about it.

07:20Adam and I we complement each other well in terms of our skill sets

07:27because I am the artist and he is the programmer.

07:31Sometimes we also may disagree with each other about some things

07:37but we do not consider this to be a bad thing necessarily.

07:40We consider it to be a part of our how we complement each other

07:43because you know we have a broader perspective of the issue.

07:49So fortunately I think both of us are even if we may disagree

07:55we are still willing to change our minds

07:58as long as the other person can provide good evidence

08:02for why we should make a certain decision.

08:05I would say that I am a very very perfectionistic person

08:10compared to Adam who I feel is a more flexible thinker.

08:15I think I've been very lucky like working with Andrew

08:17because in some ways we are very similar people.

08:21We are both very introverted people.

08:23We both do not deal well with like talking with a lot of people

08:27and we are both very direct like you know to the point

08:30like if you ask me or Andrew like what do you think about this

08:34I'll just tell you like no it's terrible or like you know it's bad

08:37and obviously you cannot do that when you are working with everyone

08:42because people will just be really like angry with you.

08:45So that's something which we really share in common

08:48and in other ways we are also very like dissimilar

08:51because Andrew I guess is an artist and I'm a programmer

08:54and like it's just very different the way we think about things

08:58but at the end of the day we can go back and we can sleep on it

09:01and the next day we'll just be like okay yeah

09:03you have a point in this and we can compromise in between

09:06and like that really is very like lucky I guess.

09:09We actually have thought a little bit about

09:11whether we want to expand the company

09:14whether you want to do the full-on video game company

09:17and hire people and deal with all of that

09:21and it's very scary because once you do that

09:24you have like a lot of responsibility

09:26and we're not sure whether that's worth it

09:29and like I think my parents would be very happy to do that

09:32but like it's just like maybe it's not for us you know

09:35like so we were kind of undecided and I guess we'll see

09:39like whether we want to go for that path

09:42but I think it's also like a very valid path

09:46to just want to do your craft

09:48like to just want to be like a craftsman

09:51for like okay I'm going to be a really good programmer

09:54and I think that's kind of underrated especially in Singapore

09:57where like everyone thinks that okay to be like successful

10:01you need to be the next CEO

10:02or you need to be the next like Simone Koon or something

10:06I think it's fine to just be like

10:07okay I'm going to be a really good programmer

10:08I'm going to be a really good chef

10:10or I'm going to be a really good artist

10:11and like you know I think that might be a path

10:14it might not be I don't know

Designing a game around local folklore | My Gamer Life - Destined For Greatness?

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