Rachmad Imron, World-Class "Kuntilanak"

Tatang Mulyana Sinaga

· 6 minutes read

Because of its abundance, local content is often considered too ordinary. Rachmad Imron, 40, reversed this assumption. By adopting local legends, such as pocong and kuntilanak, he created games that went global.

A number of black posters that read DreadOut were scattered in a three-story building that is the Digital Happiness studio in Coblong, Bandung city, West Java, Thursday (9/5/2019). In one room measuring about 4 by 4 square meters, Imron sat staring at the monitor. It was in that small room that he developed his big ideas.

DreadOut is the first commercial game produced by Digital Happiness. Since it was launched in May 2014, the game has produced more than US$1 million, or around Rp 14.2 billion.

The choice of the horror genre is because Imron and his colleagues like ghost stories. This genre is also considered more easily developed and accepted by the market.

Many ghost characters are identified with certain countries. For example, zombies in the United States, vampires in mainland Europe, and yurei in Japan.

"Indonesia has legendary ghosts like pocong and kuntilanak. This is a characteristic that makes it interesting to be used as a game," said the CEO of Digital Happiness.

Competing in the global game market is not easy. Game developers from developed countries, such as the US and Japan, have superior experience, technology and investment.

Imron was well aware of that. Therefore, he did not want to be trapped in competition that depends on the strength of the developed countries. According to him, specificity is the initial capital for new game developers to be able to compete. So, the wealth of local content must be utilized.

"It\'s not just horror, other content, such as ancient royal warfare, is also interesting to adopt. Indonesian content is not available in other countries," he said.

Imron stepped up his moves to continue developing horror games. Digital Happiness developed DreadOut by producing DreadOut 2, DreadOut: Keepers of The Dark and DreadEye, which is its first virtual reality game.

The success of DreadOut did not stay in the game industry. Because, the game business is so fluid that it expands into other businesses, including promotional media and films.

In 2016, the DreadOut license was used in the promotion of smartphones. Three years later, the game was made into a movie. This is the first time a local Indonesian game has been produced into a film.

Deputy for infrastructure at the Creative Economy Agency, Hari Santosa Sungkari, encouraged local game developers to use local content. "Don\'t create games that follow what already exists. It’s hard to compete against them [game developer companies from abroad]. Adopt local contents so that the game has closeness with the game players in the country," he said in Bandung, Tuesday (23/4/2019).

Long road

Imron\'s success was not easily achieved. He took a long road that wasn\'t all smooth. Long before producing the game, the alumnus of the Industrial Product Design of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) was a game enthusiast. He has known games since he was in the fourth grade of elementary school.

"In that era he played a PC [personal computer] game Dig Dug at a neighbor\'s house. After my parents realized that I liked games, they bought me Sega game console, "he said.

Imron was born and raised in Mojoerto, East Java. When he was still in school, electronic games in the city had not developed much. Prices were also quite high.

"You couldn\'t change games as easily as today. I got a new game only once a year as a gift for my academic achievements," he said.

After graduating from high school, Imron continued his education at ITB in 1996. He chose the industrial product design department because he loved drawing since he was a kid. Imron had no family in Bandung, so he rented a room. He learned to live independently.

During college, Imron became increasingly interested in gaming. On campus he learned aboutthree-dimensional designs and animation. He also began dreaming of making a game.

Capitalizing on that expertise, Imron and several friends opened three-dimensional drawing, animation and simulator services. "For the first time, he was paid Rp 400,000. After that, the pay depended on the level of difficulty of the order," he said.

The money from the business was used to pay tuition. In addition, it was also used to pay for three rooms per month for Rp 450,000.

"One room was used as a place for living and the other two for the workspace. So, you have to be diligent in looking for projects," he said.

Imron graduated in 2001. After that, he focused on receiving three-dimensional drawing, animation and simulator services. The effort did not always bear sweet fruit. For example, a simulator project worth Rp 400 million had not been paid by the buyer until now. In fact, the money was planned to be used as capital to make the DreadOut game.

There is never instant success. Hard work requires consistency to realize dreams

Imron and his colleagues were disappointed, but did not give up. They continued to work on a number of projects to be used as capital to realize that dream.

"There is never instant success. Hard work requires consistency to realize dreams," he said.

To get funding support, Imron used crowd-funding through the Indiegogo website in 2013. They targeted US$25,000 in fund-raising or Rp 245 million (exchange rate of Rp 9,800 per US dollar).

It turned out that the funds collected amounted to $29,000 or Rp 284 million. The sale of the game was also a success. It’s no joke, DreadOut was marketed through Steam channel, one of the biggest game distributors in the world.

It\'s not easy to sell the game through the channel. Competition came from all over the world. A year before the official release, the DreadOut demo was launched and could be downloaded for free.

The number of vote support also becomes a consideration if a game is sold through the canal or not.

In nine days, the DreadOut game has been downloaded 80,000 times. The game also received 60,000 votes on Steam in three months. The number of vote support also becomes a consideration if a game is sold through the canal or not.

After being launched in May 2014, the sales of DreadOut reached $150,000 or around Rp 1.72 billion (exchange rate of Rp 11,500 per US dollar) in the first month. That number continues to increase to $500,000 or Rp 5.75 billion a year.

Unfortunately, not all local developers maximize the game market that continues to increase. From the income of $1.08 billion or around Rp 15.6 trillion last year, the local developer only earned 0.4 percent. Most of them went to foreign developers.

Imron invites young people to move from players to game makers. With local content, he has proven that local games are able to compete in the global market. It\'s time for domestic people to grab a big game market in their own country.

Rachmad Imron

Born: Mojokerto, 30 July 1978

Education: S-1 Industry Product Design, ITB

Wife: Yoane Fitria Indah Gempita (35)

Child: Akal Rana Daya Rachmad (9)

Editor:

kompascetak rachmad imron