The indie game that showcases Southeast Asian food | My Gamer Life - Destined for Greatness?
This trio of NTU graduates are about to release their indie game SEDAP!
Jay, Nadiyah and Jing Ting share their journey from creating SEDAP! as a final-year-project to aspirations of sharing Southeast Asian flavours with a global audience.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
Jay, Nadiyah and Jing Ting share their journey from creating SEDAP! as a final-year-project to aspirations of sharing Southeast Asian flavours with a global audience.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
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00:00Through Sedap, we also want to highlight Southeast Asian cultures to a global audience,
00:04rather than just, you know, us Southeast Asians with our little Southeast Asian game.
00:19Hi, I'm Jay, I'm one of the co-founders at KopiForge, and I'm the producer for Sedap.
00:23I'm Toy, and I'm one of the co-founders of KopiForge, and I'm the lead artist as well.
00:27And together, both of us made Sedap as our FYP project.
00:31The idea of Sedap started in university,
00:33when I was thinking about what to do for my final year project.
00:36I knew that I wanted it to be something unique and impactful,
00:40and I wanted to base it off the cultures and the food that I grew up eating.
00:43Also because you don't really see a lot of Southeast Asia in video games nowadays.
00:48Sedap is a cooking combat co-op adventure game,
00:50where players traverse an island called Kaya Island,
00:53a fantastical reimagination of Southeast Asia.
00:56So while on the island, players will encounter creatures that are inspired
00:59by Southeast Asian mythology and folklore.
01:01Their job is basically to travel around the island, search and cook the ingredients,
01:05serve delicious Southeast Asian dishes.
01:07One of the inspirations for Sedap came when I was playing Stardew Valley with a friend.
01:11We were in the dungeons, and what we were doing was we were delegating tasks
01:15and working towards a common goal.
01:16And I really liked the fun of that co-op kind of game,
01:19and I think that idea was integral when it came to conceptualising Sedap.
01:23Another inspiration for the game is Overcooked,
01:25which was very popular in Singapore a few years back.
01:28Overcooked is a game where you work with your friends
01:30to create dishes like soup or hamburgers.
01:33Imagine creating chicken rice or mee goreng instead.
01:36In 2023, the team went down to KL at a local gaming convention to showcase Sedap.
01:41We managed to clinch the Best Student Game award,
01:44and it was a very heartwarming moment for the team
01:46as we finally got to see players enjoy the game
01:49that we've been tirelessly working on in school.
01:56Growing up, video games and art were my primary two hobbies,
02:00and when I found out that concept art was a viable career path
02:03after I bought the Art of Assassin's Creed 3 book when I was 11,
02:07I decided that would be my dream job.
02:09And I started collecting all of the video game concept art books,
02:13like the Borderlands one, the Dragon Age one,
02:16and I really was passionate about this.
02:19However, my mother told me that I shouldn't consider doing art as a career,
02:22so instead of going to Polytechnic, which is what I wanted,
02:25I had to go into JC and the IP track.
02:28And I took Science Stream, and H2 Art was my contrasting subject.
02:32So after A-levels, my mother saw that I was still very passionate
02:35about pursuing game art as a career,
02:38and that I was still practising almost daily.
02:40So she gave me the go-ahead to enrol in NTUADM and study game art,
02:44which is where I met Jay.
02:45So Jay and I joined the same band club together in university,
02:49and we both thought that one another looked really scary,
02:52and we thought we both hated each other.
02:54And it was really awkward until we started taking a couple of classes together,
02:59and we did the same projects,
03:00and we found out that we got along and we had quite a lot in common as well.
03:03So I was afraid of Toy because she looked very intimidating and fierce,
03:06and I think it's funny that she was afraid of me as well.
03:09But when I saw her passion for art,
03:11I just knew that I wanted her to work with me on set up,
03:13because I wanted to hit a very high level of Holish Arts.
03:16As for Ting Ting, who is our third co-founder
03:18and in charge of programming for Set Up,
03:20I met her in Polytechnic.
03:22She was my senior, so we only crossed paths at school events.
03:25And eventually, we went into NTU,
03:28so we would occasionally bump into each other on campus.
03:30And her involvement with the project started when I reached out to her
03:34and asked if she knew anybody that could help us
03:37with the programming side of things.
03:39And to my surprise, she herself volunteered to help us.
03:43And to my surprise, she herself volunteered to help us in her free time.
03:47And eventually, she actually left her full-time job to join us
03:51to create Set Up full-time.
03:53I started working on Set Up from January 2023 onwards
03:57after I graduated from university and prior to finding a job.
04:01After some time of working on it,
04:03I actually found a job in engineering,
04:05and Jay and Toy actually decided to continue working on the game.
04:09And I felt like I wanted to support them
04:11because I got quite emotionally invested in what we were doing.
04:14During this time, I was also thinking a lot about my career
04:17and what I wanted to do.
04:19So I decided that I wanted to give a career in game development a proper try
04:24as I decided that I would probably be happier here.
04:27And so far, I do think that has been the case.
04:29When I was young, I played a lot of video games on a computer,
04:33and that got me on the computer quite a lot.
04:35So I do think without that,
04:36I would not have even been interested in becoming a programmer.
04:39I have many fond memories of playing video games when I was a child,
04:43so it really made me want to create experiences like that for others to enjoy.
04:47When it comes to career, I seek a role that I consider fulfilling,
04:51passionate, impactful, and creative.
04:54During my time in university,
04:56I actually spent quite a few years feeling quite lost about what I wanted to do.
05:00So I actually tried out several different opportunities
05:03in different fields of engineering.
05:06And even though there were roles that I did enjoy quite a bit,
05:09I still felt confused and stressed out
05:12and didn't really feel like it was really right for me.
05:15But video games still feel like home to me.
05:22So currently, I'm working on getting a dish implemented into the game,
05:27where at the moment, we are working on chicken rice,
05:29one of our Singaporean dishes.
05:31So in the case of the workflow on how we get a dish into the game,
05:34I start by doing some research online
05:36to see what ingredients are normally present in the dish.
05:40I start doing some concept sketches,
05:41and that goes over to Jay for modelling.
05:43And then it comes back to me for texturing,
05:46and what we do is called hand-painted textures.
05:49And that is kind of how we define the art style of the game,
05:53where it's a very stylised 3D game.
05:55Everything's hand-painted,
05:56and by that, I mean I go into Substance Painter
05:59and I manually sort of add every single brushstroke by myself
06:04to make sure that the dish looks captivating in some way.
06:07Because we want the dish to look like it's still grounded in reality,
06:10despite being more fantastical and stylistically proportioned.
06:16So I'm currently working on the gameplay feature.
06:18Typically, how I go about doing that,
06:20first, I'll take a look at the documentation
06:23for the requirements of the feature.
06:25And then sometimes, there'll be a bit of back and forth discussion with the designer
06:29to make sure that it's being implemented correctly.
06:32Afterwards, I'll get some of my team to playtest it
06:34and check that the implementation is okay.
06:37And then sometimes, I do game design as well.
06:39So typically, there's a design problem I'm trying to solve.
06:42I will analyse it and then I'll flesh out the solution
06:45with some mock-ups and writing out some documentation.
06:49Afterwards, I'll review it with the team.
06:51So usually, we'll play it together or discuss the solution.
06:55And then we will ensure that we approve of the idea
06:58before we consider it included officially into the game
07:01because sometimes, we need to check whether it does fit with our existing designs.
07:06So that's just about what we do day-to-day
07:09with our respective roles and responsibilities.
07:17I think we definitely have a really unique working relationship
07:20because Jay and I started off as friends before we were colleagues.
07:23Same goes for me and Qingqing
07:25because it was an FYP before it became a work project.
07:28We try our best to strike a pretty healthy balance
07:32between being colleagues and being friends.
07:34And generally, we're quite understanding of each other's situations
07:38and we're always trying to be there for each other.
07:40We are pretty chill and honest with one another.
07:43After working with Jay and Toy for some time,
07:46I've started to get really close and comfortable with them.
07:49So sometimes, we even play games together for game ideas and inspiration.
07:53I think it's an ideal working environment
07:56because there's no such thing as drama or politics.
07:58So what we do to unwind is we actually jam at a nearby studio.
08:02So the three of us happen to play instruments
08:05and we happen to so-called like the same type of songs.
08:08Every month, we will go to jam
08:09and we also head to the gym to get a good workout.
08:12I think for me, the biggest challenge would be the financial stability.
08:16Being in an indie studio means that we ourselves
08:19have to look for our next round of funds
08:21and work on a game at the same time.
08:23And also, I'm not really from like a very well-off family
08:26and I really treasure being financially independent.
08:29You know, worrying about the finances month on month is quite stressful for me.
08:32I think for me, the biggest challenge would probably be marketing
08:36and trying to build hype for our game
08:38because we're releasing a unique IP.
08:41And if you're doing something like Call of Duty,
08:43then you have a very large dedicated fan base.
08:46But in our case, it's like we're a really small voice
08:48trying to get heard in a sea of much, much larger releases.
08:53And in the case of publisher rejections,
08:56it's a really normal part of working in an indie game company
09:00and it takes a while for you to get used to that.
09:03As a small team, there's a lot of work that we have to cover
09:07among the three of us.
09:08So we're doing production, development of the whole game
09:12and as well as taking care of marketing for our game.
09:15So there's honestly a lot for us to do and timelines are pretty tight.
09:20And also, time is money.
09:22So there's always a bit of a fear and risk that
09:26the longer we take, the more our development cost rises
09:29and we'll try to work as quickly as we can.
09:33We got a lot of support from our parent company,
09:35The Iterative Collective,
09:37because they allowed us to use their office space.
09:39They helped us set up our company and settle all of that admin work.
09:43They also incubated us for our first couple of months.
09:46And other than that, I really want to thank our university supervisor,
09:50Devideh, who really pushed us to try our best for this FYP.
09:55The Singapore Games Association, SGGA,
09:58and as well as other veterans in the local games industry here,
10:02they are very supportive and it's a very close-knit community.
10:06They will give us advice, reviewing our pitch deck
10:09and getting feedback on how we can pitch better in the industry.
10:13So adding to that, the Southeast Asian indie game community
10:15has also been very supportive and excited about Sedap.
10:18They've been very welcoming to us and are very approachable
10:21and it's very easy to reach out to them for a second opinion
10:24when it comes to game development.
10:26I'm also looking forward to overseas game conventions
10:29because that's when we get to see everybody
10:31and see what they've been working on.
10:33Success for me as a game developer
10:36would be to see players really enjoy playing our game
10:39and to be big fans of our game.
10:41So it's really nice when we see players appreciate
10:43all the little efforts and details that we put into our game
10:47and it's really nice to see them want to keep playing
10:49our game over and over again.
10:51For me personally, I would define success as
10:55me having put out something that has made a mark in the world in some way
10:59and I definitely want our company's name to be more widely known as well
11:03but it's something that I'm really hoping that we get to accomplish someday.
11:07The indie scene here in Singapore is actually composed of really talented people
11:13so yeah, do be sure to check out their games.
11:15So through Sedap, we also want to highlight Southeast Asian cultures
11:18to a global audience rather than just, you know,
11:21us Southeast Asians with our little Southeast Asian game.
11:23It would be great if people from all over the world can experience the game
11:27whether on PC or console with their friends
11:29and you know, learn more about the food that we grew up with.
11:32If you're interested in Sedap, please wishlist
11:34because it helps indie developers a lot.
11:36You can follow us on social media if you want like development updates
11:39or if you want to see the weird things that we post as well.