Casual Connect Asia Highlight: Kris Antoni Hadiputra, Toge Productions

by clelia on June 21, 2012

source: http://casualconnect.org/news/casual-connect-asia-highlight-kris-antoni-hadiputra-toge-productions/

Award-winning independent games development studio Toge Productions focuses on creating high quality Flash Games. Based in Indonesia, it has been able to deliver successful titles played worldwide. CEO and Co-founder Kris Antoni Hadiputra shared about the company’s start and flash games.

Humble Beginnings

Back in Binus University, Hadiputra and Sudarmin Then both loved playing and building games. When a double degree program with Games Technology courses was offered, they entered the program. They named their team “Toge Productions” for their final year project. After graduation, the team separated and pursued other jobs, but in 2009, they quit their jobs and revived Toge Productions with their own savings. Yet ill fortune created difficulties for the team. “The first year was tough; I had my tablet computer stolen with months of work still inside, we had to work in a garage because we couldn’t afford rent, and at one time we had to eat instant noodles for a while just to save money, said Hadiputra.

Controversy to Success

Toge Productions grew from adversity. They created a number of successful games. Reich of Darkness was one such game, but with a twist: a controversial theme. Set in an alternate WW2 timeline, the team tried to distance the game as much as possible from Nazism, according to Hadiputra, but it still created a lot of controversy and debate. Regardless, it received an 8/10 rating on Armorgames.com.

The main challenge in creating a game with a controversial theme would be to manage the controversy, not to let it go out of control that may result in a negative backlash.

“Fueling debate is a great way to promote your game and make your game stand out, as long as you can keep the number of people opposing as low as 1:5.” After receiving a formal complaint from the Anti Defamation League, Toge Productions made a few adjustments to add an Allied campaign. The new version received 8.6/10 rating and half-a-million gameplay in less than a week, according to Hadiputra. The lesson learned was debate can be a good promoter if kept in control.

Flash Future

Hadiputra considers the Flash game market an easily understood, low-budget market that will continue to grow despite other web-based developments entering the field. Flash games reach millions of users, have multiple monetization methods, and can be exported to multiple platforms easily, in his opinion. These traits can be helpful to Indonesia’s game industry, which is very young and has little support for growth, in Hadiputra’s opinion. With the new opportunities the industry has to offer, Toge Productions promises to present new ideas to the market.