The gushing waves and the click-clack of keyboards. You would not think that these sounds come together, but they did at a beach house in Liloan, Cebu on Sept. 30, 2023.
When this writer first entered the beach house, the scene did not look like a vacation at all.
The living room was a scatter of laptops, keyboards, computer mice, screens, tablets and sleeping bags with “tech people” sitting on the couch and bean bags in their stereotypical hoodies and jackets.
High-grade computers took over the dining table with snacks and coffee in between. The beach house was turned into a tech studio for the weekend.
This was no ordinary beach camping trip. A group of 20 artists and developers gathered to create video games within 24 hours in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-organized “GameDev by the Beach,” spearheaded by Polipix Studios, Capriccioso Games Studio and Exodia Studio.
The world of gaming
The gaming industry in Cebu has been on the sidelines for some time. Where the industry focuses on websites and app creation for profit, there is a growing niche in Cebu’s IT hub that focuses on game development.
Game jams and gaming conferences happen frequently out of the public’s eyes. Cebuano developers were even represented in the recent Nordic Games 2023 in Malmo, Sweden last May.
It is expected that game development is a pressure-filled environment as ideas are turned into designs and codes to come alive.
Yet during the Gamedev on the Beach, the artists and developers seemed to shed off the pressure suits and don their creative sunhats.
Relaxed, the game techs were divided into four groups, each with a writer, artist and programmer.
This writer was grouped with two user interface (UI) artists and an experienced programmer.
For the love of Cebu
The instruction was simple: Develop a game within 24 hours that would highlight the different tourist spots in Cebu.
As the teams huddled in each corner of the beach house, ideas began to flow. Writers began to conceptualize games and concepts for the artists and programmers to develop.
This writer’s team took over the entire balcony and began plotting a matching game called “Habagat,” a game that follows the journey of the sun god, Adlaw, as he resolves the crisis in different towns and cities on the island of Sugbo.
A few moments later
As ideas moved along the production line — from the writer to the artist to the programmer — 24 hours passed by quickly. Soon enough, four new games were developed, four new ideas that may be the next viral video game on the app store.
One of the games was this writer’s own “Habagat,” which was a matching game like “Candy Crush” with the unique twist of fighting monsters and helping Adlaw clear Sugbo from the Kawasan Monster, destroy the ship of Capitan Basilio and aid Lapu-Lapu to fight against Magellan.
Another noteworthy game was “Moe Lang,” which was a survival role-playing game that allowed players to scour through the island to live.
“Sukli” was a fun mobile game that allowed players to play as the konduktor of a jeepney and the goal was to provide each passenger with the right change for their fare.
The last one was named “Phili-fort,” a war game with the goal of protecting the player’s side from invaders.
Creativity and the beach
The end of the 24-hour session was marked by a simple lunch and fellowship between the artists and developers.
The goal was to encourage the game techs to be creative, to push through the boundaries of time and space and to find a fresh perspective beyond the confines of their comfort zones.
The games may never go public but the developers had a much-needed reset. And who knows? Maybe one of those Cebuano developers would be creating the next big game.