‘A Space For The Unbound’: Trailblazing game set in ’90s Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Jakarta Post/ANN) — You wake up after an inappropriately long nap in a high school classroom. Your girlfriend, Raya, playfully scolds you for being such a slacker. You both hurry to the cinema shortly after to watch the latest romantic comedy flick, awkwardly touching each other’s hand while grabbing for popcorn.
The two of you stroll around your quaint little town, surfing the web in the local warnet, listening to keroncong music, and buying street food like cimol, enjoying your last days as high school students together.
But then she reveals that she has reality-warping superpowers and for whatever reason an apocalyptic crack is forming across the sky. Your high school days are coming to a close and it seems that the world is ending along with it.
This is the story you’ll find yourself in within the world of critically acclaimed Indonesian adventure video game “A Space For The Unbound,” the firstever locally developed game to be nominated in the industry’s most prestigious awards.
In December 2023, the pixelart adventure game developed by Mojiken Studios and published by Toge Productions was nominated for the Games For Impact category during The Game Awards 2023, considered the Oscars or the Grammys of the gaming world. Released on Jan. 19, 2023, “A Space For The Unbound” has also already gained accolades in similar events such as the New York Game Awards and The Game Developers Choice Awards.
Shortly after the game was released globally on multiple platforms, it was met with critical acclaim for its captivating story featuring characters Raya and Atma, while tackling heavy subjects such as depression and anxiety amid a fantastical narrative akin to animated offerings from Studio Ghibli like “Spirited Away.”
“With ‘A Space For The Unbound’ being nominated during TGA 2023, for me it shows that games with a very specific culture can thrive on the global stage. It all boils down to the experience that players get through the games itself,” Dimas Novan Delfiano, director of ‘A Space For The Unbound,’ said in a recent interview.
After Mojiken first unveiled the game concept in 2015, it quickly garnered attention from the industry because of its charming retro art direction and authentic 1990s Indonesia setting. This gave Dimas and Mojiken the validation they needed to scale the project.
“What we made is meant to be a tribute to growing up in ‘90s and early 2000s Indonesia. I really wanted to create a slice of life in Indonesia with a hint of magical realism, psychology and crippling loneliness. It’s a very story-driven journey that I hope gives players a profound experience by its end,” Dimas said.
It is a beautiful story set in a charming fictional town with numerous inserts of Indonesian culture scattered across the levels of the game. There’s keroncong music in the soundtrack, there are roadside bakso stalls you can dine in and you can even name a cat “Slamet.”
“The game takes place in a fictional Indonesian city named Loka, and a lot of it has been inspired by the city we live in, Surabaya,” Dimas recounted.
“We took photos of real-life places, but we don’t recreate locations exactly in pixel art, we took some creative liberties with our own personal touch. I grew up in Surabaya during the ’90s, so we wanted to pay tribute to the city during that time by creating something inspired by it in beautiful pixel art so that people could appreciate this place through a different lens.”
Being a video game that relies heavily on its narrative, Dimas said his team focused on crafting a satisfying character journey that properly shines light on issues not commonly covered in Indonesian media.
“We paid careful attention to treating the subject matter of anxiety and depression correctly. We consulted with professionals in the early stages of development to make sure that the story we were telling was on the right track. This approach allowed us to talk about these issues from multiple angles, and enabled us to treat the story with care, making sure we avoided any pitfalls that would lead to a main premise that’s unresolved.”
While playing through the game, players feel much more invested in the story because they take on the role of Atma, the protagonist and character that the players control. The players are handed the responsibility of figuring out how to solve the issues presented in the story.
One example in the early parts of the game involves the player finding a way to build a shelter for a stray cat the player character found with Raya, the deuteragonist and your girlfriend in game. It makes for an experience that engages the audience to pay attention and think about the environment that is presented to them in the game.
“It’s a medium that involves both audio and visuals, but it also allows the audience to interact directly with the experience,” Dimas said, explaining what makes video games such a riveting platform for storytelling. “The Space Dive mechanic in the game, for example, allows us to write the story in a more focused way that puts the player’s involvement at the forefront.”