AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLAYS
This month, Indonesia
Last month we took our tabletop tour to Mexico before jetting off to Indonesia – the largest island country in the world. Grandly jutting out from the water between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the archipelago of Indonesia has long enticed traders and explorers to its shores, oftentimes introducing new games to the country in the process.
One game which still retains its Indonesian popularity is Congklak; a mancala type game taking its name from the cowrie shells commonly used when playing. Congklak was likely imported from Arab or African countries, by traders crossing the trade routes between Europe and Asia, and was supposedly first introduced to Javanese nobles. Later, the game spread to other regions, often adopting different names and ways of playing. The people of Sulawesi, for example, refer to the game as Mokaotan and historically reserved playing the game only for times of grieving.
Today, Indonesia is responsible for several of its own game designs and is home to a number of publishers, designers, and board game cafes.
The Downtime Cafe in Bali describes itself as the first board game cafe on the island. This smartly designed and welcoming cafe boasts a library of over 200 games spread across its two floors, as well as a generous menu. As a bonus, the cafe’s website and social media channels are excellent, with plenty of handy articles for both new and established tabletop gamers to peruse.
Further to the west in Malang, Java, is the HD’R Comic Cafe – a popular hangout for fans of geek culture. Alongside the cafe’s vast comic collection is a wealth of games for not only the tabletop, but also consoles. Further west still in Bandung, gamers are spoiled for choice in regard to cafes, with several being spread across this Javanese city including Monomyth – the first gaming cafe in the area.
In regard to publishers, Manikmaya is one of Indonesia’s largest. First established in 2013, Manikmaya have since produced over a dozen games, mostly incorporating aspects of Indonesian culture within their themes. Some of their most popular titles coincidently revolve around coffee, including the barista simulating
Kedai Kopi, the bean trading
Single Origin, and the South Sulawesi coffee farming of Toraja. Elsewhere, the publisher draws upon the diverse festival culture of Indonesia’s islands with the bluffing race game
The Festivals, alongside games concerning Indonesian folklore (Smong) and politics
(Mahardhika). In 2017 Manikmaya released the family-friendly Aquatico, a set collecting game of aquatic ecosystems which again demonstrated strong ties to Indonesia and its vast yet endangered fauna.
Sharing this environmental theme is Ryan Sucipto’s Wilah! a pattern recognition game focusing on the sorting and recycling of waste. Sucipto released Wilah! through his creative community project Social Designee in 2019 and hopes its message can turn around the country’s status as secondlargest plastic polluter.
Mahavira Studio is another notable publisher, led by illustrator Mahavira
Mesha Putri Adani. Adani has poured her talents into several titles including Tenun Tycoon, an inventive roll-and-write based on Indonesian tenun fabric manufacture, and the charming and simple hide-and-seek card game Takumpet!. The company also produces their own take on the Indonesian coffee theme, with Kopi Dash – a speedy card game tasking players with assembling orders within five minutes. Printed and packaged using recycled brown paper, Kopi Dash is another environmentally conscious example of Indonesia’s tabletop industry.
By drawing on the culture of its past alongside the concerns of its future, Indonesia positions its board game industry as both fascinating and forward thinking. Furthermore, thanks to a growing number of gaming cafes, the country continues to blossom into a thriving hub of tabletop culture.