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‘Why not give Filipino games a chance?’: Putting the spotlight on Pinoy game developers
(lemmy.world)
Being in the gaming industry for a while, Banta and Manalo shared that the popularity of mobile games does not equate to lesser challenges in the game developer community. “Sanay lang talaga ang Pilipino sa Western games. So kapag tayo ang gumawa [ng games], they thought na copycat or mababang quality,” said Manalo.
The appeal to nationalism here is a bit distasteful for me, though given a really saturated market, it's probably necessary. Ideally, it'd be great if I only belatedly find out that an indie game I bought, played, and loved, turned out to be homegrown.
Brings back memories of Anito back in the early 00s. Hyped as the first Pinoy game ever but was a shitty uninteresting Diablo clone.
I still have the disc here just for nostalgia sake, and I think it had a re-evaluation of late and is now considered a decent cult title.
Kaya parang ang hirap din eh. Without the hype, I doubt a lot of people would have given it attention. And without the people who've given it attention, it might not even have a cult following.
A bit off-topic, but I remembered a movie that was hyped to be the “first all-digital Filipino animated film” (IIRC, it's Dayo). It's a passable film, but without the hype, I don't think a lot of people would have even bothered watching it. Personally, I went to watch it to see if it matches the hype, and was kinda disappointed. I was thinking it's the same for Anito. That there are people who bought it to scrutinize or laugh at it due to the hype. Except that in Anito's case, it eventually got its re-evaluation.