Independent game developers in the Philippines took center stage at the GameDev Summit in Boracay, exhibiting their games to attendees, among which include triple-A gaming companies such as Riot Games, Capcom, and EA DICE. AC Coloma, ABS-CBN News 

BORACAY (UPDATED) - The Philippines has the formula to become a major player in game development; but for it to happen, Philippine game developers believe the industry has to work through a number of factors. 

For one, local developers have to take into consideration the funding it takes to create a game, which often comes out of their own pockets. 

Give or take, it takes around P250,000 to develop a video game in the Philippines, Walter Manalo, a board member of the Game Development Association of the Philippines (GDAP), told ABS-CBN News.

Part of the budget goes to purchasing software to animate the characters and the in-game environment, voice the characters, and market the game, among other things. 

Manalo believes Filipinos are at par with other Southeast Asian countries in terms of independent game development. However, funds and programs to support home-grown developers remain insufficient.

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"Ang progression [ng career sa game development] is [towards] creating your own studio. Pati yung pagkakaroon ng business acumen, 'yun 'yong dapat matutunan at the same time lalo na sa mga contract negotiation na there's this importance na hindi naman tayo lawyer, so dapat may recognition to guide these individuals para hindi sila mapunta sa bad deals," Manalo said. 

(The progression in a career in game development leans towards creating your own studio. Developers need to work on their business acumen and have an eye for deals because to begin with, we are not lawyers to proactively discern good deals from bad ones.) 

For now, Manalo, and the rest of GDAP mount roadshows to entice colleges and universities to create game development courses, as they hope to generate more jobs in video game development. 

"Bayani: The Fighting Game", which Manalo co-developed, cost around P12 million to put out. With the amount of money going to making games, developers often decide to work solo at the expense of slower production pace. 

Manalo also noted that many gaming publishers in the west often require a larger budget, which puts smaller scale developers such as that in the Philippines at an automatic disadvantage. 

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While independent game labels such as Belgium's Larian Studios took center stage for recent achievements against triple-A developers, much needs to be done for the Philippines to attain any similar success, despite being a worthy contender in game development for the last decade. 

Baldur's Gate 3's release and its subsequent rise remains ripe to many in the game development scene, thanks to the game's depth, and its Malaysian office has been a heavy part of its success. 

For Manalo, Malaysian game developers have adequate resources to help create a game of that caliber, on top of having an established congregation for game developers. 

"'Yung access nila [Malaysia] sa development kits, game kits, factor yon kasi ang Larian mayroong studio sa Malaysia. They have dev kits and they were able to produce console games nag-increase lalo ang quality of work doon," Manalo, the community lead of Indie Games Group Philippines, shared. 

"They were able to propagate na ganito ang quality dapat. Nag-set up na ang Larian Studios, and even PlayStation. So parang yung growth ng industries is based sa technologies na pinapasok sa atin, yung accessibility din ng developers sa new technologies," Manalo added. 

(Malaysia's access to development kits and game kits became a huge factor because Larian also has a studio in Malaysia. They have dev kits and produced console games so their work quality also increased. It also has a PlayStation game studio. This means, development hinges on the accessibility of developers to new technologies.) 

The Philippines is not far behind. After all, Riot Games, Ubisoft, and Moonton Games have their own offices in the Philippines, and and a number of outsourcing game services such as that of Pixel Mafia, which generated the environment and props for Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon: Forbidden West. 

The country also has a solid esports scene, a huge component in its gaming industry. However, in developing games, former senator Bam Aquino believes it's still getting there, adding that Filipinos are determined enough to work hard for this goal. 

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"We have a community that works hard. We are willing to learn because we know we're not there yet. They need a little more exposure to how it's done in the world and to apply that to markets," Aquino, who co-founded an independent game company outside of public office, said. 

In fact, Boomzap Entertainment co-founder Chris Natsuume said 75 percent of his workforce are Filipinos. Filipino game development workers, for him, as a melting pot of cultures, can quickly adapt to clients' needs. 

"Obviously English is a big thing. And so working with English speaking staff is obviously helpful but I also think it's the cultural references. If you say something like Scooby Doo in other countries they may wonder what it is but for the Filipino, they may know this," Natsuume, an American national based in Manila, shared. 

Outside of the local game development industry's own resources, an independent game's own pitch to a publisher may also be rejected due to factors beyond their control, such as overlapping concepts and budget constraints, partly because of the tech crunch. 

"It's in our interest that we don't sign multiple games that are similar. If we have an unannounced game that is very similar to your game, we might turn down your game because of something we can't really explain," Meg Clarke of indie game giant Team17 said during a panel at the GameDev Summit in Boracay.

Team17 is behind couch classics Overcooked and Moving Out. 

Manalo said there are around 5,000 game developers in the Philippines. On average, he said it takes hundreds, if not thousands of workers to create one character in a major title alone. 

All these factors can put the Philippines in the spotlight of Southeast Asian global game development, if they're able to hone talent with the most advanced resources possible, Manalo said. 

GDAP has also been a prominent presence in gaming and pop culture conventions such as CONQuest, the Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit, and the Philippine Game Development Expo, which is expected to make its second run in July of this year. 

GDAP has also endorsed indie game developers' attendance in trade fairs worldwide such as Gamescom in Germany and the External Development Summit in Vancouver, which GDAP and outsourcing company GameOps partnered with to organized GDS in Boracay. 

The Department of Trade and Industry, which also co-organized GDS in Boracay, said the Philippine government is "ready to support" local game developers.

“As we build and strengthen the game development ecosystem, the government stands ready to support game developers through various measures, such as funding innovation, minimum viable product development, prototyping, and marketing initiatives. This commitment underscores our dedication to fostering creativity, innovation, job generation, and economic growth within the gaming industry,” DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba shared.

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