Space For The Unbound and Kabaret Devs Talk About “SEA Approach To Narrative” In New Panel

Developers of Southeast Asian hits like A Space Unbound, Kabaret, and Fires At Midnight have spoken in a panel at LudoNarraCon, called “Beyond Representation: A Southeast Asian Approach to Narrative Games”.

You can watch the full panel on the Fellow Traveler Youtube Channel. It runs for just under an hour so make yourself comfortable and get ready for some good insight into Southeast Asian storytelling:

The panel consisted of prominent Malaysian Journalist and content creator Arief Johan who hosts the live stream Southeast Asian nights as well as Dimas Novan D. (A Space For The Unbound), Saquina Latif (Kabaret), Sasha Ariana (A Space For The Unbound and Afterlove EP), all of whom discuss how they implemented narrative into their games based on Southeast Asian myths, culture or history. 

Some of the most memorable moments of the Panel Talk include the following:

• 12:41 – How Dimas translated the “rural 90s Indonesia” in his memories into A Space of the Unbound
• 17:23 – Sasha Ariana on writing about universal themes set in Southeast Asian settings
• 27:44 – Saqina on how Kabaret approaches sensitive topics such as the Japanese occupation of Malaya
• 42:50 – How the passing of Mohammad Fahmi (Coffee Talk) impacted the devs & games on the panel.

Southeast Asian indie games have really taken off in the past few years with games like Coffee Talk and No Straight Roads seeing large followings not only locally but among international audiences as well. It’s great to learn about how these developers bring their local Southeast Asian culture and background into these titles.

The digital festival occurred from the 4th to the 8th of May and saw a number of video game developers and creators speak about interactive storytelling in video games.

Each of the games mentioned here is available for PC via Steam.

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