Recently, we got to attend a roundtable interview with representatives of Ranida Games and they shared interesting details about their recent Xbox Game Camp Asia experience along with their upcoming plans.
In case you’re unfamiliar, Ranida Games is a Philippine video game studio that was founded back in 2015 and has since released titles like PBA Basketball Slam. The studio is also known for Bayani, the fighting game that many gaming and esports event attendees should be familiar with. After all, this is the fighting game that features a roster of Filipino cultural and historical figures.
Ranida Games recently participated in Xbox’s Game Camp Asia for 2024. Game Camp is a program that aims to help game developers from across the world “realize their potential” through various activities.
While Xbox highlights various Game Camp events on its website, it’s likely that many gamers aren’t exactly familiar with how the program works. As such, that was one of the key discussions that we had with Ranida Games during a roundtable interview hosted by Xbox and attended by Philippine games media.
Specifically, we got to talk to Ranida Games CEO and studio head Ben Banta along with head of business development Walter Manalo. During the interview, we asked about the studio’s experience during Game Camp Asia.
So, how Game Camp Asia worked is that participants get weekly training materials from notable game developers. There are also weekly online sessions with the Game Camp Asia trainers.
“They covered all the things that you need to know when it comes to game development,” said Banta. “They started with game production, from ideation to game design, and then, every week, there’s a different topic that is going to be discussed. These include topics about art, narrative, and even marketing. It’s pretty much like a complete a complete learning course.”
What’s also interesting here is that the weekly materials are recorded, meaning the team at Ranida Games was able to balance learning with their daily tasks.
“What I like about Game Camp Asia is that everything is recorded,” added Banta. “Until now we have access to [the materials]. So, when we are kinda lost and want to go back and relearn something, [the materials] are all available for us.
Game Camp Asia isn’t purely teaching though as participants are also expected to have an output at the end. This isn’t a full game though as participants are instead tasked with making a game trailer based on what they’ve learned during the weekly training sessions.
“The good thing about Game Camp Asia is that it’s output-based,” said Walter. “At the end of the whole course, we need to come up with an output in the form of a game trailer based on a new concept that we created. They allow us to use our own game or create a new concept or make a new one.”
While Ranida Games has lots of existing titles to choose from, as a challenge, the team decided to go with an all-new concept.
In the interview, Banta and Manalo also showed the game trailer that they made for Game Camp Asia, and they promised that it would be shown this weekend at the Philippine GameDev Expo 2024.
Ranida Games to Reveal Their Game Camp Asia Trailer at PGDX
While we go to see the trailer, we don’t want to spoil all the details as it would be better to see for yourself when Ranida Games finally reveals it to Pinoy gamers.
We can mention what it’s about though. Their game trailer is for a visual novel-style cooking simulator that’s set in a cyberpunk city. In a way, you can think of it like a more food-focused Coffee Talk as it also aims to be a comfy and heartwarming experience based on the trailer’s mood.
If you ask us, the trailer looks quite promising, and we’re definitely interested in trying it out if it gets made. Yes, that means this trailer is pretty much just a concept at this point, meaning it’s not a project that has started development right now.
There is a chance that it gets made down the line though depending on the reception and if Ranida Games gets funding for it. Given this, our fingers are crossed that it eventually enters proper production.
This isn’t the only thing that Ranida Games has planned though. Banta and Manalo also indicated that they’re keen on applying their learnings from Game Camp Asia to their future projects.
Speaking of future projects, the two also mentioned that work on Bayani has resumed. What’s more, they’re also hoping to potentially develop and release games for consoles like Xbox. That’s because Banta and Manalo revealed that Xbox has started sharing Xbox devkits with Filipino developers.
The two are hopeful that Ranida Games, along with other Filipino studios can take advantage of this and maybe even release high-quality console games in the future.