M’sian-made Games Are Being Spotlighted on the Apple App Store in May

Malaysia has a burgeoning digital economy, with its contribution to the country’s GDP standing at 23.3 percent in 2021. Malaysia is also proudly home to many talents with a strong skill set in creative digital content and this includes developers of mobile phone apps.

One such company is Malaysian studio Kaigan Games, who won the Best in Play award at the Game Developers Conference 2023 for their outer space game Nullspace. They are also known for their ‘found phone’ horror games and have clinched more than seven international awards for these including Best Innovation and Best Storytelling at the SEA Game Awards back in 2017 for Simulcra.

On 9 May, Simulcra 3 was spotlighted as the ‘Game of the Day’, which is proudly Malaysian! Simulcra 3 is the third instalment of the series which is an interactive horror experience exploring a missing woman’s phone. The game, which is priced at RM39.30 to download, is set in Stonecreek where its citizens are vanishing into thin air. In the game, the player is tasked with answering urgent video calls as you comb through the content of a victim’s smartphone to solve the mystery of the bizarre disappearances. The horrors will unravel as you explore the fictional town.

Also spotlighted on the App Store are ‘Southeast Asian games we love’. This includes those made by talent in our region including Thailand and Indonesia but our very own local apps deserve a worthy mention.

Besides the three games in the Simulcra series, one that caught our eye is ‘Ano: Journey Through Tattoos, a free AR game inspired by the traditional hand-tapped tattoo designs of tribes of Sarawak which help users to learn about specific indigenous tribes and the meaning behind this dying artform. Fun fact: our country’s golden boy Henry Golding is of Ibanese heritage and has bunga terung tattoos that signifies a coming of age for men.

Another is ‘A Dance of Fire and Ice’ (which may be a nod to George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’) which is a one-button rhythm challenge game where you have to guide two orbiting planets down a path without breaking their perfect equilibrium. This addictive game is also a great test for any aspiring drummers.

The final noteworthy game is Postknight and Postknight 2, the former of which won the Grand Prix of the SEA International Mobile Gaming awards 2017 and which also received Google Play’s recognition as ‘Google Play’s Best Games of 2017’.

Created by Kurechii, a Malaysian game developing team, this colourfully animated casual adventure role-playing game (RPG) will have you fighting through enemy-infested trails on an exciting delivery adventure to the kawaii people of Prism. The sequel is set seven years after the original events with new characters, new enemies, and new pets.

Have any of these apps caught your eye? Will you be downloading them?

Image credit: apps.apple.com