Asian Women in Games: Riris Marpaung

In this Asian Women in Games series, we interview women who are currently in the gaming industry to learn more about them, their journeys, and their culture. We want to showcase the amazing women who are already driving change and representation in the industry by being themselves.

We got to talk to Riris Marpaung, Founder & CEO of Gamechanger Studio in Indonesia. They released My Lovely Wife, a game that revolves around a man’s grief after the death of his beloved wife. This game was developed by a women-led team based in Indonesia, with Riris at the helm. Learn about her journey from being a librarian to her eventual move to game development!

Tell us about Riris! 

Hello, dear lovely readers of Asian Women in Games. It’s an honor for my stories to be heard here. I’m Riris, an almost 50-year-old soul with a 25 year old spirit in making games. I founded my studio in June 2013, and we started off developing some published mobile games on the Google Play Store. At that time, my studio was called Gambreng Games. We did not make money so we shifted our product to PC/Console games by releasing NSFW: Not Simulator for Working (2017) and My Lovely Daughter (2018). Both games were successful in sales, so instead of having to close down the studio, I was able to continue the painful yet happy journey of being a game developer. I started my career as a game developer when I was 40 years old. So, I’ve spent almost the last 10 years making games—hopefully, I can go on for 10 more years!

You were a librarian for 20 years until you made a move to pursue game development! What was your journey like from starting out in gaming, to becoming CEO of Gamechanger Studio? 

I can say it was a beautiful coincidence that fate brought me to this totally unknown world of making video games. I met my co-founder, Dodick Sudirman, when I was working as Head of Librarian at a university. We worked together for campus events like graduations or seminars. He observed that my leadership would be necessary for him to achieve his childhood dream of making a game development studio. He had tried before and failed. As for me, it’s more like a lamb being led to the slaughter ha..ha..ha…

Back in the old days when I was a college student, I played Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat. But I had zero knowledge on how to make games. Initially, I had to learn everything fast—from terminologies, game design, art style, engines, business strategy, working with a team, and so many other things. It was totally different from my background and career as a librarian. Even now, I have not stopped learning because the gaming world is changing rapidly. I read books/articles, watched Youtube, met game developers, and attended game events everywhere. 

I got my bachelor’s degree in 1998 and my master’s in 2002—both in Library and Information Science. So I started my librarian work from 1998 to 2018. From 2013 to 2018 (for 5 years) I was still working as a librarian from 6 AM to 6 PM and then I’d rush to the studio to work on my games. Then, fully aware and brave enough, I left my profession as a librarian so I can be more focused and bring more to the studio. I was awarded as “the best national librarian” by the Indonesian government in 2014. It was a huge leap of faith for me. Maybe like moving out from Earth to Venus 🙂

What are some challenges you face as a CEO of a gaming studio as a woman? 

Hmmmm…I don’t have much to share about being a woman CEO because I do not face or experience any difference in responsibility, role, or result of my work from men. I mean up till now, I have not faced any trouble or discrimination in doing my job as a woman (thank God!).

I can share my experience as a human being though and the first most challenging thing is working with my team. Almost half of them were half my age—these so-called Gen-Z people with different personalities and visions in life. Not to mention, in Indonesia, it is so difficult to find a passionate, skillful, and persevering person for this tough profession. I learned to create a fun, creative, and challenging environment in the studio.

The other difficulty is juggling my role as CEO, Producer, Human Resource, and Finance. Each role has a different task, goal, and strategy to define. As CEO I must deal with other parties outside my studio like publishers, investors, government, educational entities, media, associations, communities, and many others. As Producer, I need to be deeply involved in developing the game: from brainstorming, doing research, making project plans, having lots and lots of progress meetings with the team, and doing iterative check-ins with the game. For My Lovely Wife, since I worked full time in the studio, besides being a Producer, I was also the Lead Artist and lead of sound/music. For the third title from the series, I am more involved in the game design. But, even with so many responsibilities in the studio, I always enjoy working from 10 AM to 10 PM almost every working day.

I was also appointed as one of the Advisory Board members for Asosiasi Game Indonesia (AGI) or Indonesia Game Association in 2020. Working with the other three females on that Board, our mission is to promote Indonesian women in the gaming industry. I kicked off the community by doing a survey and organizing monthly online seminars. We had our first offline gathering on May 11th, 2023 where women from every island in Indonesia met and did focus group discussions, networked, and listened to talks about women in video games.

Another important activity that I’ve been doing since 2021 is acting as a mentor for a couple of incubator programs that help young studios make games. Also, I am a part-time lecturer in my alma mater teaching video games.

What does Gamechanger Studio hope its players take away from the games and experiences you all make?

As I told you before, we have been making games since 2013. We always strive to create fun games that all gamers can enjoy. However, we have grown to offer more than just entertaining experiences. We aim to provide players with out-of-the-box experiences and thought-provoking situations that confront them with perspectives that may differ from their own.

This approach started when we did an internal game jam and made ‘Not a Simulator for Working’. Within the game, we injected deep meaning into the game’s ending despite the hilarious premise and inspiration. We continued this approach with ‘My Lovely Daughter’, a game that lets you play as a father in a dark situation, doing everything imaginable to resurrect his daughter. It has now become a prominent ‘My Lovely’ series of games that challenge preconceived notions about family and love.

What is the gaming industry in Indonesia like?
Compared to when I started my studio back in 2013 the industry is growing faster. At present all elements are working and collaborating in the same direction. The Asosiasi association that I mentioned has a key role. Since 2018, the government—like the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Information and Communication—has helped to support game developers looking to attend game developer events abroad. They also conduct incubators to help new and experienced studios. It’s no wonder that there are many new studios with young people spirited toward making games. As for established and experienced studios like mine, it is easier to get attention from the outside world as long as we have a successful product in our basket. 

Campuses, the Ministry of Education, and game developers have had several meetings in making curriculums for video games. They’ve been setting up systems to connect campuses and game studios for internship programs and promoting the profession of game developer to students.

As for our friends from the media, since 2021 there has been an association called In-Game that helps to promote games from Indonesia to our local market. We are a very big country with a big population and target market. Sadly, the data showed that most Indonesians will spend more money on mobile platforms (from big titles like Mobile Legends, PUBG, and others) rather than PC/Console games.

What are some of your most important lessons learned in game development you’d like to share with those starting out? 

You have to do research first!!! Research your market, the genre, the most strategic process, the marketing and promotion, doing calculations for a project/product, and many other important things before you even start to do the concept art or game design. Based on my experience as a mentor, my mentees face a lot of problems mid-development because they did not do proper research about their product. For example, it’s rare for a young studio to read reports from trusted sources about the trends in games of different genres.

The other is to network with everyone or every institution that will benefit your personal development as well as the studio/game. I am fully aware that most game developers focus on developing their games in the studio and may be more introverted. But, believe me, go outside and you will find so many other valuable things and people that you’ve never dreamt of!

What’s one thing from Indonesian culture that you’d want to share with everyone? 

I think this is the most difficult question for me hahaha! As one of the biggest countries in Southeast Asia, it is hard to choose from the vast types of food, customs, or celebrations that we have here. I  think I will always embrace how we still preserve our tradition called “mudik” where people go back to their hometown to celebrate Eid Mubarak or Christmas. Even if you have to spend days suffering on the road haha! I still do this to visit my in-laws who live in different cities.

Where can people continue to follow you and your journey? 

I must admit that your questions above are so solid! 

You can go to our website and try out our game My Lovely Daughter, My Lovely Wife or NSFW: Not Simulator for Working—which is based on a true experience in the studio. We developed this game when I caught my teammate watching porn while working towards a deadline haha! 

And if you don’t want to miss our next game, please follow our Twitter: https://twitter.com/gchangerstudio