Once in a while, the Southeast Asian game industry will see a bona fide hit awaken within its midst. In 2023, that game was none other than the hack-and-slash RPG, Ghostlore by Singapore’s own AT-AT Games.
This Southeast Asian love letter to classic Diablo was released to critical acclaim through Microsoft’s Game Pass service, with Ghostlore becoming more and more popular thanks to positive word of mouth online.
Even with Diablo IV’s release across PC and consoles, there was something so charming about Ghostlore’s more indie approach to Blizzard’s own formula, with many online seeing it as a worthy alternative to the triple-A giant.
To learn more about Ghostlore’s runaway success, IGN Southeast Asia spoke to Andrew Teo of AT-AT Games and how he and his partner Adam created one of 2023’s best indie games.
How did you begin your journey as a game developer?
My name is Andrew and I am a Singaporean artist working in the games industry. I studied at the DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore and I have worked with well-known IPs such as Disney, Adventure Time and One Piece.
How did the idea for Ghostlore come about?
I actually started working on what would eventually become Ghostlore back in 2018. I had just turned 30 so I wanted to try a hand at making the sort of game I enjoyed when I was a kid. I didn’t have a clear direction for the game back then, and my goal was simply to create a working prototype where the player could control a character to fight monsters.
Incidentally, I created the Pontianak as one of the monsters for players to fight in the game. According to local folklore, a Pontianak’s spirit resides in a banana tree, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge for players to have to find and attack the correct tree in order to truly defeat the monster.
In 2019, I let some of my colleagues test the prototype, and they agreed that the Pontianak was the most stand-out feature. We started talking about all the various monsters found in Southeast Asian horror stories and how unique they are, and I realised there are very few games that portray Southeast Asian culture. It was then that the concept solidified and the name ‘Ghostlore’ came to me.
How has the positive reception of the game affected you and your team?
I’m absolutely floored by it. The game has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. It has encouraged us to continue development and add the things that we were not able to add before release, as well as things that are highly requested by players.
How did your team come up with the gameplay changes to the typical Diablo 2 experience, especially with the Glyph system and the mixing and matching of classes?
To be honest, our main guiding principle was ‘as long as it is cool’! I just wanted to show people as many interesting things as possible.
I used to be heavily involved in the modding scene with Blizzard games like Starcraft and Warcraft. In some of these mods, people would turn the game from an RTS into an RPG and you could create your own custom hero. So the mix-and-match nature of the class system is akin to something along those lines. I later came up with a backstory that you're channelling the powers of heroes from ages past.
For the glyph system, while researching Southeast Asia I read an article once about a tribe in Borneo that would tattoo symbols on themselves as they believed such symbols held some sort of power. This was the basis for the Glyph system.
Out of respect I chose not to use the specific symbols, and instead went with a made-up language called Toki Pona that was created by a linguist named Sophia Lang and permitted for use in the public domain.
What informed your decision on the Southeast Asian monsters and food to be featured in Ghostlore?
Popularity with locals and interestingness were the main factors in choosing which monsters and food to feature in the game. Another factor for monsters are the ones that are described as having a power or behaviour that can translate into interesting game mechanics, as with the Pontianak example I gave earlier.
For example, in Indonesian mythology and folklore, there is a magical boar demon named Babi Ngepet. It can steal your wealth or valuables. So in the game, when they hit you, you lose money. Some variants of the Chinese Hungry Ghosts are also said to be hungry due to the fact that whatever they eat will burn up in their mouths. In the game, this translates to fire breath attacks.
What's next for Ghostlore moving forward?
Our plans revolve around changes to itemization to make them more varied. Possibilities include:
- More gear slots for shirts, pants, boots etc.
- Visual customization and more visual variety
- Proper dual wielding
- Legendary items with unique affixes and designed around a theme
- Affixes that add or modify skills to a character
- Cosmetic pets that can pick up gold or items
Currently, we are taking a break from active development. We've made some small changes here and there but are mostly still waiting for more feedback on which skills or combinations are too strong or weak.
A big part of Ghostlore is being able to create absurdly powerful characters, so we don't want to nerf skills too much. At the same time there's definitely still a lot of work to be done to make some options viable and others less of an obvious choice. With the complexity of the skill system this is hard to do without feedback from players.
What are your favourite games of all time?
Being in my late 30s I think all the game series I like are all slightly older franchises:
- Kingdom Hearts
- Final Fantasy
- Diablo
- NieR Automata
- Supergiant games in general
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Pokemon
- Grand Theft Auto
- Starcraft
What advice do you have for up-and-coming developers in Southeast Asia?
It might sound simple, but if you are looking for commercial success the one important factor is to consider whether or not there is a large enough audience out there who is willing to pay for your game.
The difficulty comes in being able to look at the gaming landscape objectively and assess whether or not this is the case. Beware of echo chambers (such as friends or even fellow game developers telling you the game is fun) and make sure your ear is really on the ground (a.k.a the general audience) and beware of positivity bias (i.e. telling yourself the game will succeed because it is your baby).
Once you have properly ascertained that there is indeed a large enough audience - be prepared to listen to their feedback and iterate.
