Surabaya games studio Alkemis grabs seed funding from East Ventures

Earlier today, Alkemis Games, a new game production firm based out of East Java’s capital city of Surabaya, announced seed funding of an undisclosed amount from local venture capital firm East Ventures. The round marks East Ventures’ first investment in a Surabaya company, and comes just days before the archipelago’s anticipated Game Developers Gathering in Jakarta (Disclosure: East Ventures also invests in Tech in Asia. See our ethics page).

Alkemis Games founder Tedo Salim is a Surabaya native, but spent the past 20 years abroad in Singapore, Australia, and the US. Salim holds a bachelor’s degree in entertainment technology from Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore and a master’s degree in the same subject from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. From 2009 to 2012, Salim worked as a games engineer at Schell Games in Pittsburgh before joining GREE International in San Francisco as a software engineer. In August, he returned home to put his skills to work in Indonesia’s increasingly vibrant games industry.

East Ventures’ latest investment could be the first of more Jakarta investors taking interest in Surabaya’s startup scene. Although it’s Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya has not been a hotbed for tech startups or organized venture capital investments. Instead, towns like Malang, Bandung, and Yogyakarta have seen more activity, particularly with models like game studios and digital agencies that don’t necessarily require a thumb on the country’s business pulse in Jakarta.

Touchten founder Anton Soeharyo (center left) visits Tedo Salim (center) at the Alkemis Games office in Surabaya.

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Alkemis hasn’t released any titles yet, but with good reason. “We focus on freemium mid-core games, which is something no other Indonesian game firms are doing that I know of,” explains Salim. “This means that our games are a little more complex and engaging than casual arcade games. Some good examples of games that would fall into our category might be titles like Clash of Clans or Brave Frontier.”

According to Salim, for his entire team of 11 to create a single game, the production time can take anywhere between six months to a year. For casual, puzzle, or arcade style games, he says the production time can be significantly shorter.

Mid-core for mobile

Alkemis Games will exclusively make games for mobile devices. Salim says it’s important to note the difference of mid-core games for mobile versus PC. The term “mid-core” is used to categorize a specific type gamer. According to games market research company Newzoo, mid-core gamers are players who want a more immersive experience than what they can get from casual games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, but a less involved experience than they might get from “hard-core” titles like War of Nations or Game of War.

“Although our studio is in Indonesia, our primary market is in the US, as that’s where most of my experience and knowledge comes from,” explains Salim.

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Surabaya games studio Alkemis grabs seed funding from East Ventures