[Limkokwing Institute student Nick Goh and lecturer Bazil Akmal Bidin look back on the development of the student title Kayangan Saga, an ambitious project that with some extra time and resources "could have seen retail."]

"Unbelievable" was the word most often used in conjunction with Kayangan Saga: Revenge of the Exiled, a third-person action-adventure game that is being developed by the student team PhantasySeed from the Limkokwing Institute in Malaysia. Last year, during the Malaysian Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia Kre8tif! Industry Awards 2010, Kayangan Saga was awarded the prizes for Best Technical, Best Visuals and Best Game in the Student Games Category.

According to Kayangan Saga's Facebook page, the game tells the story of "Arjuna, a royal prince of mixed lineage" who must fight to "stop the evil plans of a corrupted official Gasura Rama and prevent war between" the humanoid Auxtrals and the ethereal Eions. In an interview with GameCareerGuide, the team lead Nick Goh said inspiration for Kayangan Saga was derived from an event called "Heal the World" that had been recently held at their college. "We thought it would be meaningful to create a story that held the message of the salvation of the earth."

Consequently, they decided to create a tale of technology-versus-nature. Nick Goh also stated that the design behind Kayangan Saga was deeply inspired by Balinese art. "During the pre-production stage, every member of the team did in-depth research into the history, art and culture of Bali. In addition, some of our associates also brought back actual photo references from trips to the island."

Nick Goh was quick to state that the students involved in the title had no previous training within the industry: "Nonetheless, all of us have had experience creating games on a smaller scale for academic purposes; we've done casual 2D flash games and modded visual elements in 2D and 3D game editors." Interestingly enough, save for a programmer that joined the team during the last few months of game development, the team is comprised entirely of art students. "Some of us had extra skills like coding, voice acting, story writing and video editing," he said.

Nick Goh stated that had taken a general approach to the design methodology. "We did a lot of research and we brainstormed on the direction that the game would take. Having come up with several ideas, we filtered through them with the assistance of our lecturers and choose the one most possible to achieve." Unsurprisingly, the early days of production had been difficult for the team. "Without the skills of a programmer, we were in trouble."

"We had no choice but to abandon many creative ideas and resort only to the most achievable. However, we chose not to give up even under such conditions and worked on solutions on how to make the game unique," Goh noted. To compensate for their limitations, the team expanded upon the design elements of the game. "We tried to create striking visuals, an interesting story, and visually lush levels - everything we could do to make up for the technical aspects."

When asked about the local game development scene, the student from the Limkokwing Institute had seemed rather optimistic: "Local game developers were good at what they did and they are getting better and better each year. Some of the games here are rich in regional content; it's what makes them so unique."

In spite of the original material that is being released, Malaysia remains a relatively obscure presence in an international context, something many have been working hard to correct. "I think that local developers need to focus more on research and the study of the psychology of gamers," he said when questioned about his opinion as to what would be necessary to further local industry.