Depok-As an effort to preserve Indonesian culture in the era of globalization, four students from the Media Production study program, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia (UI) who are members of the MADH Creative Team created a game called “Lodaya Conquest”. This game is an innovation that transforms conventional media, such as story books, animation, and dance into new interactive experiences wrapped in an interesting digital game.
The game is centered on the study of the Reog Ponorogo folktale, as an ongoing effort to promote, preserve, and teach players about Nusantara culture. Through the concept of 2D pixel visuals and illustrations, players are invited to explore the Lodaya Universe and adventure as Klono Sewandono to explore the rich story and complete challenges at every step of his journey.
(Photo: Lodaya Conquest game screenshot)
UI Vocational Education Program Director, Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D, said that the current digital transformation can be utilized by students as a platform for them to work positively. Through the Media Production study program, UI Vocational continues to strive to create graduates who are competitive in the creative industry, such as games, comics, films, e-sports, music, fashion media, human computer interaction, and others.
“UI Vocational always supports its students to become leading agents of change to create interesting work innovations that have a positive impact on the wider community. It is hoped that the game products created by Media Production students will continue to develop and be noticed by people from various circles. Curriculum development together with industry continues to be carried out so that the needs of the community are in accordance with the learning provided to students,” said Padang.
Thanks to this innovation, the MADH Creative Team consisting of Fikri Hasan, Dani Bintang Aprilyanto, Bella Maedevia, and Rifqi Raditya Dewangga, managed to win 2nd place in the Olimpiade Vokasi Indonesia (OLIVIA) IX 2024 competition for the Digital and Creative Technology (GiveTech) category. OLIVIA is an annual event held by the Indonesian Vocational Higher Education Forum (FPTVI), which this year was held at Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar.
This time, OLIVIA carries the theme “Inspiring the future through empowering innovative human resources and digital-based entrepreneurship’’, which is a place for creativity as well as a competition for all vocational students in Indonesia. For that, the MADH Creative Team presents their game entitled “Lodaya Conquest: Transformation of the Reog Ponorogo Story Through 2D Game Media as an Effort to Preserve Local Culture”.
Competing with more than 3,200 participants, Fikri and his team successfully advanced to become the top 300 finalists along with vocational students from various universities in Indonesia. The competition, which took place on July 18-19, 2024, featured 72 universities from 16 provinces in Indonesia.
(Photo: MADH Creative Team receiving awards at the Kompetisi Olimpiade Vokasi Indonesia IX 2024)
Fikri said that the competition process he and his team participated in consisted of creating a game proposal, screen recordings related to gameplay, and the programming source code behind the game. Then, all the files collected enter the assessment stage by the judges. After passing this stage, MADH Creative succeeded in becoming one of seven finalist teams in the Digital Creative Technology category. Dressed in a combination of Reog Ponorogo and UI alma mater clothing, Fikri and his team successfully presented the Lodaya Conquest game with satisfying results.
“For further development, we hope that this game can be played through a mobile platform, so that players can play the game on their respective cellphones. In addition, there is also a game that we are developing, namely a game that will be used in a series of community service events in Cibuluh Village in the future. Moreover, this game will also be the final product of our applied thesis creation when we are in the eighth semester,” said Fikri.
