Anito: Defend a Land Enraged Wrap Report

At 20 years of age, Agila is a young warrior and hunter of the Mangatiwala people. The son of a highly respected Datu, the tribal word designating a chief, he has seen most if not all of the islands that make up the land of Maroka while accompanying his father, who frequently traveled among them as he worked for years to maintain the uneasy peace between the cautious native bands and the more recently arrived foreigners known as the Senastille. A year younger than her brother, Maya seems to blend elements of both cultures. Like her forefathers, she is both intuitive and passionate - there are some who think she possesses spiritual abilities such as clairvoyance. On the other hand, she also exhibits practical and sometimes rather cynical moments; in these instances, her manner almost resembles that of the newcomers.

The sudden and completely unexplained disappearance of their father, Datu Maktan, is the event that sets the stage for developer Anino Entertainment's Anito: Defend a Land Enraged. The first computer game we can recall from a Philippines-based team, it is described as a single-player title combining elements drawn from the adventure and RPG genres, with two intertwining stories, those of the above-named Agila and Maya, as they set out on a quest not only to find their missing parent but also to prevent the entire land from being destroyed by war. Released last November, the title is a finalist in the open category of the 2004 Independent Games Festival, which takes place at the Game Developers Conference this week, making this the perfect time to learn about it from Designer Gabby Dizon and Producer and Programmer Niel Dagondon.

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The Project Gabby Dizon: Anito: Defend A Land Enraged is an adventure RPG for PCs. It is set in 16th century Southeast Asia, in the land of Maroka. This area of Asia is very rich in folklore and culture, but has not yet been fully tapped in games. We wanted to bring gamers a very rich world that they may know little or nothing about - enough of the usual fantasy-based RPGs already! The word Anito is a native term roughly meaning "the spirit of an ancestor". Maroka is a land that is alive, with the spirits of the Elders protecting the land, but she is hurting from the tireless conflict on her own land. The Senastille colonizers have all but taken the land as their own, and are mining resources from it without any thought of the welfare of the local people. Also, there is a band of local rebels who wish death on the Senastille and all Marokans who help them.

The player can assume the role of either Maya or Agila, who are siblings - they are the children of Datu (tribal chief) Maktan, one of the leaders who are pushing for peace in the land. But their father mysteriously disappears, and it is up to Maya or Agila to look for him and complete the quest of peace that he started. One of the unique parts of our game is that Maya and Agila have different stories and different quests. Each one undertakes separate quests to find their father, and playing each of the characters will show their individual journeys to save their father and consequently, Maroka.

Anito was started by our founder, Niel Dagondon. He began designing and researching the game with a bunch of friends while still in college. Afterwards, he started to hire professionals to continue work on the game. Thus, Anino Entertainment was born - and created the first locally made computer game.

The Team Gabby Dizon: For the first two years of Anino Entertainment, the Anito team was the whole company. It is made up of seven 20-something people, all with no previous game development experience. All of us, however, have a deep passion for games, which is the primary reason that we all set out to make our own. The team had two programmers, two artists and three designers (two of the designers serving as the respective writers for Maya and Agila, and myself serving as overall level and scripting designer). We also had one person working remotely, doing all the music and sound effects for the game. During the last two months of development, we hired two people to work on quality assurance full-time, and one to do QA from home. We also gave the game out to around 20 beta testers, with varying levels of participation.

High-Level Goals Niel Dagondon: Our primary goal for Anito was to provide the best of the adventure experience and integrate it into an RPG. We combined the thinking / puzzle-solving and item interaction elements of adventure games, while at the same time preserving the more established (and engrossing) norms of a CRPG. This is an element we sought to continue from the likes of Quest for Glory. We also experimented at integrating some action elements into our game, such as the unique battle system of Anito being controlled by the WASD keys. The last feature got both praises and objections from traditional gamers.

Also, another goal was to create a more hyper-realistic yet believable world. As you may have noticed, the settings, culture and weapons are historically based, and even the skills have some basis in reality. This is opposed to the fantasy and science fiction worlds many RPG fans are already accustomed to.

Storytelling-wise, we made the game a little unique by doing so from different points of view, which we think makes for a more exciting story. We got inspiration for this from books with similar concepts, such as Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned. I don't think this has been done to such an extent before.