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ON THE DRAWING BOARD: Redeye's Dark Sovereign role-playing video game has been two years in the making. Here, the studio envisions what the game's Envy Zone will look like. -- PHOTO: REDEYE STUDIOS
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A HOME-GROWN games studio is looking for an international publisher to complete the development of its video game.
If Redeye Studios is successful, this will be the first made-in-Singapore video game designed for both the personal computer and the Xbox360 console. It is expected to hit the shelves by the middle of 2009.
Redeye has already sunk $1 million and two years of work into developing the action-adventure game, called Dark Sovereign.
Mr Pan Seng Ming, director of Redeye Studios, said: 'We are now at the stage of bringing the development to the next level. We are in talks with leading game publishers from North America and Europe to sign a publishing contract.'
If the tie-up is successful, Redeye will be able to tap into the publisher's funds to complete the development of the game, which Mr Pan expects will cost over $10 million in total.
Mr Pan added that Redeye and the publisher could work out a revenue-sharing arrangement when the game is launched.
Alternatively, the publisher could pay Redeye a fixed fee to complete the development of the game or agree on a hybrid of these two revenue-sharing arrangements.
Redeye, just shy of two years old, now has 16 people in its Singapore office and another 12 in its Jakarta one. Half of the staff here are Singaporean.
Mr Pan said Redeye hired people from around the world to complement its local talent pool. Its game developers are from South Korea, Israel and China.
In an exclusive preview of the game concept for The Straits Times, Redeye Studio explained that although Dark Sovereign is targeted at an international audience, it incorporates elements of Singapore and Asian culture and folklore.
For starters, the island where the game is set resembles Singapore's geographical shape. Maps of specific zones name familiar places like Chinatown and the Singapore Zoo and monsters go by names like Botak and Chikopek.
As this is a role-playing game, the player can choose a persona from among 10 characters, including a Chinese swordmaster, a Japanese ninja and a water-breathing hunter.
The Singapore video game industry is gaining momentum.
By year's end, Singapore studio Mikoishi will launch an action puzzle game, Dropcast, but this will be for the Nintendo DS platform.
The Singapore studios of foreign companies like Lucasfilm Animation and Japan's Koei are also developing games here.
ginlee@sph.com.sg
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