Agate Jogja Co-Founder Frida Dwi tells us a few things –including what he has in mind for the future

Reports about the operational cessation of Indonesian game developer company Agate Jogja had gained a considerable attention from local game developer communities. In Jogjakarta, startups focussing on gaming products are quite popular, with communities such as Gamelan routinely host meetings and co-training events. Agate Jogja Co-Founder Frida Dwi, who is also known as Ube, is a well-known figure in the community. There is no question anymore about his ability, as recently the team that he led scored champion title in the Indonesia Next Apps 3.0 competition, initiated by Samsung and DailySocial.

It is very important to note that Agate Jogja does not fully shut down its company. Ube explains that Agate Jogja consists of several elements, which are the Agate Jogja brand itself, the co-founders and their team in Jogjakarta, and its operational activities of the company. The brand will continue to be owned by Agate Jogja’s holding company Agate Studio, which opens up the possibility for it to return to the market with a different composition.

We dig deeper into the lessons to learn from Ube’s journey with Agate Jogja, including the issues that led him to the decision of leaving Agate Jogja.

A startup’s team composition

While the product is a crucial component of a business, it is not the only aspect that mattered, as there are several that need to be synergised in order to accelerate business. Often we see a rather simple product idea being packaged in such a way that it gathered the public’s interest, while being placed on a specific market with a clear target.

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In a startup, generally the developer team is going to focus on how the product is going to spring to life, while other divisions such as marketing and research are going to wrap it up with the right branding, launching time, and target market.

This issue is considered as the most basic reason why Agate Jogja decided to call its operational quits. To DailySocial, Ube explains that:

“My greatest challenge has been insufficient management skills. It also happened that in the past five years I have been wearing multihats, being in charge of both management and production. This has led to the stagnation of Agate Jogja, making the co-founders (me and Estu Galih) felt that we do not have the capability to help the team to grow well.”

Business management itself involves a lot of aspects. Starting from internal operational needs, business development needs, to human resource and financial accommodation in a business activity. In the case of Agate Jogja, the two co-founders have extensive background in application development, with their expertise coding and game designing being their most advanced skills.

Gaming market share in Indonesia is huge, but also dynamic

The significantly growing number of smartphone and internet users opens up plenty of new opportunities for creative industry to make money, and mobile gaming is not an exception. Several surveys stated that games still dominate the top positions of smartphone users’ most used applications, together with social media.

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Local game developers generally agree on this notion. The potential is huge, but there are many things left to be understood.

“Mobile game potential in Indonesia is big. In almost every startup event or creative digital seminar, there are always intriguing data presented. But I personally feel that mobile game users in Indonesia are very unique, very hard to predict. There are many things to study from our mobile game users … As for Indonesian mobile gamers segmentation, there are many users out there and they were all unique, requiring a lot of adjustments that are often beyond our comprehension as a developer,” Ube says.

This is in line with what DailySocial had found in a survey about local mobile game developers. The survey revealed that 49.61 per cent of total respondents are not aware of the existence of local game developers. Sometimes they do not even realise that the games that they are playing were made in Indonesia.

Despite the situation, there is a unique strategy that local game developers have been doing, which is by tagging along a recent trend to be developed as a game-based content. If you remember games such as Tahu Bulat or Dimas Kanjeng Gandakan Uang, developers are quick to read what has been taking the public’s attention, enabling them to jump on it as a medium of creativity, with a strong impact on the promotional process. Behind those challenges there is always a way for creators to maximise existing potentials.

“There are always the ups and downs [of running a game startup]. The ups are when a game becomes featured on Google Play, the number of downloads increase, or when our income experiences a rollercoaster. It also includes winning competitions, meeting lots of partners who are very helpful. Overall, the journey with Agate Jogja had been a pleasant one, because of the many things I was allowed to create,” he says.

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Always be prepared for every possibility

The Agate Jogja team itself has been disbanded since June 2016, right before the holy month of Ramadan, leaving only the two co-founders to continue operational activities and participating in several competitions. In October, Ube and Galih took time to go to Bandung to temporarily join Agate Studio, to exchange knowledge and discuss the plan to set up a new Agate team in Jogjakarta.

After a long discussion, it is finally decided for Agate to focus production process in its Bandung headquarter, while the two co-founders return to Jogjakarta, declining the company’s offer to relocate to Bandung due to their own personal circumstances.

By December 2016, all Agate Jogja games in Google Play have been removed to Agate Studio’s account. Ube and Galih then submitted their resignation from Agate. By January 2017, Agate Jogja’s operational, which is led by Ube, has been ceased.

Startups are often faced with challenging business dynamics. As what happened to Uber, there are many big decision to make, including the decision to end a business. Risks should always been a consideration for business players, and it has to be carefully considered in order to create peace of mind.

When the shutdown happens, at least the team members will not be surprised as they have been prepared since early on. It is likely to be on Ube’s mind at the time.

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“For the sake of all team members, the Agate Jogja co-founders agreed to disband the team, completed with several months worth of severance as a token of appreciation for their service. The announcement was also made gradually; we delivered the news to the team about one month before the end, so that they could prepare their future plan.”

Undying spirits

Everyone is entitled to their own choices, as they will be the only one to face the consequences of their own decision. Continuing his story, Ube stated that after the co-founders resignation and cessation of operations, the Agate Jogja brand ownership will be returned to Agate Studio. Any future decision related to the future of Agate Jogja, or the Jogjakarta base of Agate Studio, has been handed over to the Bandung-based team.

Ube and Galih will continue on working in game developing. By the time this article is written, the two are in the process of completing their latest game development project.

“As for me, I will continue on working in game development, together with my co-founders we begin to set up a small team, starting over from zero again. Just two people involved. Hopefully it will be easier to manage. We have a name in mind but perhaps we will only announce it when our first game is published. Wish us luck.”

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The article Pelajaran Penghentian Operasional Agate Jogja was written by Randi Eka Yonida and was first published on DailySocial. English translation by e27.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, submit your article here.

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