Indonesian indie game studio Piknelsia was in the middle of developing its rhythm-based visual novel Afterlove EP when it received the devastating news: Mohammed Fahmi, the studio’s founder and creative director, had died. “When it happened, I remember our character artist, Soyatu, called me around 2am and said, ‘Is Fahmi joking about death again? This time it’s not funny, please tell me this isn’t true!’” Afterlove EP game producer Ivor Dwitomo told Polygon.
Afterlove EP was put on hold indefinitely while the team mourned the loss of their colleague and friend. “No work has been done Afterlove EP during that time, but then we got together, talked about the development of the game, and we all agreed to continue Afterlove EP no matter what,” Dwitomo said. The game is about love and death and is set in Jakarta, he said – and Fahmi had outlined a clear vision for the game. The rest of the team wanted to make that vision a reality.
Fahmi, Toge Productions’ acclaimed creator Coffee conversationpassed away in March 2022. Coffee conversation, released in 2020, is a visual novel and coffee shop simulator centered around a barista working in a fantasy version of Seattle. It’s a game that perfectly evokes the atmosphere of a coffee shop on a rainy day, with some light fantasy elements thrown in. Afterlove EP has a different yet distinct sense of place; it is set in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Fahmi grew up. The story brings together these three genres (visual novel, dating sim and rhythm game), focusing on Rama, a young musician whose girlfriend has just died.
“Of Afterlove EP, Fahmi really wanted to show a slice of life of what it is like to be young and live in the places where he himself grew up and lived,” Dwitomo said. Game director and programmer Dany added: “And we hope they will enjoy getting to know our home through the locations and atmosphere of the characters you meet, while if you are from or know Jakarta, you may feel nostalgic to some of the places we recreated in the game.”
Fahmi was very deliberate with his vision Afterlove EP, and had detailed the game and its characters with main story director Galuh Elsa, who also goes by Sasha. The story and characters were all in place, Dwitomo said, and the Pikselnesia team had only just begun to get things in place.
“Our big goal as a team after Fahmi’s passing has always been to keep the draft in line with his vision, while creating all the content of the game – especially when writing the dialogue and script,” said Dwitomo. “We brought in extra help with the writing and narrative design, because there was a lot of actual writing to be done. But because Sasha has worked so closely with Fahmi on the storyline, the characters and the overall vision, she has been able to be the custodian of it all and guide the writers to help them stay true to that.
Image: Pikselnesia/fellow traveler
Editing and customizing the game introduced a new level of difficulty. “Fahmi chose to be part of it Afterlove EP for a reason and I don’t want to reveal that,” Dwitomo said.
“The biggest challenge is staying true to his vision and at the same time being willing to make changes, because Fahmi would of course also have made changes and had new ideas as we continued with the development,” said Dany. “So we had to think about what he would do and whether things were in line with his central vision.”
Pikselnesia is still working on it Afterlove EPbut just the studio published a demo as part of Fellow Traveller’s publisher LudoNarraCon. And the game is expected to be released this year on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
“This game is our tribute to Fahmi,” said Dany. “Taking a game that he designed, envisioned and worked so hard on and releasing it to the world is our best way to do that.”