Kabaret

Kabaret is a dark fantasy folklore adventure game developed by Persona Theory Games, a game developer based in Malaysia. The game released for PC, Mac Os, and Xbox One on 4 April 2023. In 2022 Kabaret was nominated as Long Featured Award by A MAZE. The game draws significant inspiration from the mythologies and cultures of Southeast Asia. It takes inspiration from a theatrical production of the same name, which incorporated elements of music, comedy, and drama.

## Story

Jebat, a human dressed as lizard unexpectedly finds himself in the mystical realm of Alam Bunian, where a building called Kabaret stands. With the glory days of Kabaret have faded, the inhabitants devise a voting system to choose one of three candidates: Minister, Garuda, and The Caretaker. However, as time passes, chaos ensues due to side effects experienced by the inhabitants, and Jebat strives to calm them down. In order to understand human and monster he must choose or embrace either side to help others.

## Gameplay

The gameplay consists primarily on visual storytelling and mini-games. There are three mini-games that players can choose. Most of the game story venture on playing mini games and winning in order to reach specific endings.

### Tea Making

A mini-game where players can brew tea from various ingredients. The ingredients can affect choices of which prior to the story. Brewing the correct tea will make players to receive support from one of three candidates. However not being able to fulfill the tea-making requirement will lead to receiving support from rival candidates.

### Congkak

Congkak is mini-game based on traditional board game that is popular in many Southeast Asian countries. The game is played on a wooden board, which typically has two rows of seven small holes (known as "houses") and two larger holes at each end (known as "storehouses"). The objective of the game is to collect as many "seeds" (small stones, shells, or marbles) as possible and store them in your own storehouse. At the beginning of the game, an equal number of seeds are placed in each of the houses. Two players take turns to move the seeds, following specific rules.

On a player's turn, they choose one of the houses on their side and pick up all the seeds from that house. The player then distributes the seeds, dropping one into each consecutive house, including their own storehouse but skipping the opponent's storehouse. If the last seed is dropped into the player's storehouse, they get an extra turn. If the last seed is dropped into an empty house on the player's side, and the opposite house from the opponent also has seeds, the player captures all the seeds in both houses and places them in their storehouse.

The game continues in this manner until one side of the board is empty. At that point, the player who still has seeds on their side captures all the remaining seeds and places them in their storehouse. The player with the most seeds in their storehouse at the end of the game is declared the winner. However if the opponent has the most seeds in their storehouse then the opponent is declared as the winner. Losing Congkak will have consequences on character supports.

### Guli

Guli is a traditional marble game played in Malaysia and various other Southeast Asian countries.. The objective of the game is to launch marbles towards other marbles. The game continues until only one marble remains untouched, at which point the player is declared the winner for three consecutive round. The game is divided into three rounds. In each round, two special marbles are introduced. One of these marbles provides players with the ability to see the direction in which the marble will go, enhancing their strategic decisions. However, players must be careful to avoid disturbing the other special marble, as it must remain untouched within a designated circle to avoid receiving a penalty by losing one live.

## Development

The team was based off three members developing a game called Sara is Missing. After the success of Sara is Missing, they formed Persona Theory Games in 2017. The creation behind Kabaret is based on Southeast Asia culture and according to the game director "Opera Jawa meets Evangelion". The theme of the game emphasizes on value of life and struggle between character recognizing self, a similiar theme to Neon Genesis Evangelion. In 2019, a prototype of Kabaret was released to public on itch.io. The prototype consists of testing the concepts behind the story, theme, and characters of the game. A year later Persona Theory Games announced Kabaret starts in development. The game fully released on 4 april 2023 and received positive feedbacks from both malaysia outlet and international outlet.

## Trivia

* During an Interview with 20m Podcast, The game director stated the game is inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion.
	+ The game focuses on exploring the essence of humanity through its main character who transforms into a monster, and seeks to understand what it means to be human.
* It is unclear what the intention of Babi Ngepet as a spy infiltrating Kabaret due to the story left unexplained.
* Kabaret is based on popular theatrical play from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia in 1950.

## Official Links

* Kabaret Official Xbox Store
* Kabaret Official Steam page
* Kabaret Official Website
* Persona Theory Official Twitter
* Persona Theory Official Website
* Persona Theory Official YouTube

## Gallery

The Caretaker explained a strange feeling with Jebat that he is different than other monsters.The Caretaker rescuing Jebat after entering 'Alam Bunian'Visual art of Kabaret - home of monsters
## Reference

1. ↑ [1] 2022 A MAZE. Awards Page
2. ↑ [2]Vulcanpost.com article "Though locals rejected their SEA-inspired games, this M’sian studio got funding from abroad" written by Claudia Khaw
3. ↑ [3]Kakuchopurei video interview "Persona Theory Games on Kabaret, Shinji Mikami, & Malaysia game industry advice"
4. ↑ [4] Rawg.io store page of Kabaret - A Southeast Asian Visual Novel
5. ↑ [5] 20M Podcast tweet "An indie game inspired by Evangelion & Javanese opera."