Student game developers go viral for their Jeepney Simulator
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A couple of student gamers just went viral on TikTok for their jeepney simulator game.
@spacezerointeractive Average Jeepney ride in the Philippines🗿🗿🗿 #fyp #foryou #viral #pinoygames #indie #jeepney
If you’re just scrolling through your FYP, chances are you might’ve come across their video. After all, at the time of this article’s writing, it currently boasts 1.3M views on the platform. Meanwhile, a Facebook post from one of the co-developers in the Facebook group called Bachelor of Science In Information Technology (BSIT) Worldwide has reached a modest 2.8K reactions and 975 views.
Aptly named Jeepney Simulator, Joshua Renzie A. Bicoy and Alvin Vann V. Arapoc are a couple of best friends from Davao who are responsible for the development of the game. Collectively they are known as Spacezero Interactive.
“We’ve been classmates and friends since elementary and ever since 9th Grade,” Bicoy revealed in an exclusive interview with Esports Inquirer.
“We both live in Davao City (where the game is based on), and we were classmates at Davao Oriental Regional Science High School (DORSHS) in Mati City.”
The Students Behind Spacezero Interactive
Currently, Bicoy is an out-of-semester computer science student while Arapoc is studying IT. Bicoy’s game-developing experience came from his younger years, inspired by a show, and then delved into coding as he participated in science and technology fairs for his school.
“Programming was something I saw as both a fun hobby and a potential career and I didn’t want to do anything else,” Bicoy shared. “I started making my own games on my phone using Python, starting with the classic Pong and gradually shifting into my own ideas.”
Meanwhile, Arapoc initially took up architecture but shifted away from the course due to health-related reasons.
Prior to their current partnership, Bicoy had developed another unreleased game last December called ‘Reichstaurant’—a multiplayer coop game where you and your friends manage a restaurant and fight nazis, a very interesting idea to say the least. After convincing Arapoc to have a try in game development, the two friends were game-testing Reichstaurant only to be hit with a bug where you couldn’t place food into a plate even though it’s empty, showing “Space: 0”. Funny enough, that’s how their game studio’s name came to be.
“At the time, I’d been switching between many “cool” names for my “solo game dev studio” such as “Interloper”, and “Lone Wolf”, when I realized that “Spacezero” was perfect! And thus, the Spacezero Interactive name was born.”
The Viral Jeepney Simulator
With their plans for their original games not panning out, Bicoy shared that their eureka moment came when they were both riding a jeepney.
“While we were riding a jeepney together after our weekly movie marathons, he told me “Wouldn’t it be funny if we made a game where you play as a jeepney driver?”, and I told him I’ve been thinking the exact same thing for a long time now, but I never took it seriously enough to make it,” Bicoy shared to us.
“And while discussing the game with him, we both realized it was a fantastic idea. It was still so strange to us that no one in the country thought to make a Jeepney Simulator game, so we made our own.”
Unfortunately, tragedy struck their beloved game whilst in development. Jeepney Simulator’s first prototype was lost due to a crash in their game development platform. They even shared the news on their Facebook page.
“After picking through the ashes, I managed to make a “Version 2″ and Alvin decided to make 3D models for me in Blender, and we both teamed up and we became Spacezero Interactive.”
“Honestly the more we worked on it, the more we took the game seriously. We realized that Jeepney Simulator had the potential to not only be a viable source of income but could also give us a dedicated following for our future game projects.”
Currently, the Jeepney Simulator features many relatable aspects of the Filipino’s favorite choice of public transportation: different iterations of jeepneys such as the ‘Manycab’, voice lines that include “Para po”, “Pakihinto”, and “Dito lang kuya” (all voiced by the game developers themselves), and the dreaded Filipino traffic.
The game is far from finished but Spacezero Interactive is hopeful they will be releasing the free and paid demos “sometime in the next few weeks.”
“Hopefully, by then, we’ll have enough attention to call the game a success,” Bicoy expressed in our interview.
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