Khail Santia is a self- taught game programmer who will introduce us to the mysterious world of how strings of code work together with visuals in bringing us the virtual realities we play with in our gadgets and consoles.
RdP: I understand you were supposed to be a baker but now you are making waves in Dumaguete and beyond through game development.How has this journey been so far?
Khail Santia: It took six years and 10 games before I got officially published. Being a baker was my day job for a while. Then I self-studied my way into becoming a game developer, in between the rising of bread dough. It has not been easy. To be able to make games was a childhood dream. If I regret anything at all, it is that I did not start sooner.
RdP: Please describe for us your art.
KCS: Game development is a collaborative art form. It’s like film with one crucial addition — interactivity. In games, your audience is also your protagonist who makes their own decisions. This to me is the major challenge of game-making: How do you create a world where people can laugh, cry, or fall in love, and at the same time, take into account the unpredictability of player choices?
RdP: What satisfies you in your art?
KCS: I grew up in in Bukidnon, smack in the middle of Mindanao. I was always obsessed with wanting to build fantastic stuff — from games to telescopes to robots. But mostly, all I could do was dream feverishly as I did not have access to high technology. All these changed when I learned to program computers. It gave me a sense of unlimited possibilities. A computer is a magician’s top hat, and the programs are spells that when uttered right, allow you to pull out the strangest creatures. For me, some of the hardest, most intricate and delicious spells are the ones which allow you to pull out these creatures called games.
RdP: Why is game development also considered an art?
KCS: Leo Tolstoy wrote, “Art is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” The game designer of Super Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, said almost the exact thing: “I want the players to experience kyokan — to feel about the game what the developers felt themselves.”
We usually think of games as conveying fun, but games can also evoke regret (Pretentious Game), guilt (The Company of Myself), mystery (Monument Valley), and so on.
But perhaps the most striking qualification games have in terms of emotive expression is the one mentioned previously: In games you do not say, “My character won!” You say, “I won!” In other words, games allow you to go beyond empathizing with the main character to becoming the main character.
RdP: What drives/inspires you?
KCS: Games opened my eyes to the possibility of a world where human beings study and work not out of coercion but out of a genuine love for what they do. What is the core action of game playing? Boring stuff like repeatedly moving pieces of wood or pressing buttons.
But game design is able to turn these experiences into something we all love. If game design can do that, it can surely do the same to our classrooms and workplaces. I am enamored with the inherent challenges and expressive power of game development. Game development is a passion but applying game development to transform the way we study and work has become a calling for me.
RdP: How are you able to support yourself through your art?
KCS: I just came back from a year’s break from game development with a new studio, Moocho Brain, which I cofounded with Aji Prasongko, Algernon van Peel, and Eru Petrasanta. We are off to a good start with our game Rancho Ranch, being published by an American publisher. We are in the start-up phase, and are currently building up cash flow through web sponsorship, profit-sharing with publishers, as well as self-publication.
RdP: How do you deal with setbacks?
KCS: With lots of sleep and pastry. I wade through a lot of duds before I can come up with something that’s different. When stuck in an impasse, I forget the work for a bit.
Meanwhile, the problem usually solves itself or becomes more manageable when I come back. As Irving Stone wrote of Michelangelo, “In a love fight, he who flees is the winner.”
RdP: What can you say about the future of yourself and game development in Dumaguete?
KCS: The demand for games is tremendous and growing, with global revenues exceeding those of music and film. True, the competition is equally tremendous. The trick is to stand out.
Dumaguete has a culture that celebrates creativity. The required skills are here — top-notch visual artists, musicians, writers, and information technologists.
And for some time now, there has been an intensifying interest in game development around the City. The pieces are starting to come together. Dumaguete may very well be the next game development hot spot.
You can see some of Khail’s works at http://khailcs.tumblr.com/
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Author’s email: artistbyartist@gmail.com
