Gaming news: Viral horror video game Hapunan fuels Philippines’ soft power

By Wendellyn Mateo

The night is young and the streets you have found yourself in are dimly lit and empty.

An eerie ambience pervades, a chorus of crickets your only company, but you go and set up shop under a lamppost.

You open your woven basket and start calling out, “Balut!” Balut!” to lure in customers.  

For a few minutes you’re alone, but the voice of a news reporter has left echoes in your mind: a string of night-time killings has gripped the area of which you live.

You can’t help but wonder if you’re being watched, or, if you’ll ever go home.

In the horror video game, “Hapunan” that is exactly what you’re going to do.  

‘Pinoy flavour’ horror game  

The game’s premise is as simple as it gets: You sell balut – a Philippine street food delicacy – and fried pork belly, hoping you can earn some money to make ends meet.  

For many Filipinos, it’s a common sight, seeing vendors walk through the night selling all kinds of delicacies one can eat, even late at night.

But one indie game developer turned what could have been just a simple vendor simulator into a “horrific” experience that gamers from around the globe are immersed in.

It is described as a “story-driven horror game inspired by Filipino culture” in its page on Itch.io.

“Hapunan” was developed by 21-year-old Josef Yenko, also known as Yikon Dev, a solo indie game developer from the Philippines. 

“There are so many indie horror games … So I thought, what if I created a horror game that was based on Filipino culture?” He said in an interview with Inquirer.  

And it is a horror game, only you’re not seeing ghosts or otherworldly monsters, but rather you’re surviving a harrowing and potentially real-life scenario.

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Why has it gone viral?

The elements in the game take inspiration from some aspects of Filipino culture, traditions and even urban legends.

These are enhanced with a chilling sound design and a pixelated aesthetic to try and induce an eerie atmosphere.  

“I studied the sound design of horror games, how to make it creepy … When a horror game is quieter, it’s scarier … That’s why I didn’t overdo it. I just added ambience,” Yikon said.  

Horror games are a staple in the gaming community, either made by big companies or indie developers, that many YouTubers and streamers often bank on.  

“Hapunan” had been sitting idle on its Itch.io page for weeks without a single download, until Filipino content creator and game developer Murushii posted his playthrough of the game on streaming platform YouTube in addition to some clips on TikTok.

These videos raked in half a million views in a span of two days. Since then, the game had started gaining attention, according to the report from Inquirer.   

A playthrough video from Kristian PH, a popular Filipino gamer with 4.16 million YouTube subscribers, ramped up the game’s downloads even more.

Eventually, the game caught the eye of international streamers and YouTubers with millions of subscribers like CaseOh, Kubz Scouts and 8-BitRyan.  

Is this the Soft power fuel the Philippines need?  

Placing “pinoy pride” at the heart of the game, “Hapunan” is just one among many ways that the Philippines could showcase its talent abroad, coinciding with efforts of the government to leverage its soft power.  

Just last year, Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs unveiled a new roadmap seeking to smooth its approach in improving the nation’s image overseas through soft power.

This is often described as the ability of a country to utilise attraction and persuasion to expand influence, according to the Philippine News Agency.  

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo believes the nation could develop a “formidable, global, soft power presence” with the help of the Filipino diaspora.  

But for Yikon, this is just the beginning of his developer journey. For starters, there’s the potential release of what he calls the Episode 2 of “Hapunan,” as well as other horror games under a series dubbed “Gabi ng Lagim.”

Meanwhile, players who are looking for a good 30–40-minute scare can purchase and try out the game.

If you ever do decide to play it at night, just heed your (in-game) mother’s warning: “Don’t stay out late. It’s dangerous.”

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