Meet the team behind Citampi Stories

Citampi Stories: Love & Life is a life simulation game where players can experience a complete virtual life, from working and having hobbies to building relationships. But what makes Citampi Stories truly unique is its setting: a small town in Indonesia that is full of life and personality. In this interview, Play spoke with Banu Adhimuka, the developer of Citampi Stories, about how he created a game that is both relatable and engaging for players.

A: Citampi Stories was inspired by the rise of minimarkets in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, as well as other social phenomena such as small designer clothing stores, internet cafes, thrift stores, and soap operas. The name Citampi is a wordplay on "Cimahi", the city where I live. In Sundanese, Ci-Mahi means "Enough Water", while Ci-Tampi means "Received Water" or "Water taken from a spring".

A: We faced two major challenges in developing Citampi Stories. First, there was no similar game that targeted Indonesia and Southeast Asia. This meant that we had to do a lot of guesswork and experimentation to figure out what would work. Second, we had limited financial and resource constraints, which made it difficult to create a large and expansive RPG game.

A: We have observed a significant shift in player behavior towards a more relaxed but deeper gaming experience. This has helped us attract more players, especially housewives and females in general. We are also seeing more organic app growth driven by recommendations and suggestions, rather than searches.

A: Google Play has helped this game a lot by recommending Citampi Stories to more players both in search and on Google Play Explore: these are the two biggest sources of downloads for the game. Google Play has even featured Citampi Stories twice in the past.

A: Citampi Stories is a life simulation game that lets you experience a complete virtual life. You can work, have hobbies, and build relationships. Start from nothing and work your way up to success. And best of all: Citampi Stories is under 100 MB, so you can play it on any device anytime, anywhere.

A: Thanks to the support of Google Play and players, we've been able to expand our development team. This means we can create more events, develop stories in directions players never expected, and more. We're also working on a major storyline update where players can save Citampi from new threats, with the help of old and new characters.