Coming soon: Majulah, a city-builder game set in Singapore
Majulah, set in Singapore, will be joining the likes of city-builder games with roguelike elements such as Age Of Wonders and Rimworld.
On top of building a city from scratch, players can also form their own Cabinet and expand during parliamentary sessions.
The duo behind Majulah are programmer Khairul Azman, who also handles business development, and artist-socmed manager Arya Satya Naratama. They are both 27 years old.
Khairul told The New Paper that he was inspired when he played Balatro in March 2024.
Balatro is a deck-building roguelite where you must play poker hands and earn chips to defeat enemy blinds.
Majulah also takes inspiration from Between Two Cities – a tile-based board game Khairul used to play – for the game’s building placement system.
“These games provided a strong starting point, but Majulah is ultimately its own entity, blending tactical gameplay with the heart and soul of Singaporean culture," he explained.
The duo felt South-east Asian and Singaporean cultures were under-represented in media and were often reduced to clichés like those in Crazy Rich Asians.
“There’s so much more to our city than the surface-level stereotypes and I wanted Majulah to celebrate one aspect of our unique culture: its architecture," Khairul added.
Players can look forward to depth and replayability in Majulah, with the wide array of Cabinet Members and building types that can be unlocked with each playthrough.
Point-scoring is varied, depending on the mix of buildings and the team of MPs in the Cabinet.
Parliamentary sessions are held at each turn and after three turns, election takes place and the player has to secure another term by winning votes from citizens.
Embedded in the game are references to Singaporean pop culture and folklore such as Badang and the Legend of Kusu Island.
Majulah is self-funded by Khairul and Arya, and a free demo will drop in the next quarter on Steam for PC.
The game will be available only on Steam at launch but it might also be released on console, depending on its performance.
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