SINGAPORE, May 19 — In a soon-to-launch video game titled Sedap!, players can cook iconic South-east Asian dishes like nasi lemak and mango sticky rice—while battling mythical regional creatures.

This two-player game launches on Steam on May 22 for S$14.50 (RM50), marking the debut of Singapore independent studio Kopiforge.

The three co-founders took home just S$700 (RM2,400) a month each and relied on cheap meals – rice with mixed dishes from hawker stalls popularly called cai fun in Singapore and better known as chap fun in Malaysia – to get by.

“Only eating cai fun for a year” became an inside joke, 26-year-old co-founder Jay Wong told The Straits Times in an interview published today.

“Sedap! is our love letter to South-east Asia.

“What if the food you cooked wasn’t steak, but nasi lemak? What if the monsters weren’t dragons, but from our own myths?” he added, explaining the game’s concept.

Players will cook over 50 dishes and fight legendary beasts to a soundtrack built with traditional instruments.

An Instagram screenshot from Kopiforge’s South-east Asian cooking game ‘Sedap!’

The project began in 2021 as a school project by Wong and Nadiyah Toi, 25, who later teamed up with Foo Jing Ting, 27, to go full-time in 2023.

Despite awards and praise, funding was a struggle for the team.

They pitched to over 100 publishers and missed out on government grants, finally securing a deal only at the end of 2024.

“We were a first-time studio with no prior game experience.

“I could guess why we didn’t attain funding,” Wong told the Singaporean newspaper.

The team prioritised fair pay for freelancers, leaving little for themselves.

“Most of my peers were earning so much more, and I struggled with feeling left behind,” he added.

Foo left a job at HP to follow her creative dream, while Toi faced pressure from family and teachers for choosing game art.

Now, their gamble faces its biggest test – whether Sedap! finds success with players worldwide.