Bali Tech Week 2026 | Day 3

Bali Tech Week 2026 — Day 3 Summary

Day 3 centered on Indonesia’s game-development ecosystem, with additional sessions on digital commerce, AI and talent, healthcare technology, creative industries, and technology commercialization. Speakers repeatedly emphasized collaboration, practical execution, and building sustainable local businesses—not just adopting new tools.

Games and the Digital Creative Economy

• IGDX’s role: Organizers described IGDX as a platform for Indonesian studios to develop talent, find business and publishing partners, access mentorship, and reach international markets. The event was part of Bali Tech Week, which brought together technology, investment, gaming, AI, cybersecurity, and policy communities.
• Industry opportunity: Government and industry speakers said Indonesia has a large gaming audience but that local developers capture only a small share of the market. They encouraged studios to make games that also preserve Indonesian culture, history, and knowledge, and to pursue partnerships with international publishers and platforms.
• International collaboration: The French Embassy highlighted opportunities for Indonesian–French co-development, publishing, investment, technical partnerships, and professional training. It cited existing joint-studio activity and educational links as examples of longer-term cooperation.

Roblox: Creation, Education, and Safety

Roblox presented itself as a platform for playing, creating, learning, and monetizing games. Its tools—including Roblox Studio, templates, visual assets, and educational experiences—are available for creators to use, and the company highlighted growth in Indonesian developers and creator payouts.

Key safety and product features discussed included:

• Age checks for chat: Roblox described facial age estimation through its app as a way to assign users to age-appropriate chat groups. The company said verification images and video are deleted after the check.
• Age-based accounts: Roblox Kids is for ages 5–12, with stricter settings and chat off by default; Roblox Select is for ages 13–15, with additional features subject to parental controls. Parents can filter content, manage contacts, and set spending and screen-time limits.
• Content review: Roblox said it uses developer verification, real-time evaluation, content ratings, and a combination of human and AI review.
• Family Zone: A family-focused experience is intended to let children show parents how to play and discuss topics such as scams, bullying, stranger danger, and online limits.
• Learning and creation: The Roblox Learning Hub includes educational games, while Roblox Studio teaches game creation and coding. A BBC partnership on Planet Planners was given as an example of learning through play.
• Indonesian creators: The keynote highlighted local experiences, including hiking games inspired by Indonesian mountains and the horror game Morg Shift, as well as women-led studios and creators.

Making Games More Likely to Succeed

Game-industry veteran Gordon Van Dyke argued that studios should define success in a way that fits their budget, team, and goals. Smaller teams can now produce more than before, but lower barriers to development also mean more competition for players’ attention.

His practical recommendations:

1. Prioritize the backlog: Keep features that support the game’s core experience and launch success; defer less essential ideas rather than treating them as permanently cut.
2. Balance vision, quality, and time: He described a prioritization approach in which a creative lead protects the game’s vision, a quality-focused person considers player expectations, and a time/budget lead assesses feasibility.
3. Test early and often: Use internal playtests, demos, events, and early access to observe player behavior and identify problems.
4. Ship the core experience: Avoid delaying a game for features that do not materially improve its launch prospects. Keep some strong ideas for post-launch updates.
5. Use AI as a productivity tool: AI can help with repetitive or procedural work and let teams devote more time to creative decisions. Van Dyke cautioned against treating AI as a substitute for human experience and judgment.

Women in Indonesia’s Game Industry

A panel featuring studio leaders and developers discussed representation, career paths, and support systems. The moderator cited women as about 21% of Indonesia’s gaming workforce. Panelists described common obstacles, including isolation, gender stereotypes, harassment, unequal trust, and the difficulty of balancing work with caregiving.

They emphasized that women are capable of technical roles but often receive less early exposure to programming and fewer opportunities to demonstrate their skills. Recommendations included taking harassment seriously, reducing bias in recruitment and investment, offering flexible work arrangements, and judging performance by output. They also described women-led communities as important sources of mentorship, technical learning, peer support, and emotional safety.

Beyond Steam: Distribution and Revenue

A panel on global game sales argued that Steam remains useful for validating demand, but its crowded marketplace makes it risky to rely on a single channel. The panel noted that new Steam releases had risen from roughly 15–20 per day in 2021 to around 80–100 per day in 2026.

Suggested approaches for developers included:

• Build relationships with player communities and creators.
• Test demand through wishlists and other early signals before investing heavily in expansion.
• Explore additional storefronts and distribution partners rather than depending on Steam alone.
• For studios with limited marketing budgets, set realistic targets, start with small experiments, and scale channels that show results.
• Consider console ports only when demand and resources justify the work; porting requires both technical capacity and attention to platform-specific requirements.
• Track retention, costs, and return on investment when deciding whether to continue investing in a game.

The panel also discussed AI as a way to assist with repetitive tasks, code work, and some optimization, while stressing that difficult technical decisions and creative direction still need human oversight. One panelist raised piracy as an ongoing revenue challenge and suggested regular updates as one possible way to encourage legitimate players to stay current.

Digital Commerce, Talent, and Technology Products

Open Networks for Digital Commerce

Koshi of India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) explained the difference between a platform and an open network. In a platform-based model, sellers often integrate separately with each marketplace; an open network uses a shared protocol so sellers can be discoverable through multiple buying interfaces.

The proposed benefits include wider market access for small businesses, less dependence on a few large platforms, and the potential to connect commerce with logistics and credit services. Koshi said the network had recorded close to 600 million transactions in India and argued that successful adoption requires coordinated support from government, industry associations, businesses, and buyers. He also described the potential for interoperable logistics to connect larger carriers with local delivery providers, particularly in remote areas.

Digital Talent and AI Skills

A talent panel identified the most difficult combination to find as technical ability plus business understanding and problem-solving. Speakers said AI tools make coding more accessible, increasing the importance of identifying the underlying problem, choosing appropriate tools, and evaluating results.

The government described an AI Talent Factory program in which university students work in teams on real-world projects. GoTo discussed AI internships in data science and local-language work, emphasizing that models need cultural and linguistic context. Panelists also highlighted the continuing value of communication, collaboration, creativity, judgment, and ongoing learning.

Lenovo OEM and Embedded Solutions

Lenovo outlined an OEM model for startups that want to package software with hardware as a branded product. The offering can include custom configurations, white-labeling, certifications, deployment and provisioning services, and asset management. Lenovo said the minimum order could be one unit and described its partnership approach as co-create, co-promote, and co-sell, including access to its supply chain and partner network.

The speaker argued that AI software needs suitable hardware to deliver reliable performance, especially when systems are shared among many users or applications.

Healthcare, Creative Industries, and Entrepreneurship

Healthcare Interoperability and AI

Jesse Abdul Rahman of Zicare described how interoperable, structured medical records can improve continuity of care. He contrasted structured, standardized records with documents such as PDFs, which may be digital but are not necessarily interoperable.

Using Indonesia’s SatuSehat platform as an example, he said records can follow patients across participating facilities and return to patients through a mobile service, subject to consent and access controls. He cited more than 34,000 connected health facilities.

On AI, he stressed that performance depends on the quality and structure of the data. AI can assist clinicians and identify cases at scale, but it can also be wrong and may influence experts too strongly. His central point was that AI should support, not replace, clinical judgment.

Healthcare Market and Technology Outlook

Fin Rashid discussed growth drivers in Indonesian healthcare, including insurance coverage, health checks, rising health awareness, and demand from a growing middle class. He also pointed to constraints such as medical inflation, imported equipment costs, and gaps in insurance literacy.

For healthcare technology, he recommended starting with operational improvements—such as reducing administrative delays—rather than immediately trying to automate clinical decisions. AI may have substantial potential in clinical support, but operational applications were presented as more accessible starting points.

A separate government presentation covered SatuSehat, free health checks, personal-data protection, cybersecurity, AI, robotics, and genome-science initiatives. The speaker described AI as a clinical support tool rather than a replacement for doctors.

Turning Cultural IP into Film Businesses

Andy Budiman discussed adapting Indonesian intellectual property for film and building commercial opportunities around it. He said careful rights documentation and establishing a clear chain of title are essential before an IP can be adapted or distributed internationally.

He also argued that successful films need more than creative quality: producers must understand audience demand, distribution, and marketing. He described licensing and commissioning as different streaming arrangements and said a clearly defined niche audience can help a project stand out.

On AI, he described using it throughout production—such as visualizing scripts and storyboards, preparing directors and crews, and supporting daily production workflows—rather than treating AI-generated output as the finished film.

AI-Powered Entrepreneurship

Ian Kim, founder of UD Impact, presented its founder-development system, which combines learning software (LMS), program-management software (PMS), AI support, and human coaching. The system uses coaching records and learner submissions to provide ongoing assistance and track progress.

UD Impact said its Indonesian Action AI Startup University program had reached close to 10,000 learners across around 40 universities in under six months. Kim argued that founder development should connect education with measurable progress and access to finance, and called for collaboration among universities, companies, government, and investors. A hands-on “Build Your First AI Project” workshop was also announced for the following day.

Guides, Demonstrations, and Follow-Up Activities

• Roblox advertised a map-creation demonstration at its booth.
• UD Impact announced a hands-on workshop to build a first AI project.
• Roblox Studio and Learning Hub were presented as self-guided tools for learning coding and game development.
• Game developers were encouraged to use playtests, demos, events, and early access to gather feedback before launch.

Main Speakers and Sources

• Event host: Denanisha
• Government and industry opening remarks: Soni Hendra Sudarana; Shafi Hussein; Edwin Hidayat Abdullah
• International collaboration: Fabrice Vis, Deputy Head of Mission, French Embassy in Indonesia
• Roblox keynote and women-in-games panel: Celeste Campbell-Pitt; Dr. Priyanka Bhalla; Restia (Agate Academy); Ida; Riez/“Virus” (Game Changer Studio; name unclear in subtitles)
• Game-development keynote: Gordon Van Dyke
• Beyond Steam panel: Arif Vidiaza, moderator; Handy; Kevin
• Open digital commerce: Koshi, ONDC; moderated by Alvin
• Digital talent panel: Bonifasius Wahu Pujanto; Monica Lin Muljono; Vincent Das
• OEM and embedded solutions: Lenovo Indonesia representative (name unclear in subtitles)
• Healthcare interoperability: Jesse Abdul Rahman
• Healthcare outlook: Fin Rashid; Indonesian Ministry of Health representative (name unclear in subtitles)
• Film and cultural IP: Andy Budiman; moderated by Nigel Hebrew
• AI entrepreneurship: Ian Kim, UD Impact