The Founder(s) of Singapore

An otome game featuring early colonial Singapore and her two well-known founders https://novie.itch.io/the-founders-of-singapore (currently WIP. Game will be available here when published)

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Does anyone know where I can buy Stamford Raffles: Founder of Modern Singapore in 2025?

I have read this comic book once in my school library back when I was in secondary school, and I’ve been looking for this book recently as I felt that some of the info in it will be helpful to my research. Unfortunately, this book is already out of print by now, and currently the only person still selling it on Carousell is a dead seller. I even made an LF for this book on Carousell before but to no avail.

I even emailed the publisher, Asiapac Comic, asking if they would consider publishing some of their older titles, including this book, in digital format, but they didn’t respond to me 🥲

There are people selling it for like $50+ on eBay, but that’s way too expensive for an old book that probably isn’t in the best condition by now.

A few months ago, I asked a friend in Singapore to check if the Popular stores still have this book in stock, but I think they don’t have it anymore since it’s such an old book. Too bad I’m not living in Singapore now, so I can’t search for it myself.

Maybe I have to try my luck looking for this at Bras Basah Complex on my next visit back to Singapore, though I don’t have any plans on when that will be yet.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

I finally got my hands on this book!!!

I happened to find it on Carousell and got the seller to post it to my friend, who was visiting the country I’m currently living in, and he just passed it to me yesterday. This is so exciting! This will be a useful piece of research information for me.

[nedeireland]

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Spent the past 2 days watching some historical AI videos

Apparently people are using Google Veo 3 to make historical interview videos like these now, and I spent the past 2 days watching these AI interviews on YouTube and TikTok. Thought the concept was pretty cool, and I’d love to generate one about the moment Raffles and Farquhar landed in Singapore, featuring some interviews with key figures from that time.

But apparently you only get 10 free credits when I checked it out - which is enough to generate one video, and I don’t want to mess up and waste my credits. Maybe when I’ve figured out how to prompt Veo 3 correctly, I’ll try generating one of these videos.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

I sure like the illustrations of Crawfurd from this article: https://newnaratif.com/john-crawfurd-and-anti-colonialism-in-sarawak/

He sure is looking good here. Also a good reference for me as I have no idea how to interpret his hair from his photo and portraits.

John Crawfurd and Anti-Colonialism in Sarawak – New Naratif

After a successful career as a colonial administrator, John Crawfurd forged a second career as a staunch anti-colonial activist, in particul

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Nice video made by this YouTuber depicting himself painting the statue and portrait of Raffles around Singapore. Also got to see a bit of the BatikSG campaign that they ran back then. He even went all the way to London to visit the London Zoo and the church where Raffles was buried in, to look for his grave. This is just like a dream come true or some holy pilgrimage for a typical Raffles simp.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Some completed lineart of Farquhar so far

Working on the character turnarounds now, and I just completed the lineart for Farquhar’s dress uniform and undress uniform. Will be working on his last outfit, which is his civilian dress, before I move on to Raffles next.

Edit: done with Farquhar’s civilian dress:

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility is just like Farquhar

I admittedly have not read Sense and Sensibility before myself (but definitely got interested in reading it after finding out about this), but I was doing some Googling for reference pictures of Farquhar’s uniform and thought that the uniform worn by Colonel Brandon was a good reference. Furthermore, the novel was published in 1811, meaning that the outfits worn by the people in the novel matches with Raffles and Farquhar’s era - the Regency period.

Also, based on a quick research, Colonel Brandon’s personality is pretty similar to Farquhar’s, being described as ‘the consummate gentleman: honorable, kind almost to a fault, ever loyal and chivalrous’.

Jane Austen’s romance novels back in the early 19th century would’ve been the equivalent of otome games today. (I heard someone even made an otome game based on Jane Austen’s romance novels a couple of years back, but never played it myself.) So all the bachelors in the book are all idealised and romanticised as the perfect gentleman etc. Sounds like a good frame of reference for the characters in my otome game.

Wonder what it would be like if Raffles and co. end up hearing about how they ended up becoming romantic candidates in (what is pretty much) a Jane Austen romance novel back in the 19th century. It’s funny to even think about it 🤣

[raffleshitposting]

OH MY GOD ITS REAL

i was wondering where i got this anecdote from because i found this ancient (2020?) comic i drew of raffles freaking out over a durian (posted under the cut). turns out its from the hikayat abdullah which is a pretty good primary source so . LMFAOO

no idea who the person in the last panel is but its ok probably just some european guy 🔥

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Interesting fact but this is so funny.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

I sure like Raffles’ sarcasm here. He’s trying to say that Queiros is trying to avoid costs by claiming materials had become more expensive, making it impossible to rebuild affordably. However, at the same time, Bernard is making the opposite claim, saying that materials were more expensive in the past, and therefore he deserves more compensation now. And he sarcastically calls it ‘the best of the Story’ and that it was an underhanded trick. XD

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Do you think Raffles actually meant it when he claims to still like Farquhar, or is he just saying it for the sake of it? And why does this sound like Raffles x Farquhar yaoi ship fuel? XD

I’m talking about the “there is yet a feeling towards Farquhar which I can hardly understand” and the part about having a personal affection for him. I mean I don’t ship them (I just treat it as a funny crack ship at the most), but if the Singapore colonial history fandom had been larger, I’m sure all the fujoshi are going to use this as yaoi shipping fuel. Kind of like how people ship Phoenix x Edgeworth from Ace Attorney because Edgeworth once said Phoenix has caused him to be saddled with unnecessary feelings or something.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

About some game timeline plans

I posted about the demo version of my game in my previous post. On that topic, I am thinking that once I have it out, I can start promoting my game more by boothing at artists’ markets, doujin events and game dev events, and sell some merch of my characters. I have no idea yet if I eventually want to do a Kickstarter/Patreon, but I am thinking of leaving it as a pay-what-you-want basis for now. Like, the more money the game raises, the better the game will become, because it means I can pay composers to compose leitmotifs for each bachelor, some nice BGM, and partial voice acting. I only mentioned the music because I can handle the art and programming by myself. However, I might eventually need to outsource some of the background and CG work to other artists due to the sheer amount of them I have planned in my game.

As for the ‘when’… hmm, I don’t have specific date in mind per se, but I do hope to minimally get the demo up to 1823 released by next year. Erm, maybe I’ll aim for by the end of December this year? About 7 months should be generous enough (though I probably would need to leave many of the backgrounds and CGs as sketches first), but I would need to likely work on the game full-time. (Currently I’m still looking for a full-time job, so I am totally free to work on the game full-time if I want to)

Before the demo, I will also release a short preview version of the game that will only last up to Raffles’ second visit in 31 May 1819, and it should only be an hour. I’ll give myself a timeframe of 3 months from now, meaning I will aim to get this out by the end of August. If I don’t give myself any deadline, I will never progress 🤣

Edit: I will try and release the short preview of the game by the end of this year instead, as I think I would need a lot of time to do all the essential art and UI for my game.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Just sent my final email in a chain of correspondences with Dr Nadia Wright

For the past 2 months or so, I’ve been emailing Dr Wright with several questions I have about early colonial Singapore and Raffles and Farquhar. I first got into contact with her when I requested for a thesis paper of hers on Academia.edu, and she personally emailed me asking about my request, to my surprise. I took the opportunity to ask if it was okay to ask her a couple of questions that I have had in the course of my research, and she agreed.

She’s usually very fast at responding, something I was surprised about too, because I’ve always imagined that famous researchers and historians like her would be busy every day. That’s why I didn’t expect her to actually reach out to me personally. Then again, she’s already retired, and her last publication was like in 2018 or 2019, so I suppose she has all the time in the world now, hence she can reply quickly to my emails.

Digressing a little here, but I wonder what historians like her do after retirement. John Bastin, who passed away in 2024 last year, had published his final book in 2021. He was 97 at the time of his passing, meaning he published his latest book at 94. That’s pretty impressive, that he still continued publishing books after his retirement and at such a late age. Maybe some of these historians continue to write papers and publications occasionally, and some choose to just enjoy life with their hobbies. Perhaps, for some people, continuing to write books about their most passionate subject is considered a hobby to them.

Enough digression, and back to the topic.

She’s been a really great help to me, and I felt bad about barging her with so many questions - I sent a long list of questions in at least 3 emails, yet she patiently answered all of them for me. Asking her is so much better and more accurate than asking ChatGPT, because it’s like, I don’t even know if I’m being given the right or wrong information if I ask ChatGPT due to how obscure/niche/specific the type of questions I had were.

Feels a bit sad that our correspondences have now come to an end. Well, I could send her an email somewhere down the road when my game is done or something, or when I have reached the first milestone of releasing a demo, which will cover the common route up to 1823 and before it branches into each bachelor’s route. I was concerned at first, thinking that she would not be interested in my work because I mean, considering her age, she’s probably not into games, let alone otome games. I didn’t want to come across as imposing on her by showing her something if she’s not interested in it. But then again, it’s not just any otome game, but a game that I am making based on the information from her book and from my correspondences with her. So I think she might be at least interested in taking a look at my final result.

Also, I posted about it before in a previous post somewhere, but if she ever will have any public appearances again in the future, I would love to visit it and ask for her autograph. Oh and of course, a selfie/photo op together, too.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

I love JustKeepThinking’s videos on Farquhar

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

I like how she called Farquhar ‘Uncle Farquhar’. The comments were a really interesting read, too.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Just found out about this too late and wish I went to watch it back then

https://cravefx.com/portfolio/from-singapore-to-singaporean-the-bicentennial-experience/

I found this page from Google when I found the concept art of Raffles and Farquhar, and wish I had gone to watch this back in 2019.

In fact, I sure missed out on a lot of other things in 2019, like this BalikSG app that was some kind of an AR walking trail:

Well, that was the COVID period and all, so I didn’t really go out that much, not that we could, and I was also busy with uni projects back then. Why did I have to only start doing all these research after the Bicentennial has been over for 6 years already???

[thefoundersofsingapore]

I decided to have some fun and ask ChatGPT if Raffles would be rolling in his grave now if he learnt that he was featured in an otome game, and thought I’d share the response because it made me laugh.

(Warning: unmarked spoilers for the secret character)

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Hohoho~ Looks like my otome game is gaining interest even beyond the shores!

Huh, what am I saying? I’m not even living in Singapore now, so why am I calling it ‘beyond the shores’? 🤣

Haha but anyway, to be honest, my otome game was meant to be a very Singaporean-orientated game, though anyone interested in the history of Singapore can play it too. I actually never meant for my target audience to be anything other than female Singaporeans who are into otome games at first, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise.

So yeah, at first I only shared about my game in a Singapore game dev Discord channel:

I got a lot of attention and interest in my game, and I thought, yeah, I suppose it’s true that the concept is pretty unusual and attention-grabbing, because it’s not a conventional otome game for sure. It’s historical, yes, but it’s not the 1000000th historical Japanese otome game about dating ancient Japanese warlords/samurai like Hakuoki, Love Ballad, Ikemen Sengoku, and I’m sure there are a lot more others besides what I have mentioned.

I joined this other Otome game dev-focussed Discord channel (not specifically Singaporean, but a global one) later on and shared about my game in there too:

I got quite a bit of attention and interest in my game even when I shared about it in there, too.

That was when I thought to myself for the first time - my game doesn’t necessarily ‘have’ to be for Singaporeans alone. Anybody who likes a good historical romance would like my game too.

See what Mr GPT has to say about it 🤣(unmarked spoiler for the secret character in the second screenshot):

Sounds really good to me! Now I know I don’t necessarily have to limit myself to a Singaporean audience when I promote my game, once I have at least a demo or preview out, because the game can appeal to anyone who likes historical otome.

[thefoundersofsingapore]

Reading Abdullah’s account and learnt that Farquhar had a previous assassination attempt in Malacca

I am reading Abdullah’s ‘Munshi Abdullah’ right now (but skipping the irrelevant parts and only looking for content related to Singapore, Raffles and Farquhar etc), and I just learnt about how Farquhar had a previous assassination attempt even before he arrived in Singapore. Even worse, it was his own sentry who attempted to kill him. Wonder why this isn’t reported as much as the second one by Syed Yasin despite both being from the same source.

Regarding Abdullah, I was thinking of having him be the advisor/close-friend-of-the-LI kind of character, playing a supporting role in my game by telling Singapore about Raffles’ past and his struggle with his poor health and past experiences that led him to become whom he was then, to make the player sympathise with him, knowing that he isn’t just some haughty and arrogant prince-like character. In Farquhar’s route, he also similarly shares about Farquhar’s past, considering that he was close to both men and knew them both well. I’m thinking that he can bring up the previous assassination attempt in Malacca after he hears of the second attempt in my game.