Meet Asia’s inspiring developers creating apps for global audiences

Asia Pacific has one of the largest communities of mobile app developers in the world. In fact, many globally popular apps like Canva, Pokemon GO and WeChat have come from this region. These developers use platforms like Android and Google Play to not just build but also share their services with the rest of the world.

Let’s meet some of these developers and learn about what they’ve created.

HoYoverse, Asia-Pacific

Fans of sci-fi and mobile games will be familiar with HoYoverse, producer of space fantasy game Honkai: Star Rail— which won Best Game at Google Play’s 2023 Best of awards. The game’s lead designer, Chengnan An, says a huge focus for his China-based team is continually improving the visuals and turn-based strategy format of the game. He adds that HoYoverse works closely with gamers to evolve Honkai: Star Rail’s gameplay, and that a successful mobile game is one that’s both easy to learn and continually challenges the player.

WonderPlanet, Japan

WonderPlanet is a gaming developer mainly known for their popular puzzle games, based out of Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya is the capital of Aichi Prefecture— an area with a small but steadily growing community of gaming developers. Co-founder and CEO of WonderPlanet, Tomoki Tsunekawa, wants to show the world that gaming companies don’t have to be based in big cities like Tokyo to be successful. He’s proud to represent Nagoya to players all around the world.

GAMEDUO, Korea

Jae-won Choi, CEO and co-founder of GAMEDUO, had a dream to build great mobile games in Korea and bring them to an international audience. In 2021, GAMEDUO joined the ChangGoo program, a training program by Google Play to help developers on their career journeys. Jae-won and his team learned about gamers in the U.S. — what drives them and what makes them different from Korean gamers, like preferring icons over text on screen. GAMEDUO then successfully expanded their offerings to the U.S., where their games Cat Hero and Hey! Doodle have become well-known today.

Wonder Reader, Indonesia

Three student developers created Wonder Reader, a 3D-printed digital Braille reader that helps students who are blind or low-vision. It connects wirelessly to a smartphone, letting teachers send questions to the device through an Android app and allowing students to reply using the device's built-in Braille keyboard. The developers’ goal is to improve educational opportunities for students everywhere who are blind and low-vision — and they ended up as one of three winners at the 2023 Google Developer Student Clubs’ Solution Challenge.