Operating in that environment as a game developer can be a different story, however.
One pioneer attempting to do just that is Nightspade, a smartphone studio based in Bandung - aka The Paris of Java.
We hooked up with chief marketing office Garibaldy 'Gerry' Mukti to find out more.
Pocket Gamer: Can you give us some background about the company?
Garibaldy Mukti: Nightspade is a mobile game development studio from Indonesia.
We've been developing mobile games since January 2011, releasing seven titles to-date for platforms ranging from iOS, Android, MeeGo, bada and PlayBook to mobile social network like mig33.
We got investment from East Ventures in May 2011, and are currently in partnerships with vendors such as Samsung and Nokia.
What would you say is your area of expertise?
Nightspade specialises in making smartphone and tablet games, using our SINBAD technology, which is a cross-platform C++ game engine.
It enables us to use one game codebase for iOS, Android, Symbian^3, Series60, bada and BlackBerry 10.
We haven't heard of many game studios in Indonesia, so what's it like?
There aren't many mobile game studios in Indonesia and generally they target Flash games.
It's quite difficult to build a company in Indonesia due to legal and bureaucratic issues. It takes about six months to get a business license and it's expensive - costing 1.3 million rupiah or about $1,300.
You also need to have 50 million rupiah (around $50,000) in terms of starting capital.
If you're an indie studio, so not registered as a company, you can ignore the legal and financing processes but then you have trouble registering for some app stores, because they need you to provide a business licence.
As for getting good staff, most games companies find them through friends or education, for instance the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). At ITB, there are people studying games, design, and IT and because we are in the same college, it's easy for us to collaborate.
You've developed games such as Mad Warrior, which is inspired by local culture, so how big is the mobile gaming audience in Indonesia?
The mobile gaming audience in Indonesia is big but almost 80 percent use feature phones. As for social networks, Facebook, Twitter and mig33 are popular. We don't make many games for Java and Facebook, although we do integrate Twitter and Facebook into our games.
We made a game called Gyropet Ranger for mig33, but this was to test the market because you're not allowed to include links to any sites other than mig33, so we can't use external monetisation services.
When it comes to smartphone gaming, our primary markets are the USA and China.
Japan and China are obviously very big in terms of mobile content so can you make games for those markets?
We could release games for Mobage in Japan, but we don't have any plans yet because we've only just finished completing our administrative requirements.
In terms of the Chinese market, we cooperate with The9. It acts as our publisher so Nightspade's games can be released on Android.
What can you tell us about Nightspade's plans for 2012?
We have two games currently in development for release - AMAGO (Amazing Animals in the Archipelago) and Magical Soul.
AMAGO is a mobile game that highlights the lives of three mascots of Indonesian fauna, the Javan Hawk-Eagle (Awan), the Komodo dragon (Akar), and Red Arowana (Arus). It's designed to provide information about endangered species in Indonesia and can be developed to include animals in other countries.
Magical Soul is a shooter defence game with unique interaction using gesture recognition technology.
You can check out what Nightspade gets up to via its website.
