Every month, student blogger Mithun Balraj organises a get-together for gamers and developers in Bangalore. When these informal gatherings began a year ago, five or six people came along — now there are over 30 and interest is growing. Some pop in just to chat about the games they’re playing, others show off prototypes of their own projects; they all want to discover new titles. A new generation of talented and creative Indian developers has grown up, inspired by the thriving independent development scenes in the U.S. and Europe. Spurred on by the success of hits like Doodle Jump, Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, they don’t want to craft digital assets for other people; they want to create their own games.
Success stories
And there are plenty of success stories to uncover. There is 99Games , based in Udupi, which has developed 15 titles for both the domestic and global market, including recent success, Star Chef, a fast-paced cooking action game with 40,000 daily users and revenue growing 25% a quarter. There is Yellow Monkey Studios, a relative veteran at eight years old. Its latest title is the sleek, tile-sorting puzzler, Socioball, which features an ingenious map editor that lets players create their own levels then share them via Twitter. “The indie scene has picked up a lot in the past three years,” says founder, Shailesh Prabhu, who has helped to set up an online community of small indie studios which now has over 600 members. “With the advancement in development tools, a lot of studios have gained the ability and confidence to produce games that can match up to the global quality standards.” Ubisoft India’s managing director Jean-Philippe Pieuchot is working with local universities to improve games education; Chennai-based developer Growl Studios has set up game design workshops at colleges around the country.
Challenges in India
They all face some big challenges if they want to make money here. This is a market with barely 8% credit card penetration, and where over 90% of mobile users are on pre-paid contracts, so the Western model of relying on customers to make seamless in-app purchases through online app stores isn’t going to work. The networks would struggle with the data load anyway: much of India’s mobile infrastructure is still operating at 2G speeds. Gradually then, the whole culture of game development is reversing in India. Once used for its cheap, skilled labour, it is now in a commanding position to compete in the global smartphone gaming market.— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
Once used for its cheap, skilled labour, it is now in a commanding position to compete in the global smartphone gaming market
Think out of the box
If you were to develop a game for teachers, how would that be? Share creative ideas at school@thehindu.co.in with the subject: Gaming. Include your name, class, school and city details.
