Welcome to the great Indian gaming boom: Cultural narrative, creativity and technical prowess merge to develop exciting video games created by local talent that are grabbing global attention
When game designer Shruti Ghosh sold her apartment to help develop Raazi: An Ancient Epic, many thought it was a reckless gamble on a trivial project. But Shruti was investing in her future. And it paid off.
Since the release of Raazi in August 2020, the game has enjoyed several ‘firsts’: being part of the Nintendo Indie World Showcase, being the first indie studio in India to receive an Unreal Development Grant, Best Debut Nominated for Indie Game. for The Games Awards (‘Oscar for Video Games’), and, more recently, a BAFTA Breakthrough Honorary Award for Shruti.
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The lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 urged us to consider gaming as a new outlet for self-entertainment and even socializing… or even socializing. a potential source of sustainable income, And while we may very well be preoccupied with Fortnite or Dota 2, the growing curiosity for India-made games is ultimately being fed by creative developers, who have hit upon the industry’s irons as it heats up.
Pune-based Nodding Heads Games, the studio behind Raazi: An Ancient Epic (2020), created one of the most notable landmark video games in Indian history. Along with Shruti, co-founders Avichal Singh and Ian Maud, brought a simple dimension to the world inspired by Indian mythology and medieval architecture. As its trailer suggests, the action-adventure hack-and-slash has won the hearts of gamers and game developers alike, all thrilled to see a PC and console experience from a studio that embraces its cultural essence. puts.
Read also | ‘Raazi: An Ancient Epic’ Review: A Brilliant Indie Desi Video Game
Sporting a more brutal art style and gameplay than Raazi, Hyderabad based Ogre Head Studios’ upcoming Warrior is still in development. Founder Zain Fahd notes that the changing climate of PC game development in India has been a catalyst for Warrior’s development, as well as bringing an international spotlight to Warrior, following the success of their 2017 game Asur Vengeance Edition.
Similarly, in 2009, ninth-grader Nikhil Malankar was playing the role of Grand Theft Auto Vice City as a mafia gangster running various errands for various criminals. Influenced by the open world concept, when he discovered a pixelated Miami, Nikhil began to modify (using code to modify a game to create a new experience) to create a microscopic Mumbai. . AAA (big-budget blockbuster) games like Hitman 2 show a slice of Mumbai, but Nikhil wanted to create something entirely dedicated to the city’s diversity.
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Years later in 2013, this experience would mark Nikhil’s creation at GameEon Studios, Mumbai, and the final creation of the role-playing game (RPG) Mumbai Gullies that hopes to take the player through the duel of Mumbai and Bombay. The development hit a few hurdles; Given mobile games were the ‘enthusiast’ of the time, investment for Indian-made PC games was well drained, but gamers wanted to fill this void in PC gaming.
money game
Funding is certainly a viable barrier to game development, especially for indie studios like Nodding Heads and GameEon; And much of this is due to the stagnant mindset of investors who have long considered games made in India to be of low quality or low-brow content. But we are seeing a slow development in this mindset.
Avichal is candid about the turbulent journey behind Raji: “As Indian indie developers, we had to go the extra mile to secure a publishing deal, which is not the case with our counterpart Western Indie teams . Many people were skeptical. ,
Maybe that’s why GameEon Studios turned to crowdfunding; A move that proved successful as they eventually raised ₹1.77 lakh, which finally led to the closure of the development in November 2020. At the Indian Gamer Developers Conference – where Nikhil is also an organizer – a demo of Mumbai Gullies was finally unveiled. In late 2022, a prologue version of the game will be released, while Mumbai Gullies Final Chapter is scheduled for a 2025 release.
Avichal also adds: “Another misconception is that sports inspired by India are going to hurt the sentiments of a certain section of people; This is something that Indian devs would know how we took care of like Raji. ,
Over the years, Indian tech studios such as Dhruv Interactive (later acquired by Rockstar Games) have been outsourced by AAA (big-budget, blockbuster) studios such as Ubisoft, Rockstar Games or Capcom to create motion-capture animations and large titles. For other renderings to be prepared. Nikhil suggests that “the time has come” for domestic studios to work with these entities to create a richer and more collaborative ecosystem for game development.
in culture
Earlier this year, gamers were given another chance to explore the ruins of South India’s Hoysala Empire through the next-gen remaster of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The game follows thief-for-hire Chloe Fraser and former mercenary Nadine Ross on a quest to find Ganesh’s tusk. The hunt takes them through a rainy and crowded Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka into lush forests and underground ruins filled with intricate stonework, intriguing mythology, dangerous traps and fascinating puzzles.
Gamers everywhere were thrilled that one of the biggest franchises – which has now been turned into a Tom Holland-starring film – cast a cultural spotlight on India. And this year’s remaster of the game sparked a renewed interest in India-based games.
Perhaps the forerunner of the culturally niche video game is an under-discussed 2017 creation of Wandermind Labs and Underdogs gaming studio: Salvation. A first-person story exploration game set in a museum in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. You play as Arya Roy, who must clear his grandfather’s name after his museum is vandalized.
Similarly, Venba, a 2020 indie video game from Toronto-based developer Visai Studios, is a 2D story game on various cooking styles of South Indian food – from idli for a simple Potato Fry – plays Gamer as an Indian mother who moves to Canada with her family in the 1980s. The game received a lot of love from gamers and fellow developers alike for its unexpected comfort factor.
Read also | Venba, an indie narrative cooking game with South Indian cuisine and immigrants at its core
“International games like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Hi Res Studio’s Smite are great examples of the use of Indian lore and mythology. They shed light on our culture and heritage; this, in turn, really shows how vast Indian heritage is.” and is prosperous,” said Avichal.
Avichal then recalls how he learned that young adults told him that Raji was the first game his parents participated in. He goes on to say, “Many parents and NRIs from India, and so many people around the world, played persuasive and gave us the message that how fulfilling the experience has been for them. People just want to learn about the gods and goddesses. were curious to know about his backstory.”
Gaming is for everyone, and it should be. This isn’t always reflected in the characters we get to play, whether created by the developers or for ourselves. But now, game developers are empowered to bring India to global screens and share our stories in interactive ways.
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