An interview with video game developer Saswat

Bhubaneswar: Fruit Ninja, Subway Surfers, Temple Run and Angry Birds are some of the popular video games played in India. With the advent of internet, love for gaming has considerably increased in India. Interestingly, these games are loved not only by kids but people of almost all age group love gaming. Video game developer Saswat Mishra from Balangir speaks to Kalinga TV Bureau. Excerpts:

When did gaming industry start in India?

Game Industry in India started around 1997-98 with dhruva interactive, India games among others. The game industry has been growing upward ever since with more and more cities opening up game studios such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai as well as Indore, Ahmedabad, Kochi, etc. The studios work on all types of games from Mobile Games to PC and Console Games.

What are the popular video games in India.

Games are divided into three main platforms: Mobile, PC and Console. In Mobile, games like Teen Patti, Subway Surfer, Candy Crush, 8 Ball Pool are very popular among common masses. Games like God of War, Destiny, FIFA, etc. are very popular among console players. Multiplayer games like PUBG, Fortnite, Raibow Six Siege, CS: GO, Dota 2 are popular among PC Gamers out of which a lot of players are college students.

What are the genres of game mostly played in India?

India is a big content consuming country with millions of users. With millions of people, comes millions of choices and since most games are easily accessible, players don’t hesitate to try out new genres. People here like to play games from a lot of genres like Puzzle, Racing and Arcade among others.

What age groups of people are mostly playing in India?

Games in India cater to audience of all age groups from kids to adults. Since the audience is so vast and diverse, a game tries to target a dedicated set of players.

What will be the future of game industry in India?

Game Industry in India has a bright future ahead as a lot of people have started to develop video games and big gaming studios are opening up offices here like Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA, etc. We may see the next GTA or FIFA coming out of India. Apart from big game studios, the industry also has a lot of talented independent developers whose numbers are growing.

Are there any certain game or any genre of games, that are yet to come, but now in use in other countries?

After the surge of globalization and digitization, most games are released at the same time in multiple countries which include India, although Indians were lacking in terms of hardware and networking connectivity to play high end graphics games and multiplayer games. However, this problem is getting solved day by day because of cheap data prices and hardware.

Do the educational games are widely played?

Educational games have been on the rise for past couple of years as people have started to understand that games can be a method to learn in a fun interactive way. Educational games for kids are much popular as more and more kids have access to smartphones and their parents want them to learn something while they’re surfing those devices.

How one earns from game making?

There are a variety of methods to generate revenue from a game. The game can be a premium game i.e; the player will have a certain amount to download and play the game. In-app purchase is another method where the player does micro-transaction like spending Rs.10 to buy 100 in game coins. The third one is ads, the game will show ads in between the gameplay which’ll generate revenue for the developer.

Which game has so far earned the most in India?

I don’t know the exact game as most companies don’t reveal their revenue figures but as per market research and estimation I believe it is either “Teen Patti by Octro” or “8 Ball Pool” as they have been in the market for a long time now and has stayed on the top grossing charts consistently.

By – Himanshu Guru, Kalinga TV