Growing up as INDIAN GAMER:

An insight how India is perceived in Gaming and how it can help you in making great

games

Introduction

Pratik AnandSoftware Engineer, Gamer, History nerd

twitter.com/pratikone

History

• Computer gaming in India started in the late 90s when video games became mainstream.

• Most of us have grown up on steady diet of 8-bit games like Mario, Contra, pac-man, Road Fighter.

How many of you remember this ?

First Game ?

First game

My first game

Everybody know this game

Everybody know this game in INDIA

More of history

• True sense of multiplayer was inviting a friend to your place and ask him to bring his Ninja Turtle cartridge and then spend the whole summer defeating the main boss.

• Power Cut was a big monster• Gave us best of coders, visionaries,filmmakers

and writers of our generation.

A bit of Personal History

It would be short…

Computer in the neighborhood

Yes, everybody has been through this phase. This is probably the best example of Have-have not mentality of us, mortals.

My cousin brother got a computer and I was full of envy. But he was noble enough to let me have my hand at it.

When people of my age were learning drawing or guitar, I was figuring out ways to complete a level in Lion King, Aladdin or Wolf 3D.

Computer in the neighbourhood-2

• 3D was a luxury. Best of the times were those when we settled our quarrels over a duel of split-screen racings in Need for Speed 2 .

• Alan Border Cricket was a rage. Some kids had mastered the way to hit six on every ball and they broke world records every day.

• We were the kids whom you would find in a dark cornered room punching hysterically on keyboard.

• We had no extra-curricular , no friends, no other interest, no luxury but we were HAPPY.

• The only ambition of the life to get defeat the next boss and move on.

Teen years

• First home computer at the age of 12 years old.

• P III with 128 MB RAM. Still played future titles too.

• Thus, I entered the world of modern games and everything changed.

Rule breaking is fun

Destroyed friendships

Taught me HEX editing

Got me a new keyboard (broke the old one out of frustration)

No race of graphical superiority

Teen years-2

• Life was defined by Half-Life, Max Payne,Quake , Age of Empires, RTCW, Command & Conquer etc.

• Source of games: local CD-wallah selling them for 100 bucks.

• Once skipped a chance to go with a crush because of Spiderman game.

Last part• Slowly I got interested in the internal mechanics of the games. • Discovered changing a few filenames/properties can have

differences in the way game works.• Started modding levels for Half-Life. Then somebody told that

a tool can make new weapons and enemies for Quake. That was Gmax (discontinued variant of 3DS Max).

• I learnt 3d modelling for that. I was also making some flash games but didn’t like to continue.

• So by the time I reached class 10th, I was playing more than ever, modding levels for games, fiddling with 3DS Max and Maya and some Flash games here and there.

Real last part

• THEN• THEN Board Exams happened. And I left

everything to just mug.• By mistake, I did good that my parents

thought a whole IITJEE course of life for me.• That never took off but I got drifted and it took

me a while to get re-aligned. Last 6 years are still in blur.

NO.What is the aim of all this talk?

The aim of this talk is to let people knowwhat we, the old-age gamers, perceive the games and how India and India-ness is portrayed in the games.

And how we can change that with a little effort.

Let’s see how of India we can find in Games

Who is this guy ?

Main villain of Gears of War

Also known as

General RAAM

Game is Fallout 3

Game is Fallout 3

Name this cow-like creature here.

This cow like creature’s name is

BRAHMIN

One of the two games was banned in India

Guess which one!

That was interesting ?

Then how about this ?

Asura's Wrath

The easy approach other developers do is to take an BBC documentary of India and model an Indian town like that.Examples :

India level in NOLF 2 Link

Call of Duty : MW 3 India level Link

This is the same way as Hollywood does things. Whenever they have to show India, they show Taj

Mahal and the slums. This is our image recognized by the World.

Avengers Hulk scene

This shows how much the West knows of India and its culture!

(Read NONE)

• I am a HARDCORE gamer.• That means, not too much interested in mobile

games.• But one cannot deny the rise of the Indian mobile

gaming industry.• I sometimes, find later that the mobile game I am

playing is made by an Indian studio.It makes me feel amazed by the talent of these studios and frustrated to think thatTHERE WAS NOT A SINGLE INDIAN ELEMENT IN THE GAME.

Confessions

There isn’t enough market to develop India-themed games.

• Wrong! The Indian game market is now sizable enough. If you include casual gamers then it is even bigger.

Western people don’t want to play Indian games.

• Wrong! It is same as saying only Japanese enjoy Ninja movies. The enthusiasm for India and Indian games is overwhelming these days.The success of Kickstarter project for Unrest: India based RPG can be used as an example.

Indians don’t pay for the games.

• Earlier, even westerners were not paying THAT MUCH for mobile games. Put a good title and a digestable price along with easy mode of payment and THEY WILL BUY YOUR GAMES.

F.U.D

.

Ra.ONE was a pain to play

Ghajini was a total rip-off Max Payne

Bhagat Singh was WTF

HOW TO FIX THIS ?

• Have a India centric content• Or, have Indian elements in the game• Or, even if you are making a traditional mario

or space wars like game, still you can make it India- themed.

Let me give you an example.

EXAMPLE

• I saw an Indian company making a 2D mobile game in which a guy on the skateboard has to avoid obstacles and reach the finish line with best timings.

• Good concept. How to make an Indian version ?

Add Laxman’s common man to a scene where he has to catch a running busavoiding the potholes and other vehicles. DONE!

EXAMPLE

Social issue games

Epilogue

• One can make some great games based on India.

• There is so much potential here for innovation.• Developers have to come up if they want to

change the perception.• Last but no the least, here’s a concept from

Unrest: An uncoventional RPG made by an Indian gaming studio.

Unrest: An Indian RPG

By Pyrodactyl Studios

Last slide

• Not every game on India has been mentioned.• Many small studios are making India specific

games but they are not as good in quality as western themed games.

• Apologies to mobile game developers• Thanks for your time.