MUMBAI: India’s game publishers and developers have found a single banner. A new industry body, the Indian Game Publishers and Developers Association (IGPDA), has been launched to give the sector a unified voice and global ambition.
The association brings together studios, publishers, training outfits, facility providers, and investors. Its brief: to champion homegrown intellectual property, showcase Indian stories, and build skills across animation, VFX, gaming, and comics.
Nine firms are on the founding roster, from Nazara Technologies (World Cricket Championship) and Gametion (Ludo King) to nCore Games (FAU-G: Domination), Reliance Games (WWE Mayhem), SuperGaming (Indus Battle Royale), Tara Gaming (The Age of Bhaarat), underDOGS Studio (Mukti), Aeos Games (Unleash the Avatar), and Dot9 Games (Apna Games).
“For the first time, India’s developers and publishers have a unified voice,” said NCore founder and IGPDA chairman Vishal Gondal. “This is about more than games — it’s about building iconic IP and creating a cultural legacy for India.”
IGPDA has already pitched a partnership with the Maharashtra government to position Mumbai as a global gaming hub through policy incentives. Its first event is slated for later this year in Mumbai.
The launch comes hard on the heels of the Online Gaming Bill, which won presidential assent on 22 August. The law bans real-money platforms — betting, gambling, lotteries, card games with cash stakes, and fantasy sports — but draws a clear line between those and what it calls “online social games.”
The government says it will promote esports and safe online gaming as a job creator, export booster, and innovation driver.
MUMBAI: When compared to the gaming scene in the U.S. and Europe, India's indie game development space is taking baby steps. But indie creators are making headway and getting noticed.
During the “Make in India: Indie Game Developers Speak" session at GEMS 2020, industry experts discussed various aspects of their indie game journey; right from their struggles during the Covid2019 pandemic to successfully launching games on various platforms while working from home. Apart from that, they gave insights on how to build a game from ideation to execution.
The concluding session of GEMS 2020, “included and game designer Avichal Singh, Xigma Games co-founder Manwani, Underdogs Studio founder and CEO, Lucid Labs founder Chirag Chopra, , CapeTitans Games co-founder and CEO Kayal and was moderated by Photon Tadpole studios founder and CEO Hrishi Oberoi.
Watch the session here:
The challenges that Indie game developers face are many. For one, they put double the effort as compared to any large-scale gaming company. Two, they work with limited resources. But through sheer talent, grit and passion – they are making a mark.
Take for instance Raji: An Ancient Epic which came out on Nintendo Switch and Steam and became a runaway hit. Nodding Heads Games co-founder Avichal Singh, the lead designer behind the game, shared how the team managed to collaborate on work in the middle of a lockdown.
“When the pandemic started, we had our deadline and we knew we had a crunch. We met our milestone and did not let go of the opportunity. Earlier, the programming team was in one room. But when the lockdown was imposed, we shifted our operations online to launch. That is when we realised how it has slowed down the entire process. Pandemic took a toll on the game’s development,” Singh rued.
Himanshu Manwani, whose Xigma Games recently released The Bonfire 2: Unchartered, experienced the same troubles. The process took double the time while working from home and doing quality analysis was very challenging. “The pandemic hit exactly at the time when we were about to launch the game when we actually needed to sit in one room and discuss. The quality of the game suffered,” he admitted.
Consequently, the game’s initial launch was met with its fair share of negative reactions from users who noticed the glitches during gameplay. However, Manwani continued to work on the issues, the team released a patch which perfected the wonky areas, and now they are getting positive feedback.
Debasis Kayal is not a game developer but his company, CapeTitans, works closely with indie creators by investing money in their projects. He noted that the pandemic has given a lot of opportunities to the overall gaming industry. Many new companies were formed during this time. During the lockdown, more people got into gaming, and developers also got the time to explore creative fields.
“For indie game developers, influence or love has mapped towards creation. Some like mythology, ancient history, some like strategy, and accordingly they channelize their interests and passion through their work. The very first attempt that they did to roll out their game was out of love or being influenced by something,” said Vaibhav Chavan.
The Underdogs Studio founder stated that innovative ideas are the driving force behind this industry. He quipped: “Being indie is being artistic. Most of the ideas are already there in the market in some form or the other. It is the independent developers who with their artistic mind transform it into a game.”
Once you have your game conceptualised and developed, what comes next? Publishing a game doesn’t happen in a vacuum, developers need to study the current trends and determine the product’s marketability first, Chavan added.
Because it all comes to naught if a developer’s labour of love flops in the market. Financial success is the stepping stone to other, bigger projects; so it’s important to keep the game’s commercial bankability in mind. Having said that, what drives an indie creator’s work is emotional validation, explained Chopra.
“We want users to have fun while playing our game. Ideas are mechanical stuff. For me, when the first idea hits, I try to work on the prototype and try to get feedback from my close peers. If the mechanics are fun at the early stage then there is a point of going ahead. The idea is to get beyond the mobile game developer,” he said
Ogre Head Studio founder and CEO Zainuddin Fahad joined the gaming industry when he was 19 years old. Cut to five years later, and he still wants to create a game that he can enjoy. Explaining his perspective, Fahad said: “My view is that the game should have a reflection of you and the developer should do whatever they wanted to do. The important question is whether you are happy enough while building the game or not and whether you have enjoyed it while developing the game.”
MUMBAI: Reliance Entertainment Digital, comprising World Wide Open, Zapak, BigFlix and Reliance Games, has partnered with Personagraph to drive more value for advertisers by utilising mobile specific segments, both from the brand and brand performance perspective. The company’s three large publishers i.e. Reliance Games, Zapak, and BigFlix, will be utilising Personagraph’s Privacy Compliant SDK toolkit for monetisation, using its predictive audience segments product line.
With Personagraph, which is transparent and privacy complaint, publishers can own their data. The partnership would mean greater opportunity in an ecosystem that is capable of leveraging user insights to drive higher relevance, context and personalisation in mobile, both at the publisher and advertiser end, while using a single data source.
WWO and Personagraph are partnering to bring a Data/Audience driven Private Marketplace (PMP) specifically targeting Mobile Developers in India. A private marketplace is an exchange derivative that is selective about how and what inventory is brought in to the platform, and similarly which marketers are being provided access to brands transparently with audience attached to every impression. The Private Marketplace will be open for Mobile Developers with clear instructions on ad viewability, sizing, brand transparency, etc. while marketers will be allowed buy in to the inventory via guaranteed and non-guaranteed means.
This PMP will
* Allow to leapfrog the age old ad network model in India and bring transparency today by create a scaled marketplace model
* Bring audience at scale with the right reach and data embedded on every impression
* Bring clear value for Ad impressions to bear between marketers and game developers
* Allow game developers to have full transparency over how marketers value their impressions unlike ad network models
By using the Personagraph technology and with WWO demand already built in to the marketplace, the Mobile Development community can access growing and consistent revenue for advertising monetization now and going forward as we bring more publisher side partners and marketers to the platform.
