FICCI FRAMES 2015 turned out to be the testing ground for upcoming game developers from the country as they gathered under one roof one final time to pick the ‘champion’ among winners.
Being introduced for the first time at FICCI FRAMES, the ‘Frame Your Idea – Game Hack’ saw nearly 16 upcoming gaming studios from across six cities showcasing their games in front of a jury panel that consisted of Reliance Digital CEO Manish Agarwal, Robosoft VP Ninad Chhaya and Apar Games co-founder and CEO Laxmi Desai-Khanolkar judging and grilling them in a quest to crown the best game of the day.
Conducted by Reliance Games, the Game Hack had over 700+ developers participating to win the best Indie Mobile Game of the day with all of them still in it to win the mega prize of Rs 10 lakhs at PGConnects Bangalore.
Sixteen studios from different cities were lined up to showcase their games for the evening, with each studio getting four minutes to make their pitch and put their thoughts forward as to how would they make their game a success. The winner had the added incentive of taking home a special critic BAF award for the Best Game of the day, apart from giving him/her bragging rights ahead of PGConnects that will follow on 16 and 17 April in Banglore.
Starting strongly were three game studios from the City of Nawabs – Hyderabad. Taking the stage first was Ogre Head, showcasing its hack and slash RPG game Asura, a demon god who wants to destroy the Deva city. The game is filled with elemental runes, spell-casting and loot and is inspired by Indian mythology. Second in line was Roach Interactive that had an interesting mix of puzzle and runner to display at the Game Hack called Jumpology, which had a young girl following clues left by her lost bird to find it.
The third game was Picto from Seven Summits Studios. It is a game about the life of a child who lives in a house where domestic violence is the norm. Picto tries to show the circumstances the child goes through, the troubled nature he develops and how it affects his way of seeing the world itself. The game is an exciting mix of story and mini games, the studio pitched in for a premium game experience as opposed to freemium which is currently a standard practice in the industry.
Zombie Stroke from a Chennai based studio was next; being an endless it showcased a beating heart trying to run away from a zombie hand which tried to smash it. The game had a chilling audio which was engineered rightly for the game genre.
Nashik based game studio, Winjit Technologies that previously were runner-ups at Game Hack in Pune were out here with Babaji, an endless runner where one took on the role of a Baba in search on nectar which has been stolen by the kings. The game has different obstacles and one has to keep away from and is spoilt for choice between three avatars of Babas to choose from to play.
Two Pune studios followed next – Refocus Techonlogies and Dropout Games. Refocus displayed Duel, a casual game where one has a challenge to take a ball from point A to B with only help to reach the destination is the gravity circles in between which guide the ball to correct path given the colour of the ball and the gravity circle are same. Next in were Dropout Games, which showed off UnWynd, a puzzle game based on matchmaking colours and symbols to achieve the combination that is displayed on the top of the screen.
The endless game from Ahmadabad studio GameAnax, Snoopy Woopy won the Pune edition of Game Hack and came to FICCI to win it big for the night. Snoopy Woopy is a game about a medieval character that falls in a volcano and has to come out of it with help of two balloons with the only catch being, you have to solve various puzzles thrown at you.
Next in line were Delhi studios VR Playing and Lucid Labs. VR Playing demonstrated A Thief’s journey, a puzzle game describing as the name suggests a thief’s journey to collect a diamond, but overcoming different obstacles like lasers, focus lights and police inspectors on the lookout for the thief.
Stay, Mum from Lucid Labs is a game where the young child who has been overlooked by his mum finds different blocks to play with. The game had different patterns of boxes and elements making it perfect for puzzle lovers after its successful game Roto.
Mizcoin presented Battle Down Under, a cricket game based on the current world cup, the game has single player and multiplayer options, to hit the ball out of park to win big prizes.
Studio from Cochin, Ether Games showed off its mid-core action RPG game Salvation Ultimatum. The game had a mix of mission based Bike Chase Mode and Third Person Shooter.
Studios from Mumbai were up next with UnderDog Studios showcasing Skatelander, an endless skater game with voxel art. The game art drew appreciation from the audience and judges alike. The minimalistic game O was at display next by BYOF Studios, the game had one guiding circle to its rightful colour before it vanished as it would shrink with time. The game had altogether different world at display with the beautiful backgrounds.
Next to tow was ThinkTek with its 21 Questions Wrong. A quiz game wherein you had to give wrong answers to 21 questions asked before the time runs out.
Darksun Technologies had an action game up for the night with Universal Fighter, Tekken and Street Fighter inspired game had you choosing to fight an opponent over three rounds of button mashing.
Studios were asked various questions about their games as to how are they going to monetise through their game and what was the social element of the game? Also, one of the factors that the panellist focussed on was the virality of the game and how much of the gameplay did they expect out of the end user.
Finally, Duel from Refocus Technologies was awarded the special critic award as the ‘Best Game at Game Hack’ for its minimalistic approach and wonderful puzzle experience at display. Puneet Kohli from the team was thrilled on the win and said: “It feels good to be recognised for this win, I would like to thank all my team members, who couldn’t make it to FICCI. I would also like to thank the jury for this honour bestowed upon Refocus Technologies. And now we are more confident as a team going into PGConnects Banglore.”
Well, the Game Hack certainly seemed to be a success at FRAMES this year and with such a great response should be a feature in the coming years as well, which will only further strengthen the gaming ecosystem in the country and also give a nudge to independent studios to have more faith in their product before putting it out in the market.