The genre of endless runner games has created quite a mark in the mobile gaming scenario. From Temple Run to Subway Surfer and Minion Rush, they have all been player favourites and have earned their creators quite lucratively, in terms of revenue. Even Bollywood seems to be coming up with the ‘endless runner’ or ‘infinite runner’ gameplay into the official games of their movies – few instances would be PK: The official game, A Flying Jatt: The official game, TE3N: The official game and more.
And now, this Ganeshotsav which is believed to be an auspicious time for new beginnings, a developer named Yogesh R Pugaonkar has ventured in with a simple yet engaging endless runner game. The game named ‘Baby Ganesha’ is a simple, serene and vibrant game set in the 2D canvas with the backdrop of Kailash – like mountain ranges. And publishing this game is India’s leading mobile games developer and publisher Nazara Games.
In Baby Ganesha, you help little Ganesha trot through the uneven landscape riding on his little mouse companion in a quest to consume as many modaks and other sweet delicacies as he can. Powered by Unity engine, the game is quite fun to play and the simple imagery coupled with a low-key background score makes it even better.
AnimationXpress reached out to Yogesh R Pugaonkar, whose brainchild is Baby Ganesha, to get a better perspective about the game.
“Baby Ganesha is a casual game. We wanted to make a simple game so that everyone from kids to adults could enjoy it. Another important motive of this game is that we want our players to feel relaxed, de-stress them and give them a soothing experience balanced with fun and adventure as the game proceeds. We focused more on graphics, as the visuals will give them the required experience. The main concept of Baby Ganesha is based on the ancient story in which lord Ganesha teaches the lesson of humility and love to Kubera.”
It’s the story where Kubera invites Lord Ganesha to his palace for a meal and is unable to satisfy the Lord’s hunger and resorts to Lord Shiva for help and ultimately pacifies the Lord. However, the developers of the game have thought of adding a twist to the tale’s climax.
“We imagined a different climax, as in the panic state, Kubera comes to Lord Shiva and asks for forgiveness and the solution to satiate the baby Ganesha’s hunger. With his supreme powers he creates a fantasy world, a journey which has no end. In this world, baby Ganesha can have fun and gobble unlimited desserts he loves (modaks, laddus, burfis) with a touch of a never ending adventure where he can jump in anytime. This is how Baby Ganesha’s concept was born.”
Pugaonkar expressed that a game with Ganesha as a character can be launched at anytime and would still be loved; coming up with such a game during Ganeshotsav is just an added benefit.
As we have mentioned earlier, the game looks pretty neat and clear in a time when a lot of games are cluttered with unnecessary elements. Pugaonkar explained, “We wanted this game to be vibrant with simple yet prominent visuals where users can feel the dazzling Himalayan environment. Vivid, rich and colourful were the key factors kept in mind while designing the backgrounds and characters for Baby Ganesha. We wanted it to be funny so the character designs were made accordingly, especially the Rakshasa characters. Another unique element of this game is its sound effects. The voice over of the character is adorably funny and is being loved by the players. Most loved ones are ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, ‘Wow! Laddus’ and ‘yummy’. The voice over for Baby Ganesha has been done by a four and a half year old star, Rudra.”
The music used is royalty free music, like Music (cdk Mix) by cdk (c) copyright 2015 Phasenwandler. With a team of only three people, Pugaonkar himself, who took care of the designing and project handling, Shantanu Salvi, who looked after the programming part and Rita Pugaonkar, who is creator of the storyline, it took the creators around two months to bring the game to life with updates already planned for near future. According to Pugaonkar, the game has been designed to suit everyone’s liking and hence does not resort to a specific target audience.
But with so many games both infinite runners and Lord Ganesha themed ones already out there in the market, why would someone choose to play this game?
“The USP of this game is the main character itself. There are many games on Lord Ganesha already in market but Baby Ganesha’s character designs, detailed and smooth animations, rich visuals and engaging level designs will make this game stand out in the crowd,” exulted Pugaonkar.
The game looks pretty decent and probably that is why a big name like Nazara Games chose to publish it. Speaking on the deal with Nazara, Pugaonkar expressed, “I am sure they (Nazara Games) will use the best revenue model from their side for this game. We were very happy when Nazara Entertainment approached us regarding publishing ‘Baby Ganesha’. We worked with Nazara team and it was a great experience.”
Update:
Nazara Games, CEO, Manish Agarwal asserted, “The developers for the game – Yogesh Pugaonkar, Rita Pugaonkar and Shantanu Salvi – are indie developers from Kalyan. We came across the game through Yogesh’s posts on Nasscom’s Facebook Page. We are always on the lookout for quality partners and games so that we can crack mutually beneficial deals. We played the game and we felt that the game would be a great addition to our portfolio, and we also saw an opportunity to help two indie developers take the game to the big stage and showcase their effort as well.”
Seems like we weren’t the only fans of the voiceovers as Agarwal said, “We feel the game was vibrant and simple. It was created for a young audience and it excels at it. Out of all the people who played the game internally, there was not a single person who did not smile or laugh at the “ Om Namah Shivaya” in that child’s voice.”
But with a large number of indie games being developed, what made Nazara Games pick up this game specifically?
“The game was developed with the Indian market in mind, which is at heart of what we do at Nazara, create memorable experiences for the Indian audience. It was also timed very well with the festivities of Ganesh Chaturthi and we feel it can become quite big. Besides the game itself, the interactions with Yogesh and Shantanu also gave us a lot of confidence as they shared our vision for the game.”
As far as the revenue model is concerned, it would be through advertisements and cross promotion of other titles from Nazara. The CEO further explained, “We did not want to add blockers while playing in terms of in-app purchases, and we like how the game is simple and restrained from adding a meta-game that can be monetised through in-app.”
Overall, as we have already said, the game looks really neat and detailed. It might not be a really fast paced, intense game but it definitely stands out for its simplicity while still being fun to play.