Mythical monsters and ancient Indian gods are trumping trolls and orcs as the characters of choice for Indian gamers who are increasingly demanding locally relevant themes and motifs in their online games. This trend, on the back of rising popularity of India-focused content — both contemporary as well as drawn from folklore and mythology — that is visible on television shows, seen in music, animation and comics, is pushing gaming companies to also follow suit, say industry executives.
Game studios such as SuperGaming, Giga Fun, NoddingHeads Games and Studio Sirah have in the last few years created games that either use characters from Indian mythology like Bheem and Arjun or are set in a distinctly Indian setting—whether futuristic or mythological.
Typically, the most popular games have so far been based on Western themes and have Western tropes like trolls and ores. “(But) people now want to play games that are set in a familiar context,” said Aabhas Sharma, co-founder of Studio Sirah.
Studio Sirah is the maker of Kurukshetra — a card battler game where players earn cards and attempt to outplay their opponents in online duels.
The game is big on strategy and includes a mix of gods and mythical monsters as well as other fictional characters, battling it out as the story progresses.
NoddingHeads Games, which created Raji that is among the first Indian-themed console games, has recently signed up with Netflix. Set in ancient India it is among the few console games to come out of the country. It draws inspiration from the Mahabharat and Ramayan, with the in-game architecture modelled after medieval Rajasthan. This will now be available on the streaming services’ gaming platform globally.
Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/epaper/delhicapital/2023/apr/22/satet-front/online-games-with-indian-themes-characters-hit-a-chord-with-players/articleshow/99677377.cms
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