IGDC 2022 - Observations, Opportunities, Resources

Well, how was it?

In one word, kickass! Kudos to the organizers and everyone involved. The list is too long to mention here so go check out the details on their website: https://www.indiagdc.com/

Ok, now that this part is taken care of, let's immediately get to some important points. These are, by the way, my personal views, so please don't quote the people mentioned in this article for anything. Cool?

Observations:

1. Great work is happening all around the Indian gaming industry. Big studios are becoming more mature with some amazing initiatives like Women in Games India (WIGIN) . Follow them, support them and join them on Discord . Go do it!

2. New companies and studios are following history and are starting out as small teams, often working from their homes and incubated out of random conversations (over a tea stall, or even while playing Dota - true story!). Some of them bootstrapping their way through it, others collaborating with interested investors, and both staying super passionate about games. Do a Google Search in the area around you, and you'll probably find some in your street. Then go get in touch and support their work. Tag them in the comments if you found some.

3. Hot Take: There are a LOT of game ideas being driven PRIMARILY by the market and NOT by the choice/taste of the game creator — whether this is a good thing or bad, only time will tell because the majority of the Indian market is unfortunately driven by nonsense like Big Boss, so how much "quality" is the Indian audience expecting is questionable. But there'll definitely be lessons from this approach for sure. And little to no damage to businesses (again, Big Boss makes money besides being an utterly hideous concept — biased opinion) so either way, it'll allow the game developers abundance of time and players to experiment, and publishers an abundance of revenue.

4. Government Support - I wasn't aware, so in case you aren't either, in India there are state government schemes (and maybe a handful of Central Government one's too) that help startups. These are also extended to the gaming domains. Telangana and Kerala seem to be doing it well, and it really helps the industry, primarily in giving everyone* the confidence to take their first steps. Even the IGDC event itself is encouraged by the Telangana government. We need more such examples to make this a more accepted model.

• *Everyone = Parents who might be skeptical about gaming as a career for their kids, Students who need reassurance of opportunities, and Game Creators for getting the freedom to take risks.

5. Young Entrepreneurs - Some attendees of IGDC 2022 were people with their own gaming companies. There's too much media coverage about unicorns that became one on investor's money. Let's now talk more about youngsters taking such massive projects on their own! Shout out to Kushal Baid and GamerGage Studio LLP ?

6. Irrespective of the gender, EVERYONE has been putting in the hard work and most have a story about how they had to believe in themselves and how supportive the fellow industry folks were.

This industry has veterans and newbies all with an understanding of the struggle and possibly a phase of a mindset that there is a lack of opportunity. The fact is, game studios find it hard to find skilled folks to join them.

More on this in the 'Opportunities & Resources' section of the article.

7. Some games demoed at the event looked and felt amazing! Like international-level-polished-amazing. Others were quite basic, made for web with basic functionalities. Either way, these need to be supported with an understanding that the technical-creative side of India's game industry (indie) is still learning. Upgrading. Everyday. And it's evident from the pace of their improvements that there will be original BETTER titles from India within the next 5 years (probably earlier).

• Look out for Mumbai Gullies by GameEon Studios (could take a couple of years before it's out but maybe we get to see something earlier? Only Nikhil Malankar can confirm)

8. Dear oldies, believe it or not, #Esports is a thing and it is scaling up. If you're a gamer, there's nothing stopping you from making a business out of it. So if you've made up your mind, go for it. The market is all yours.

9. There's a bump in #MetaVerse and #VR related games. 5 years ago when I did a few functional POCs, there was a question of whether this will eventually become acceptable among the users. In IGDC, it was visible that players are keen to explore it. So go ahead, learn and build an experience. You'll have the market in the coming few years (fingers crossed). And if you need help with spatial audio and stuff, it's [email protected] ??

Shout out to AutoVRse for what they are building. Check out their game District M .More on https://autovrse.in/

?? Indie Gaming Companies would need support. Best way to do this is by playing their games, sharing and giving feedback. Talk about them on social media. Be a part of making Indian games reach new heights.

Opportunities & Resources:

Gaming community veterans and seniors are always up to teach skills. More than what you'd see in the IT or Film sector, where people tend to keep the "secrets of trade" to themselves. Everyone who has made it in this domain knows the struggle of lack of clarity and resources and many of them are taking efforts to make it easy for the next bunch.

1. From the many conversations I had during IGDC, I noticed that there is a lack of skilled resources in the Indian gaming industry. Whoever can do well is already doing well at one of the studios. Everyone else who aspires to join them, needs to put in the effort.

• Challenges: Many applicants coming from a film / animation background with even 10+ years of experience immediately assume themselves to be eligible for the game industry roles. Well, the solution here is to go talk to one of the recruiters and understand what they are looking for. Media and Gaming have a few overlaps, but are NOT the same, and trust me, when you just say "I have worked on 100+ films", the recruiter respects that and keeps your resume aside because you don't fit the requirement. So be open to learning from 0. (this note is about hard-skills only)

2. Understand the structure and process of game development - Roles, tasks done by each role, skills required for that specific task etc etc. Game Developer is not the only job. Games are built by a collaboration of a wide range of people who bring a diverse sets of skills to the table. Much much much much diverse than linear media. Research about this. Reach out to people who are already in the industry and ask them for more information. What are you on LinkedIn for anyway?

3. Types of Start: Based on what your current background is, you can join a gaming company as an intern or a full time employee OR start an independent services company (for animation, art etc — this better be GOOD for any studio to come to you) OR take up a course in learning game development and then apply for a job. Hero Vired could be something to look at if you're based in India for learning. Epic Games (Unreal Engine) and Unity have some great learning resources as well:

If you are a developer and need to switch to making games, check out the GameDev India initiative by Yadu Rajiv . There's a community that's willing to onboard and help. Join it. More at: https://gamedev.in

?? There are many free resources available on the internet so explore. That's all there is to it.

Conclusion

One thing that I tell in almost all of my training sessions is that once you get the taste of interactive media, linear ones start to feel less fulfilling. Don't believe me? Try making a game, or working on a piece of the process, or maybe just playing some good ones.

With that, I'd request you to start paying for games. Fortunately, mobile games aren't cracked as much as PC ones. But if you're someone who still plays a cracked GTA or NFS or Forza etc well think again. The work that goes into building them is not easy.

For starters, use Steam and other game stores. You won't believe how intense the discounts can be. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are coming up btw.

PS: I have conveniently skipped anything and everything related to #GameAudio in this post. And that's because my learning from IGDC about the current situation of game audio in India-based games is a bit concerning. It'll require a lot of work. A lot of first-steps. I have an article coming up on that topic so stay tuned. ??

PPS: I might edit this article to add more info in the future. Those paras would have an [Update] tag.

Cheers!

- Prashant