Game Tantra, (the game publishing and distribution company spun out of Bangalore based Dhruva Interactive) has today released its maiden casual game titled Conga Bugs on one of the world’s leading casual game portals bigfishgames.com
Screenshots from Conga Bugs
The game receives its launch thrust by being featured as ‘Today’s New Release’ on bigfishgames.com, and will be exclusively available for sampling and download (US$20; US$6.90 for Big Fish Game Club members) on the portal for the next two weeks after which it will be available across different portals.
In the making for the past ten months with a team of 8-10 developers passionately working on the development and production, Conga Bugs is a marble popper game and hence simple in theme, but the USP or the actual game play experience and thrill is derived out of the personalities of the bugs, the settings and the dancing, jamming and merry making.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com, Game Tantra and Dhruva Interactive promoter and Founder, Rajesh Rao shared, “Conga Bugs has been made for the international audience. While the word casual game in India is more associated with web based flash games with few minutes of game play, internationally casual games have now gotten closer in scope to full fledged games with many hours of game play, Conga Bugs falls in that bracket of premium casual downloadable games. It boasts of 6 game modes, 130 levels, 12-15 hours of continuous game play potential and a dedicated feature rich website.”
Rao mentioned that Conga Bugs would be localized and released in several international languages and gradually be exploited on other platforms such as Wii, DS, PsP and iPhone. “The property is drawing interest from a lot of players and we might also release it in retail.”
Considering the characters look really cute, was Game Tantra also looking at animation licensing of the property? “We didn’t think about it, but if there is interest, we are open to it.”
Commenting upon the strategy of introducing Game Tantra as a separate company, Rao pointed out, “The products group at Dhruva has existed for the last 12 years, but has been relatively small compared to the predominant production services business of the company. Now, with the products business becoming increasingly interesting, while the services business continues to register strong growth, we thought it is best to separate the two businesses. They have different business models and philosophies and the separation also removes any conflict of interest.”
Rao did mention that while Dhruva could be a preferred development partner, Game Tantra, as a publisher and distributor was agnostic and according to requirements would work with developers from across the globe.
On being asked about distribution, Rao pointed out that they were working with top tier international portals directly, who in turn would syndicate with other portals.
About the revenue model, he added, “There is a 60 minute sampling that the consumer gets before he can choose to pay and download, Internationally, the conversion rate is 1 to 2%. Every copy sold earns us a healthy revenue share. Further down the line, the game will be available in ad supported models as well” he added.
Regarding distribution plans for India, he said, “We are in early stages of discussion, but it is likely to come out on the GoD (Games on Demand) platform apart from having it on our own site.
P.S A value addition to the Conga Bugs game is its website congabugs.com which introduces visitors to all its features which include comic panel back stories for each character, an orchestra pit, info on power-ups, launchers, leader-boards and video as well.