Mumbai based Gamiana Digital Entertainment recently launched their new title- Vinashi, a strategy based game with the lore of 16th century India. It is currently in open beta aiming for a commercial launch soon across various platforms i.e. browser, PC, Facebook, and wireless platforms (Android and iOS). At the moment the game can be played onwww.vinashi.com as well as apps.facebook.com/vinashi. The game has been showcased and promoted to the trade by the company at various global gaming conferences such as GDC (San Francisco) and GStar (Korea).
In Vinashi, you start off as a discontent soldier from a former empire. You were against your former ruler’s policies and therefore chose to start off your own village along with a few of your trusted comrades. After a player registers in the game, he has to choose from amongst the five Indian dynasties, namely – the Maratha, Rajput, Mughal, Vijayanagara or Ahom. Each dynasty has its own plus points and drawbacks and after a user makes a conscious choice, he is presented with his basic village. It is upon him to build this village from ground up, gather the resources, train his army, defend his village and attack other villages to expand his empire. The aim of the game is to become the ultimate conqueror in all of medieval India. Vinashi is an endless game where the gameplay is expanding your village and then expanding your empire by finding new villages and overtaking others. Its all about strategizing to become a powerful Maharaja.
Speaking to Animationxpress.com about the USP of the game Archita Jasani, Head – Marketing & BD said that, “I would bascially like to mention key USP points of Vinashi, firstly there are plenty of strategy games out there, but they are all either based on Roman, Greek, Three Kingdoms (Chinese) themes. None based on an Indian premise. With Vinashi, our aim was to create the first one of its kind in the world that is based on Indian history.
We are giving the freedom to our users to play the game from the platform of their choice, the device of their choice and at their own convenience. So you can create a Vinashi account on Facebook, and play it from your PC. Later on, when you are on the move, you can keep up with the game from your smartphone or tablet and will never have to miss out or stay away for long from the game. While the game doesn’t require users to be glued to their devices for hours together, you can have bite sized interactions with the game because of this cross-playability feature of the game. This we feel is the biggest strength of our game, besides the fact that our game is a great work of art in itself.”
Vinashi was inspired from the rich history that India has, which presents a great platform for the strategy game genre. The battle for supremacy in medieval India where different kingdoms fought with each other, formed alliances and strove to become the supreme power in India is an exciting premise and that was the main inspiration to form of a game.
A little over half a dozen artists worked on the game over a period of one year to create Vinashi, game in the browser based strategy genre.
Advising the upcoming game developers and artists Vishal Golia, CEO , Gamiana, commented, “Don’t try to be a me-too. You will be lost in the crowd. Every piece of art in Vinashi is 100% original, the art style as well as its UI are all very fresh and new. That’s the reason the game has received very positive feedback from the gaming fraternity at various trade shows the moment they looked at the game. Therefore, try to be original. There’s no point in repeating what already is done. Take the risk to do something new. If you do it right, your work shall definitely be rewarded.”
Gamiana aims to build a strong community for their game, bring localized versions of Vinashi to various global markets and emerge as one of the market leaders in the strategy games space. Their core strength is developing MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games), and they will continue to develop these across various genres. While they plan to primarily focus on strategy games, they will soon be coming out with something which will be on the casual front as well. Gamiana is presently working on an online game which is yet untitled.
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