Reliance Games – publisher and developer of mobile games, is bringing one of the most celebrated international mobile gaming conferences, Pocket Gamer Connects to India. The conference will be held in Bangalore on 16 and 17 April 2015. The event will feature some of the biggest and most sought after developers and global publishers known for games like as Angry Birds (Rovio), Cut the Rope (Zeptolab) and many others.
The conference will consist of short-form talks, practical advice and intensive networking also featuring developers from eastern and western cultural influences. The conference will also feature the highly-anticipated finale of the pan-India Gaming competition, “Game Hack” that brings together over 1500 indie developers participating in a Big Indie Pitch format where the winner takes home Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) in cash along with incubation, publishing, investment and global media exposure.
Speaking exclusively to AnimationXpress.com’s Vivek Kapadia, Reliance Entertainment – Digital CEO Manish Agarwal spills the beans on how did the tie-up with Pocket Gamer come about, plans for PGConnects, importance for such a large scale event and much more.
Excerpts:-
How did you associate with PocketGamer for PGConnects and how is Reliance Games adding value to it?
We have had engaging discussions with Chris from Steel Media and it took us some time to position India as the next China. India is going to be huge gaming market in the coming two to three years. We certainly understand the local gaming ecosystem much better, and with my connections and Reliance Games’ connection we’ve reached out to the fraternity to get right kind of speakers from India. So the partnership was that we would get the best speakers from India and Steel Media will get the best from their network outside of India.
PGConnects Bangalore needs to be a conference where established executives will congregate. These are executives who have had a vast exposure at the global scale so that the Indian developer ecosystem can learn from their experience. If the game developer ecosystem in India can learn and share from the best of the world, then this conference will be successful.
We were also very clear that the speakers needed to be inspiring enough so that the budding Indian developers can question and network with them without any hesitation. I asked Steel Media to look into the presentations they are going to make and ensure that it does not turn in to sales pitches. Many times at conferences, people get into a boastful mode rather than address the concerns that the people present have. PGConnects Bangalore is focussed on educating developers and inspiring them and giving them a perspective on mobile gaming.
Within a year of its launch, the conference has targeted India as a potential market. What is the value that we possess that is being sought by others?
Today, there is a lot excitement in the world of mobile gaming around Asia. The US market is a $ 4 billion market but will it continue to grow at 40 per cent y-o-y? Nobody knows. Japan as a market is saturated and matured. The only markets thriving are Korea and China and that too on sheer local consumption because the number of people having smartphones and access to internet, and the capacity for in-app purchases is more in these markets.
Even in India, gaming is the biggest activity on smartphones. So the excitement comes from the sheer volume of potential people in this country. If there are 200 million smartphones today, there will be 300 million in next 18 months and nobody doubts that. Such large numbers excite people and that is what they want to understand. Big developers like Rovio, Zeptolab or Halfbricks want to come and understand what could be the next strategy in India. Then there are small and medium developers who want to understand how they can sustain in this market. The ad networks are trying to decode what is the consumer behaviour, will it be incentivised or non-incentivised or will it be a combination? The platform companies are trying to understand how they can solve problems which are unique to India.
This conference is where you will gain knowledge to provide for the value chain in India and this is the platform for the developers to interact first hand with people from around the globe.
With people coming from neighbouring nations apart from major market leaders from Europe and US, what type of learnings do you expect from the conference?
We have given it a lot of thought and the event will help answer some questions like: a) we as Indians are very analytical, b) we love to understand data c) and for an Indie developer, it is a good opportunity to understand the thriving market outside. India may not be monetising well but is there a monetisation model outside India in neighbouring countries d) how can that market be accessed?
For example, a few years back I had no clue how to get into China. So when I went to China, I sat with a few publishers and some small to medium developers and learnt a bit of that country. For an Indie developer to travel to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or any Southeast Asian countries is impossible. So the better option is somebody who can come and explain to them the size of the market, what works, how to approach it, who are the players and the networks. If somebody can give it to you on a plate, you would want to lap it up. I think that’s what we want to do. The indie community should be tightly bound and share a lot. It is at such a nascent stage that if you do not help each other, you will not grow and for an indie developer, mistakes are extremely costly.
How important it is to attend PGConnects for the Indian gaming ecosystem?
Whatever little I have learnt in mobile gaming, I have learnt from people who have been there, done that. The culture in conferences, whether it is GDC or Casual Connect, or PGConnects, has been about the developers openly and candidly sharing their mistakes, what they could have done differently and what is the right thing to do. I would urge developers to attend and make copious notes, and try to take away at least two or three things that they can apply in their own company. This is a great forum from experts to learn and understand.