Gaming Conferences are always a hotbed to sight and play new games that are either in development stage or are about to be launched, and the recently concluded PGConnects Bangalore 2016 was no different. The Indian mobile gaming market is currently on the rise at least when it comes to games and its development. Developers here have an advantage and have already had a good look at the market (both national and international), learning from mistakes of their compatriots and even their own, and know that the quality and gameplay need to be globally competitive
This year the conference saw a number of games being showcased at the booth and the games were not run of the mill usual clones but a range of new ideas and gameplay mechanics in a variety of genres which showcased the talent from the country.
Here are the games that impressed me at PG Connects 2016 in no particular order:
Bluk
Physics based arcade game, Bluk is a combination of Angry Birds like tossing the object and Monument Valley like environment. Developed by Pixel Ape Studios, this game is currently under beta stage and developer is still working on tweaking a few things before the final release.
Drag
Developed by a student from DSK Supinfogame, Drag takes you back to the roots of mobile gaming when you had arcade titles reigning the app stores. Drag has a basic gameplay where you arrange the tiles at your disposal so that the ball that is bouncing in the middle of the screen does not hit the spikes at the edge of your screen. As easy as it may sound, each tile can only be placed once and appear on a certain angle causing a lot of problems but also ensuring that you don’t put down the phone quickly.
Future Ride
If I had to describe Future Ride from All in a days play studio in one sentence it would be ‘an insanely engrossing game.’ The gameplay is a mix of Tron-esque bike riding players playing against each other to get a ball into the hoop. But this gets fun when you move around and do somersaults, both trying to score as well as save the ball from going into the hoop. You can literally spend hours on this one.
Hakuna’s Fire
One more game from the students of DSK Supinfogame, Hakuna’s Fire is an action adventure game which has a meerkat Hakuna as a central character and stuck between the rivalry of Carnivores and Herbivores in Africa. This one combines the classic Zelda elements with stealth and brains to overcome different worlds and acquire the mystical object, The Edan Fire.
Huebe
After last year’s win at The Very Big Indie Pitch, Himanshu Manwani was back this year to show his second game. Yes, his first game Super Nano Jumpers is not out yet, but the studio is working on it. This one again takes the puzzle route and has you handling a cube with the aim to reach the destination. But, it can only pass the blocks if the cube has right colours to it. Interesting!
Monarchy
The winner at this year’s PG Connects The Very Big Indie Pitch is Big Boot Games Monarchy which is a mobile board game that takes elements from tower defence games but adds a lot more it on the top. You have 25 soldiers and four knights at your disposal and your goal is to get these four knights to the centre of the board and defeat the other player.
Jhulo
First game by Seema Datar, Jhulo is a puzzle game and easily one of the wonders from PGC Bangalore 2016. With simplicity and amazing gameplay, this one needs your attention and timing as you tap the balls in the rings to make them swing keeping in mind that no two balls should hit each other.
One more Pass
SuperSike Games and Yellow Monkey Studios join hands for this one. After the successful One More Run, SuperSike Games extended its title lineup from cricket to football and this one is as much fun as the previous game. You need to keep passing the ball to the player ahead of you without letting the player from the opposite team touch or come and steal it from you. The game currently is in development and developers have planned a number of upgrades before its release later this year.
War Tanks
Developed by Hypernova Interactive, a studio formed by two people who have been ex-Zynga and ex-Hike Messenger employees respectively, the studio aims to become as they call Riot Games of mobile gaming. They want to capture the eSports market segment and have taken the first step with War Tanks.
A 1v1 battle, War Tanks makes you control a tank and shoot missiles to down the enemy tanks, but you don’t know exactly where is it located on the other side of the board. The only way you can see the opponent’s tank is that they move over the radius of your last shot. It is like Battleships but here, instead of a number of ships you have one tank which you are allowed to move on the grid.
The Light Inside Us
The Light Inside Us is developed by Dastan Games and has been around in the circuit for a while now even releasing on the app store, but I am listing the game here because the two member studio has polished the game and now it looks beautiful and a lot more game mechanics are added to make it even more fascinating by merging a couple of genres into a single game. The central character has to clear each level by shooting minion like characters and collect the light from them which can be used to shoot again.
Wordifly
The Good Side Games’ Wordifly lets you control Glowee the firefly, and collect letters to spell words to continue your flight. A serene environment and addictive gameplay, Wordifly were runners up at PG Connects Bangalore, and is currently out now on beta, so go and bring out your spelling bee skills to fore for this one.
Zenith
The PC game in the mobile conference, Zenith is developed in collaboration by two studios, Infigon and HolyCow Productions and is a humorous take on traditional RPG games. The game has already been Greenlit on Steam and is expected to see a release in Q2 this year. I did not get to play the game much but what I saw from the trailer, it is funny and a fitting tribute to all classic RPGs.