The origins of indie video games can be traced back in the 1970s, when there was virtually no established computer gaming industry. Joyce Weisbecker considers herself the first indie designer, having created several games for the RCA Studio II console in 1976 as an independent contractor for RCA. Since then, the journey of indie game developers paced up in the hunger of creating something fresh and new.
Today what drives the indie game developers is the passion. For passion some left their regular jobs and some academically choose game development, that’s how the indie game developers have increased in numbers over the past few years. Today overall gaming industry in India, pegged at Rs 5,540 crore (FY19), is poised for high growth, with a likely 22.1 per cent CAGR taking it to Rs 11,880 crore by 2023, as per KPMG India. Here are few indie game developers’ upcoming games which aim to create a mark in the industry.
In the shadows: The game is from the developer Paybae simple with puzzles which use various shadow shapes to tackle deceptively tricky problems while avoiding entities that lurk only in the shadows. Every level in the game has multiple solutions to it and it will depend on the players.“It can be easy for one to cross one level and it can be difficult for the other one to cross the same level. The catch is how one crosses one level by creating their platform with the skill of combination,” PlayBae founder Nakul Verma said. The game will be available on iOS and later might be on Android mobile devices, since shadow calculation for android systems in Unreal or Unity can be heavy and expensive. The game will be published Verma is aiming to publish the game in June or July.
1947: Indian Naval front: It is a tactical shooter game from the indie game developer Neosphere where the player gets a chance to control iconic Indian Navy ships like Vikrant, Brahmaputra, Veer, Rajput and more. Besides controlling the warships and its armaments, the player can also fly jets and choppers of the Indian Navy Air Squadron which were used during the 1971 war in some missions. The game will have 12-15 levels with an estimate of four to five hours of gameplay which will narrate the actual war scenarios that had occurred between November to December 1971. The working on the game began in 2017 with a plan to launch the game by December 2018, but due to some technical challenges, they missed the deadline and now are planning to release it in the Q2 of 2019.
The Bonfire 2: Xigma games founder, designer and developer Himanshu Manwani is currently working on the sequel of the game The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands titled as The Bonfire 2. The game will be a survival simulation game where one has to build, craft, gather resources during the day and defend them from monsters and raiders attack during the night. The primary objective of the game is to survive and manage resources to advance and thrive players’ small settlement. The sequel also increases the simulation aspects, as the AI workers can be seen walking to a building, picking up resources and then using the resource to construct a building or craft an item. Also, the scope is now at least thrice as big, so more content and definitely more gameplay hours with a fair amount of re-playability. The studio is planning to finish the game by the end of this year, although, that depends on the quality of the game. If they are not satisfied with the game quality which is expected to be high international standards by the end of the year, they might push it for early next year to add that extra layer of polishing.
Cursed Arena: Cursed Arena will be a freemium game by the studio Street Lamp Games which is currently in its Alpha stage. The Game is all about saving animals(sheep, boars, wolves and more) from various unique obstacles in an arena. Group of 4 animals will be generated in a level, where at least 2 animals should survive till the round end to proceed to further levels. The player controls the animals by moving the joystick on the screen to avoid the obstacles. “We have created multiple arenas with one unique boss to each Arena and every arena has its own theme such as spikes, poison, fire, and more. Player not only just saves the animals but also needs to fight the bosses at the end of every arena,” said Street Lamps Games CEO and founder Deepak Gurijala. The game will probably launch in September or October this year. They are planning to release the game for mobiles, PC and Nintendo Switch.
MUKTI: underDOGS studio upcoming game MUKTI is a first-person story exploration game that tells a gripping story about life and pursuit of freedom. It’s like a Sundance movie where you face a series of emotions from being happy and crying at times. If you just focus on the story, the game is designed as a three-hour journey, but if you’re an explorer, you can dig and deep dive in the historical and cultural aspects that represent India. The game would then go on for over six hours. Overall players can experience a meaningful story with a series of emotions and a pinch of exploration, that needs to be heard as expressed by CEO and founder, Vaibhav Chavan MUKTI. The game is compatible with PC and MAC.
There is an indie game developer lurked inside every gamer and thus the list is endless. Therefore stay tuned for more!