Pocket Games has recently opened its doors to its testing and game development facility in Pune and the company is focussed on full-spectrum game testing and the acquisition and growth of innovative IP in the video game space. The company launched its sales and marketing efforts in support of the new testing capacity at the recent (GDC) Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.
AnimationXpress.com recently got chatting with Pocket Games president David Lovatt along with Godspeed Gaming Solutions MD Ranbeer Hora and Druhin Mukherjee, who is the technical director; about the new studio and what are its plans for India.
Sharing their thoughts of venturing into the Indian market; David says: “For me, the interest was sparked in the volume of new talent that exists and the amount of experience in the video games with the right attitude to work.” And Druhin adds: “I have been working outside India for over 7 years now. However the potential the Indian market has in the games industry is immense and it is ever rising as well. Pune for me is one of the hubs of this booming games industry.”
The Pune studio will provide development and functional testing, where identifying the errors that affect the game and evaluating how the user will experience the game when one is playing. A lot is on cards for the new studio, with Druhin taking charge of the in-house development and Ranbeer helming the testing services as well as the overall operations. David says that the development will be used for internal resource, whereas testing will continue to be the main source of revenue stream.
Pocket Games recently released its first game titled Idol Hands, a RPG strategy game whereby the player takes the role of a God and gradually takes over a land, populates it with his people and builds farms, temples, workshops, garrisons and houses. Published by Greenman Loaded, the game is available both through Greenman’s platform and Steam. The studio has also received a fresh promotion from the publisher for the game. “Currently the studio is completely focused on Idol Hands and our next titles will be based around that IP itself. Our focus primarily is on releasing additional content for PC as well as creating Mac, iPad and Console versions before the close of 2015,” states David. “Pocket Games has been diligently updating the game and increasing its foothold in the ‘God-Game’ Genre. The new update incorporates extensive user feedback to provide an enhanced experience that will receive an expanded marketing push from the publisher Greenman.”
Gaming is a fast growing industry in the country and is starting to become a career option for many, opening a studio in the country will not only provide for the jobs but also act as a stepping stone for many who want to grow in the industry and understand it from within.
Ranbeer affirms: “With the growing number of indie studios for mobile game development and digital market, there has been a growth in the game testing opportunities in India. There are ample opportunities for an entry level tester. Thanks to the outsourcing industry, some of the big names in game testing service providers have their studios across the nation. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune host ample opportunities in this field; to sum up, yes we strongly believe that the coming years will see plenty of studios emerging and providing opportunities to developers as well as testers.”
Probe him about the skills required for the job and he states: “One has to have eye for detail and should be a keen observer. The main job is to find bugs and without these skills you can’t make it in the industry. Encountering a bug is not enough, until you know how to find it, this is where one’s troubleshooting and investigative skills come handy.”
He continues: “The most important is being a team player, which is a given in every field you choose. One has to be good with oral and written communication skills. What good to find a bug, if you can’t explain it to the developers. The best practise is to write in such a way that anyone who is reading is able to make sense of it and reproduce the bug. One also needs to have analytical thinking, i.e. – one should be able to create different test scenarios by simply going through a specification document.”