Gaming in India has risen to such a level that it is enjoys the luxury of owning the highest percentage when it comes to engagement on smartphones and tablets. One of the market pioneers who has taken the industry by storm is the company that made card games the centre of the Indian gaming market – Octro has been gathering many eyeballs from a varied audience which also reflects in the download numbers and active users.
Octro Founder and CEO Saurabh Aggarwal in an email conversation with AnimationXpress.com recently spoke about the journey of the company and the new games coming forth.
“Octro was founded in 2006 with a mission to create productivity applications for mobile devices. After pioneering one of the first mobile Voice-over-IP infrastructures called OctroTalk, the company ventured into building mobile gaming platforms. Out of the top 100 top grossing apps on Google Play store, 60 per cent of the apps were games. This was an indicator of the revenue generating ability of mobile games. Today, Octro is the fastest growing mobile gaming company in India, with Octro’s games Teen Patti – Indian Poker, Indian Rummy and Tambola – Indian Bingo topping charts on Apple iOS, Google Play and Windows Phone 8 platforms.”
Octro’s games Teen Patti and Rummy have been the genre leaders and revenue generators for the company, which also claims to be the third in revenue generation following SuperCell’s Clash of Clans and King’s Candy Crush.
“Both Teen Patti and Indian Rummy are the most popular Indian cards games, and that fact is well reflected by the numbers both the games have achieved. Teen Patti has more than 32M downloads across platforms since launch, and Indian Rummy is the most downloaded rummy game on the planet, even though there are international versions available.”
The company started a revolution on Indian smartphones which had games predominantly from non-Indian developers and also did it with much ease; now the app stores are filled with numerous Teen Patti and Rummy games.
“Both Teen Patti and Rummy are such games that have passed through generations and resonate sharply with the Indian gaming habits. Therefore it made perfect sense for Octro to re-imagine them on a mobile platform and recreate them for the Indian audience. Yes we have definitely pioneered a movement of sorts. After Octro’s Teen Patti’s success, we have seen more than 35 teen patti versions pop up on the Googe Play, however we are still 20 times ahead of our closest competition. We are the largest Indian mobile gaming company as of today.”
The company has been innovative in bringing in new features and added innovations through its games, attracting that many more players to try their hands at Octro’s offerings.
“Octro makes synchronous games that people can play with Friends, and other real players. We have a lot of features like live leaderboards, chats, etc. that make the user feel that he is playing against real people. Players never have to wait for a game/hand, the game starts as soon as the player logs in – this is a game changing feature of Indian Rummy, the No. 1 skills-based cards game across platform in India.” Saurabh reveals. “Both the games allow users to play tournaments – players can play multiple types of tournaments and win lakh of chips. Octro’s games have a superior UX-UI offering players best in-class gaming experience – our recently launched Teen Patti Live! Is a high quality graphics game competitive to any globally successful mobile game; both the games allow users to create private tables – players can make private tables.”
With IPL going on, the company is continuing its Cricket Betting feature on Teen Patti which it started during the ICC Cricket World Cup; Saurabh explains more about such innovations that keep the players coming back to the game time and again. “All these features make Octro’s games outstanding. Moreover, we constantly innovate. During the World Cup, we introduced a feature called Cricket Betting, which allowed players to bet – LIVE virtual chips (without any encashment) on the ongoing matches. Features like these keep our users coming back for more. Betting is live for IPL now.”
Octro VP for business operations, Vaibhav Gupta revealed to MediaNama in an earlier interaction about the in-residence entrepreneur program that Octro plans to start. “Essentially the idea came up due the fact that gaming is a super creative industry and there’s lots of creative talent out there and we are better at technology. If you look at our games, it succeeded because of the back-end technology and because of online synchronous sessions. That is what we focus on and we want to get more and more creative people joining us and give them infrastructure support – be it financial, technical etc. We could give that support and then eventually co-develop a game and launch it and the entrepreneur gets a share of the revenue,”
Next from Octro is not a card game but another venture of Indian origin – a Carrom game giving players the opportunity to challenge their friends from the comfort of their smartphones and tablets. Carrom Live! is described to be a multiplayer game that you play with friends or people around the world. Carrom Live is an immersive multiplayer where you beat opponents to earn XP and Chips. Try hitting some whacky shots to unlock achievements and be rewarded. Level up by dominating your opponents or just choose to enjoy a quick game of carrom when you’re headed to work or on go.
The game features two game modes – Freestyle and Black & White. Unlock achievements and choose from multiple camera angles and compete for the leaderboard.
Teen Patti Live is a new edition to Teen Patti, which is out now and claims to offer the next evolution of its already successful game improving on the animation and gameplay.
“Teen Patti Live! is the next-gen evolution to our smash hit- Teen Patti. I am certain with the game’s new UI – which is faster and smoother – will encourage not only loyal Teen Patti users to download it, but also attract new users,” ends Saurabh.
