What’s in a game?

The rising number of nerdy children who have to be peeled away from their Playstations and sore fingers due to mobile
gaming indicate what could be the next big craze: the gaming industry. DNA explores the game world and career options

Average teenagers turn into racers, footballers or even warriors when they enter their domain—a place where Shyam becomes “deadskull” and Benjamin turns into “benthehog”. Welcome to the world of gaming!

So do all these gamers go on to become game developers? How difficult is making games? “Game programming is more difficult than making a movie,” says Noaman Kazi, project manager, engineering, at Mauj, a mobile games developing company. There are algorithms involved. Unlike a movie where there is only one end, in a game, every stage is decided by the moves that the user makes.

“So apart from being just creative with your storyline and game ideas, a game developer also needs to have his programming fundas right. We need a person who can think from a 360 degree perspective,” adds Kazi.

The growing industry
“The mobile gaming industry is currently estimated to be about `100 crore. The computer games figures might oscillate because of piracy,” says Salil Bhargava, CEO, Paradox Studios. The gaming industry, according to Rajiv Vaishnav, regional head (western region), NASSCOM, is expected to witness exponential growth in the coming years. A NASSCOM report pegs the 2005 consolidated gaming industry revenues at around $ 19 billion and an expected turnover of $ 36 billion by 2009.

From start to finish
Developing a mobile game from scratch takes anywhere between three to twelve months. A PC or a console game might take up to two years. Sometimes, companies give their games a longer development cycle to make them stand out from the rest. Some games are given even four years to develop. “However if it is a franchise game, such as a sports game that comes out every year, the development cycle of consecutive titles is around one year, since they can reuse most of their assets from the previous cycle,” says Arjuna Ravikumar, technical artist, Electronic Arts-Tiburon, Florida.

The different players in the industry are:
Producer. A project manager for a game title, the producer works with the team to ensure that the title meets deadlines and requirements and that the final product has undergone the testing and quality assurance.

Concept Developer. The concept developer writes the story line for the game and creates a story document. He chalks out the different characters and various situations. He should have a strong English background and should be equipped with creative ideas.

Graphic Artists and Audio Team. The graphic artists have the tough job to create believable characters and adapt them to different platforms. The audio team is responsible for all audio ranging from sound effects to music in the game. Graphic artists need to be proficient in Pixel Art, CorelDraw, Photoshop.
Game developing. The story document is then translated into a game programme by the software developer who writes the code and makes the game interactivity possible. The developer also checks the game for platform compatibility. For instance, a PC game cannot be directly compatible with a mobile phone because of the different memory capacities. Game developers need to be adept at J2ME, C++, JAVA, Visual Basic and Flash programming. Testing is the last stage of game development. Game testers run the programme for any errors and check if the game works according to the story line and if there are any glitches in the programming.

All work no play
This job is not devoid of hard work and long hours. “To meet deadlines, we sometimes work 12-16 hour days, depending on the company and project,” says Ravikumar. The job comes with perks like free or discounted games and plenty of entertainment during breaks (arcade machines, game rooms).

Local market
“In India, the market is still young. Often, the mobile downloads don’t even recover the costs,” reveals Kazi. But he is also hopeful that gaming will have a bright future in India and that the industry will look up soon. The Indian market has to be heavily localised. “That is why, instead of P Diddy games, we have introduced games with Bappi Lahiri and Sameera Reddy,” says Bhargava. Movie-based games and theme-based games like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna are a huge hit.

Institutes that offer courses in Animation and Game Development in Bangalore include: Icat Design and Media College, Cyber Plus Infotech, Animaster, Ants, Asian Institute of Gaming and Animation, Srishti School of Art, Design and Tech .