The 2022 edition of the Indian Game Developers Conference or I GDC 2022 has finally concluded following three days of gaming extravaganza in Hyderabad, Telangana.
The three-day event saw the biggest names from Indian gaming, including developers, publishers and more, to talk and share about their future.
Several, developers demonstrated their in-development projects to receive feedback from fans. This included Game Eon Studios, which showcased its highly anticipated open-world game, Mumbai Gullies.
To know more about the title, we talked with Game Eon Studio Founder and CEO, Nitin. During our conversation, Nikhil shared his thoughts about all aspects of the Indian gaming industry, including challenges while developing AAA titles and more.
First, we need to ask about your time at I GDC, since this is the first in-person event ever since the pandemic began in 2020. How was your experience at the event?
The experience has been really good. We were showcasing our game as well in our booth. And there wasn't a single moment when our booth was empty. We even had to actually shut down the booth in order to create some lunchtime for the staff.
The other talks were really informative as well. And then there were some really good companies in the booth as well. So, all in all, I think it was a very electric event in terms of gaming. The event had like around 4000-plus registered members. So, it is a huge thing and for this very reason, I think I GDC is the biggest gaming conference in all of South Asia.
These three games are the ones that I really enjoyed, taking a look at I GDC 2022.
You can watch the gameplay by the CEO on YouTube
https://youtu.be/HI4B3Fqeq6c
Have you been able to showcase Mumbai Gullies? If so, how’s the response been so far?
The response has been amazing. So, we saw people crowding up at the booth to the point where, I wasn't able to enter my own booth. And there was no stopping. People waited for hours to try out the demo, and the feedback we received was also really good. At IGDC 2022, we demoed the Marine Lines area at our booth, and the audience absolutely loved it. They were driving around, exploring the railway tracks, and all sort of things.
We got some constructive feedback - some positive, some negative. So, we'll be taking all that feedback into account and trying to improve the build that we have. The interesting thing was that people were actually going through and exploring the entire city that we've built. So, that was a really refreshing experience. And whatever we've been building has been validated by the audience as well.
For years, this nation has gorged on multiplayer mobile titles. But over the past few years, there has been a slight change with single player and story-driven titles. Is that the future you aspire for, or do you have a different personal wishlist?
I personally love playing story-driven narrative games, just like Mumbai Gullies, which is a single player experience. I love playing them because you can kind of isolate, enjoy, and immerse yourself in that world, and you become someone else. Even with Mumbai Gullies, we plan to have multiple sequels for the game, and that is somewhat a future that we have envisioned for the franchise.
The city of Mumbai hasn't really been represented in the gaming world as much compared to other iconic locations in the world. With that in mind, what was the biggest challenge in using a city as probably the main character in the game’s story?
I like the fact that you talk about the map as a character itself, because Mumbai has a lot of diversity within itself. We also looked at Mumbai from the perspective of a city that never sleeps. as that's the only city other that New York, which has that designation. So, we wanted to see all of these dynamics, and put Mumbai on the group global front.
While it was great to see Mumbai inside Hitman 2 as a level, we felt that it was too limited of an experience that the game offered. Mumbai is extremely diverse and rich with culture - There are a lot of food items that you can eat, there are different modes of transport. So, we wanted to showcase that Mumbai is not just slums, which is the general perception in the West, and all of that is a stereotypical understanding of the city itself. And that's what we are to certain extent also succeeding in portraying.
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