Ashish Daga (Founder and Director) Psypher Interactive
Psypher Interactive: on road of becoming a pioneer in the Indian game development industry
The game development process is equally important for the gaming industry as the production is for any other industry. Their existence is not mutually exclusive. The history of game development goes back to as early as the 1950s.
Initially, the games had very less entertainment value, and the development focus has not been on the user experience. Next phase of development came in the 1970s when arcade video games and first-generation consoles were introduced in the market.
Over the period of time, second-generation consoles were introduced. The fast-paced gaming industry came to a halt during the North American Video Game crash in 1983. The bleak gaming industry soon rejuvenated when Nintendo Entertainment System became hugely successful.
From first-generation consoles, we have come to an age of ninth-generation of gaming consoles. The global gaming industry in terms of revenue is much bigger than the total revenues generated by the movie, sports, and pop music Industry. The Indian gaming industry is very much underdeveloped even when compared to Asian countries like China and South Korea.
With growing internet-accustomed young population, increasing income levels and increasing digital literacy is trying to change the face of the hibernating Indian gaming Industry. Designing visually appealed gaming content as well as creating immersive gameplay go hand in hand.
In the wake of these developments, Psypher Interactive an inept and completely bootstrapped Indie Game Development Studio located in Bengaluru, India was founded in 2015 with a team of driven and ambitious friends, eager to make their mark in the gaming industry.
Our editorial team spoke to Ashish Daga (Founder and Director) about the gaming industry and his organization. Here are the edited excerpts.
Innovation and Inspiration don't depend on a single factor and direction. It can come from any source—everyday puzzles, driving passions, and the subconscious mind. Employment opportunities in the gaming Industry are not easily available.
So, we a group of gaming enthusiasts and college friends decided to make our own games. The gaming industry in India is still growing and unsaturated, so we thought of getting in this domain to do something favorable for Gaming Industry.
The growth of new Gen Z children is at par with the rapid pace of technology. Most of them are glued to their tablets, mobile phones, etc. So, we came up with the idea of "Curiocity."
It is an edutainment game for kids for playing, enjoying and learning while covering the major eight basic areas of learning: coloring, shapes and sizes, fruits and vegetables, vehicles, English alphabets, numbers, Animals and Aquatic life.
We have taken all the necessary aspects to keep the child engaged and focused through activities, flash cards, drag, and drop real-time situations, and specific area of learning.
The instrument to measure success is a well-polished quality content which impresses Indian audience and people from other countries. Our metrics are Quality Content, Quality Art, Games Mechanics, Player's Feeling, Player Experiences and lastly user feedback which play an important part of entire game development.
According to market Pundits, Indian mobile game industry will be worth 1.1 Billion USD by 2020 and the number of users projected to become 628 million by then.
Although the average revenue per user for most mobile games is very low, the rising population of smartphone users and cheap data charges has created a stable marketplace for the mobile gaming sector.
Our target audience is the millennial parents who encourage quality education and meaningful life for their children. According to the statistics, 35% of the parents enforce the development of their children through the use of technology devices. We plan to capture 10-12% of the market in the next three years.
Our clients are other game companies, working with the IP owner helping them to grow their IP even more. We work closely with the client right from the beginning of the project until their games are published.
Making games isn't a tough work, selling those games surely is a big task. We do have a panel of publishers with us who are backing us to publish our games. For advertising, we have FIBERBOARD ADVERTISING, our sister concern headed by my brother Yash Daga so marketing it isn't any challenge.
We have a different way of approaching this issue, while the game is in the development stage, we have play tested sessions for the game with the target audience where we take feedback from the users, and after studying the data, we make the necessary changes.
Our constant transcendence of responsibilities as designers, artists & developers from time to time empowers learning and familiarizes us with each team members' limitations & how to maneuver past them.
We have developed a grounded approach to keep matters efficient and emphasized on adopting a very dynamic approach. We also welcome all ideas from everyone; regardless of their role in the company.
For us, Customer satisfaction, Necessary networking, and the success of our first Android Game "Tapop" are the greatest achievements.
Our never-ending journey was like a heartbeat on the hospital monitor. As a team, we learned a lot, developed a deeper understanding of human life and inspired ourselves and others to achieve something meaningful. We learned to manage money, team and made sure that the game is complete and satisfactory.
It's not about just scrapping it and start working on a new one. We are exploring Blockchain technology to implement it on the games and other lines of products. Our biggest dream is to make our games reach every corner of the earth.
First, play the game! Play more game! Play much more games!
Be a team player, collaborate with others, participate in Game JAM's both (online/offline), visit game development conferences, meet more people, let them play your game or POCs, gather feedback and suggestion, attend video game meet-ups, making small prototypes, etc.
We have two major own IP based games in the pipeline, along with a few collaborations with other's IP. We plan to develop our game CurioCity and are looking forward to releasing it soon. We are also upgrading the game according to the user's benefits.
Well, the sky is the limit…
The firm is led by Ashish Daga, a graduate from ICAT Design & Media College in Game Designing and Yash Daga, a graduate from CMS Jain University in Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies (Co-founders and Directors).
The studio head Kashyap Singha Phukan is a graduate from Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology in Digital Media (Game Development). Adam Aziz is the creative director of Psypher Interactive.
Tsewang Pintso, a graduate from ICAT Design & Media College in game development is the Co-founder, Technology Evangelist and game developer at the organization.
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