Whether it's Fruit Slash or Subway Surfer, we have all been addicted to one game or another. But if you ask the students of NIT Warangal the kind of games they are obsessed with, they will surely name the ones coming out of GBit Studios, the institute's in-house gaming studio that has been churning out game after game since August 2019. But why the obsession with making games? Co-founder Aniruddha Srinivas Joshi answers, "We had developed a mobile game as a part of INK Makers Makeathon 2017 and ended up as the first runners-up. We also participated in Maker Faire Hyderabad 2018. This got us interested. We started out as just a group of students who are interested in developing games. Then, we officially started working together in April 2019."
The team has come a long way since the release of their first game Orbit Rush, which is a single tap addictive game involving a spaceship trying to jump orbits to escape a black hole. Though their latest game is Net It, their bestselling one is Maximum Velocity, an addictive hyper-casual game which has over 2,500 downloads. "At one point, almost everyone on campus was playing it," says the 21-year-old. When we hear that the game is about a spaceship moving on an endless platform to avoid obstacles, we aren't immediately blown away by the idea, but then the Pune-born tells us that unlike many games, there are nifty sequences of 20 different obstacles that keep interchanging and thus, keep the gamers forever on their toes. Now that sounds addictive for sure.
It takes about a month for the team of ten to develop a game from scratch and what goes a long way is the feedback that they receive from students on campus. "In fact, we have 30 students who are very fond of our games and it is they who beta test our products," says Aniruddha who founded the start-up with Shreyas Joshi. Student feedback really helps them enhance the experience of their game. Since their revenue is being taken care of by in-app purchases and ads, as the game itself is free to download, the start-up — incubated at NIT Warangal's Centre for Innovation and Incubation — is planning to move on to bigger and better things, like developing a console-based game. "We have developed many games for both mobile and PC, now we want to move to the next level. We would need to get quality-approval from respective vendors for console platforms, but we are up for the challenge," says Aniruddha who pursued Computer Science and Engineering and graduated this year. Now, that's something to look forward to.
The games they make us play:
- Revenge of the Sudoku: This twist in the classic, single-player game of Sudoku adds the much-needed element of competition and bliss
- Flick to Kick Rugby: The old school game of Rugby is now available at the tip of your fingers to simulate the perfect kick
- Maya (Prototype): Experience a truly immersive fantasy-based world first-hand on the VR platform with their first VR game Maya
- Zenith (Prototype): Enjoy the elements of parkour as you compete with your friends to capture the flag and bring it back to your base
For more on them, check out gbitstudios.com
