Indian Mythology, an Idea Bag for Games
Computer games are very much like movies. They need themes which can create awe, drive their users to world of fantasy and make them do things which one cannot do in real world. No wonder games borrow their theme from legends, mythology, stories, fiction novels, sci-fi and all those fantasies which we love to read and listen. They make us Aladdin and we can control Genie, they make us fight like a Samurai, they make us knight and we kill the dragon. These are only few daring feats; we accomplish many more through these games. They are a form of entertainment which involves us, unlike movies where we are only spectator.
But are we not missing something. Don’t we Indians feel that gap, if not the entire world? Where are great warriors (“Yodhas” as we call them)? Why are there no great archers (“Dhanurdhars” of Indian Mythology)? Aren’t we missing our divine arrows (Astras) and our strategic army placements (“Vyhoos”, “Chakra Vyhoo” was one of them). As a fact all this is missing and much more. Indian Mythology is so huge that a single game will be insufficient to cover all these fancies. Of course there are games in market with themes of Indian Mythology, but number is just too small. So that means there is a huge arena open for players to come out and experiment with mythology and legend of India.
Tankaar is an attempt to bring some fantasy of Mahabharata and Ramayana in a game. Being an online two player game on messenger it has some limitations of size and complexity. So, we worked only with the concept of Astras (divine arrows), which is highly prevalent in our mythology. If a messenger game can be given so much variety by just borrowing a small concept, imagine the kind of variety one can develop in an online MMORPG. Also think of the kind of characters, battle fields, strategy and game play that can be developed on Xbox, PS3 and Wii.
Some may think that games based on Indian Mythology will appeal only to Indians and not global audience. I do not feel so. If this is the way it works then why Dragons of Chinese legends so popular? Why popularity of Aladdin is not restricted to Arab countries? Why Japanese Pokemon attained world fame? These are only few examples there are many more. The aim of game is to generate a fantasy world which has no bounds of language and country. The origin of theme of such fantasy world does not matter, what matters is how it is presented. So it would be great if game developers can spend some time exploring legends and mythology. Indian Mythology can serve as an idea bag for developers of online and casual games, because these games are currently suffering from a real idea crunch.