Made-in-India battle royale game Indus starts pre-registrations on Android; iOS to follow soon

Indus game is heavily inspired by the Indian culture and mythology. It features the Indus Valley civilisation as the backdrop of the story and is set in Indo-futurism

Pune-based game development firm SuperGaming has started pre-registrations for its upcoming made-in-India battle royale title Indus on Google Play Store for Android users, the company said on January 26. Pre-registrations for iOS and iPadOS users are expected to follow soon.

These announcements were made as SuperGaming unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Indus, as the country marks its 74th Republic Day. People who pre-register for the game will get exclusive perks, it said.

The game, which is heavily inspired by Indian culture and mythology, features the Indus Valley civilisation as the backdrop of the story and is set in ‘Indo-Futurism,’ which the company describes as a futuristic world that is “unapologetically Indian in its exploration and representation of science fiction.”

This is the most ambitious title for the startup, which previously developed games such as the multiplayer shooter title MaskGun, which claims to have clocked over 65 million players since its inception, and social deduction title Silly Royale, which claims to have registered over 20 million players.

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"This gameplay trailer is for the Indus community the world over that may not have been able to play it with us and to show off the true scale of battle royale that we want you to have when the game is out" said SuperGaming co-founder and CEO Roby John.

SuperGaming, which counts Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund, Skycatcher, BAce Capital and Dream Incubator among its investors, first unveiled Indus in January 2022 and plans to launch the title on mobile platforms, consoles and personal computers (PC) later this year.

In the runup to the launch, SuperGaming said it will conduct multiple community playtests through the year, wherein it will engage with a community of players to improve the game experience. The startup has previously held two community playtests, one in its Pune studio with 25 players in August 2022 and the other in Bengaluru with 250 players in November 2022.

SuperGaming co-founder Roby John had previously told Moneycontrol these playtests are critical to gather feedback on various aspects of the game and then implement some of them, either through new features or tweaking existing ones, to improve the overall experience. The playtests also help to validate some of the major changes they attempt with the game, he said.

Mid-core games, which include battle royale games, were the fastest-growing games category in FY22 and generated combined revenues of about $550 million in the country, according to a report by gaming and interactive media venture fund Lumikai.

These games, which typically offer a more complex gaming experience than casual games, thereby requiring players to use their skill and strategy to progress, is expected to be the biggest revenue growth driver for the country's gaming industry in the forthcoming years, the report said.

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