Mumbai-based game studio GameEon is developing an open-world game that is inspired by Bollywood and the heady city that the industry is set in, replete with guns, gangs and an adoration for its biggest stars.
Mumbai Gullies, which is the title of the project, is inspired by games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which has a character explore the virtual city-like environment within the game while also having a set storyline of tasks, or "missions", as its core gameplay.
While the game will primarily be focussed on an offline experience first, Nikhil Malankar, founder of GameEon, said that based on user feedback, it will consider having a multiplayer and online experience if the response is positive.
Speaking to Moneycontrol at the India Game Development Conference on November 17, Malankar said that the development of a game that is inspired by Mumbai has been in the works for at least five years and he was waiting for the right moment to begin such a large scale project.
"We wanted a game that would represent our city just like GTA Vice City," he said. An avid modder of the Rockstar original, Malankar recounts how the idea germinated in his head after messing with the game code to have Shah Rukh Khan's face plastered on billboards.
He said the game was likely going to take two years to produce and is currently only being developed for personal computers (PC).
Mumbai Gullies will be the first game that GameEon has made on the PC. It currently has an extensive portfolio of over 30 games on the Google Play Store with collective downloads exceeding 100 million.
