Coronavirus impact: Indian game art creation companies are more busy than ever

Indians are not only playing more games, but also spending enough time in creating them.

After China, India takes a prominent place in the game creation space globally.

However, Chinese game creation companies have been unable to keep the business up and running due to the impact of coronavirus in the country.

Unlike China, Indian companies are managing to create games remotely.

Take the example of Lakshya Digital that has been in the game art creation space for around 15 years.

“One big worry for any game creation company is what will happen about my data, is my next big character, story secure. These fears stop companies to let employees work from home," Manvendra Shukul, CEO and Co-Founder, Lakshya Digital, told Moneycontrol.

“So, you need a secure set-up without which even the clients will not allow you to work from home. That is a challenge and limitation. But we had a strong IT setup and that’s why it took us about three days to set up a system to work from home, encrypt the computers, create secure VPN channels. One can log in only using the VPN,” he added.

This is probably why Lakshya has managed to get more work and new enquiries from many international markets like Japan, US, among others.

“This year so far, the increase in the amount of new enquiries coming to us has been 20-25 percent,” he added.

The company currently is working on games like Sea of Thieves, Dauntless, Elder Scroll Online, among others.

In fact, if you see the credits of the recently released game called Final Fantasy 7 remake, you will see the mention of Lakshya.

The official Final Fantasy 7 Remake Twitter account shared that they have sold and shipped more than 3.5 million copies in the first three days of official availability on PS4.

Along with rise in number of gamers, India has also become a big provider of skill and talent required to develop modern day games.

“With the enormous growth in consumption of games, not only among young kids but also across all age groups, the gaming industry has seen a steady growth which automatically translates into a greater demand for skilled artists. In India, the gaming industry is predominantly game art outsource industry which means we work with game developers from across the globe to make game art content, said Mayank Rajpoot, Art Director, Lakshya Digital.

A KPMG report points out that the number of game development companies in India increased from 25 in 2010 to 275 in 2019.

“Indians have realized that games are a source of entertainment and not a waste of time. Indian parents are also realizing that gaming is a viable career option,” said Shukul.

But developing game is an expensive affair, says Shukul, and this is why outsourcing is a big component for gaming companies.

Shukul explained that the cost of game development is high which is why developers outsource development work to countries like India here there is skilled workforce and the cost is relatively low than the west.

Along with this, the proactiveness of Indian game creation companies during the COVID-19 disruption has made India more prominent in this space.