Gamers in Bangladesh now have a fun new game that’s set in their own language. Bangladesh-based studio TapStar Interactive last week rolled out its first game to support the Bangla language, titled Ludo Friends. The Android and Facebook Ludo game is purportedly the first game to support the language – and some research online tells us that this is indeed the case.
TapStar founder A.K.M. Masuduzzaman says that while the studio has already developed more than 10 games based around popular genres like the match-3 puzzle, it chose to go the more sedate route of a digital board game because Ludo is the most popular board game in Bangladesh.
“Almost every young person has played this game at least once in their lifetime, especially in their childhood,” Masuduzzaman says, adding that TapStar plans to eventually bring all board games beloved by Bangladesh to both Facebook and mobile. “We are already getting some good feedback from gamers saying it is reminding them of their childhood gameplay memories,” he says.
A screenshot of the game board in Ludo Friends.
Though it has quite a number of games in its portfolio, TapStar Interactive is hardly a large studio. There are presently just five people working there, and it was started only in 2013. Most of its games are tailored for the Western market. Its first title, Zombie Strike, was even developed in partnership with Californian app developer (and now app discovery platform) Iddiction.
Unlike nearby India, Bangladesh has not been known as a hub for indie game development. However it is not completely devoid of game studios. An open-world action-adventure game called Hatirjheel: Dream Begins was published this year by MassiveStar Studio, and the same development company recently entered an agreement with Microsoft to teach game development to students.
Masuduzzaman says that TapStar will move on to add language support for countries like India, Pakistan, Thailand, and other Asian countries. “After this initial stage, we will go for the rest of the world,” he says.
Ludo Friends can be downloaded for Android here or played over Facebook here.
Editing by Steven Millward
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