Indian gaming startup Mech Mocha is ready to beat the competition with <em>Puppet Punch</em>

In 1997, a gaming studio in Bangalore called Dhruva signed a contract with gaming company Infogrames Entertainment (now Atari) to port the action-shooter game Mission:Impossible to PC source. The Indian gaming industry was non-existent back then and Dhruva had become a pioneer of sorts in that regard.

Today, the Indian gaming industry is worth US$890 million and global players like Zynga and Ubisoft have set up offices in the country. Console games based on cricket and Bollywood did find moderate success, but it was mobile games like Angry Birds which captured the imagination of the public. A number of startups have developed smartphone and tablet games, but they usually are clones of popular games – sometimes with an Indian twist.

Punching above their weight?

Indian independent game development studio Mech Mocha aims to stand out from the crowd. Founded by Arpita Kapoor and Mohit Rangaraju, the Ahmedabad-based startup is betting big on the January 29 launch of their game, Puppet Punch. Inspired by games like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Puppet Punch is a fun mix of the two mobile hits. The puppets in the game represent various cultures and regions across the world to give the game a unique look.

Arpita Kapoor and Mohit Rangaraju, founders of Mech Mocha

Both graduates from the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM-Gwalior), Kapoor and Rangaraju pitched the idea tech accelerator, iAccelerator, in 2013. This resulted in a three-month incubation program for the team which enabled the development of the game. The duo also received a scholarship at the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and were listed as alumni of Chartboost University – a platform to assist mobile game developers.

“We wanted to build international quality games and not restrict ourselves to familiar (Indian) themes like Bollywood and cricket,” says Kapoor.

Such ambitions proved to be difficult for the young game developers. The game publishers felt that the concept of Puppet Punch wasn’t familiar to the public while investors were not convinced about scalability of the company.

Their fortunes changed in February 2014 when the company raised angel funding from Devendra Parulekar, partner at Ernst & Young; Sanjay Mehta, member of Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels; and Ravi Trivedi, founder of Srijan Capital. They also found a publisher in Kedoo Games, a Dubai-based company that had primarily published games like Dead: The Beginning and Talking Booba – a clone of the Talking Tom Cat app.

Puppet Punch soft launched in October 2014. The arcade-style game is set inside a puppet theatre where the player takes the role of Pablo. The in-game character throws punches and uses weapons from assorted headgear to blast away the marauding puppets and other hazards that descend from above. It is not as violent as it sounds, in fact the game has a cheerful feel to it. The game received positive reviews from various portals, including Games in Asia – Indonesia.

The team took the lessons learned from launch and made alterations like additional levels to enable the players to stay in the game for an extended period of time and tutorials to explain new features within the game. After its upcoming iOS launch on the 29th, the team plans to start developing an Android version of the game. They also plan to seek investments and look at providing options like upgrades, power-ups, video advertising, and in-app purchases.

Growing industry needs new ideas

There are over a hundred gaming startups in India and the industry is expected to grow at a rate of 32 percent annually according to a report by NASSCOM. Indian companies like PlayPower and Rolocule have gained traction in the international gaming scene.