Hyderabad: Gone are the days when gaming was only a hobby. In the last few years, the gaming industry has seen tremendous growth in India, turning this leisure activity into a serious profession. If you’ve grown up gaming and have ever thought that you could do it better, now’s your chance.
As per a study done by the KPMG and Google, in 2020 — Online gaming in India: Reaching a new pinnacle — about 190 million Indian gamers will join the industry by the end of 2021. The report suggests that the number of game development companies has grown from 25 in the year 2010 to 275 in 2019 in India. They estimate that by the end of 2021, the valuation of the gaming industry in the country will be around $1 billion.
Several gaming companies such as ESL India Premiership, NGS Championships, U Cypher and Ultimate Battle have introduced engaging and creative games in the Indian market. As the consumer base increases, these companies also require more manpower to keep rolling out new games and championship battles. While you might think that a career in gaming is limited to sitting in front of a laptop for hours, playing the game; the truth is there are various diverse opportunities that the field can provide.
For instance, Video Game Developers/Designers write and debug codes to develop games for different platforms. They determine the design and basic concept of the game as well as the story and sketch of how the game will look like. Several teams consisting of programmers, writers, audio programmers, level designers, animators, modelers, license support engineers and software engineers work on developing these games. One can choose which team they want to be a part of, depending on their skills.
Apart from a full-time career, gamers can also participate in various national and international championships and tournaments that take place regularly. These competitions are held globally and winners can get prize money of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 crore per game or competition.
In India, there are many top game design institutions and colleges offer several game design courses from certificate level to masters level. Students who have successfully completed their 10+2 or equivalent (with any stream) can apply for a diploma or undergraduate course. For admission in postgraduate courses, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in the related discipline or branch.
Career option
A recent study conducted by HP India on the Gaming Landscape found out that while 99 per cent respondents in Hyderabad believe gaming is a stress reliever, and about 90 per cent respondents displayed a higher affinity for gaming as a career option. Not just this, Hyderabad is also home to serious gamers as about 48 per cent of them are willing to spend more than Rs 1 lakh on buying a gaming PC.
The report also highlighted that there is a growing preference among women for gaming as a career option when compared to their male counterparts, particularly in South India. About 84 per cent of women expressed desire to pursue gaming as a career, followed by 82 per cent of male respondents.
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