Rajat Ojha

Hyderabad based Zen Technologies which recently forayed into game development is currently working full swing on its debut PS3 title 'SnS: Reprisal'. Even while it is readying the game for its July 2010 launch, the company has already started plans for its future game projects. For the same, Zen is inviting game concepts and ideas from game developers across the world.

In conversation with GamingXpress, Zen Technologies' GM (Gaming and Project Management) PMP Rajat Ojha, shared more about this initiative.

What prompted Zen Technologies to call for game concepts and how many games are you planning to develop through this initiative?
Zen has an environment that is extremely conducive to nurturing innovative ideas. The foray into the game market was never really planned – it was the result of the entrepreneurial spirit of some of the developers in Zen. We always had faith that getting into game development and entering global AAA market is something which we could achieve given our existing strength but after seeing the industry feedback and enthusiasm towards us after all initial SnS production, we have done a lot of brainstorming and discussed with various industry experts and found it quite logical to move ahead and plan more games at this stage itself.

Many industry leading publishers and experts suggested various ways to utilize our strength and extra ordinary skills we achieved in simulation development like Augmented Reality, HW specific game development etc. At the same time, there are many talents who are looking for the right platform and opportunity but somehow they either don't have funds or they don't know how to take their ideas further so we are giving them a platform where they can see their ideas being converted into a high quality game. We are planning at least three games in the next twenty four months. Our immediate focus is still SnS but we'll be pretty much done with it by the time we start these new projects. Zen has already taken initiative to fund the companies to build the games and we definitely have a strong and workable business model on table for this.

Which all platforms are you planning to target and why?
Our major focus will remain consoles (PS3, XBOX 360, Wii and PSP) because consoles are the major force in the gaming today with much larger market share. We are open for PC games too but it's really tough to keep up changing PC configuration and dealing with it. We are absolutely not open for mobile, Nintendo DS and flash based casual games.

How is one supposed to present the game idea to you?
A concept design document would really help us to understand the concept easily. Anything more like detailed story, art bible, game design document or prototype would help us to shortlist the idea. Concept design document should contain Summary, Visual Appeal, concept of visual effects, visual variety, environmental appeal, technical/gameplay innovation, theme/narrative/concept innovation, reward system, modes of play, replay appeal, longevity etc but even if you don't know the art of penning down all these, a summary and innovation will cover up something with which we can start off and rest can be dug out during interview process.

What message would you like to convey through GX?
If you have a dream to be a part of gaming industry, this is your time to fulfil it. Be it ideas for a game or your ongoing game project, we can help as we are inviting ideas and at the same time, we are funding projects. We at Zen acknowledge that the world is full of new ideas and there are people with immense talents with various aspects of game making. That's the reason you still see unique games like World of Goo but not everybody is lucky enough. I see a lot of people making small prototype or documenting their game design ideas and there are many who do a lot of modding using Cry Sandbox, UDK etc and they have wonderful ideas so I'd like all those guys to have something ready for us and be a part of multi billion industry where together all of us can grow.

What kind of response have you got till now and how are you planning to market it further?
Initial response has been amazing and we've got 20+ enquiries the first day we announced it and we've already got four ideas. Currently we are spreading this through word of mouths but Zen will be present in Game Connection, San Francisco and GDC where both idea adaption and project funding venture will be showcased.

Since Zen Technologies has forayed into games recently, what would you say focus and plan for 2010 is for Zen when it comes to Gaming?
As stated, we are almost half way through the completion of SnS: Reprisal our first game and by the time it will be over, we want to start two projects. We'll continue to discuss new ideas with our publishers and our friends in the industry and will evaluate the strength of the team to make these things happen. The best thing with Zen is that we have a huge talent pool available with us in our simulator development team and all are gamers by heart so there's no dearth of ideas and implementation. Since we don't have too many game programmers in India, we have plans to create game programmers using our existing resources because we definitely have the best possible game programming talents in Zen. Currently in our gaming team there are 38 people who are making 'SnS: Reprisal' happen and we have a plan to reach 70-75 in another 4-6 months.