Hitwicket Superstars – winner of PM Modi’s AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge – introduced ‘Ra 1’ as a new skin for its in-game characters, based on the powerful character from the Ramayana. Ra1 has been natively added to celebrate the festival of lights, and our hon’ble PM’s vision for games inspired by Indian mythology and folklore.
Mythology and folklore have been inseparable elements of the societal fabric since time immemorial. Global Gaming titles like Assassin’s Creed and God of War have deftly woven nuggets of Greek and Arabian folklore into their own narratives, receiving acclaim worldwide and establishing a deep connection with fans. Some of the top-grossing mobile games in China and Japan have brought characters of cultural significance to the fore by entwining folklore with game mechanics. This unique marriage of culture and mobile gaming has set up an enchanting virtual realm that users resonate and immerse themselves in.
Hitwicket Superstars is a multiplayer cricket strategy game, where users are transported into a virtual world. Users get to own and manage a cricket team of Superheroes, with each cricketer boasting a unique superpower of their own. The user trains the team from rookies into world-class superstars capable of mind-numbing feats – from batsmen scoring 12 runs in a single ball, to bowlers conceding negative runs to the batting side.
For Hitwicket Superstars, with its own magical realm of cricket and superpowers, borrowing creative elements from Indian mythology and folklore adds to the richness and depth of the virtual world users can explore. This newly-introduced skin will be available for an upcoming character who can be upgraded to level two as ‘Thaillava’, and then to a level three skin for the classic ‘Ra 1’ look. Users can unlock this new character and then upgrade to the Ra 1 skin, and destroy the opposition with his unique DOOM superpower.
“Marrying this cultural element to the vehicle of mobile gaming, we seek not only to add greater value to our users’ experience, but to represent the richness and diversity of Indian Mythology and Folklore,” says Hitwicket co-founder Kashyap Reddy.
Indian culture – being one of the richest and the oldest in known civilisation – has a lot to add to popular media, gaming in particular. With more elements of Indian folklore and myths incorporated in highly accessible forms of entertainment like mobile gaming, Indian developers and gamers can now step onto the global pedestal and stand out with the uniqueness and depth that our culture is known for.