The Indie Game Accelerator initiative by Google has found its initial batch of studios, who will be given mentorship in various aspects of the industry. The program had taken entries from Indie studios based out of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Created in close collaboration with Google Play, the selected studios will be going through a four month training program and receive tips from gaming experts.
The set of studios selected was announced on 8 August and the first bootcamp will be held from 24 to 28 September, in Singapore.
Eight Indian studios made to the list, 2PI Interactive, Bombay Play, Go Live Game Studios, Jambav, Lucid Labs, Octathorpe Web Consultants, Threye Interactive and Underdogs Gaming Studio.
“Google has managed to gather a lot of amazing industry experts like Rami Ismail to provide mentorship, and I think the program is structured in a way to provide guidance and mentorship not only in game dev but business development, leadership development, etc. and learning from the experts will definitely help us grow as a studio. This is a great stepping stone for us and we believe this program will help us improve our core values and skill set,” said Lucid Labs founder Chirag Chopra.
The studios filled up an application form on the event’s website, and the form required them to answer questions about the game and submit a playable build as well.
As per their website huge number of games from all over Asia were submitted and the team picked the top 30 from the lot by playing the games and analysing the future scope.
“It’s definitely a great feeling to be one among the chosen one and there are endless benefits being associated with Google. But honestly, the selection is just a start. We’re prepping up currently for the bootcamp and fine tuning the game according to us so that we can add a layer of excellence with the right mentorship at the bootcamp from some great minds in gaming. We’re super excited and looking forward to make it a great experience,” asserted Underdogs Gaming Studio founder and CEO Vaibhav Chavan.
The final bootcamp or the graduation bootcamp will commence on 27 November till 29 November, 2018 and the studios seem to be gearing up for it.
“We’ve already been briefed by Google about the program and are eagerly waiting for it to commence. The next four months are probably going to be one of the most crucial months of our career, and we want to make the most of it,” concludes Chopra.
The list of mentors consist of names like Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail, Games2win co-founder and CEO Alok Kejriwal, Unity’s Arvind Neelakantan, ex-Zynga and Moonfrog Labs Mark Skaggs and many more.