The trend of creating gaming IPs from Bollywood projects seems to have made its impact quite well. Almost every other Bollywood title now comes with a mobile game and given the Smartphone penetration in India, it isn’t a surprise. A game based on the movie, dotted by its characters act as a more immersive and engaging marketing tool as a part of the film promotion.
Another movie is joining the list of the same genre. Ayushman Khurana and Bhumi Pednekar’s upcoming flick, ‘Shubh Mangal Savdhan’ has a game to its name now. Created by Mumbai-based UnderDOGS Gaming Studio, it is a match 3 puzzle adventure where you help Mudit and Sugandha (characters from the film) get hitched. You can play around matching various fun Indian wedding elements like laddoos, rings, flowers, fire etc. The objective is to convince each family member from both the bride and groom’s side to make the wedding possible.
Speaking to AnimationXpress, UnderDOGS Gaming Studio CEO Vaibhav Chavan said, “Working with Eros Now has been a great experience, we’ve not only developed the game but also helped in the promotion. We have worked on the marketing assets and made them as filmy as possible, we’ve also worked in sync with the team at Eros Now to come up with marketing schemes that help promote the game.”
There is always an issue with a movie-based game, as soon as the hype of the film settles down, the players abandon the game. In this case, the studio plans to release two more updates for the game, for now.
The monetisation model seems pretty simple with full-time banner ads and there are also integrated rewarded video ads in some places. As Chavan said, “we have avoided using forced ads to give the players a comfortable experience.”
Created with Unity, the game was brought to life with a small team of four people, which consisted of one developer, two Artists and a level designer.
The film’s title will definitely assist in getting more downloads for the game, but it is a challenge for the studio to keep its audience hooked if they see it as a long term project.
The studio is currently working on their exploration-based PC game, Mukti.
The Shubh Mangal Savdhan game is out over Android and iOS, while the movie is set to release this Friday, 1 September.