
Moonfrog Labs is banking on India’s movie industry with its recent launches. Will they help the game studio conquer the world's 2nd largest mobile market?
The lifecycle of a blockbuster movie is fleeting, though some titles manage to carve out a longer shelf life than others. About a month ago, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion was the talk of the town, and being toasted globally, having crossed over Rs 1,000 crore in revenue globally, and hitting third spot in the US box office in the first week of May.
Baahubali: The Game quickly rose to the top of the Google Play charts in India in May, and was briefly the most downloaded game, and the second most downloaded app in the country
“Some people of the opinion that they are the highest quality games in India. It makes us very proud. But this is just a journey, and we have a long way to go” — Mark Skaggs, game developer at Moonfrog Labs
The opportunity to make a game around the Baahubali sequel came up in a conversation between Moonfrog co-founder Tanay Tayal and Sharad Devarajan, CEO of comics and entertainment company Graphic India. They were in touch over Graphic India’s projects, which they wanted to make into games, Skaggs says in an email interview.
“During one of these conversations, Sharad spoke about Baahubali 2, which got the Moonfrog team excited. We saw the movie here in the studio, and felt that it could be a great project for a strategy game,” he says. “Subsequently, we connected with Arka Mediaworks and Rajamouli for conversations around content integration.” Arka is the production company behind the Baahubali series.
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The storyboarding process began with an ample amount of dogfooding, to ensure that the elements of the game were matched to the framework of the genre. The concept art team included Aditya Chari, who had also worked on the original characters of Baahubali.
Says Skaggs: “We started by watching the movie over a 100 times, along with research on the historical elements as depicted in the film and the possibilities of what could have been 2,000 years ago.” The team were looking closely for nuances in iconography, colours, architectural styles and clothing styles. “The idea of a gold mine came from the scene where the soldiers are taking gold from the praja to make Bhalladeva’s statue,” he adds.
“The idea of a gold mine came from the scene where the soldiers are taking gold from the praja to make Bhalladeva’s statue” — Skaggs
Moonfrog’s new playbook is built around creating IP (intellectual property) around the film industry in India. Launched in March this year, Alia Bhatt: Star Life came together after Moonfrog had approached Alia’s team with a concept around the lifestyle simulation genre, which would allow her to connect with her fans directly. Aimed at the desi millennial girl, an often ignored demographic, the Bollywood star’s connect with the millennial audience was a key driver. “We pitched it to Alia, and she liked it. She wanted us to include some more ideas, which we did. All in all, it was a great meeting of minds,” Skaggs says.
The game is a fantasy journey for a player, who is befriended by Alia’s game character. She helps the player become a celebrity, and goes through various adventures guided by Bollywood star. “On the art side, we had to do a lot of work to get her face right, to get iconic locations in India that people could identify with and so on,” he says.
Alia Bhatt: Star Life is aimed at the desi millennial girl, an often ignored demographic, and the Bollywood star’s connect with the millennial audience was a key driver
Puspesh says there is nothing more Indian, in recent times in terms of a mythical, fictional, character than Baahubali. “It’s the right combination. People who have never played, or never heard of strategy games can actually last take that step, and try to relate to buildings, to units, to characters, to fighting units. How do I take Baahubali in the battle, how will it increase my power over the enemy base… those kinds of things become a little easier to grasp,” he says.
The Moonfrog cofounder dismissed criticism that Baahubali: The Game was a Clash of Clans clone, as game genres have been ossified over the past few decades. The game was intended for audiences that have never played a real-time strategy game, he emphasises. “Just as a genre, a real-time strategy game has been popular since long time, not just on the mobile, but even in the PC world. We’ve all grown up playing Age of Empires in our childhood, to Command and Conquer, to Civilization. Small things, from the skin, to the gameplay mechanics can change the gameplay experience,” he says.
“Just as a genre, a real-time strategy game has been popular since long time, not just on the mobile, but even in the PC world” — Kumar Puspesh, Moonfrog cofounder
India’s online gaming industry is expected to grow more than 3x to cross $1 billion by 2021, according to a recent Google-KPMG report. Some of the top grossing Indian mobile game studios include Delhi-based Octro and Mumbai’s Play Games 24×7, who are focused on card-based games. On the Play Store top free app charts for India, Baahubali is ranked at 45, while Clash of Clans is at No 78.
If Moonfrog succeeds with its playbook, the potential rewards could be huge: Supercell, the maker of Clash of Clans, was acquired by China’s Tencent for a whopping $8.6 billion in 2016. The markets and revenues are not comparable, of course, but still. The opportunities are there and the eco-system is ripe for a blockbuster hit, says Skaggs. “You have 120 million active mobile users in this country. Every single change — demonetisation, more digital payment options, lowering of data costs — is an opportunity for the game market.”
An industry expert says betting on movies makes sense but is measured in his predictions on how the strategy will play out. “Basically, it’s a known thing that in India cricket and bollywood are big drivers, when it comes to media consumption. I think that extends to games as well,” says Amit Goyal, cofounder at SuperSike Games, a New Delhi-based game development company.
“Whether this is going to work or not, time will tell. There has not been a massive success out of India, in either of these genres. There have been successful games, but not to that extent. I hope it works out for them,” Goyal adds.
“You have 120 million active mobile users in this country. Every single change — demonetisation, more digital payment options, lowering of data costs — is an opportunity for the game market” — Skaggs