Game Changers

The players set their jaws on the edge,flex their muscles and,as the race starts,break loose into a do-or-die race on tracks pocked with hurdles.

The players set their jaws on the edge,flex their muscles and,as the race starts,break loose into a do-or-die race on tracks pocked with hurdles. Their vehicles the humble hand-pulled rickshaw from Kolkata that makes an appearance on the gaming screens. Called Rikshaw Brawl,the game has won its creators,city-based animation company,DC Animations,the Best Art and Design Award at the Intel Level Up 2010. For gaming ignorants,Intel level up is a contest organised by Intel every year and winning a prize here is,especially in India,a major webbed feat.

The Rikshaw Brawl is a typical third person race and fight game but not between usual bots,players or cars but between rickshaws, says DC Animations Ravi Yadav. The game involves simple controls,but thats all thats simple and easy. The player is the rickshawpuller who has to fight with other rickshawpullers in various types of races. The game starts with a simple stone-aged rickshaw and,as the player advances up the levels,the game becomes complex,with custom parts like speed boosters,gears and torque. Players can also make use of weapons available to them.

We sent our entry to Intel Level Up 2010 a month back in the first phase of the competition. Of the several posted ideas,our lead programmer Kushagra Gours idea was shortlisted and we got the opportunity to create a game demo for the next phase of contest. Thus began the work on a game called the Rikshaw Brawl, adds Yadav. While the game level design,character design and animation work was executed by Anu Gautam Sharma,Kamal Thapa,Ravi Yadav and Varun Thakur,the programming was carried out by Gour with Yadav assisting on the game development. After clearing phase one,the team entered phase two with their game demo. Which got selected among the Top 10 games in the Level Up India Series and invited to be showcased at one of the biggest events for game developers and animators in India NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Summit 2010 in Hyderabad in November, says Yadav while Gour added that Intel holds contests at a global and the India level. They participated at the national level.

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What makes this game special is the use of Indian rickshaws for the first time in a race and fight game. The custom parts unlock as a player wins more and more races, says Ravi. Theyve also created cool and funny characters to choose from as well as a range of new attacks.

Yadav and Gour say that Intel now wants them to create the full version of game in the next three months,for which they will be given resources. While the final results for the international series of this contest will be announced in December,the game will be available for download on their website http://www.dcanimations .com and http://www.dcanimations.blogspot.com.

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