Studio Sirah raises $830K for India-1st mobile games

Studio Sirah has raised $830,000 for its midcore, India-1st mobile games. India-focused game venture capital fund Lumikai led the round.

The Bangalore-based Studio Sirah will use the income to make its 1st game, Kurukshetra: Ascension, a card battler based on India’s 5,000-year-old epic myths.

It’s the 1st title from a group of two brothers, Abhaas Shah and Prateek Shah, who grew up playing games such as Age of Empires, Civilization, and Hearthstone.

Besides Lumikai, other investors integrated angels such as Akshat Rathee (founder, Nodwin Games), Alexis Bonte (chief operating officer, Stillfront Games), Piyush Shah (cofounder, Inmobi), Roshni Rathi (companion, BCG), and Sameer Pitalwalla (Epic Games).

“The thesis to build midcore games leveraging India’s deep cultural and mythological heritage resonated with our view of the fast-changing reality on the ground,” stated Salone Sehgal, a companion at Lumikai, in an e-mail to GamesBeat. “We have witnessed first-hand the early trajectory of original IP-based games in other Asian markets and the success in unlocking value. We see a similar trajectory for India accompanied with a growing need for progression/immersion by the maturing Indian gamer.”

Prateek Shah has a technical background from Georgia Tech and worked at providers such as Nvidia. Abhaas Shah went to college at the University of California at Berkeley and worked at Bain. But he went home through the pandemic to be with family. And though sheltering in spot, he and his brother decided to get started a game organization.

“We grew up playing a ton of games, from Contra on Atari to Age of Empires on the PC,” Abhaas Shah stated in an interview with GamesBeat. “It’s always been a bonding point, a connection point for the two of us. We have very different backgrounds. When the pandemic hit, it gave us time to actually get back together as a family and talking about our childhood and gaming. We didn’t see any good Indian content that we would like to play as gamers. There are a lot of hypercasual and casual games, but these are not the games that appeal to us.”

About a year ago, they founded Studio Sirah on the belief in the growing sophistication of the Indian gamer and the whitespace of culturally resonant Indian content in games. Studio Sirah was constructed to focus on midcore games (these have hardcore themes that can be played in a quick time on mobile devices). They stated their 1st title will focus on strategic gameplay, immersive art, and a deep progression method. While they are targeting mobile 1st, they stated the 1st game will be out on each mobile and the Computer.

They came up with the notion of producing meaningful Indian content in a core game. That led them to an notion, a paper prototype, a Python text game, and a Unity minimum viable item.

Indian content

When they have been developing up, the brothers had access to an “ancient PC,” and they applied it to play games like Age of Empires and the Civilization series. They consider that their game could be extremely attractive to the lots of Indians. But they also think that Indian content deserves to be brought to the world, significantly like what has occurred with Greek myths.

The world and characters of Kurukshetra: Ascension are inspired by two of India’s greatest epics — the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, ancient poems with stories of gods, heroes, and fantastical creatures. One could examine them with the Iliad and Odyssey of Greek myth, but these are even grander, with thick strands of philosophy and religious believed weaved in, Abhaas Shah stated. At the very same time, they’re adding their personal stories and characters to inform a more contemporary story.

“The Indian mythological metaverse is just something that is unexplored. It’s this beautiful collection of stories which interrelate with each other,” Abhaas Shah stated.

Moreover, these epics have continued to sustain their relevance in all components of India (in numerous languages). Their Television serial versions smashed all viewership records each in 1987 and 2020. Indian mythology consists of a dense metaverse exactly where characters and stories regularly overlap and seamlessly blend into one one more. The intention is to modernize and introduce this wealthy world of lore to gamers about the globe.

“Historically, every major gaming nation underwent a collectible card game (CCG) boom — Japan (2010–2015), China (2012–2017), and the U.S. (2014–2019). This category is severely under-penetrated in the Indian market with no market leader,” Sehgal stated. “By blending in deep philosophical concepts of ‘karma’ and ‘dharma’ in their gameplay, the founders are charting an incredibly exciting path for Indian gamers. Abhaas and Prateek exemplify the new-age Gen-Z Indian gaming founder, they have a bold vision, execution capabilities and deep desire to build world-class entertainment for India and the world, from India.”

Future titles will mine content from India’s mythos and history and define a new generation of international-excellent Indian-content games for each Indian and foreign players, Abhaas Shah stated. As for bringing content to mobile and the Computer, the brothers stated they will look at more platforms in the future. The group has seven men and women and it is hiring.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz