CXOs in Sports: Interview with Anuj Mankar, CEO of Nautilus Mobile - developer of Real Cricket 14

Real Cricket 2014 – developed by Nautilus Mobile

Anuj Mankar is the CEO of Nautilus Mobile – the developer of the cricket game that recently hit the Android platform i.e. Real Cricket ‘14. The game has seen a terrific response from the fans and today, we have the game developer himself ready to answer some of our questions.

Anuj, please tell us a little about Nautilus Mobile and your project, Real Cricket ‘14.

Nautilus Mobile is an independent mobile game studio based in Hyderabad. The company is just one year old and Real Cricket ’14 is its second project after NASSCOM People’s Choice Game of the Year Winner – Song of Swords.

We have a small and extremely passionate team. Real Cricket ’14 is an ambitious attempt to capture the mobile market and to slowly develop the game into a cricket simulation franchise. Although the early response is amazing, we do realize that we have to continue striving in order to meet our goal.

The game has received much deserved critical approval, the critics have praised the game for the unique range of shots that it has on offer for the users of the game, which makes the game highly realistic. How hard was it to get this ‘realistic’ nature to the game?

The idea from the outset was to provide a completely novel and unique art style not seen in sports games currently on the app stores. We used a completely hand drawn technique known as 2D motion capture to deliver the animations and shots.

As you pointed out – this brings immense realism as the shots mirror actual actions as seen in real matches on our televisions. As a result the game looks and feels fantastic. However, the inclusion of so many shots has caused the game to turn out quite heavy in terms of rendering and hence we are working on optimizing the game to run better on lower end devices.

While working on the game, what were some of the ‘key points’ that you had in mind? We often see that in cricket games – whether on console, PC or Android platform, bowling is always a weakling which ruins the game for the ‘bowling fans’. Was this a concern?

At the outset, the idea was to deliver the best cricket game the world has seen on mobile. Obviously we found that with our small team and short deadline, this can’t happen all at once with the first launch. We are constantly working on polishing every single aspect of the game and I am convinced that with some support from our audience and more hard work we will definitely be able to provide the best cricketing experience on the mobile platform.

What was your first reaction to the final product? What are some ‘implementations’ to the game that you’d be emphasizing on in the next few months?

My initial reaction to the product was not much different from a lot of the reactions we have received so far. The game definitely has immense promise and potential, and going by the ratings we have received so far – the game definitely also invokes some strong passion.

Over the next few months, we are concentrating on social integration, adding our “coming soon” game modes – Challenge Mode and the RCPL (Real Cricket Premier League). Along with this, we are working on optimizing the game in terms of performance and bugs whilst concentrating on delivering the game to support lower end devices as well.

Is this the first Android platform game that you’ve worked on or have you been part of the development process of any other Android/PC/console platform game too?

As mentioned earlier – this is Nautilus Mobile’s second game but first ever on Android. That said, several members of our team, including myself have worked on the Android platform before.

Lastly, please tell our readers about the future projects of Nautilus Mobile and whether they can see you working on other sport games too or for the time being, it will be just cricket?

At the moment, our hands are full of things to implement and integrate in Real Cricket. What you see out there is only 25% of the game!

So then, that was Anuj Mankar – explaining in detail about his future aspirations and aspects of RealCricket14.

Anuj Mankar and his team are on the venture of providing cricket enthusiasts with the perfect gaming platform and that too in their pockets literately i.e. through their Android phones.

You can download RealCricket14 for free through the Google PlayStore and if you like the game, you can surely help out this promising venture by an Indian studio – by the option of in-game purchases.