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Creative Monkey Games started out as a two-man project, but it is revolutionizing many of the current popular video game genres that have existed on the mobile platform for quite some time now.
Creative Monkey Games was Mr. Deepak Aravind’s brain child, and the company’s nascent stages were not all smooth sailing for him and his wife, who were the only two people involved when it all began.
In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Esports’ Abhishek Mallick, Mr. Arvind opens up about his early hurdles, along with some of the vision that went into the making of Creative Monkey Games.
Here is an excerpt of the interview.
The story behind Creative Monkey Games
Q. Sir, before we direct our conversation towards Creative Monkey Games, and the emerging mobile gaming markets in India, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your journey in the video games industry?
I am a graduate in engineering but deep inside, I was always passionate about filmmaking. I always loved playing games, especially cricket. In the past, I have worked with big tech giants, but later realised that I never enjoyed my work. It was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
However, video games always fascinated me, and so then, taking the biggest leap, myself and Kavitha (my wife), came up with the idea of starting our own gaming startup, Creative Monkey. Mobile games are trending in India. Therefore, we started working towards building up our own firm where we could make games with unique features.
Q. Creative Monkey Games started out as a two-man project. It was the brainchild of you and your wife, and for a very long time, it was just the two of you toughing it out against all odds. Can you shed some light on some of the hurdles that you faced in those initial months?
Creative Monkey is a dream project for me and my wife. She has been the guiding force for me throughout the journey and plays an integral role in all the developments so far. From planning, strategising, till the final execution, she has been an incredible source of inspiration for me.
Talking about the hurdles, everyone has his or her own share of hurdles when they decide to start a new business. It was the same with us. Finding the right kind of talent who are equally passionate about gaming, and have deep knowledge about making space in the market when there are already such great gaming companies from around the world, was our biggest challenge.
Q. The turning point for Creative Monkey Games came when it finally developed its very own cricket engine, which led to the development of some incredibly engaging flagship titles like World Cricket Battle (1 & 2). What were some of the thought processes and vision that went into its development?
I have always been a huge cricket fan and also I used to play cricket a lot. Today also I take out time to play cricket. I’ve played a lot of cricket and other games that are available online. Whatever games I’ve played were the same cricket games that we all know. I wanted to come up with something new and different. So I collaborated with Matthew Hayden to create a unique cricker game.
But for making your vision into reality you need the right talent and right team who can work hard with you and stand with you to achieve a common goal.
Q. The company was recently able to partner with legendary Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden for his official cricket game HAYDOS 380. Can you tell us a bit about this collaboration and what mobile cricket fans can look forward to once the game hits the Google and Apple play store in April 2021?
As I said earlier, I’m a huge cricket fan and I love playing cricket, so partnering with Matthew Hayden is a big thing for me. I’m glad that this partnership happened.
We have high hopes from this game that it will do great in the market as this cricket game is going to be different and unique from already existing cricket games.
We are working on adding high quality visuals and some exciting features to make the gaming experience for people better. This game will be loved by every cricket lover, and I can say it, as I myself am a cricket fan. You can play this game anywhere anytime. For instance, if you are waiting for someone somewhere, you can take your phone and play this game. It is such an interesting game that you can play it anytime.
Q. COVID-19 induced lockdown created a sudden boom in the consumption of both mobile and PC video games in India. Can you tell us a bit about the impact that this had with the Creative Monkey Games titles both in terms of community participation and viewership?
Pandemic has helped the gaming industry a lot, as people were home and they had time, also they needed some medium to engage themselves. Hence, people opted for playing mobile games. During lockdown, we had a pretty good number of users, especially for our cricket titles.
We have come up with an out of the box new multiplayer Ludo game called Ludo Emperor. People will definitely try out this game as well and engage in the gameplay, not only with their friends and family but also with new and different people. This is the World’s first ludo game with real-time strategy and unique gameplay.
Q. What are your thoughts on the Indian mobile gaming industry in 2021, both in terms of esports and consumption of offline titles?
India is doing better than before in the gaming industry. Many new gaming firms are coming up in the country.
Talking about Esports, it will play an important role in the gaming industry as people today are inclined towards multiplayer video games and many games have become online and people prefer them.
Q. What role do you feel emerging startups play, especially when it comes to revolutionizing the gaming industry and the ”new-age, technology-led, content-driven, consumer-enabled internet business”?
Emerging startups play a great role in revolutionizing the gaming industry as every company brings something new and unique with them. We are able to see the new talent, new raw ideas these budding game developers have. In this era of technology, you need exclusive content that stands out in the market to be renowned and successful in the industry.
Q. Along with HAYDOS 380, Creative Monkey Games has launched their ludo based game called Ludo Emperor. As it’s being hailed as the next generation of ludo games on the mobile platform, what are some of the unique concepts that are being incorporated into it? What sets it apart from the base game?
As you can see from Ludo games online, they work on the basic hand rule. Many companies came up with some different features where around 6 players can play at a time. Ludo Emperor is way different from the existing games. It is a level up of the basic Ludo game that people generally play. It gives you real time gaming experience due to its high quality graphics and features.
We have used strong and standard animations in the game to make it look more realistic. Apart from this, we took the idea from the ancient mythology for graphics as well as the gaming pattern. In this game, you have to conquer your kingdom after passing the hurdles and defeating other kings on your way. This all together makes Ludo Emperor eccentric.
Q. Which Creative Monkey Games title sees the most amount of player engagement, and why? What would you say are the 5 best cricket games on mobile in 2021?
Currently, World Cricket Battle 2 is our most popular game, and one of the top cricket titles. It has the most engagement and the reason is we have an exclusive free My Career mode. Any cricket fan who wants to start their virtual career in cricket can use our game, this is one of our biggest USPs that we have in our team.
I would definitely say that our game HAYDOS 380, on which we are working recently, is the official cricket game of Matthew Hayden, and that will be the top cricket game in 2021.
Q. What do the next 5 years look like for Creative Monkey Games? What are some of the visions you have for your company in the near future?
Next five years will be a stepping stone for the growth of the company. Next couple of years look pretty good and favourable for the company.
There ain’t a lot of Indian gaming companies who are renowned in the world. Our vision is of being the top gaming company from India in the world. We also aim to reach all our target audience around the world.
