BENGALURU: You don’t meet a person who has a unique passion, every day. Soorya Rajkumar is one such. He is an avid gamer, but he plays only to learn to develop games. This Chennai-based Computer Science Engineering student, now has the perfect recipe to balance both studies and his love for games.
Soorya started gaming when he was in Class 2. “I started with classic games like Pacman and Road Rash. My dad used to get them for me,” he says. His parents were always supportive of his love for video games. “In fact, they kept me updated about the new games in the market. Unlike others who have various interests, mine is just this,” he adds.
He was raised in Chennai and Singapore, and staying in different cities, gave him exposure. “I got my first PC in Singapore. I started buying more video games and started playing Assasin’s Creed and Call of Duty,” he says. After finishing his boards, he got an internship in Dubai. “I worked for Samsung in an expo. I bought my own console with my salary. After that, I started gaming more seriously. Now I play only console games,” he explains adding his love for first person shooter games like Destiny and Destiny 2. “The Destiny series piqued my interest and I can play it at a stretch,” he smiles.
Soorya has his own set-up in his house and he plays at least six hours every day. “After my class 12, I had a lot of time, so I used to play the whole day. Now I juggle between college, assignments and games,” he says.
His clan is called Darth Potatoes. “Actually we wanted to name it Dark Potatoes. But then we thought, it might be considered racist. Since most of my clanmates are fans of Star Wars, we decided to name it Darth Potatoes,” he laughs. The members are from different parts of the country. “I feel lucky to have found them since none of my friends share the same passion for gaming. Now I have my own squad,” says Soorya who connected with his team about a year ago.
So what does he think of the gaming scene in India? “It’s pretty good. Initially when I started playing, I was not in India. In Singapore and Dubai it is already in its peak. Here it is developing and there is a lot of business in this field right now. But there’s no proper platform to support players. We have some amazing gamers in India and it would be nice to have a strong community,” he points out.
Soorya is not a fan of participating in competitions as he has tight schedule. He is rather clear about his goal. “I plan to make games and contribute to the gaming community. I want to study abroad and specialise in this field. I would like to make games for adults, mostly FPS kind,” he says. For newbies he has a few tips. “It doesn’t matter what game you start with, you should have an open mindset. I would suggest you play all the games and see what you like.”