HYDERABAD: From being introduced to gaming with tiny hand held consoles, slowly evolving to the Sega and Nintendo Video games and eventually bringing out the pro-gamer in us with PC games, playstations and X-boxes, video games have been an integral part of Generation X’s upbringing. Classics such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario, Contra, Pac Man still linger on among new age favourites such as FIFA, Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty and so on, adding to the positive and empowering effect on the gamer’s psyche. It is no wonder that gaming is such an addictive pastime.
Here’s one such person who decided to make his pastime a profession. Meet Anirudh Cheruvu, a corporate dropout and self-taught game designer who is now developing India’s first martial arts-based game, Eternal Vengeance, soon to be released on both Android and iOS. Born in Hyderabad and raised in Nellore before moving to Houston, Texas, where he completed his schooling, Anirudh returned to India to pursue his engineering. After graduation, Anirudh worked as a technical support associate at Mahindra Satyam where the major turning point in his life came about. “After eight months of aimless work the question “What is the kind of job that is so good that you would pay to work there?” posed by my guide and philosopher Ravi Venkatesam came to mind,” says Anirudh. It was then that he decided to take up game design and there was no looking back.
“I self-taught about game design and joined Osprey Games, an online gaming company, as a Game Designer. Then I got an offer from GameShastra as a copywriter. I took up the job and worked for 10 months,” recalls Anirudh. Hoping to pursue a career in game designing, he joined MAAC and did a Diploma course in Game Design and Integration, while conducting workshops on game design and development in more than 30 engineering colleges for over 20,000 students. Anirudh went on to work for various organisations such as Twist Mobile (Indore), Xerces games(Pune) and Juego Studios (Bangalore) where he worked on over 13 games while deploying six, notable ones which include Bull Fighter, Candy blobs, Kick, Bang Bang, Ronnie Cop, Medieval Battalion, and Last Stand. “Bull Fighter went on to be #1 Casual game in Spain on iOS platform in 2014,” says Anirudh. He is also planning to design a game that can counter the infamous Blue Whale Challenge.
“I am going to name it red whale challenge and help people get rid of suicidal tendencies,” he informs.
After finishing his masters degree in design from UCOL, New Zealand, Anirudh is now working on developing two games in association with Xerces games and Puppet Masters Interactive, an Auckland game development startup. “Eternal Vengeance is India’s first martial arts RPG game. I am also developing Celestial, a planet colonisation simulation strategy edutainment game. This is a game about making humans a multi-planetary species, colonising the planets and stars. It’s a cool, simulation strategy game with soothing music. Both are my brainchildren that are coming soon on Android and iOS,” he says, while adding that it would not have been possible without the support of his family. “My sister is the reason behind this project. She is a homemaker with two kids back in Hyderabad and had learned about game development from me over the Skype in last two months and had been working on this project since then.”
Drawing inspiration from woman game designer, Jane McGonigal, Anirudh has come a long way in a short span. His skills have garnered widespread coverage in New Zealand, where he has been showcasing his games before their official release. He also plans to come up games that can help people battle depression.