Lately, we got to thinking about games and game design when browsing for a new game for our phones. Our search was fruitful when we came across a pretty inspirational game designer in our presence. He designed a game called ‘Baby Ganesha‘ for mobile platforms and showcased the game as a project on IndieFolio. You can check out his profile here.
We decided to talk to him and ask him a few questions about everything we could think of when it comes to game design. He was very sweet in lending his responses and opinions over here. Read his interview and check out his art below.
Tell us a little about you. Who are you? What do you do? How long have you have been designing games?
Hi, I’m Yogesh R Pugaonkar. I was born and brought up in Mumbai. I am an artist who is currently working in the Gaming, Animation and Comics industry. I am a self-taught artist and I’ve been working for 14 -15 years now.
I pursue what my heart tells me because there’s no point leading a compromised life which I might regret later. Doing as many different things as possible and/or doing them as differently as possible explains why each work of art I create belongs to a different genre. I love art, games and comics and my passion for these things is what allows me to juggle between various assignments in these industries.
What software did you need to build Baby Ganesha?
The engine of Baby Ganesha was made in Unity 3D from scratch. It took a lot of time for me and my programmer, Shantanu Salvi, to learn and understand the Unity 3D software. Then the whole setup was made with 3D depth background and foreground.
How did you get the art for the game done? Did you do it yourself or did you have help? What software did you use to create the art assets?
The concept, art, characters and the overall look and feel for Baby Ganesha was made by me. No ready-made elements were used and our result was a new and fresh look for our game.
We wanted this game to be vibrant with simple but prominent visuals where users can feel the dazzling Himalayan environment. Vivid, rich, colourful were the key attributes we kept in mind while designing the backgrounds and characters for Baby Ganesha. We wanted it to be funny so the character designs were made accordingly. Another unique element of this game is the voices you hear. The voice-over of the characters are have been loved by the players. The most appreciated ones are ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, ‘Wow! Laddoos!’, ‘Yummy’ by the titular Baby Ganesha character. The voice-over for Baby Ganesha is given by our little 4.5 year old star, Rudra. The art of Baby Ganesha was made in Gimp, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. The concept art of the characters, backgrounds and gameplay layout were all made on paper first.
Why did you choose to work on designing a game? What games have you enjoyed / do you enjoy playing on your mobile phone?
Gaming is a part of my life. Right from my childhood I have been inspired by the games I played. I’ve had a robust evolution from playing simple brick games to 8 and 16 bit games then a Sega then on Nintendo before moving on to the Sony Playstation 1, Sony Playstation 2 and now next generation games. I used to wonder about how the games for these platforms are made. My mind would go into this state of fascination by just staring at the pixels as they moved. Super Mario, Road Rash, Contra, Ninja Gaiden were some of my favourite games on the 8 bit platform. Then it was Top Gear, Sunset Riders, Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter which found a place in my heart. Street Fighter ended up being my favourite and it’s the game that inspired me so strongly in my childhood that it made me an artist today. It’s my dream to work with CAPCOM some day. One day, maybe this dream could come true. In Mobile Games – Jetpack Joyride, Shadow Fight, Dan the Man, Vector are some games I have played and enjoyed. But I still play ‘Street Fighter’ with an emulator on my phone.
What made you think of choosing ‘Baby Ganesha’ as your game theme? What inspired you to choose this? Tell us about the game in brief –
Baby Ganesha is meant to be a casual game. We wanted to make a simple game so that everyone from kids to adults can enjoy it. The other motive of this game is to give the player a soothing experience that’s balanced with fun and adventure as the game proceeds.
We put a lot of focus on graphics as we felt that the visuals will give players the experience we had in mind for them. The main concept of Baby Ganesha is about an ancient story in which Lord Ganesha teaches the lesson of humility and love to Kubera. Here’s the story in-short :
Kubera is the god of wealth and riches in Hindu mythology. Kubera is worshipped for bringing prosperity and wealth even though Goddess Laxmi is also worshipped for bringing prosperity in the house. Kubera has his followers mainly in the business and trader community. Once upon a time, Kubera grew far too proud of his wealth. He wanted to show it off to the world so he decided to have a big ceremony in his palace where he planned to offer a feast to everyone. He invited thousands of important guests. He also went to Lord Shiva’s place to invite him.
Now, Lord Shiva knows everything. Nothing is hidden from him. He could see that the invitation was not out of devotion or love for him but for Kubera to show off his own riches. Seeing his intentions as impure, Lord Shiva said “I cannot come but my little son Ganesha will come. Take care because he is a voracious eater so you better serve him well.”
Kubera was very confident that he would be able to serve Ganesha very well. So he went back to his place and started preparing for the grand feast.
On the appointed day, all the guests came by and so did Baby Ganesha. Kubera took Baby Ganesha inside the palace and did the ceremonial rituals of welcoming the guest then offered food to him. In no time, it was eaten by Ganesha. More food was served and it again disappeared inside Ganesha’s belly within no time. One of the names of Lord Ganesha is ‘lambodara’ which means the huge bellied lord. Ganesha ate all the food which was meant to be served to every guest that was present.
Seeing this, Kubera panicked. He asked Ganesha to wait untill the cooks could make more food but Ganesha was in no mood to relent or wait. He told Kubera to give him more food otherwise he would eat everything there, including him and his palace. To prove how serious he was, Lord Ganesha started devouring plates, utensils and other items in the palace.
In an extremely frantic state, Kubera went to Lord Shiva and asked for forgiveness along with the solution to satiate Baby Ganesha’s hunger. Lord Shiva asked Kubera to give the boy a handful of roasted rice with love and humility. Kubera did the same and Lord Ganesha was satisfied.
So, this is the actual story but we envisioned something slightly different. In our version, Kubera also came to Lord Shiva to ask for forgiveness and a solution to satiate the Baby Ganesha’s hunger but Lord Shiva had a different plan in mind. With his supreme powers, he created a fantasy world that was shaped into a journey without an end. In this creation of Lord Shiva, his baby could have fun running around gobbling the desserts he loves (modaks, laddus, barfis) in a never ending adventure which he (and the player) can jump into anytime. This is how our ‘Baby Ganesha’ concept was born.
Lord Ganesha is loved by everyone. He doesn’t need any occasion or festival to worship him. But yes, the Ganpati Festival was the main reason and perfect time to introduce our character ‘Baby Ganesha’. And since we didn’t want the player to be stuck with a single choice for a character, they can also play as Baby Kartikeya on a peacock.
What difficulties and problems did you face while making this game? Was the background score created specifically for the game?
We are a team of 2-4 and the production cost solely depends on me. As I have already invested everything I have on my character ‘KROMN’ and its game which is in production, it was impossible to invest on Baby Ganesha’s music production. So we decided to use royalty free music – Like Music (cdk Mix) by cdk (c) copyright 2015 Phasenwandler.
But the music of ‘KROMN’ will be its unique element as it’s being specially created according to the style of the character and the action the game packs. The music of ‘KROMN’ is being composed by the most talented and the youngest music director of Bollywood, ‘Advait Nemlekar’. Advait has made music for many Bollywood movies, music albums and title tracks for many cartoon series. You can expect a great sounding game when ‘KROMN’ comes out. A customised sound is something that Baby Ganesha lacked but ‘KROMN’ will have a lot of attention paid to the music and sounds that will be involved.
What help did you get / Who helped you to make your game so big that 10,000+ people have downloaded and played it?
When we published the game, it was done individually by me. But it was a joyful moment when India’s leading gaming company ‘Nazara Entertainment’ showed interest in publishing ‘Baby Ganesha’. Their dedicated marketing team made this possible. On the merits of the game and its marketing, the user base for Baby Ganesha is growing day by day.
If not game design, what else would you have worked as?
Along with my personal gaming Projects like – KROMN , BABY GANESHA and more in production, I have a full-time 9 hours job as Lead Artist in a Mumbai based gaming company. I also work in comics as a penciller and colorist.
‘KROMN’, my brainchild, a new Indian superhero is my dream project and I am sharpening my skills for it. You will see this character in games and comics soon.
Is there any advice you would give to somebody who wants to create their own game?
The first thing I would tell somebody who wants to do this is that making games is not as simple as it looks. It’s a very serious commitment that goes beyond just drawings and printing. It has loads of technical issues which will make you lose hope or quit. But I recommend anyone to go with a simple approach for their first time. If it is successful then think about it like you’re in a role-playing game; treat it as a level up and continue on your quest. And making games individually is a pain as it need lots of time, research, financial backup and also a risk. I have three members on my team (including myself) listed below
Yogesh R Pugaonkar – The creator, direction-art-animation, project managager, testing, producer and business handling.
Shantanu Salvi – The second most important person in the team. A very talented Programmer, tester, assistant in project management and post production handling.
Rita Pugaonkar- Project management, concept – story- content writer. The main pillar and support of our team.
Any last words to leave our readers?
If you are ready for the hassles that game design will throw your way, nothing can stop you.
A big thank you to Yogesh for answering all our questions and we hope you download Baby Ganesha and see how far you can go to feed the little god.