In Somewhere, players set out for Kayamgadh, a mythical city of storytellers in colonial India. In order to navigate through this city, a gamer takes on the avatar of a treasure hunter, detective or ghost buster.
We tried three games at an event held by India Foundation for The Arts (IFA) at Voxelscapes, Koramangala. In the first game, A Museum of Dubious Splendours you wander through a museum and, following a narrative that offers clues to the nature of a secret object, you open doors to discover if what you've guessed is right.
The next game, In the Pause Between the Ringing, sends a chill down the spine. A telephone rings and a ghostly tale — complete with eerie background score by Salil Bhayani, who composes the music for all Oleomingus’ games — ensues as the player goes in search of the
sutradhar (narrator). “This game was commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the exhibition Video Games: Design/Play/Disrupt,” says Dhruv, a graduate in exhibition and spatial design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.
The third game, though, An Indivisible Margin of Error was the most interactive involving objects like cubes, triangles, chairs, and more. “In this two-player game you can alter the scale of objects by turning the perspective in a physical space.”
The company won a grant of around ₹3 lakh from IFA to develop three games. “The games were built under the grant and often with the support from other people. They have also been supported by The Irregular Corporation, an independent UK publisher,">
Video games may seem far removed from high culture, but game designers have seamlessly bridged the gap between the two worlds in Somewhere. The duo develop their games on SketchUp, a small Google project created a few years ago, primarily for architects. “It has a relatively clean interface and you can build plug-ins etc. The games have been compiled in 3D and written on Kiln, our own software,”.
A Museum of Dubious Splendours is on Steam, a software that helps you build, manage, buy, and sell games. Somewhere is currently being developed for Windows, Linux and Mac.
The games are already garnering attention in the world of gamers. “We have a small but dedicated audience, and our work has been written about on various video game magazines and websites".
We were inspired by games like Tangiers, The Stanley Parable, and older games like Gotta Go. I also read EM Forster, JJ Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, and Italo Calvino. I was inspired by Girish Karnad’s plays too. I see video games as an extension of theatre.”
Are video games an extension to theatre
In Somewhere, players set out for Kayamgadh, a mythical city of storytellers in colonial India. In order to navigate through this city, a gamer takes on the avatar of a treasure hunter, detective or ghost buster.
We tried three games at an event held by India Foundation for The Arts (IFA) at Voxelscapes, Koramangala. In the first game, A Museum of Dubious Splendours you wander through a museum and, following a narrative that offers clues to the nature of a secret object, you open doors to discover if what you've guessed is right.
The next game, In the Pause Between the Ringing, sends a chill down the spine. A telephone rings and a ghostly tale — complete with eerie background score by Salil Bhayani, who composes the music for all Oleomingus’ games — ensues as the player goes in search of the sutradhar (narrator). “This game was commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the exhibition Video Games: Design/Play/Disrupt,” says Dhruv, a graduate in exhibition and spatial design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.
The third game, though, An Indivisible Margin of Error was the most interactive involving objects like cubes, triangles, chairs, and more. “In this two-player game you can alter the scale of objects by turning the perspective in a physical space.”
The company won a grant of around ₹3 lakh from IFA to develop three games. “The games were built under the grant and often with the support from other people. They have also been supported by The Irregular Corporation, an independent UK publisher,">
Video games may seem far removed from high culture, but game designers have seamlessly bridged the gap between the two worlds in Somewhere. The duo develop their games on SketchUp, a small Google project created a few years ago, primarily for architects. “It has a relatively clean interface and you can build plug-ins etc. The games have been compiled in 3D and written on Kiln, our own software,”.
A Museum of Dubious Splendours is on Steam, a software that helps you build, manage, buy, and sell games. Somewhere is currently being developed for Windows, Linux and Mac.
The games are already garnering attention in the world of gamers. “We have a small but dedicated audience, and our work has been written about on various video game magazines and websites".
We were inspired by games like Tangiers, The Stanley Parable, and older games like Gotta Go. I also read EM Forster, JJ Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, and Italo Calvino. I was inspired by Girish Karnad’s plays too. I see video games as an extension of theatre.”
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