Calcutta: Motherhood brings out a lot in a woman, including an idea to develop a game.
Guwahati girl Aditi Das Bhowmik, now residing in Singapore, has just launched Run Fairy Run, an Android game.
The game, available for download on Google Playstore, is an endless runner game centred around a fairy who has lost her power to fly because of an evil witch who has stolen a precious talisman from the fairy castle. The fairy must overcome all odds to get back the stone before it is too late. The witch has cast a spell of magical objects throughout the path and dispatched her stooges to stop her. How far can the fairy go to get her power back?
Aditi could not take up a job as a software developer because she did not want to put her daughter in a daycare. “Every time I left her in daycare she would fall ill. So I decided to be a stay-at-home mom,” she said.
While at home, she and her husband Shourabh chanced upon an idea of her designing a computer game or an app. “I was always keen on working in this field,” Aditi said.
Even while working with Cognizant and Oracle, she would come up with computer games or app designs. “But working in MNCs hardly gives you any time to spare, let alone work on an individual idea,” she added.
A student of St Mary’s Convent, Maligaon, followed by higher secondary in Cotton College, Aditi is an out-and-out Guwahati girl, who misses the charms of the city, particularly during Bihu. “I miss the city buses, the streets, the people, the food, the culture, in fact, everything.”
“I studied electronics and telecommunication in Assam Engineering College, Guwahati, and I always wanted to do something creative back then, too,” she added. She graduated in 2005.
Working on the game since 2014, she learnt the tricks of app development from books and tutorials on YouTube with a few tips from her software engineer husband. “It took me two years to complete the game,” said Aditi.
“I used open source and free software available online to develop the game, as I could not comprehend how much money my game would make,” she added.
Earning from the venture will come from in-app purchases and also from advertisements that feature during the game. “I have tried to keep the number of advertisements to a minimum so that they do not become obtrusive in the way of having a great user experience.”
Though “challenging” is the word that players who downloaded the game used repeatedly, it can be enjoyed by all age groups, The Telegraph reported.
Nischol Dev, who works as senior operations and marketing executive at Transrail Logistics in Guwahati, just loved it. “You cannot play the game without applying your mind. You have to be very fast with your fingers too,” said the self-professed game enthusiast.
“It is a very exciting game. There is not a dull moment and you have to be very alert or else you are dead,” said Sayan Das, a teacher at a private institute in Guwahati.
Tech entrepreneur Prakhar Bindal said it was too early to assess the app, as it was launched only this month. “Right now it has only 10 downloads. We have to wait for at least 100 to review it,” he said.
“The game is good and the logic works well. I played it and it was quite challenging. The UI/UX (design & graphics) needs an upgrade though for the game to become popular. Most users want to play good-looking games. I think it is a very good effort from the developer considering it is her first game for the app store,” he added.