Saturday, March 23, 2024

Kreeda: Dance Mela – A World of Video Games, Dance and Fun

Kreeda Games

If you go and ask any Indian gamer, well let’s leave alone the “gamer” part, if you go and ask any Indian about video games, chances are there he will say that video games are something that has been made for kids, has shooting and racing. Though there is a mushrooming community of gamers coming up in India, there are still many people who would shun from calling themselves gamers.

But dancing in India is huge. Indians love to dance. Be it salsa, jive, cha cha cha, Odissi or even dancing in Bollywood style, they can dance anywhere and at anytime. Even as I write this article, my workmates are excitedly practicing the moves they learnt at a hobby dance class yesterday. Indian gaming company Kreeda Games aims to change the perception of gaming in India by using the passion of dance that exists in Indians.

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We were invited to have a look at Kreeda’s office in suburban Mumbai. At first glance, the office of Kreeda Games reminds you of an office of a tech startup company. The Kreeda office is located in a building but the premises remind you of a basement with minimal furniture. There is ample space around; in fact the first thought that hit me was, maybe all the folks who work here would be dancing in the space around them sometime or the other.

First up we met Sharan Tulsiani, an employee with a keen interest in games, he said that gaming is not just something that we used to do in dark cyber cafes and play Counter Strike online. A person can go out, use his/her creativity, understand how a game should work, the story and the game mechanics in the online environment.

Sharan says, “I have been working in the gaming industry in India for just about three years now. It has been a great ride. I think when we first started off with gaming, there wasn’t much buzz. People didn’t know what you did. People actually confused ‘gaming’ with ‘gambling’. It was that bad!”

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Dance Mela

He spoke about his experiences in the gaming industry and compared gaming to what Doordarshan was a few decades ago. At that time, when you said TV, people just understood Doordarshan. Same was the case with gaming a few years ago, as when you used to tell people about games, they used to think it is Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament. But gaming is much more than that.

Coming back to the initially mentioned dancing angle, Kreeda Games recently acquired the localization rights of the popular game
“Dance Dance Revolution”. The company has the due credit of bringing the title to India, molding it in the Indianized style and content, and publishing it too. The Indian-version is called “Dance Mela”.

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“Stuff like Dance Mela etc are softer and have human interaction. That’s what matured in India in the last three years in gaming. The level of content that has come out has started catering to non gamers and there is an attempt being made in trying to convert them to and move them into the gaming sphere. Gaming is something that you can participate in, just like television or radio. That has been my experience in the last three years,” said Sharan whilst speaking about Dance Mela.

It was a nice experience to play Dance Mela. All you need is a normal PC (no heavy duty expensive stuff needed). You need to install the game and start playing. It’s that simple! The real fun is on the dance may that just cost a thousand bucks. The game has decent graphics. Apart from the mat, Dance Mela can be played on the PC also. Once you are registered, you can log in and just walk into the virtual lounges or even make your own dance room. The dance rooms are a place where you can interact with your buddies or make new ones!

Dance Mela is not just a game, it is becoming something like a Second Life for Indians and many people are using it to make new friends and meet new people. The gameplay is great as all you have to do is select a song, adjust the level and start dancing to peppy Bollywood numbers. But there are some points that we didn’t like about the game. The main thing that left us bewildered was that it is not possible for users with a mat and those without to play together. The other is that Dance Mela requires an internet connection to play, which is not good as if you just want to chill out alone or if the net connection is down (which happens often in India), you wouldn’t be able to play the game. A LAN option would be better-suited.

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Kreeda Games Office

However, one thing that has the users excited is the customization and the various types of modes that are present in Dance Mela. You can alter your avatar and dress it up the way you want, t-shirts, tops, pants (even leather pants), gloves! Just name the clothing accessory and chances are that you will find them in the game. In fact, Kreeda was kind enough to put a resident stylist in the game, who gives tips on styling.

Rupali Arte, a product head for Dance Mela, said, “There is an aspect for taking over an avatar, in which you create your own 3D animated character, you can be Lara Croft if you feel like it. But these are more casual, more club going kind of really fit women. The people in Dance Mela are great. It is a really a fun loving, calm, sneaked environment. You can get slimming potions. The environment is very light, very relaxing, very fun!”

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Another key aspect of Dance Mela is the music. It sure is very perky and gives a zing to the game and thereby attracts more and more new users! The music, editing and placements for Dance Mela have been done by Rajveer Kothari, who also has his own show in the game, just like Sharan and Rupali. We spoke to him about Dance Mela and our conversation drifted to a very important topic – Careers in the Indian gaming industry. He was kind enough to share his experience at Kreeda.

Rajveer explains, “I am doing music editing and community management. So for a person who wants to get into gaming, he should firstly have a lot of love and passion for gaming as the most important factor. If you do not enjoy gaming, this is not a place for you. You should enjoy playing games, and know what you really want to do in gaming. There is a lot of space in gaming even for animators and programmers.”

Kreeda has made an effort to change the way people in India are looking towards video games, and it does look like the effort has paid off to quite a great extent. Though Dance Mela is Kreeda’s first game, it has got a lot of attention, mainly because they have promoted it in an appropriate way. Of course, what remains to be seen is whether Kreeda will get more games like Dance Mela or whether they will cave into the needs of the hardcore gamers in India and get a shooter, a racing game or even a cricket title!

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