Hyderabad, October 23: “I will throw your computer out!” How many times have you driven your parents to yell at you so?
The experience of V Jayanth Kumar has been similar. With his addiciton to gaming, he drove his parents mad many a times. Little did his family or Jayanth himself know that a gaming career awaited him in an activity that seemed a sheer waste of time.
“I had completed IT engineering from a city college. I was desperate to find a job at a time when the IT and software industry was hit by the recession. I then came across a job in the gaming industry and immediately took it up. Though I was discouraged in the beginning, I wanted to give it a try as I loved gaming,” says Jayanth (25).
Jayanth is a games tester in one of the leading multinational companies at Madhapur.
As part of his job, he is required to play games on xbox, playstation, websites and on computers. Later, he has to report on errors and bugs in it which come to his notice. “It may sound easy, but is not. I have to play with a negative frame of mind and use creativity in order to spot abnormalities in the game,” he says. He is however happy with his job and has already received increments and promotions.
The gaming industry which was relatively unknown till even a decade ago, has emerged as one of the largest industries and has had a strong impact on Hyderabad.
With gaming biggies such as the Gameloft and Gameshastra in the city, more and more youngsters are pursuing this lucrative career.
T Vishwanath is another youngster who has completed a course in games development software.
His ambition is to create a computer game which would create ripples in the international market.
“Right now I am part of a team in a company which develops sports games. Creating virtual world and characters out of nothing is challenging and an exciting task. From the monetary angle too, I am quite satisfied with the job,” he says.
The sector has a need for a large number of professionals for support operations like planning and management in the gaming companies.
Training institutes for gaming are mushrooming in the city over the past few years. One such institute is Backstagepass.
The institute offers four-year degree courses in Bachelor in Fine Arts (game art and game design) and B.Tech (CS and game development ) in collaboration with the Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University.
“A lot of gaming companies have been trying to invest in India and lack of talent is the hinderance they are facing. That is one reason we had to come up with the school dedicated to teaching games,” Backstagepass managing director Surya Prakash says.
So, for all those of you who just cannot get enough of computer games, just hang on to that mouse and the monitor. A whole gaming world is out there, waiting for you.
–Agencies