South Korean gaming giant Krafton has broadened the regional scope of its India-focused incubator, Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), and announced its second cohort comprising six startups involving strategic partners.Anuj Sawhney, head of Krafton India Incubator Programme, told Moneycontrol that they have teams from emerging gaming hubs like Kolkata, Mumbai and Madurai in the upcoming cohort.The selected startups include Madurai-based indie studio Cleanup Games that is building Chromady, a retro arcade shoot-’em-up video game focused on colour-mixing mechanics and high-score action. Led by studio director Jaywant Shanmugam, the game is set to release in 2026. It is expected to be available on iOS, Android and PC (Steam Deck).Advait Interactive is developing Inspectorium, a hidden object detective game set in a steampunk-inspired version of Victorian-era Kolkata. Founded by Judhajit Sarkar, the episodic detective game will feature artificial intelligence-powered interrogations and immersive puzzle-solving. It is expected to be released between 2025 and 2026 on mobile, PC, and virtual reality (VR) platforms.Bengaluru-based Smash Head Studios is building Cricket Rivals, a fast-paced, real-time multiplayer mobile game that redefines the feel of cricket with quick, competitive matches. Co-founded by Surendran Ramachandran and Pawan Sandhar, the studio has previously developed titles such as Gravity Shooter (an action shooter game).Mumbai-based indie studio, Singular Schemes, is working on Frontier Paladins, a role-playing game (RPG) with action-tower defense elements, set in a cursed battlefield filled with divine relics and ancient enemies. This is the second title for the Ahad Omarbhoy-led studio and is now available as a public demo on Valve’s Steam platform.New Delhi-based studio Ginger Games is developing Monkey Mayhem, a vibrant hybrid-casual action-adventure mobile game based on the quirky “Monkey Universe”. The game is the story of a brave monkey named Piklu who is on a chaotic mission to save his friends and is scheduled to release in February 2026. The studio was founded by Shrey Mishra, Sumit Batheja, and Piyush Kumar in 2024.Unwind Games, a Hyderabad-based mobile studio founded by Jayant Shukla and Khojeema Abuwala, is developing a simple puzzle game called Baobao’s Journey, about a panda on a quest to build his dream mountain home.Over the next 6 to 12 months, these game developers will receive specialized guidance from industry experts in game development, design, marketing, and business strategy. They will also get financial support of $50,000-150,000, as well as access to Krafton’s internal resources, including data analytics and market research.”During Cohort 1, we were really picky about selecting the teams. But with Cohort 2, we have relaxed our selection criteria a bit because we understand that the growth stage is very new,” Sahni said. “We are also taking a little more risk this time by backing very early-stage startups, including people straight out of college or with limited experience,” Sahni said.He added that Krafton will provide intensive technical support to the teams in the upcoming group. “We realized that this was one of the problems in the first group, which we are solving in the second group,” he said.Sahani also said that though there are a lot of gaming companies, there is not enough support for young developers or new startups to grow and learn on their own.To provide game developers with the tools they need to develop and scale competitive gaming experiences globally, the company has on boarded partners such as Excelbyte (which is a game backend platform that lets studios build, publish, and operate live service games), Liftoff’s GameRefinery (which is a data-driven mobile game optimization tool provider) and AppMagic (which is a mobile app market intelligence solution provider).Amazon’s cloud unit Amazon Web Services will also provide cloud credits worth $10,000 to these startups.KIGI was first announced by the South Korean gaming giant in October 2023. It is focused solely on supporting video game development, a shift from Krafton’s investment strategy in India, in which it has backed startups in the broader digital entertainment and creator economy sectors in recent years.Talking on this topic Aditya sahay said “KIGi has been a boon for developers. It has been giving resources to game developers and has also encouraged them to dream and turn them into reality.Indian talent when complemented with global tools and mentors, a revolution is bound to happen in the gaming industry.
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