Gamitronics’ Rajat Ojha Tell Us What Makes a Game Skill Great
Rajat Ojha has been there and done that.
As the CEO and founder of Gamitronics, he has been in the heart of the gaming industry for the good part of the last two decades. Rajat and I sat down to talk about how voice gaming will be the next frontier in this new decade. Rajat also shared some strategies and learnings from building the Chhota Bheem Adventures – one of the most popular skills on Alexa. Here are some snippets from our chat:
Rajat pointed out that in India there is a culture of storytelling, and games like Antakshari which rely on voice and communication, have been popular with all generations.
Rajat did a deep-dive on the Chhota Bheem skill – which is based on the wildly popular kids TV show of the same name. He spoke about how designing and developing a voice game is not just about having characters and an interesting story but more about creating an environment where kids can let their imagination roam. By using elements from the TV show they were able to create familiarity with the worlds within the skill.
When we play a video game, the audio cues are complimentary to the visuals that are being displayed on the screen. But when creating a voice-first game, audio cues are important to create an immersive experience. Rajat talks about the challenges of creating, as he calls it, a “non-visual game”.
The Chhota Bheem game follows the choose-your-own-adventure mechanic. Rajat noticed that kids who completed the game would discuss the different endings they experienced, creating a community around the game. This also increased the re-playability as the children wanted to experience the other endings of the game as well.
Rajat concluded the interview with some advice for aspiring voice game developers. He mentioned that we have a breadth of mythological stories and beloved folk characters to draw inspiration from and these stories are perfectly suited to build for voice.
Watch the interview in its entirety below to hear about Rajat’s opinions about how voice will drive Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces, how board games are using voice, and what his favourite game of all time is.
Hear from Cosine Labs about How Voice Is the New Interface for Smart Home Devices
Hear about the application of voice in smart homes and how voice has fundamentally changed the interface that people use to interact with smart home devices
Klove Chef shares insights about bringing voice to the culinary world
Hear about the intuitiveness of voice interfaces and how it forms the perfect fit to assist someone while cooking