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It's been a wild year for us at SuperGaming building Indus with you. From having our battle royale showcased to the world to finally having it playable in your hands, 2023 has been a year of testing, fixing, polishing, and doing it all over again. And we're not done yet. Far from it. But before we get into that, here's a recap of everything we did through the year.
January 2023: Indus Gameplay Trailer
We revealed our first gameplay trailer for Indus on January 26, 2023 — India's Republic Day. Along with this, we released a series of high-impact take overs across the biggest locations in London. More importantly, we took pre-registrations for the game live on January 26 as well.
February 2023: Surat Community Playtest
To celebrate the community's love and support for Indus, we took the game to Surat — India's fastest-growing city — on February 25, 2023. Our previous playtests had us get valuable feedback from players in Pune and Bengaluru which helped us make a better game. With some of the most hardcore battle royale players being from Surat, their feedback was invaluable in shaping a better game.
March 2023: Heena and Mor-Ni Avatars
On March 9, we revealed our first collaboration — with Olympic Pistol Shooter Heena Sidhu. She will feature in Indus as a playable character or avatar as we call them in-game. Heena Sidhu is the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in the world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and is the first Indian to win gold at an ISSF World Cup finals event. In addition to this, we also revealed details on Mor-Ni, another playable avatar with a strong connection to the game's lore.
March 2023: Indus at Game Developers Conference San Francisco
We had a cosmic welcome at GDC 2023 from March 20 to March 24, 2023. So much so that we'll let the video do the talking:
April 2023: Indus YouTube Channel Hits 100,000 Subscribers
On April 26, we revealed that our YouTube channel hit a 100,000 subscribers. Thank you for joining us on this journey. And if you're reading this, do like, share, and subscribe.
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May 2023: Indus Insiders Creators Program
On May 8, we announced our content creator program. This empowers select content creators to grow with Indus. Our game has been built from the ground up with the community and content creators and we've seen stunning results. If you missed out the first time around to be a part of something special, stay tuned to our socials for an update to the program in early 2024.
June 2023: Indus X Stuff Magazine
In what was possible the biggest milestone in recent memory, Indus graced the cover of an international publication — Stuff Magazine on June 7. Along with this, we talked about how we're building with the community, our esports roadmap, and how we make our avatars. You can check it out for yourself here. We also had our first esports playest 10 days later.
July 2023: Google Gameface and SuperGaming Partnership
At SuperGaming we want everyone to play games and more importantly, have a level and inclusive playing field for all players. With Indus, we’ve partnered with Google to do just that. We added custom support to the Indus Engine for Project Gameface. This is an open-source hands-free mouse that enables people to control a computer's cursor using their head movement and facial gestures.
People can raise their eyebrows to click and drag, or open their mouth to move the cursor, making it possible for anyone to play games. With Gameface, there's a wider set of accessibility options so no player is left behind. Through the year we had players try this out at events such as Google I/O Bengaluru, AI Week 2023 in Seoul, and IGDC 2023 to name a few. The feedback was beyond our wildest expectations. Thank you.
August 2023: Indus Closed Beta Trailer
On the eve of India's Indepdence Day, we went live with our Indus Closed Beta trailer. Featuring real-life aspirational icons such as Olympic pistol shooter Heena Sidhu, India’s leading gaming YouTuber Techno Gamerz as well as popular content creators such as Magsplay and GamerFleet, we promised you that the game would go into closed beta this festive season.
September 2023: Indus Flash Playtest
In September we opened up our studio to the community in Pune to come in and check out the game. Their enthusiasm and feedback helped make Indus better.
October 2023: First Indus Esports Invitational
We announced our first ever esports invitational with a Rs. 10,000,000 prize pool held on October 28. Congratulations to Reckoning Esports for being our first champions. Oh, and we also ended up winning studio of the year at the India Gaming Awards.
November 2023: Pokhran Avatar, Indus X Fortnite, and IGDC 2023 Award
November was an extremely busy month for us. First up, we announced that Indus was coming to Fortnite complete with a trailer on November 3. We also won the most popular game award at the Indian Game Developers Conference 2023. And we also revealed our newest playable avatar, Pokhran.
December 2023: Mech Balika Avatar and Limited Closed Beta aka Tech Fest 01
On December 12 we showed off Mech Balika, another playable avatar in Indus. In line with Indus' celebration of India Mech Balika's design was deeply inspired by Rajasthani culture, particularly Kathputli — string puppet theatre native to Rajasthan. Along with this, her unique look pays homage to clothing and colour choices that the state is known for.
And finally on December 25 we finally revealed that our limited closed beta for Indus aka Tech Fest 01 was live giving you a chance to play Indus on your own device. No playtest required. If you want to play Indus before launch, check out the details here.
So what's next?
We announced Indus to the world on January 26, 2022 and we're grateful that your support has brought us this far. As we've said above: 2023 has been a year of testing, fixing, polishing, and doing it all over again. These experiences have strengthened our resolve to ship Indus to you in 2024.
More importantly, we hope that Indian game developers are encouraged and inspired to make in India for the world. Streaming and showcasing made-in-India games is not a question of if but a question of when.
We're looking forward to the day when our YouTube feeds are filled to the brim with videos of great games made by other game developers in India. We hope what we are doing with Indus leads to this game development revolution in India.
