Indian Air Force launches 3D mobile game to attract youth

New Delhi: Embarking on its first sortie in virtual world, the Indian Air Force today launched nation's first 3D mobile game in a bid to attract generation-next youth to pursue a career in the air force.

Launching the 3D mobile game 'Guardians of the Skies' (GOTS), Air Marshal S Sukumar hailed the event as a significant milestone in encouraging youth to join IAF and also expressed concerns over tapping the best of the human resources from the upcoming generations.

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"It is indeed a significant milestone in our consorted campaign to connect to the best of the boys and the girls among the nation's youth and motivate them to join the air force so as to become great patriotic men and women ready to serve the country in any situation," he said. "We are getting the numbers, but we want to attract the best of the boys and the girls to join the Air Force," said Sukumar, who is also the Air Officer-in-charge Personnel.

GOTS, which is freely available on android, windows and iOS platforms for mobile, has been conceptualised to showcase the might of the air force in a virtual format with users being offered gripping air combat scenarios and realistic graphics, he said. "The game is targeted at the youth, to give them the feel of the excitement that we in the Air Force experience everyday in our lives," he said, adding "only the information (of IAF) available in public domain has been utilised in the development of the game."

The Air Marshal further stressed upon the need for better human resource along with modern technology as the deciding factor in future conflicts. "Indian Air Force is on a trajectory of modernisation and is transforming itself so as to meet the security challenges which are multi-dimensional in nature that the country faces in the future years," Sukumar told reporters.

"As we induct modern equipment and enhance our capabilities we are very conscious of the fact that any success in any future conflict will be determined most by the quality of the human resource that we have," he said. The game has been developed by a private vendor for the IAF following an open tendering process with its first phase launching today and the next phase to be launched in October.

GOTS features a storyline where the IAF is engaged in defence missions against a fictitious nation named 'Zaruzia', which coincidentally like India's neighbour Pakistan, is politically and economically unstable and has also witnessed a military coup. "The storyline is fictitious, the enemy is fictitious but the gaming experience will be real," he said.