Gang of Gamers

Gaming is no more a waste of time, it's serious business. and even if it isn't, who cares? Living by this law are the members of a freshly formed community DiningCamps. Its founder Kinshuk explains the highs of the game

Not many understand that online or console games develop intelligence, skills and decision-making power.

Especially, IT administrators give video-gamers a hard time because they consider gaming applications as a wastage of space, conducive to viruses and obviously and impedence to Internet speed.
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They realise that these very geeks are probably much smarter and creative than you. Here comes a group of game developers who not only want to shed all the myths about gaming, but also give it a corporate twist.

Over to Kinshuk.

How do you identify your group?
We are a bunch of passionate and enthusiastic gamers who are also passionate about making their own games.

Was this the very reason to create the gang?
For us, it has always been very ridiculous to accept that in spite of India having such rich software development talent, we have no games to be proud of. We end up doing outsourced work. Yadu (co founder) and me have been participating in various open source game development projects but always found it difficult to network with like-minded people. It's this gap that we intend to fill.

But India is not new to a gaming community.
Gangs have been there, but the only problem is, they are too scattered to be recognised.u00a0
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What activities will you organise?
First, the group will bring together artists, musicians, writers, programmers and investors u2014 basically anyone interested in making games. By networking and collaborating together, we are confident that we will give a much needed thrust to wannabe game developers. Secondly, we will be organising events where people can come and showcase their game, look for collaborators, find investors, and play games. There will also be intra-network parties and tournaments.

What is the driving factor?
To develop a game that India can boast of.

Who can join?
Anyone who wants to make games and can take up constructive criticism. You should also be aware of what would have happened to the world, if Mario had failed to rescue the princess.u00a0
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Will there be a membership fee?
See, we wouldn't charge anything. However, some of the community initiatives might be paid depending on the support we get from the industry.

What is the current profile of the members?
Currently, we are, 35 but we'll aggressively increase that count. While some of the members are engineering students, others are from literature and commerce streams. But everyone is young.
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So when are you conferencing with other members?
We call it 'unconferencing'. Our first meet has been proposed for April 2010. Its been scheduled this late because as we have to do a lot of community planning right now engage people, promote the community, make affiliations and acquaintances with the industry. But the venue will be New Delhi.

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