A new dawn for Gaming
The passers-by of an innocuous little white house -wedged in between Flower Road and Duplication Road- are quite unaware that they’re actually walking past a portal to a whole new world. Inside, a dozen LED screens flicker with busy designers behind them – painting out the details that give birth to new video games, making Dawn Patrol Sri Lanka’s largest, and probably only game studio.
It’s a literal gaming cocoon, with nostalgic posters of Star Wars and Street Fighter reminiscent of the good old days gone by. But everything else is a glimpse into the future, as the think-tanks are busy working on their latest game – Nitropia. Being the brainchild of Studio Head Prithvi Virasinghe, Dawn Patrol was a dream that came to life out of passion. “I’ve always been a gamer,” says Prithvi. “But unfortunately -much like many kids back then- I chose a field of study that did not define me.” Having entered the Franklin & Marshall College to pursue banking in 1996, Prithvi soon found out that it was not his calling. “Let me be honest, banking is quite boring.”
Gaming was his cup of tea and instead, Prithvi had ideas of building himself a career out of it. “This was when I joined the Parsons School of Design to excel in design and technology,” he tells us. Having graduated, success soon followed as he went on to become a Senior Games Producer for the MTV Networks in 2008.
But it was the notion to start up his own enterprise that lingered strong. “We tried to make it into a business but there was no market for it,” Prithvi recalls the teethin stages of Dawn Patrol. Investors who had the courage or even blind ambition to take the risk were hard to come-by and the team made plans to set up in Singapore where the gaming industry was sky-rocketing. Fortunately though, they were eventually blessed with funding from an unexpected company – Sri Lanka Shipping, which was delving into tech-products back then.
“It was a massive risk for them. Gaming is an industry where nobody can forecast an outcome.” Prithvi tells us that the natural end-goal of a video game is to create fun. “There is no formula for fun,” he smiles. “We create games, test it, tweak it, scrap it and start all over again.” There are four basic elements in game-making: Design, Art, Programming and Sound. The process starts off with members from the team pitching their ideas, and the selected ones are made into prototypes, while art and sound detailing come in later. Dawn Patrol develops games for Android, iOS, PlayStation Network, Tablets and Xbox Live Arcade.
Along with his team, Prithvi works with his wife Silje who is the Art Director while his long time friend Gautam Venkatasen is the IT Manager.
Established in 2011, the first game rolled out by Dawn Patrol was Robotanika – a touch-screen turret shooter which takes place in outer space. “This was a failure,” Prithvi has no qualms in telling us the truth. “But it fuelled our imagination for games that would become successful later on.”
“If we make ten games; one of them will be a hit, two will be fairly alright, five will flop, and a further two will flop really bad,” says Prithvi. “But that one game that does make it to the top will allow us to get working on ten more games.” His reasoning is that as the company keeps making games, they’ll keep progressing forward and the number of failures will minimize.
Nitropia, is their potential gold-mine, and the team is excited about its release in the coming weeks. Nitropia is essentially a real time tower defense game which pitches your wits and tactics against waves of marauding enemies. “We’ve spent a lot of time on it and we’re pretty confident about it,” says Prithvi.
Dawn Patrol is on another mission to bring ‘soul’ back into games. “The problem with a lot of repetitive games you find these days is that there is no soul involved. There is no primary character that the user can build a relationship with and there is no showing of empathy for the character. But unfortunately it sells,” says Prithvi. However, he believes that Indie game developers (such as Dawn Patrol) have the pootential to bring back classic gaming.
Having been around for 3 years, Prithvi says that the gaming industry does seem to be finding its feet in the local arena, with people being more aware of the options. Ideally, Dawn Patrol would like some competition from other indie game studios, while it boosts the country’s potential. “We even have students asking for internships at Dawn Patrol, but I ask them to go make something and then come it t back to us.” Prithvi says that in gaming, one must foster a self-starter attitude.
“If you don’t have passion and are unwilling to take the risks, then you can’t become a game designer. Go out there and make something, there’s no excuse not to.”
Visit www.dawnpatrolgames.com to get latest updates on Dawn Patrol.