CHENNAI: A five-member team from Madurai is set to put the temple city on India’s fast-expanding gaming map, as its indie title ‘Chromadi’ gears up for a June launch with $100,000 funding from global gaming giant Krafton.
Developed by Kleanup Games, Chromadi, positioned as a first-of-its-kind experience, got the Krafton backing after getting shortlisted from over 100 applicants.
Priced at Rs 70 and slated for release on both PC and mobile, the game reflects a growing shift in India’s gaming landscape: from consumers to creators.
“We have one incubator team from Madurai… they have made a game called Chromadi. It’s a very unique concept,” said Anuj Sahani, Head of Krafton India Gaming Incubator and director, publishing, Krafton India, highlighting the growing spread of talent beyond metros.
For founder Jaswanth Shanmugham, the journey has been driven by a clear creative intent. “We wanted to build something distinctive that stands out in gameplay and design,” he said, adding that feedback from early showcases has been encouraging.
Pointing to the role of structured support in shaping the product, he said “being a small team from Madurai, the mentorship and exposure have helped us refine both the game and how we approach users.”
Krafton’s India incubation programme, launched in 2023, has supported 10 teams so far, offering equity-free funding of $50,000 to $150,000, alongside 6-12 months of mentorship from Krafton’s global network and, more recently, performance marketing support.
“We realised in the first two cohorts that user acquisition was a big challenge… so now we are directly supporting teams in that area,” Sahani said, noting that many young studios lack the expertise to identify the right markets.
“We want to support Indian developers to make world-class games, games from India for the globe,” Sahani said.
That global ambition is critical. Despite having nearly 590 million gamers, India still lags in producing globally successful intellectual property. “In terms of development, we are way behind… but in the next three to five years, we expect to see more successful IPs emerging,” he added.
“We’ve seen participation from cities like Bengaluru, Jaipur, Kerala and Hyderabad,” Sahani noted, adding the company has invested $250 million in India to date and plans to deploy another $200 million over the next four years to strengthen the ecosystem. The momentum is visible beyond Madurai as the incubation pipeline is beginning to show results.
Ahad Oomerbhoy, founder, Singular Scheme and part of Krafton’s second cohort, will launch his PC game Frontier Paladin on April 24 after a four-year development cycle. “We had applied in the first cohort and were rejected… but we improved and came back stronger,” the Mumbai-based founder said.
“You’re competing globally with developers who have decades of experience, so success rarely comes on the first attempt.” He credited Krafton’s support for accelerating progress. “The mentorship and funding over the past year have really transformed the game,” Oomerbhoy added.
At the grassroots level, interest in gaming careers is also picking up. Nancy J, a student of Sathyabhama College, said exposure to virtual reality helped her get started. “The VR exposure at college helped me build a running-based game within a few weeks,” she said, as she explores game development alongside her IT course.
For entities like Chromadi, the convergence of funding, accessibility and cross-platform play could prove decisive. More importantly, its origins signal a broader shift in India’s gaming story. As the industry gathers pace, the next breakout title may not come from a metro, but from cities like Madurai, where ambition, talent and global backing culminates.