Mayhem Studios CEO Ojas Vipat on Underworld Gang Wars Launch and his Vision for Developing AAA Games in India

Last night Mumbai saw the one of the biggest game reveals in India where MPL’s Mayhem Studios announced the launch of Underworld Gang Wars, a fully made in India battle royale game. It promises to stick to its Indian roots while offering the complete battle royale experience.

The game will also reportedly have locations that resemble real locations in India like the train stations, coal mines, an apartment-complex, a fort and also a racecourse. There will also be a bunch of unique weapons for the player to use in the game, one of which will likely be a sledgehammer. The game was announced via a drone show in Mumbai where a QR code showed up towards the end that took users to the teaser for the game.

Underworld Gang Wars follows the story of two rival gangs from different backgrounds who want to assert control over the other. As of now, it is unclear how the lore of the game will follow this but more will be revealed soon.

Ojas Vipat, CEO of Mayhem studios was extremely excited for the launch and expressed his happiness as he could finally unveil the game. “I’m very excited. Personally, I’ve been playing games for a long time and I was hoping to see content like this. I think this is what our country and our users demand, so I’m very excited to go on that journey to deliver that to them” said Ojas about the reveal.

Ojas has worked with Junglee Games, Tencent, and is now heading his own AAA game development studio. Upon asking him about his journey from working with a game developer to heading his own studio, he said “It’s been a slow learning process for me, very honestly. There is a lot to learn before you can deliver something like this. So I would say I’m still learning on how to stay true to the user expectation. The expectations are going to be big and India truly deserves not just a game like this, but gaming talent and studios like this as well. So it’s a way of nurturing that talent in India, building those capabilities. We’ve seen that happen in multiple other industries as well. So I hope we can be one of the first ones who can build and nurture that talent and really provide for the country.

While he couldn’t share any details about the game, Ojas did mention something that players will look forward to. “…even within battle royale, it’s going to be something that has a little bit of flavour. You’ve seen COD mobile, you’ve seen PUBG mobile etc. and there’s a little difference in how the weapons and locations are. So we’re going to bank on some nuances and we’re going to try and stay true to that.”

The vision that Mayhem has for the game is primarily to offer a BR experience while sticking to their Indian roots. Hopefully, it will be able to achieve that while maintaining or even elevating the core battle royale gameplay. The pre-registration for the game begins on May 22, 2022.