The Nepali game developing community is still small and lacks motivation, according to industry insiders.
Two friends, 23-year-old Asim Basnet and 21-year-old Prakash Shrestha, have enjoyed playing video games ever since they were children.
Their love for video games led the two childhood friends. Born and brought up in Chitwan in south central Nepal, to seek a career in game development.
Since 2018, they have pursued game development and have gradually improved their skills through trial and error. The two friends developed their first game which was similar to Subway Surfer. The game, which was developed on a Lenovo V310 laptop, was launched on Google Play in 2020.
Subsequently, Dark Matter Game Production registered as a company in December 2021.
Dark Matter has launched two games so far—Sprite Ninja: Ninja Hattori and Sprite Ninja: Ninja Hattori Vancouver. The two games have been downloaded more than half a million times and 50,000 times, respectively.
After releasing the final version, Basnet hopes to start earning a minimum of $10,000 monthly.
Seven of the top 10 start-ups were able to secure investment pledges totalling Rs245 million at the CNIYEF Nepal Start-Up Fest 2022. The Confederation of Nepalese Industries organised by Young Entrepreneurs Forum last Saturday.
Among the seven, Dark Matter Game Production received an investment pledge of Rs15 million, according to Basnet. “We are super excited. We presented our plans for the coming days at the start-up fest, and the investors loved it,” he said.
Shrestha believes lack of funds is one of the reasons why there are only a few game developers in Nepal.
Investment
When Basnet and Shrestha started on their journey as game developers, they had to rely on their families for the initial investment. “Our families provided us with Rs500,000 each,” said Basnet. “We bought some pieces of equipment to upgrade the game we had launched earlier.”
Despite the hurdles, some of the games made by Nepalis have gained success, according to Subedi. Ludo, developed by Yarsa Games, has been downloaded more than 50 million times on the Google Play Store.
Although their achievement in the gaming world is commendable, Basnet believes they still have a long way to go.
