Mobile Mavens

Indian Mavens' Games of the Year 2016

Clash Royale, Human Resource Machine and more!

Indian Mavens' Games of the Year 2016

2016 has been a big year for mobile games in India.

And throughout the year, our Indian Mavens group has been there to help us discuss all the hot topics, from carrier billing to whether or not the Indian mobile games market will really be worth $1.1 billion by 2020.

As such, with 2017 just around the corner, we asked them to reflect on their mobile gaming highlights of the year. 

  • What has been your favourite Indian-developed mobile game (other than your own) of 2016?
  • More broadly, what are your favourite mobile games of the year and why?
Ankush Madad Co-Founder and Creative Head Dropout Games

MaskGun and Bluk are the two Indian-developed mobile games I've enjoyed playing this year.

On a broader scale, Clash Royale, Snakebird and Reigns are the three games that I felt were exciting and enjoyed playing this year.

Chirag Chopra Founder Lucid Labs

It's very hard to pin down one game since there were many good games this year. My personal favorites are: The Light Inside Us, Bluk, Rubek and Blyss.

Globally, there were tons of good games I enjoyed playing:

  • INKS 

Pinball meets painting! What a unique take on Pinball and it looks so good visually.

  • Replica 

Oh my god, the premise and the narrative! It's so unusual yet so deep. Anybody who loves playing narrative and experimental games should give this a try.

  • Human Resource Machine 

A fun take on programming and automating tasks. I enjoyed it for hours, very well presented!

  • Reigns 

Loved the Tinder-esque style of delivering "choices matter" gameplay.

  • Blackbox 

Out-of-the-box puzzles and the best way to test all your phone features.

Rituraj Behera Co-founder Cympl

My name is Rituraj Behera and I am Co-founder of Cympl, an Indie game studio started back in November 2012.

I had begun my career as an application developer but I always loved playing games which attracted me to the fast growing mobile games industry.

I had started the organization with a vision to create high quality mobile games and an attitude to learn & improve everyday.

For me, without a doubt the best India-developed game I played this year was World Cricket Championship 2.

I have literally spent hours in World Cricket Championship 2 on a daily basis.
Rituraj Behera

I have literally spent hours in this game on a daily basis, playing test matches and two-over tournaments.

Though the UI of the game could be significantly improved, the gameplay feels so real and polished that I feel that I am playing an actual game in the stadium!

In terms of my favourite games of the year 2016, below are my top three - starting with most loved first:

  • Clash Royale

I do not need to say much about this game. The best and most polished PvP experience with the Clash army!

At times it feels like you have hit a progression wall (in terms of trophies) and you cannot progress without paying, but still the game is so addictive that I keep periodically paying and playing.

  • Cooking Dash 2016 

I did not know that I would ever like cooking games, but the gameplay is so fun and well balanced that I got sucked into the experience finishing one cuisine after another.

The arcade feel of serving customers in a limited time and the introduction of new food processes that added to the interesting challenges felt just right!

  • Make More 

One of my favourite casual game publishers Fingersoft, with hits like Hill Climb Racing 1 and 2, has come up with an awesome idle clicker.

The theme and art style of this game is so appealing and unique that I keep Making More!

Abhinav Sarangi Co-Founder All in a Days Play

My favourite Indian-developed mobile game of 2016 was Rubek by Xigma Games.

I spent more time programming in Human Resource Machine than on my day job.
Abhinav Sarangi

It has great level design and some of the puzzles were fiendish, which I enjoyed a lot.

My favourite mobile games of 2016 include:

  • Clash Royale: The first game which got competitive multiplayer gameplay right on mobile.
  • Human Resource Machine: Great programming puzzles. I got addicted to it and spent more time programming in-game than on my day job when I was playing it.
  • New Star Cricket: Sports-focused RPGs are really fun and should really be more popular. I also loved that it was one of the few cricket-based games available.

Cartic P Business Development Manager Juego Studio Private Limited

Games I liked from fellow Indian game developers are Star Chef and Blyss.

My favourite mobile games of the year, to name a few:

  • Agar.io and Slither.io for making the perfect online game to play in short breaks.

Agar.io was a viral hit for Miniclip

  • Reigns, for turning a simple Tinder-based framework into a great game.
  • Color Switch and other titles developed with Buildbox. Slightly jealous, too, that some of these got featured in the AppStore again and again.
  • Clash Royale and Pokemon GO for the most addictive gameplay.

Goutham Dindukurthi Director Holy Cow Productions

My favourite Indian-developed mobile game this year has to be The Light Inside Us by Dastan Games. I couldn't stop until I completed that game.

It's probably too early to say Super Mario Run is one of the favorites this year! PinOut by Mediocre is definitely my favourite game of the year.

It has amazing music to go along with the gameplay, too.

Features Editor

Matt is really bad at playing games, but hopefully a little better at writing about them. He's Features Editor for PocketGamer.biz, and has also written for lesser publications such as IGN, VICE, and Paste Magazine.