It’s the favourite time of the year for kids, and Sony YAY! plans to make it a lot more special by on boarding the most popular music artist, Badshah. The first of its kind foot tapping number by Badshah for his young fans is inspired by the kids’ beloved show, KickO and Super Speedo.

Badshah said, “Since childhood, I have been fascinated by superheroes and animated characters and always wanted to be one like them. When Sony YAY! approached me for the song, I was impressed with the variety of home grown content they have created. The song gave me an opportunity to revisit my childhood with one of the coolest kid around, KickO! I was excited from the beginning. I am sure that KickO’s style and our camaraderie will be a delightful offering for our young fans. I would like to thank Sony YAY! for the opportunity to compose a song for kids and team me up with KickO.”

KickO and Super Speedo is one of the most loved show on the channel and kids are totally in love with the lead character, KickO! Right from his slick-styled hair to his watch and his supercar, Super Speedo, kids are in awe of him. Given the adulation KickO enjoys, it comes as no surprise that the lead B-town rapper, Badshah who is equally loved by the kids has been roped in for the catchy number. The pair compliments each other with their cool camaraderie in the song GoKicko.

Sung in the trademark Badshah style, kids will see KickO and Badshah sway to peppy beats and perform the trademark #GoKicko hook-step.

By signing Badshah, Sony YAY! plans to increase the fervor and excitement for kids this summer. Along with the song, the channel will also be launching brand new episodes and for the first time the kids can relish four new KickO and Super Speedo movies.

Sony YAY! head- programming Ronojoy Chakraborty mentioned, “At Sony YAY! our endeavour has always been to offer something fresh for kids, which paved the way for our channel being one of the highest on time spent. We all are well aware of how much kids love KickO, for his swag and style, and who better than Badshah to take this cool- quotient a cut above. When we asked kids about their favourite music artist, Badshah was the unanimous choice. The new song is catchy and will give kids another reason to tap their feet.”

Ronojoy Chakraborty

While Sony YAY! already enjoys a leadership position in HSM, the channel will continue to consolidate its position through engagement on TV and beyond. On mobile device, kids will get to play KickO themselves while they combat deadly villains and play the KickO and Super Speedo game. KickO will be meeting his young fans and shake a leg with them on his tour across 10 cities in India. With a 124 city van engagement plan, the superhero will greet kids in even the deepest parts of the country.

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U Sports, founder Ronnie Screwvala and co-founder and managing director Supratik Sen has announced the second phase of its proposition in esports, with a competitive esports team named U Geist. U Geist represents the ‘Spirit of Gaming’.

Talking about U Geist, Ronnie Screwvala, says, “esports is the most exciting new age phenomenon that enthrals and entertains the present-day youth and masses alike. esports has tremendous potential to make it big in India. We were the one of the first to identify the potential in this space in India and put in place U Cypher Season 1 which was broadcast on TV in 2018. This gave us an in-depth understanding that India does have good talent that once nurtured can make it big as a team in global eSports. While in some parts of the world it has already evolved and become highly competitive for a while now, we thought it was about time Indian players begin to make their mark too! U Geist has some of the best players in the country and the endeavour for them is to carve out their space nationally and internationally.”

While esports is an evolving space in India, the plan is to create competitive teams, at present starting with CS: GO, DOTA 2, PUBG Mobile, FIFA, League of Legends and Fortnite. The teams will be participating across various national and international tournaments.

Supratik Sen, is very optimistic about this venture. “esports is the new frontier in sports and entertainment. The years ahead will see the boundaries blur between the competitive physical sport and mind sport – as all sport involves body and mind. In this case its more mind than the body. And that is why we as a company are uniquely positioned as one of the very few companies in the world that are involved with multiple physically played sports and at the same time esports. As one of the company’s key objective is, we always want to provide the best opportunities for budding athletes to showcase their talent and compete at various levels. This led us to creating our own teams, not only in field sports but now also in esports! We begin with a CS: GO team and will gradually launch teams in the other games within the next few months. I must add that Season 2 of U Cypher is in the pipeline and will also involve the making of a competitive esports platform for competitions and online video games (individual or multiplayer) to facilitate the identification of best esports talent in India”.

U Geist will first launch with the CS: GO team with Amar Ratnam as its Team Principal. His vast experience in esports will also make him the mentor for all the teams and for the CS: GO game, captain and coach. The other members of the team are Ritesh Shah and Akshay Sinkar who were part of the U Cypher Season 1 along with Anish Singh and Varun Menon. Ritesh, Akshay and Amar were part of the formidable Counter Strike team called ATE Gaming which dominated India’s Counter Strike game scene for over eight years between 2005 to 2012. The old members will re-unite under U Geist and play their first match in end April at ESL India Premiership. The organisation will pick lead players in all the other game disciplines.

U Geist Team Principal and CS: GO captain and coach Amar Ratnam says, “I’m excited to be back in the gaming scene. With U Geist, we want to bring some of the best esports athletes under one roof. These are exciting times, and we hope to become one of the top teams in the country. I will be supported by Jason Nath and Vibhav Rao in the marketing, planning and operations of the esports teams.”

Supratik Sen adds on managing the team, “With the launch of U Geist, we will also ensure, players get the proper facilities, equipment, training and conditioning that athletes in other sports disciplines receive. The idea is to take some aspects of mental and physical conditioning from our other sports into esports. As esports is not only a game of skill and strategy, but also mental endurance. The plan is to enhance all of these facets and more so that they can perform not only at national but also at international levels reaching top honours.”

U Geist has already got Red Gear as a ‘Powered By’ sponsor on board and are in talks with many other brands. Redwood Interactive Founder and MD Sameer Mehta says “At Redgear, we’ve always wanted to partner with U Sports, a front-runner in eSports. They share the same mission as us, to help talented esports athletes. We’re very excited about this partnership as we see a lot of synergy in U Geist and Redgear. We wish the team’s best of luck and hope to win some tournaments in the coming months!”

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The 13^th edition of Animation Production Days (APD) drew to a close in Stuttgart. During the last two days, around 800 one-on-one meetings between producers and potential production and financing partners for new animation projects have been held in Stuttgart’s L-Bank. APD is the most important business platform for animation projects in Germany and takes place every year as part of the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) and FMX – Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Immersive Media.

“A spirit of optimism is prevailing in the industry, something we also noticed in the high number and consistently excellent quality of the submitted projects. There is a huge programming demand from the buyers. For this reason, we are confident that many of these projects will find a successful path to production,” said APD head Marlene Wagener.

This year, the jury selected 50 projects with a combined production value of around 180 million Euros to be presented at APD. Alongside classic children’s series and family films, cross-media concepts, games, VR projects and online formats were also represented, including numerous projects for teenage and adult audiences. Subject matters ranged from edutainment, comedy, adventure stories and fantasy for kids, to historical and political material, animated documentaries, satire and science fiction. The 165 participants from 23 countries discussed financing strategies and co-operations for these projects in around 800 one-on-one meetings and at various APD networking events.

“The animation industry is undergoing a disruptive transformation too, but this is also providing a great chance for new formats and content. I’m delighted that APD is reacting to this potential via the opportunities given to and the integration of new players like streaming platforms. Thus, linking the two ITFS events, the Trickstar Professional Awards and the mini-conference on VR, AI and Blockchain – New Business Models for Animation to APD makes a lot of sense,” commented ITFS managing director – programme and APD co-organiser Ulrich Wegenast.

Alongside German TV channels ZDF, KiKA, SWR, HR, MDR, Super RTL and Disney, big European and international broadcasters were also represented including the BBC, Canal+, France Télévisions, Turner, Sony Pictures Television and DHX, as well as numerous world sales agents. Streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video and Hopster also proved to be popular meeting partners. Over 300 visitors attended this year’s APD conference which took place on Thursday afternoon in the rotunda of Stuttgart’s L-Bank, and which was also open to industry guests from FMX and ITFS.

“We also sense the aforementioned spirit of optimism from the international animation industry in the ITFS which we want to support with additional industry events. With these and FMX we are a beacon of the German animation scene shining far beyond Europe,” APD co-organiser and ITFS organisation and finance Dieter Krauß.

“We are particularly delighted that up-and-coming talents presented such original and highly promising projects at this year’s APD. Young filmmakers are using their short films as springboards for ambitious series with international appeal. Hopefully, these talents will find the partners to help them finance and produce their projects,” APD co-organiser and FMX conference chair Andreas Hykade.

This year, the programme once again culminated in the animation festival’s Trickstar Professional Awards Gala. As part of the gala, the ITFS presents business-related prizes such as the German Animation Screenplay Award, which this year went to Xavier Romero and Llorenç Español for the screenplay “Aisha’s Light”; the prize for Germany’s Next Animation Talent, which went to Elisabeth Jakobi for her project “Juli auf dem Zauberberg (Juli on the Magic Mountain)”; the Arab Animation Forum Pitching Award which went to the project “Traitors of the Eyes” by Abdelrahman Dnewar und Saad Dnewar; and last but not least, the Trickstar Business Award itself. Presented this year for the third time, the Trickstar Business Award recognises new business models in the animation industry. The winner was the Danish company Copenhagen Bombay with their project “CoboStories”, with a Special Mention going to “Smosh Mosh” by Kinky Udders Ludwigsburg, a project that was also presented at the 2019 APD.

“It’s a good way to get started. People are super sweet, helping us with our project. We very much like the atmosphere: so many people from different countries and different backgrounds,” participants of the APD Young Talent Programme Piotr Chmielewski (Poland) and Julie Peitersen (Denmark) commented.

Turner Broadcasting, UK Zia Bales said, “For us it’s a very useful event. We can meet new partners here that we cannot meet at other markets. And it’s a very focused atmosphere, you really have time to talk.”

“I’m very impressed. It’s a wonderful meeting place and it’s extremely important for the German animation industry,” Atmosphere Media, Germany Peter Voelkle added.

As part of the cooperation with CARTOON, European Association of Animation, two German producers once again this year are being given the opportunity to pitch their series project at the CARTOON Forum taking place in Toulouse in September. The first two places on the list went to Boots & Paws (Studio Soi Filmproduktion) and Spookies (Wolkenlenker). Tradewind Pictures may present their project Tafiti – Through the Desert at CARTOON Movie next year in Bordeaux.

The 2020 Animation Production Days will take place from 6 to 8 May 2020.

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The significance of  December 1971 is unforgettable for Indians as it was the day remarkably known for India’s victory against Pakistan which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). 48 years ago, Pakistan lost its forces in the East, and had to publicly surrender to India. It was also the largest military surrender after World War II.

Keeping that in mind Neosphere Interactive designed their upcoming videogame 1971: Indian Naval Front.  The studio was started by Rajesh Iyer and Hitesh Ramchandani in 2016, where Iyer takes care of the complete development and coding while Ramchandani looks after the project management, game art and marketing, as per requirement. Ramchandani shared with us that they both are PC gamers and have the common interest towards military/war games which triggered them to create 1971: Indian Naval Front.

“1971: Indian Naval Front is a tactical Naval combat game based on actual events during the 1971 India Pakistan War. The game will be played from the perspective of the Indian Navy,” shared Ramchandani.

The game will be initially for single-player, however later, multiplayer version might be planned out and will be released for PC platform and is available on Steam. It is a tactical shooter game where the player gets a chance to control iconic Indian Navy ships like Vikrant, Brahmaputra, Veer, Rajput and more. Besides controlling the warships and its armaments, the player can also fly jets and choppers of the Indian Navy Air Squadron which were used during the 1971 war in some missions. The game will have 12-15 levels with an estimate of four to five hours of gameplay which will narrate the actual war scenarios that had occurred between November to December 1971.

When asked about what was the purpose of developing a game around 1971 Indo-Pak war Ramchandani replied, “During the conflict of 1971, Indian Navy (along with the Air Force and Army) played a major role in the war which forced Pakistan to surrender in merely 13 days. Most people are unaware of the stellar contributions of the Indian Navy towards our victory in the 1971 war. We saw this as an opportunity for creating some immersive historically accurate content with few fictitious levels tossed in for providing a balance. Missions like operation trident, taking down PNS Ghazi, defending Okha Harbor, attack on East Pakistan Airfields are some levels of the game based on actual events. Extensive research has gone into the preparation for the storyline of this game.”

Neosphere used Unreal Engine 4 to develop this game. Ramchandrani shared  the key areas that they  focused on while designing the  game is “keeping it simple with factors like suspense and surprise, risk vs reward, avoiding complex controls, interactive, not letting the gameplay on its own and always trying to keep the user engaged with dialogues and voice-overs even when cut-scenes are playing along with a focus on audio, music, and a minimalistic yet effective HUD.”

According to its makers the game has witnessed many iteration design wise. The designing started with simple mechanics and then the game had an inspiration touch from popular titles like World of Warships and Battlestation Pacific. They added features like controlling individual weapons, ship repair and so on. For example earlier they did not have plans to make a jet and the chopper in the game user-controllable, however, as the game progressed, they decided to add user-controlled flying which is inspired from the Battlefield franchise.

Being the first consumer designed project the duo tried to keep it simple by studying the workflow of Unreal Engine 4 and aligned 3D tasks. “It’s a vehicular warfare game with no character involved, therefore the burden of creating character animation sets wasn’t there at all,” added he.

The working on the game began in 2017 with a plan to launch the game by December 2018, but due to some technical challenges they missed the deadline and now are planning to release it in the Q2 of 2019.

Like any Indie developer they also faced many challenges during development but the quality of  content was not compromised. “Being an indie game developer is always tough and being an indie PC game developer is even tougher,” commented Ramchandani.

Ramchandrani handles the game art whereas Iyer handles the development. “Once this project is complete, we would be expanding our team and bring in more like-minded people on board with us,” Ramchandani expressed.

Neosphere is optimistic in catering to esports domain with the PC gaming audience as a content provider. Apart from that, they are also interested in taking charge of game development courses based on the products they make, similar to the one they already have on Udemy which teaches the procedure to implement the flying and firing behaviours of combat jets and helicopters using physics in Unreal Engine 4 blueprints. It seems that Neosphere Interactive has set a wide journey in the industry with not just limited to game developing!

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