Vikash Jaiswal is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Gametion Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and creator of Ludo King, a popular gaming app developed by Gametion for Android and iOS. [1] [2] [3] [4]
At the ET Brand Equity Gaming Summit in 2021, Jaiswal asked the Indian government to support the game development industry within the country. [5] According to Jaiswal, there should be "specialised courses focusing on game development under related streams like computer science or engineering." [5]
Vikash Jaiswal was born in Patna, Bihar. [2]
He loved playing video games, especially in gaming parlours. [6] [7] His favorites were the popular Nintendo Mario games and Road Fighter. [7] [8] Growing up, Jaiswal used to make hand-made greeting cards and give them to a local stationery shop to sell.
Jaiswal pursued his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from MIT, Bulandshahar. As part of his thesis, he created a video game called ‘Eggy Boy’, a seven level jump game like ‘Mario’, which was named PCQuest magazine's ‘Game of the Month’ for July 2003. [2] [6] [7] He also took up animation, graphic design, and 3D classes in Patna while pursuing his Bachelors. [7]
In 2003, Jaiswal graduated from MIT, and moved to Mumbai. He started working as a tech lead for Indiagames Ltd. [2] [6] [7]
In 2008, Jaiswal quit his job and started his own game development venture, Gametion, with an investment of ₹2.5 lakh and a team of seven. [2] Gametion initially created browser games, and later it shifted to mobile game development for Android and iOS. [2] [9] Most of these original games were published on "oneonlinegames.com." [6]
Gametion participated in the IGDC 2019 event, one of the most significant game developer conference in South Asia. [10]
In October 2015, Jaiswal came up with the idea for Ludo King, after coming across a Snakes and Ladders game app. [11] Jaiswal developed the game with one programmer and one graphic designer. [12] [8]
Ludo King was launched in December 2016 and has "the list since May 2017." [3] By November 2017, the game had 120 million users worldwide, of which 'around 100 million were in India, followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Brazil.' [2]
Talking about Ludo King, Jaiswal said, "It was all luck with Ludo King...But I always thought that I would be able to list my game in the list of top charts.” [12] He was sure that the game would "come in the top 10 rankings of the board games category in India.” [12]
Ludo King has won numerous awards including the Mobile & Tablet Game: Arcade/Casual (International) in Gaming at the 19th FICCI FRAMES Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards. [13] [14] Ludo King was also selected as Best Casual Game of 2018 on Google Play Store by popular vote. [15] [16] [17] Ludo King was also listed in the Top 3 downloaded games in India in 2018, according to the Google's annual Year in Search: Insights for Brands report. [18] The app was named "No.1 Game of India" by MidDay, [19] while the Apple app store listed Ludo King in the list of 21 apps for 2021. [20] Ludo King is the first Indian gaming app to cross 1 billion downloads on Google Play Store. [21] [22]
Vikash Jaiswal received the Mobile & Tablet Game: Arcade/ Casual (International) in Gaming for Ludo King at the 19th FICCI FRAMES Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards. [13] [14]
Mr. Vikash Jaiswal has been recognized as "Icons of Navi Mumbai" by the Economic Times group. [23][ better source needed]
Gametion Technologies earned the ET Startup Award 2020, with recognition as a Bootstrap Champ of 2020. [24] [25]
Gametion Technologies ranked Number 1 in the category of "Top 10 India Headquartered Games Publishers" in the Top Published Awards 2021 by App Annie. [26]
Android Developers featured a story on Vikash Jaiswal for their YouTube channel. [27]
Mr. Vikash Jaiswal won the "Marketer of the Year - Gaming" award at the IAA Leadership Awards 2022 for his marketing achievements. [28]
Vikash Jaiswal intends to invest in promising startups in the Gaming Industry. [9]