More than 150 developers from five different continents, and over 650 Indian aspirants are participating in the handheld video game design challenge organised by the Indian Digital Gaming Society under the WAVES 2025 initiative recently announced by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
The challenge has so far recorded registration from many countries, including the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Participants have also registered from Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Jordan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Pakistan.
In Europe, there are interested participants from Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and the U.K. The African nations include Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
In India, students from 20 different States and four Union Territories are participating. “The challenge’s spread can be seen from the fact that districts which once lacked economic indicators have also shown participation in this complex challenge, thus indicating the success of the Digital India initiative,” an official said.
People from Barmer (Rajasthan); Rayagada and Bhadrak (Odisha); Sonbhadra and Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh), Vizianagaram and Jammalamadugu (Andhra Pradesh); Shivpuri and Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh); and Nandura (Maharashtra) have also registered. Among the participants, there not only professionals, but freelance developers and college/school students as well. In all, 33 participants are from the startups domain.
“Unlike conventional game development challenges, this competition focuses on both hardware and software, encouraging participants to build standalone, non-mobile, LCD handheld gaming devices using micro-controllers like Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi. By eliminating mobile or computer screens, the challenge ensures a glare-free, non-addictive gaming experience, making it ideal for educational purposes,” the official said.
The participants are required to develop a complete gaming device, integrating game mechanics with physical hardware, making it an independent and adaptable solution for learning through play.
“The challenge is designed to bridge multiple domains, requiring expertise in programming, electronics, and mathematics, to create an efficient and cost-effective hardware solution. Unlike traditional software-based game development, working with microcontrollers allows developers to focus on gameplay logic and hardware integration, without the complexities of Android or Windows operating systems,” the official said.
The mechanism significantly reduces costs while enabling modular hardware prototyping, ensuring the same device can be repurposed with new hardware configurations.
“This challenge not only promotes hardware-software fusion in gaming but also serves as a stepping stone for future IoT [Internet of Things] and embedded system innovations, paving the way for smart learning devices, automation tools, and indigenous gaming hardware development in India. Beyond gaming, this challenge will serve as a foundation for more complex hardware innovations in India,” the official said.
The organisers are of the view that the emphasis on low power, simple display mechanisms aligns with sustainable tech trends, opening doors for next-gen smart toys, wearables, and automation projects. It is also in line with the ‘India Semiconductor Mission’ with an objective to promote innovation and IP generation in the field of semiconductor-based devices for self-reliance.
Published – February 20, 2025 06:03 pm IST
