This husband-wife duo made a cosy indie video game set in a rural Indian village

Mala Sen (right) and Mridul Kashatria (left) are behind indie game studio Niku Games. (Image credit: Mala Sen)

“The idea stuck in our minds, and we, as a team, felt setting the game in a village in India would resonate with both Indian and international audiences, giving the game a global feel,” Sen tells indianexpress.com in an interview. “When they (international audiences) think of India, they think of Mumbai, gullies, and butter chicken—things like that. However, we wanted our game to be set in a village, a serene setting, capturing the rural essence.”

Set in a fictional village in 1990s India, The Palace on the Hill tells the story of Veer, whose father, a farmer, is in debt. One fine day, Veer finds out about an art exhibition to be held at a school to promote art and culture in the region. He then meets his childhood friend Savi, who is incidentally the school headmaster’s daughter. Savi had moved to the city but recently returned to the village. She has been interested in uncovering the history of the ruins surrounding the village, and together they decide to use these ruins as the inspiration for the artworks for the exhibition. “It’s a story about a princess, and there is a story within the story of the ruins,” Sen says.

The Palace on the Hill is set in a fictional village in the 90s India. (Image credit: Mala Sen)

Sen describes The Palace on the Hill as a cosy game and says Nintendo games have been a big influence in taking the plunge to make a slice-of-life game. “We like adventure games, so the ruins surrounding the village were a nice setting to have… a kid who grew up in this village, and he goes on this adventure to discover the past and what the stories are,” she says.

For Sen, the idea seemed strong because they often heard stories from their parents about their villages, and these stories kept getting passed on to the next generation. “It is based on our childhood and travels across India,” she says. “Both my partner and I are from different parts of India. We put elements of our travels and childhood together.”

Sen, however, clarified that the game’s story isn’t set in Rajasthan but in a fictional village located somewhere in the hilly regions of India.

Sen, trained as a textile artist from Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan established by Rabindranath Tagore, incorporated many elements from Kangra miniature paintings in the game, reflecting the world the game is set in. She reveals that even the background music is of a classic Indian type, featuring the use of flute and tabla. Srikant Krishna, a music composer who has worked with A R Rahman in the past, provided the music for the game.

Sen works on art and visual design, while Mridul handles programming and game design. (Image credit: Mala Sen)

“We first made the world, and we developed some mechanics, and then we created a demo and tested it. Based on feedback, we improved and refined the story. It took us about three and a half to four years to develop the game,” reveals Sen. The game has a storybook, watercolour feel to it, reminiscent of classic Nintendo titles.

Sen says being a traditional artist, she wanted the game to have a unique feel. “I started painting and realised that if I paint each thing, then it becomes very hard to edit it or make iterations,” she recalls. Instead, she took the paper and made large swatches of colours on it, then drew the assets digitally and used those papers as textures for drawing. That is how she managed to give the game a papery kind of illustrative feel.

Contrary to the common perception about indie games, Sen says cracking a story-driven game is hard and one could take years to develop the game one wishes for. “Video games are a form of expression, just like art, films, or books. They have a lot of parts to them… there’s writing, there’s music, there’s art, animation, programming, and game design. Only when all these elements come together can you make a game,” she says.

The video game industry has been in reset mode, with many layoffs and big projects being stalled or cancelled altogether. Publishers are choosing to invest in big-ticket live-action, multiplayer spectacles, leaving smaller studios vulnerable and finding it difficult to raise funds for games. The cost of making The Palace on the Hill was $120,000, or about Rs 1 crore, which is substantial for a small studio with only Sen and her husband Mridul doing the heavy lifting. Sen works on art and visual design, while Mridul handles programming and game design.

The Palace on the hill is deeply rooted in Indian culture. (Image credit: Mala Sen)

Sen says her studio has been fortunate, and at a time when developing video games is challenging, the existence of games like The Palace on the Hill proves creativity is here to stay. The game received support from Microsoft (Xbox), Netflix, and the SERB INAE grant, helping the indie game become a reality, entirely developed in-house by the duo in India.

“There are a handful of us trying to make our own games, and we’re succeeding,” she says. “Games can’t be made by just a programmer. You need people who are creative in writing, music, and game design. It’s an entertainment product, so we need a lot of creative fields to come together to make good games.”

The Palace on the Hill was launched last month on Steam and is priced at Rs 440. It can be played in multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Bangla, Indonesian, German, and Swedish. Sen says the game will hit Xbox sometime this month and that the plan is also to bring the title to mobile platforms like Android and iOS in the future.

India is not known for video games that heavily feature original stories and characters deeply rooted in its culture, despite its diversity. But Sen hopes indie games like The Palace on the Hill might help change the narrative and bring a new perspective of India to the West.

“When we were thinking about making the game, we played a lot of indie games that were all very story-driven and artistic, and they all happened to be made by two-person teams. That something kept us going for a long time to actually create The Palace on the Hill,” Sen signs off.