Gaming, the Indian way (done right)

India's game dev game is changing—leaner code, smarter tools, no clichés. Built for budget phones but aiming beyond borders, this is not just a game. It's a blueprint. Dot9 isn't playing catch-up—they're playing long, loud, and local

- Harsh Sharma

India may be one of the world's largest mobile gaming markets—with over 500 million players and a mobile-first economy—but it's yet to deliver a global breakout hit. Most of the top charts remain dominated by global giants like Clash of Clans and Call of Duty: Mobile, while Indian-made games tend to rise briefly, then vanish.

It's not for lack of talent. It's the compounding pressure of constrained devices, fragmented monetization, and limited exposure—especially when competing with billion-dollar studios that build for 12 GB RAM phones while India runs on 3 GB.

But the story is changing.

Dot9 Games, led by CEO and Co-founder Deepak Ail, is part of a new wave of Indian studios rethinking everything—from engine optimization to monetization ethics—to build games that aren't just playable in India, but sustainable and scalable beyond it.

Their recent release, FAU-G: Domination, is more than a game. It's a template.

Designing for what's real, not what's ideal

Most Indian gamers don't play on top-of-the-line devices. Instead, they use phones under ₹15,000, with limited RAM, thermal throttling, and multitasking overhead. For Deepak and his team, those weren't problems—they were constraints to design around.

“We're talking about phones with 3 GB RAM, weak GPUs, and dozens of background apps already running,” says Deepak.

Domination was engineered to run smoothly on low-end Android hardware. That meant stylized graphics instead of realism, battery-conscious engine choices, and small install sizes to ensure smooth performance. The goal: keep players in the game, not stuck at the loading screen.