Petite, an ambient game on a woman's birth-to-death journey

The game, developed by Hyderabad's Seven Summit, has been selected for Microsoft Imagine Cup's national finals

Imagine a game that’s ambient and speaks to the player’s heart and soul rather than just their thumbs? Asar Dhandala, a second-year student from Backstage Pass Schooling in Hyderabad, along with his team, has developed Petite, an abstract, philosophical game that revolves around the life of a woman starting from her birth till she departs this life, while focusing on several key incidents that happen along the way.

“Depending on the situation she is in, the player can let out her emotions and control them to stop the spherules which revolve around her. After every level, the story unfolds and gets the player emotionally attached to the game,” says Asar.

Developed by Hyderabad-based gaming studio Seven Summits, for which Asar is the co-founder, Petite has won a games honourable mention under User Experience Challenge, a non-technology challenge category in Microsoft's Imagine Cup 2014.

Besides, the game has made it to the national finals of the cup, which is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on April 28-29. If Seven Summits manages to win the event, it would represent India at the international level of the competition to be held in Seattle this June.

“When we did our research, we came to know that 86 per cent of people who watch movies play video games, but only 23 per cent of people who are avid readers play games. So, we thought why not make a game which is patterned after books, thereby unlocking a totally new target audience. Thus, we came up with Petite. And, we have chosen the art style abstract for Petite to serve the purpose,” he adds.

The Seven Summits team has also developed Just Born, a game that seeks to address the issue of female infanticide in India, which received an honourable mention under Project Blueprint Challenge, also a non-technology challenge category in the Imagine Cup.

“We have designed Just Born as an obstacle course through the various organs of an infant girl. It engages users through interactive mini-games in each organ, highlighting the plight and suffering of the girl child in rural India. As the game progresses, the user must win the challenges in very organ (level) only to find that the girl child is eventually drowned by her parents,” says 20-year-old Asar.

Considered as the ‘Oscars of Technology’, the Microsoft Imagine Cup has an outreach of over 60,000 students from across India this year. Around 24 teams were selected for participation at the India national finals, says a Microsoft India spokesperson.

“India has traditionally been a frontrunner at the competition. It has created opportunities for students to learn how to launch their business and bring their ideas to the market.”