Every one of us plays video games more or less but how many of us play games that are localized and made especially for Bangladesh market: very few to none. Gamers of a particular market are different from the gamers of other markets. There is a deep cultural connotation in games. Henceforth, games that are popular in US market are not essentially popular in other markets, apart from few exceptions.
TapStar Interactive, a startup recently graduated from Founder Institute Dhaka Chapter, aims to tap into this opportunity. It wants to create and launch games especially designed for Bangladesh market and then for the South Asian market. “We have been making games for western markets for quite a while. The market has become saturated in recent times. Making a hit game no more depends on how good the game is but it has become a matter of luck,” says A.K.M Masuduzzaman, Founder of Tapstar Interactive. That’s when the idea of starting TapStar Games came to Masuduzzaman’s mind.
Grwoing pace of Smartphone penetration coupled with 3G connection makes Bangladesh a lucrative market for next phase of gaming frenzy. “We have seen Bangladesh is moving fast, number of smart phone users is growing rapidly, people are using internet from mobile, say Masuduzzaman, and we have a very young population ready to accept anything new and exciting”.
That’s when Team TapStar decides to change their focus. From western market they shifted their focus to Bangladesh and have already launched two games. Last year Tapstar launched their first bangla language game ‘Ludu Friends’ and this year they launched another game called ‘Rickshaw Racing’. Both of these games received quite positive response from the market.
Testing The WaterTapStar aims to offer a breadth of localized games combining fun with social features on mobile platforms. The startup aims to become the leading creators of localized games for the $15 billion Asian mobile game market, starting with Bangladesh and India, a soon to be 300 million smartphone users market. However, the journey for the startup has just begun. “We are just testing the water, says Masuduzzaman, we have launched two games in Bangladesh market. The feedback is good and we are happy but not complacent. We are seeing the numbers and trying to understand our users.”
These are just early days. It will take time and work both to get the ball rolling at full speed.
The startup is a five member team now and bootstrapping to their way to become a leading game maker in Bangladesh and Asia. “We are investing money from our own pockets now, says Maksuduzzaman, we want to bootstrap to a certain stage and see how things turn out”.
TapStar wants to be a regional player over the time. The startup wants to move on to add language support for countries like India, Pakistan, Thailand, and other Asian countries. “Now we are trying to understand the market, says Masuduzzaman, we have games in market and people are using our games. We are also working with telecom brands to take things forward. Every day we are receiving and analyzing the data and trying to understand the taste, habits and priorities of our users.”
Image Credit: TapStar
