Kushagra Gour – Founder and Owner of CCPRO Games

Kushagra Gour is the founder and owner of CCPRO Games based in New Delhi. Kushagra , who is an enthusiastic game developer who revels in applications which are not only unique but solve small problems that users face on computers, is about to complete his B.Tech and has already taken giant strides in the game development world. Kushagra has been a programmer at Zatun Games and CDOT in the past. At Zatun, he got an opportunity to develop Flash and iPhone games. He has also developed a group chat application called Chutter Mutter during his internship at CDOT.

CG Today : Kushagra, please accept a warm welcome to the interview. We are pleased to get this opportunity to speak with you today.

Kushagra : Thank You.

CG Today : CCPRO Games, please tell us the reason behind the name?

Kushagra : Chin Chang is actually the name with which I am better known on the web. It is my web handle, as it is called. And why did I choose it? It’s just a silly reason. So just thought of using it for the name under which I develop games - Chin Chang Productions (CCPRO). I will soon be registering it too.

CG Today : You come across as someone who is thoroughly interested into game development, calling yourself Indie Game Developer. Now that you seem to possess a great array of skills, what got you so interested in flash games and how did it kick start?

Kushagra : Well it all began in 11th standard when we had computer science as our subject and C++ was taught as a part of the syllabus. The language and programming as such fascinated me. I used to code a lot at my home. I started coding some simple games in C++ like galaxian, KBC, snake etc. Sometime near the end of 11th, I was once at one of my friend’s house exploring his new PC when I accidently found FLASH. It was FLASH 5 which came bundled with the PC. I knew already that flash could be used to develop games and so I immediately bought it at my home in a USB. I started experimenting with the awesome authoring tool, reading the packaged tutorials, exploring samples and learning new stuff on web. Slowly I started becoming more and more interested in game development and various other game tools. And that passion is only growing day by day.

CG Today : You have been a programming intern at Zatun Games, which won the best PC game award in recent times. Zatun, has a wide collection of top video games and iPhone games that one can buy as well. What did you gain from the experience? Is there anything you want to do differently?

Kushagra : Working at Zatun was a great experience for two primary reasons. First, I was doing my internship in something that I was passionate about - Game Development. Secondly, I got to develop games as a part of a creative team that includes level designers, artists and animators. Before that I had been developing independent games all alone but when you work with a team, it is really cool because everything is done very systematically by everyone and each of the team member masters in his own art.

CG Today : This was also the time when you would have been part of a working team, getting involved in game development workflow. Do you feel team work is something that brings value to the process of game development? Would you advice younger, aspiring game developers to hone the soft skills of collaboration?

Kushagra : As I said before, team work teaches you a lot of things that improve your overall skills in any field. You are able to concentrate on the job you are specialized in and hone your skills further. Also when you work in a team, you share ideas, learn new stuff and brainstorm together to make the game better and better. And it is very important to get used to it as that is what is going to count when you get into any game company. So it is better to start off early. Find friends that share the same passion as you do and that can be on the web too. Online collaboration is widely done. Divide work according to your interests and skills and develop something together.

CG Today : During your 6 week internship, what were the iPhone and Flash games you had developed or helped in developing? Was it a tough challenge and how did you overcome it?

Kushagra : I will not be able to discuss about the games I worked on due to professional terms. Regarding the challenges, there is nothing as such except the initial setup of developing environment for iPhone games. Being new to Mac OS and iPhone development, it took time to get used to it and figuring out how every tool fits into each other before you could actually kickoff with some serious coding.

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