happiness and food

Idling away on Facebook, I came across a fellow blogger’s status message that said “Until February 10, the world is Delhi”. I don’t think anyone who feels connected to India would have second thoughts about this. All over news, debates, office lunches and discussions, the only topic that is on fire is Delhi Elections. Our favorite Amul also pitched in for an opinion.

Riding on the same wave, Geek Mentors Studios went a step ahead by launching a game called iRunDilli which is available on Android and on web platform. This game gives a chance to the players to choose which politician gets to run Dilli. The game begins with an option to select one of the three players – AK, KB and RG and then starts the fun.

Though Congress is not being represented by RG in Delhi, having him in the game is symbolic and adds to the fun. The set up of the game brought back memories of the video game my brother used to play as a kid – Mario. The player you choose runs along the back drop of Delhi skyline and (s)he has to pick as many votes as possible along with avoiding slaps, lathi blows and “jhadoo ki maar”. Your friends are few like the medical kit, and the enemies are these slaps and broom blows. If you fail to escape the blow, you lose health eventually leading to the game being over.

For the not-so-gamer like me, I felt that the speed was too much for me to handle but that’s okay cos I had some good fun trying my hands on the web version. The messages that show up and the background score is notice worthy. There are “ouches” that accompany slaps and when I lost the first trial, here is what the message said.

Not just that, let’s say you grab a couple of votes but eventually drop in that valley and the game is over, you are encouraged by another message that says

I must say that the designers have done a great job by using fun messages that the mango man will be able to relate as it is the same our politicians do all the time. The game is indeed addictive you can’t just stop at playing with one player. We Indians want to give everyone a chance and that is why, I am sure you will try your gaming skills with the other two players like I did. The bigger leader board shows up the votes counted through the game by users of iRunDill. For me it is also an indicator how the game is doing. I am not going to relate it to any numbers that will be declared on 10th of this month.

The team did a good job with the concept, it’s relevance to the timing and what I really like is that the team has put up a neat disclaimer saying they don’t have any intentions of hurting the political sentiments of people. They admit that this is a fun way to spread awareness and encourage the players to cast their vote on February 7, 2015.

This game has been conceptualized by Faisal Mohammed and Naim Siddiqui, the design is by Raveen Sharma and the coder who freed up memory and ran the code without bugs is Mohammed Shah Nawaz. No job is complete without the support of a great team and Altamash Mohammed and Jasmeet Kaur worked hard to get this game to all the users.

This is not a paid promotion and know that I write what I feel good about. I played this game and I am feeling a little awkward to say this but I was thrashed multiple times before this post was written! Do try the game and do not forget to Vote on February 7, 2015. The fate of Delhi is in your hands.

February is already here. Time really flies. What would you like to read? Keep sharing thoughts, comments and yes, keep visiting. Your presence encourages me.