KRAFTON India and IIT Madras have joined hands to launch the KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator Academy, known as KIGI Academy. The program is especially aimed at helping Indian students understand game development. This course is exclusively available to IIT Madras students in third- and fourth-year Bachelor's and Dual Degree programs, along with postgraduate and Master’s students from any engineering discipline. The best part is, no prior game development experience is required for it. The collaborative program will bring students closer to both classroom learning and real-world gaming work.
The six-month program is designed to offer students a hands-on experience of game development, including areas like coding, UI/UX, art, and product development. During the program, students will learn the core of game development using the Unity game engine, which is mainly focused on mobile game development.
Once students enroll and complete the six-month training, they will be given two months of residency at Krafton India's headquarters in Bengaluru. Initially, it will begin with 30 students from the IIT, among whom 10 will be residential.
India already has a massive gaming audience. However, the next challenge is to build more games within the country. This needs skilled professionals in game design, art, programming, testing, and other parts of development. KIGI Academy could help close this gap by giving students a closer look at how the industry works. Instead of learning only from books, students can understand how their skills are used while making real games.
The KRAFTON India and IIT Madras partnership could also encourage more colleges and gaming companies to work together. Such programs can give students a clearer path into the industry and help more young developers turn their ideas into games.