Gaming: When work is play

Armed with knowledge of the basics and his love for art, Vinay Vikram Singh, who started off as a trainee with UTV animation in 1999, is now a leading gaming company's art director. Praveen Donthi tells more. Game changer | Career Ladder | Quirky facts | Challenges | Skills required | Institutes in India | Go global | 'It's the result that counts' | Growing markets

"Job satisfaction is irrelevant for me. I don’t do a job. My hobby became my profession," says 34-year-old Vinay Vikram Singh, Art Director with the Lakshya Digital Pvt Ltd, a leading gaming company in India. Singh works in a sunrise sector where, quite literally, fun is work and work is fun.

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It all started with an early love for drawing. Post schooling, Singh’s art teacher got him the application form for the Lucknow Art College and he applied. "I was eligible for Commerce, which was more sought after but my teacher convinced me not to go for it."

Armed with knowledge of the basics and his love for art, Singh started off as a trainee with UTV animation in 1999. Within nine months he became an animator and in less than three years he turned animation director. "That was when my father was transferred to Mumbai and I didn’t have any friends. So I immersed myself in work, and at the first opportunity moved to Delhi and joined Lakshya as an Art Director." Today he heads a team of hundred people, and the number is increasing by the day.

So what exactly did they do at Lakshya? He says, "For the first time we created game-content, which is not outsourced to India normally. Now it is believed that we can also create content for an international platform." The game, Trade Winds Legends, which Singh was involved in got a five-star- rating for graphics. He has also created characters for Disney and CSI series on AXN channel. "We also did many concepts for Conan, The Barbarian." His plans for the future: to create local content and produce games which are not only for India but also for the global market.