Krafton India at IIT Rendezvous 2025: Krafton Wants to Shape India's Game Development Future

The gaming industry in India is experiencing a groundbreaking development. With millions of people actively playing and a rapidly growing market, India's ecosystem is no longer simply a community of gaming consumers, but is also increasingly becoming a community of creators. A recent manifestation of this shift occurred at Krafton India IIT Rendezvous 2025, where aspiring self-made talent were provided with an opportunity to explore game development and a spirit of innovation.
Rendezvous 2025 is IIT Delhi's annual cultural festival. This year's occasion was particularly special since the festival was celebrating its 50th year, and the theme of the event was "Golden Threads of Time." Krafton India participated in the event, not only on behalf of esports to ignite interest in gaming, but to inspire all students to create their own games.

Krafton India IIT Rendezvous 2025: A Lesson on How the Gaming Industry Works

As a part of this initiative, Krafton developed a Game Development Challenge. Students were presented with a problem statement in advance and formed teams to shape their ideas into meaningful concepts before presenting them in front of an expert jury panel. The jury panel included individuals in key leadership roles at Krafton India, such as Anuj Sahani (Head of Gaming Incubator Program), Saurabh Shah (Head of People Operations), and Karan Gaikwad (Lead of Product Management).

Via real-time problem-solving and showcasing skills in game development, for many, it was their first real experience to see how the gaming industry works, beyond their players’ lens. The winners of this event got a special prize as well. Not only did the top-three teams receive recognition, but they were also granted direct entry to Krafton India’s Gaming Incubator (KIGI). Typically, developers in India would need to undertake a complicated registration process to apply for the incubator, but these three teams simply bypassed the registration for the next steps of project review to the incubator’s third cohort.

In case you don't know, the KIGI program is an exclusive program by Krafton in India to nurture student developers with mentorship, funding, and publishing support. The incubator provides students with resources they would not typically have access to at the early stages of creation. Students will learn from experts, improve their prototypes, and transition into the professional gaming industry.

Future Prospects for India Gaming Industry

In 2024, there were more than 488 million online gamers in India, as per industry reports, with the homegrown market value estimated at 4.3 to 4.4 million US dollars for the same year. Projections suggest that it could exceed 15 billion US dollars by 2033, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20 per cent.

Mobile gaming is the largest catalyst of this growth, as over 90 per cent of Indian gamers play on mobile devices. Games like BGMI, Free Fire, and Call of Duty Mobile highlighted huge genres of gamers, but there are very few Indian games developed with global success. Indian youth have been passionate players for years. Krafton India now hopes it can transition into a creator to design the next global games.

The key message of Krafton India IIT Rendezvous 2025 was simple: India has the talent and energy to become a hub for creators. With industry backing and mentorship, today’s students can evolve into tomorrow’s innovators. This venture has opened the door for a new class of game developers to craft the next chapter of India’s gaming narrative.

If you liked this coverage, do not forget to check out our in-depth BGMI Guide online. It will help you better understand what the game is about.