Building a game (Part 1): A Practical Application of "Jugaad"
A few months ago, I had the idea of creating a game that showed the South Asian concept of Jugaad. For those unfamiliar, in the case of objects or things, it is very closely related to what I would call “jury-rigging” or most any thing “make-shift. For people, it is the connections and strings one can pull that can accomplish work.
It is as the adage states: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Jugaad is a common theme in Indian life. The thought process for many Indians I know when confronting a problem is: Who do I know that can help me? It is NOT always a positive thing, that’s for damn sure. But it’s a cultural trait nonetheless, and something worthy of exploring in game form.
On top of this, I have also noticed a severe dearth of games set in an Indian mythological setting, which is remarkably strange to me because it is so rife with possibilities.
Tolkienesque worlds have taken over our concept of fantasy. Orcs, Goblins, Dwarfs, Elves, are all played to death. We often see a new board game or video game rehash the same world with the same restraints and tropes.
We do see a few others, granted: A range of worlds ranging from dark and brooding to happy-go-lucky can be found using these well-established myths. In some cases, it’s fun and novel (Witcher and Munchkin come to mind). Others have gutted the whole genre and created their own, like Gloomhaven. That’s pretty neato.
I thought it would be just as cool to create a land filled with South Asian myths and legends in the same way, and with the same touch of lightness. No blood-fueds, no ancient curses that spell eventual doom, no questioning cosmic duty (yet). just characters that are a bit quirky and create interesting interactions. With that, I set writing up four different peoples: Manava (Humans), Vanara (ape-men), Naga (Snake men) and Rakshasa (Demons, or otherwise hedonistic beings. in our interpretation somewhere between High Fantasy Orcs and Dark Elves).
Not unironically, I contacted my friend of a little more than a decade, Dylan Reader, to help me bring these people and characters to life.
The first couple of concepts we can share are of the Vaanara and Raakshasa! Full disclosure: These are very early in development and could change drastically. You can find more drawings on our Instagram here
Vanara
They were first mentioned in the Ramayana, but briefly in a few other stories. The Most famous of this group, Hanuman, weaves his way through a few secondary and tertiary tales. They have all of the charm you would need out of a unique ‘race’: warm, straightforward, curious, but also fiercely loyal.
Rakshasa
The Rakshasa again taking the above epic into account, are very similar to humans save for a few aspects: they are more magically inclined, they eat more meat, and they are generally more hedonistic. ‘Hedonism’ can take on many forms, but in their case, they are quick to anger and they love them some power. As per the epics, I chose to depict both these peoples as eusocial, as in, they live in societies and help each other as humans do.
