New Delhi, October 15: A 27-year-old IIT professional, Suraj Kushwaha, has created a video game titled ‘Jantar Mantar Chalo’, inspired by recent protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. This 3D satirical game encapsulates the security challenges and experiences faced during the demonstrations.
Players can choose to be either a protester or a member of the Delhi police. As the game begins, players navigate through Jantar Mantar and its surroundings, encountering police, detention points, and media coverage.
Key features of the game include:
– Gameplay Options: Players can opt to be either a ‘protester’ or ‘Delhi police’.
– Protester Role: If players choose to be protesters, their objective is to gather crowds, break through barricades, and reach Jantar Mantar while avoiding police and tear gas.
– Police Role: As police, players must stop protesters, use batons or tear gas, and detain them.
The game, inspired by ‘Slither’ and other survival gaming concepts, was developed quickly through coding and has gone viral on social media. Protests demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner have been ongoing at Jantar Mantar since October 2.
Suraj, originally from Bareilly and known on Instagram as ‘bugswriter’, works as a DevOps engineer at oneplay.in and runs a Linux-based YouTube channel. He stated, “I was watching news about the ongoing protests, and many people were trying to reach Jantar Mantar using different routes. An idea struck me—this could be a form of dark humor, so I thought, why not create a game about it?”
Suraj studied game design in college but utilized AI tools for coding and other design aspects. He emphasized that the gameplay concept and design are his own, inspired by the ‘Slither’ game.