Desi Adda: Games of India

Wednesday 24th February, 2010: Leading Indian game developer GameShastra has today announced that Desi Adda: Games of India, a captivating mix of traditional games, will be available to purchase via the PlayStation Network on 25th February.

GameShastra's latest game faithfully recreates the customs of India, as the player takes on the role of Avinash, the son of a businessman who has lived all his life abroad and is visiting his ancestral village for the first time.

As he gets to know the villagers and joins in with their traditional games, the story unfolds and Avinash is challenged with helping a young couple win the approval of Garjan Singh, the most powerful man in the village, so they can marry.

Desi Adda is already played by billions of people around the world, and was the first indigenous game for PSP and the first PlayStation 2 game to be playable in three Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, and Punjabi.

A total of six games feature in Desi Adda including, Pachisi, Aadu Puli Aatam (goat and the tiger), Kite Fight, Kabaddi, Gilli Danda and the beat matching dance game.

Recognisable traditions of Indian are reflected in Kite Fight, where people fly kites to cut into other kits, using specially made threads, and the dance game, where the gamer must match the beats of an Indian song by hitting a combination of buttons at the right time.

These are joined by Pachisi, a turn-based board game using a cross-shaped board and two rectangular dice; Aadu Puli Aatam (goat and the tiger), a hunt game where the goats must strategically move to pen the tigers in so they cannot move; Kabaddi sees two teams alternate between defence and offense, with points accrued by touching or capturing the members from the opposing side; Gilli Danda roots lie in cricket, with the ball replaced by a stick called Gilli and Danda is the 24-inch stick used as the bat.

"The games that feature in Desi Adda are inspired by established and traditional games of India," says Prakash Ahuja, CEO GameShastra, Inc. "Making it available on the PlayStation Network will help to introduce them to a wider audience."

Desi Adda will be available to download in Europe for 9.99/9.99 from the PlayStation Network on 25th February.

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Notes to editors

About GameShastra

GameShastra has been involved in game testing and related services for over two years, and have successfully handled the testing of numerous games for leading publishers and development houses globally. The company has opened a state-of-the-art Game Services centre in Hyderabad to extend testing services for all the gaming platforms - Consoles, Handheld, Mobiles and Online and offers testing - Functionality, Compatibility, Game-play, Certification. GameShastra leadership team is highly experienced and it is represented by some of the well known experts in the Game Industry. To know more about GameShastra visit http://www.gameshastra.com