NAMES FOR BANGLADESHI GAMES

Video games is the biggest form of popular culture in our generation. Most video games we play are based off fictional stories or real life events that take place in a foreign land, usually where the game is developed, like the US, Japan, or maybe Europe. This got me thinking, what if there were games like this but based in Bangladesh? How would they be, and what would we call them?

MISHTI CRUSH

Candy Crush is a free-to-play match-three puzzle video game released by King that your parents are hooked on. The story follows a character named Toffette as he travels through the Candy Kingdom bringing joy and happiness through Candy. As the game progresses more characters are introduced and the difficulty increases. Now imagine the same concept but instead of Candy Kingdom, you travel through South Asia in a small cart to sell sweets. The gameplay will pretty much be the same but the tiles will be replaced with iconic sweets of South Asia like roshogolla, mawar laddu, kaalojam, chomchom, Muktagachar monda and so on. The cart will travel from the quiet mountains of Sylhet to metropolitans like Dhaka. Passing a set of levels will allow you to earn points and customise your cart. Different regions will mean different sweet cravings with different challenges and different types of consumers. Instead of a sultry voice saying words like “Sweet”, “Tasty” or “Divine” when there are impressive matches, you could have some Dhakaiya dude scream “Mitha” or “MAAAKKKHHOOON”.

SENTU MIA’S CIVILIZATION

One of the biggest problems in our country is how horrible and unpredictable traffic jams are. You could probably attribute all of this to unplanned infrastructure or lack of it altogether. Now imagine this, you’re on the Iron Throne of Bangladesh, rebuilding our infrastructure, fixing traffic congestion and transforming the whole nation into a paradise. And the best part, you can do it over thousands of years. Much like the Sid Meier’s Civilization series, the gameplay should focus on building, resource management and exploring new opportunities. Throughout the game, global crises will disrupt the economy you’ve built. It could be our neighbours not exporting onions or the West not buying ready-made garments, or inexplicably, a global ban on prawn, you’ll have to face these challenges head on try to stop it from putting your country into ruins. Beware of whatever equivalent of “Nuclear Gandhi” our deshi game spews up.

FIVE NIGHTS AT FARID’S

Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the most popular games of our time. Its story is mysterious, gameplay is fresh and villains are terrifying. Imagine the same concept with a sprinkle of Old Dhaka, specifically the older buildings with history, character, and a lot of structural damage. A rickety, shady house filled with killer robots, which are powered by souls of dead goats that have given their lives for biriyani, and their sole purpose is to grab you by the throat and shove you into a drain that’s already overflowing. Absolute bonkers! Your objective would be to stay alive avoiding the robots at all cost and maybe find a way to destroy these abominations. Weapons will be scattered around multiple rooms with several places to hide. A multiplayer option should be available for you to battle it out with your friends.

BHAAT ER HOTEL SIMULATOR

This takes inspiration from the many similar simulator games set in foreign lands. It’s a simple point and click game. Take the bhaat, put it on a plate, and serve it to the customer. Sounds simple enough, right? Well it will be once you get the hang of it. The game will start off with you as a small restaurant owner in an alleyway. As you level up, you’ll be introduced to new customers, new areas, new problems and new cuisines. Upgrades are readily available and decorations keep cycling throughout the store. The more you devote to the restaurant, the more chances of it to become a world class fine dine. Rising from a small restaurant to a world-class chain will be a journey to enjoy. An online mechanic could be introduced in the game where you could get to see other people’s restaurants and, if needed, buy some decorations from them. The game may have a bidding system where, after your restaurant is big enough, you could sell unwanted branches and players may bid to buy it from you. This would increase player interactions and will add a certain new dynamic of the game, and in-game transactions are mostly good for business.

KHALED MAHMUD CRICKET 2020

Yeah, you read that right. A lot of us have played Don Bradman Cricket 14, but what if they made it special for Bangladesh. Maybe there could be 30 wicket games when Bangladesh plays. Thirty wickets might seem excessive but with Bangladeshi batsmen and a realistic representation of their skills, the wickets will be dropping like dominoes. If you make the bowlers mediocre enough, we might even get some competitive matches. The player system could be like FIFA’s ultimate team as you gather cards of different rarities and build your dream team. Matches will be about 20 to 30 minutes long and game mechanics will be the usual. Playing against India will be the hardest as none of the decisions will be in your team’s favour.

PEYAJUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

The recent kerfuffle with the onions was a big hit for the country. People scoured for these little orbs like crazy and their price skyrocketed. This led to onions being sold out very quickly after stores opened. Imagine that there’s the last kilo of onions in Bangladesh and a 100 people are out to get it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to obtain these onions by any means and get back home as fast as possible. Grab weapons ranging from chairs to raw fishes and smack the life out of your opponents. As time flies, the kacha bazar will shrink, bringing your opponents closer together. Maps will be ranging from Town Hall bazar’s malodorous alleys to Meena Bazar’s sleek hallways. Players enter the map by getting dropped out of local buses that ended up flying because they went too fast on Airport Road. The more onions you obtain, the more you level up. Characters can range from working dads to screaming teenagers.

Well here you have it folks, these are some of my picks for Bangladeshi names of popular games. We don’t have these games yet but we sure hope they’ll come around, maybe one of the new studios can come up with something, or maybe YOU could come up with the studio that comes up with it.

Abhoy Hriddo is an antisocial teenaged geek who would prefers to sit at home and play Call of Duty during Valentine’s Day. Be sure to torment him at abhoyhriddo@gmail.com