Brothers Sang and Somil Gupta, both Full Sail graduates, are at the helm of a successful and expanding game development studio, Trine Game Studios in Mumbai, India.

Sang, 22, is a Game Development graduate and Somil, 30, has a Computer Animation degree. The brothers opened Trine Studios in June of 2006 with an initial $5 million raised through family and private investors. Their company has grown from an eight-person studio to a facility that employs more than 130 full-time developers.

The brothers have been pioneers in the nascent game industry in India. According to Sang, Trine Studios is the only full-service game company in India – the only one that makes complete games, including the programming, art and sound. “There are some that just do animation,” he says.

Trine is producing two games right now. One is The Streets of Mumbai for PC – a game that will be finished by February of next year. The other game is a sequel to a well-known role-playing game (RPG) for the Wii, Xbox and PC, says Sang, adding that production begins in October, but he can’t reveal the game title or publisher since it hasn’t yet been announced.

Living and Working in Mumbai

Sang concedes that living and working in India is not for everyone, but there are advantages.

“The cost of living in India is extremely cheap,” said Sang. The company provides its employees with “top of the line hardware, maid service, cooks and chauffeurs” and a starting salary that provides a comfortable standard of living.

“[The salary] seems like a low number to [Americans] – it’s actually a pretty nice salary … basically what bank managers get paid here,” he explains.

Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is also an international city and the home of Bollywood, India’s version of Hollywood, explains Sang. “It’s kind of like New York, with people from different parts of the world and cities. There are tons of artists coming in from Asia and Europe and also the U.S.”

The transportation and nightlife are good, English is spoken everywhere and hospitality is ingrained in the culture, he adds.

On the other hand, “there will be, like, a massive cultural shock,” says Sang.

Among many other differences, visitors to American restaurant chains in Mumbai like Pizza Hut and KFC should not expect to order a meatball sub or a pizza with ground beef. “You will not find beef here,” says Sang.

The Culture at Trine

As for life at Trine, Sang describes the company as friendly, multicultural and open to ideas and opinions. “Here we actually listen to all our employees’ ideas and learn from them, and if the ideas make sense, we actually implement them.”

According to Sang, some programmers come from major U.S. companies like EA, Microsoft and Sierra. The company has big plans for expansion, and eventually plans to open a second facility in Beijing, says Sang. By next year, they hope to be 1,000 employees strong.

“We’re getting a lot of work from publishers” says Sang. The typical game in India is developed for a much lower cost than its counterpart in the U.S or other countries.

Trine is a new twist on the outsourcing phenomenon that’s been going on for years. “The U.S. can outsource work, and then we kind of outsource the work back to the U.S. through U.S. employees.”

Trine Game Studios: www.trine.co.in

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