In Bangladesh, video gaming is a relatively recent industry. Since 2002, games have been developed primarily independently. However, beginning in 2014, some IT businesses began commercially developing video games. Numerous colleges have researched better the video game creation industry.
Video gaming was introduced in the country through arcade gaming and experienced rapid growth in the late 1990s due to the availability of low-cost personal computers. Local video game creation, on the other hand, began in the early 2000s.
Dhaka Racing, a racing game based on the streets of Dhaka, is the country's first 3D game. The game was created by two undergraduate computer science students at North South University and was independently published in 2002 by eSophers. With a strong response from gamers across the country, the game finally opened the path for the establishment of the local video game industry.
A year later, inspired by the success of Dhaka Racing, Chittagong Racing was founded by Ahmed Shamsul Arefin and Samiran Mahmud, two fourth-year students at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET).
Trimatrik Interactive produced Arunodoyer Agnishikha, a first-person shooter (FPS) game based on the events of the Bangladesh Liberation War, in 2004. As the country's first game of its kind, it garnered worldwide praise and ushered in a new era of video game development in the country.
In 2012, a group of BRAC University students created Aerial Multi-Player Dogfight, which they claimed was the world's first massively multiplayer online (MMO) game for PCs that responds to body movements and vocal commands.
Team 71 was founded on 16 December 2012, the first professional game development team formed since 2004. They began their adventure by announcing Liberation 71, a first-person shooting game inspired by the Arunodoyer Agnishikha and based on the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Liberation 71 will detail the war's true history and incidents. Because the game is a large undertaking utilizing the Unreal 4 game engine, it is still under production. After 2010, Team 71 was dubbed the "pioneer of Bangladesh's computer game creation" era.
MassiveStar Studio developed and published Hatirjheel: Dream Begins, an open-world action-adventure game, in 2014. It was Bangladesh's first commercially published video game.
In 2015, another development company called LAI MASSIVE began work on The Reels: Welcome to Bangladesh, a story-driven linear racing game that allows players to drive from Dhaka to Chittagong. Although the developers were small and inexperienced, they created a game of next-generation quality.
Additionally, they developed other titles such as The Division Sa World at War, The Run, and Night Time Bed.
Durjoy, a third-person shooter game developed by Dream World Studio, was released in June 2016.
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The team is now working on Hound6: The Escape, a first-person shooter sequel to Hound6: Strike, which was also released in 2016.
On 25 December 2015, Mindfisher Games launched Heroes of 71, a game based on the Bangladesh Liberation War. A sequel, titled Heroes of 71: Retaliation, was released on 25 March 2016. They have been downloaded over one million times from the Google Play Store. Mukti Camp, the third entry in the series, was released on 15 December 2017.
Recently, some research and development have been conducted on video games. Microsoft Bangladesh conducted a game creation workshop dubbed Imagine Cup Bangladesh 2014 - Game Camp for the Imagine Cup Bangladesh 2014 games category participants.
Following that, two additional game camps were held. MassiveStar Studio began training 80,000 students as video game creators the same year.
Bangladesh's mobile game industry is also thriving, with several businesses producing world-class titles. The Mascoteers are a pioneer in Bangladesh when it comes to Apple Watch games, TV games, VR Gear games, and several popular arcade games.
They are catapulting Bangladesh's video gaming sector forward. It now has 25 games available on the Google Play and App Stores, in addition to games for the Apple Watch and TV, as well as VR Gear powered by the Oculus Store. Zenetic Esports is one such organization that assists comparable game creators with beta testing and application development.
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Tap Tap Ants, which has been downloaded 15 million times, is one of Rise Up Labs' most popular games.
M7 Productions and Attrito are teaming up to develop Agontuk, an open-world game. Agontuk and Annihilation are two highly anticipated games set to arrive in 2021.
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