Highlights
- Indian indie game developer and Game Jam Jaipur 2026’s Ansh Jain explains how game jams force developers to prioritize fun, clarity, and execution.
- His roguelike survival game Crossroads of Survival blends regional storytelling with modern survival mechanics.
- The Game Jam Jaipur experience reinforced the value of mentorship, rapid iteration, and creative confidence.
For many developers, game jams are a proving ground. They compress weeks of ideation, design, and development into a matter of days, stripping away polish and forcing teams to confront a single question: ‘Is the core idea fun?’ For Ansh Jain, founder of Ansh Jain Global Networks LLP, Game Jam Jaipur was exactly that kind of test.
Based in Kota, Jain leads a studio that has already shipped more than 25 games on the Google Play Store and is actively working on VR titles. His team’s presence at Jaipur events has steadily grown, from government-backed showcases to industry summits. Yet, despite that experience, the appeal of Game Jam Jaipur was not visibility alone. It was the challenge.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of creating interactive worlds,” Jain explains. Games, for him, offer something other media cannot. “They let people live the experience.” That belief has guided his career, from mobile titles enjoyed by global audiences to experimental VR projects. Game jams, however, test that philosophy in its rawest form.
From Studio Pipelines to Jam-Style Pressure
Jain is candid about how different the Game Jam Jaipur 2026 environment felt compared to his usual studio workflow. At Ansh Jain Global Networks, projects are planned weeks in advance, with time allocated for prototyping, iteration, and refinement. Game Jam Jaipur 2026 stripped all of that away.
He revealed, “It was completely different! Usually, at my studio, we have weeks to plan and prototype. Here, it was pure adrenaline. We had to make quick decisions and prioritize 'fun' over 'perfect code.' It was intense but a great exercise in rapid development.”
Ansh Jain Global Networks LLP
That mindset shaped the game they built: Crossroads of Survival, a roguelike survival experience rooted in regional storytelling. Players take on the role of a Rajasthani man tasked with protecting his family as they travel in a caravan, defending them against relentless threats. The idea was deliberately simple, but emotionally grounded. He added, “We wanted to blend the 'Caravan' theme with high-stakes survival gameplay.”
Designing With Constraints, Not Against Them
Time pressure inevitably forces compromises. Jain is open about the mechanics his team had to leave behind. More complex systems, such as caravan upgrades and dynamic environmental hazards, including sandstorms, were planned early on. As the deadline closed in, those ideas were cut.
Instead, the team doubled down on combat responsiveness and protection mechanics. “We focused entirely on polishing… the core loop,” he says. The goal was clarity. He wanted to ensure that every action reinforced the central fantasy of defending the caravan. In a jam setting, restraint became a design strength.
Inspiration came from both classic arcade titles and modern roguelike survival games. Rather than copying systems outright, Jain’s team studied how successful games handle enemy waves and progression, then adapted those ideas to fit a distinctly Rajasthani theme.
Tools, Mentorship, and Momentum at Game Jam Jaipur 2026
The game was built using the Unity Engine, which Jain describes as the backbone of his studio’s work. Its flexibility allows his team to move between mobile, VR, and more complex experiences without changing core pipelines, a critical advantage in both studio and jam environments.
Ansh Jain Global Networks LLP
Equally important was mentorship. Jain repeatedly returns to this point when reflecting on the event. The mentors, many of them industry veterans, did more than solve technical problems. The experience at Game Jam Jaipur 2026 confirmed his team’s ability to deliver under pressure. He said, “This experience validated our ability to ship a working product under extreme pressure. Networking with other developers here has been inspiring. It has given me new ideas to take back to my team in Kota and implement in our upcoming projects.”
Looking ahead, Jain sees game jams as more than side projects or résumé entries. They are training grounds. By forcing developers to strip ideas down to their essence, jams teach discipline, adaptability, and confidence— qualities, he believes, that define long-term success in game development.
In that sense, Crossroads of Survival is not just a jam prototype. It is a reflection of Jain’s broader philosophy: build with intention, respect constraints, and never lose sight of the player’s experience, no matter how tight the deadline.
