Highlights
- World University of Design’s Sanjay Gupta reveals how UI/UX has evolved over the years in the gaming industry.
- Gaming is pushing developers to focus on accessibility and intuitive UI/UX instead of overly complex systems.
- Retention-based monetization has turned UI/UX into a critical business driver instead of just another design element.
Gaming today looks nothing like it did even a decade ago. The industry has fundamentally transformed how games are designed and experienced over the years. For Dr. Sanjay Gupta, founding vice chancellor of the World University of Design, this evolution focuses on design becoming one of the most important elements of a game’s success. It is no longer playing second fiddle to technology. In modern gaming, good game design actually defines the entire experience.
As games reach more people and become easier to access, UI/UX has stepped out of the supporting role to become the foundation for engagement, retention, and monetization. In an interview with Outlook Respawn, Gupta broke down how UI/UX has achieved this feat and changed the game development ecosystem.
A Shift in How Games are Designed
Gupta explained that gaming has undergone a fundamental shift in both scale and audience, saying, “Gaming itself has changed over the years. It is no longer what traditional gamers used to play. Now it has become a mass market entertainment format with upwards of 3B users, which is roughy 40% of the world’s population. It means the diversity in the gaming audience is huge. The hobby is not just for casual gamers; ordinary people are playing while traveling or in their spare time.”
This growth has quietly reshaped what matters in design. Games are no longer created only for dedicated players who are happy to spend hours understanding game mechanics. Most games are now built for casual users who might pick them up in short bursts during their daily routines.
Mobile gaming has sped up this change dramatically. People often play in quick sessions that can be interrupted at any moment by calls, messages, or real-life commitments. Gamers want experiences that are easy to get into and enjoyable without massive time sinks.
Gupta added, “Intuitive design often matters more than raw complexity now. Clarity, accessibility, and smooth responsiveness have become make-or-break factors that determine whether someone keeps playing or moves on within the first few minutes.”
UI/UX Now Drives Retention and Monetization
Gupta said the economics of gaming have evolved right along with player habits, explaining, “Games do not necessarily have a price tag anymore. Some of the most successful games are free. Monetization is about how long you can retain a player, how long you can make him keep coming back. If retention is important to a studio, delivering a quality experience is also important.”
This move toward free-to-play models has completely changed how success is measured. Rather than chasing upfront sales, studios now live or die by how well they keep players engaged over weeks and months.
Gupta added that UI/UX works on both practical and emotional levels, saying, “UI/UX is about two things. One is how easy it is to navigate the game. And two is the experience, how intuitive and interesting the game is to keep the player in.”
In real terms, this goes far beyond just menus and buttons. It covers everything from tutorials, new player experiences, reward systems, to feedback loops and the overall pace of a game. All of these elements shape how the player feels, and that feeling decides whether they’ll keep returning to their favorite games.
From a business standpoint, this represents a major evolution. UI/UX is no longer something that happens at the end of game development. It has become a core driver of both player engagement and revenue.
Why India has Struggled With Game Design
Despite these worldwide changes, Gupta noted that India’s gaming sector hasn’t fully embraced this design-first mindset, stating, “The focus has always been about the tech, game engines, and other things, and not really about how you design a game.”
This gap stems from how the industry developed here. A large portion of India’s gaming work has come from outsourced projects, where the main demand is reliable execution rather than creative vision or deep player insight.
Gupta elaborated on this point, saying, “The industry in India has largely been acting like outsourced sweatshops where studios offload some of their processes to Indian game development studios. We have been doing just that instead of building quality experiences of our own.”
According to Gupta, this approach has built impressive technical skills within the Indian game development workforce; it has also held back the growth of independent design. Many studios that do work on their own games focus on the technicalities instead of crafting memorable experiences.
Gupta believes the next generation of Indian game designers will need a more well-rounded perspective. He wants professionals to understand game design from the perspective of players and shift away from purely technical education toward deeper experiential knowledge.
He also emphasized the value of “systems thinking”, saying, “Games are not static interfaces. They are dynamic, evolving environments where design affects engagement, design affects retention, and therefore design affects monetization.”
Specializing in just one narrow area isn’t enough anymore to succeed as a game designer. They must understand how visuals, interactions, psychology, and gameplay mechanics all work together to create something cohesive. Gupta advised students to treat game design as a discipline that combines creativity, human behavior insights, and technical knowledge.
Building the Right Ecosystem for Game Design
Gupta wants to see serious changes in the Indian education system. He is trying to bring those changes through the World University of Design. He explained, “We have specializations in animation and game design, UI/UX, digital product design, graphics, and visual communication. Our students earn expertise from all of these fields to be equipped for the industry.”
At the same time, he stressed that the industry itself must get more involved, adding, “If you want to become a bigger player in this industry, you have to move beyond being a service center for other game studios and become an innovator. You have to start interacting more deeply with educational institutions.”
To him, this kind of collaboration will be essential for India’s long-term success in gaming. Without it, the divide between academic training and real-world needs will only grow. India already possesses the massive user base, talented workforce, and rich cultural background to create games with genuine global appeal. The missing piece is a stronger focus on design-led thinking.
