Highlights
- The first-ever AVGC-XR panel at the Vibrant Gujarat Regional Conference 2026 was hosted on June 30.
- The panel brought together Mridul Pancholi, Vikram Khazanchi, and Aditya Subramanian.
- The session fed directly into Gujarat's thinking on its upcoming AVGC-XR policy and a possible state-backed Game Jam.
Vibrant Gujarat Regional Conference included an AVGC-XR panel for the first time. The discussion, moderated by Outlook Respawn's Chief Editor, Vignesh Raghuram, was held at Vadodara, Gujarat, on June 30, 2026.
Outlook Respawn put together an expert panel which included Mridul Pancholi from Heat Death Studio; Vikram Khazanchi, independent developer and educator from Delhi NCR; and Aditya Subramanian, a developer with experience at Rockstar Games, Monolith Productions, and Mono Tusk Studios.
With Gujarat wanting to understand the importance of the AVGC-XR conversation, the panel talked about talent pipelines and whether the sites and stories sitting in the state's cultural heritage are raw material for original games.
VGRC 2026 AVGC-XR Panel Recap
The panel spoke about why developers build original games rather than take the services route. Many agree that the services path is safer and the original IP path is not. But the studios that have chosen original IP and survived have built something that compounds over time in a way that outsourcing work does not. An independent homegrown game like Appa or Palm Sugar carries a studio's name and creative identity. A completed outsourcing contract simply does not do that.
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Programs across the country are producing graduates with varying levels of practical skill. Meanwhile, studios consistently report that the hiring pool for roles requiring production-grade experience is thin. The specific roles that are hardest to find, technical artists, senior programmers with engine-level knowledge, and experienced game designers with shipped titles, are also the roles that are least well-taught at the institutional level. Portfolio work, shipped projects, however small, and familiarity with industry-standard tools tend to matter more in hiring decisions than degree credentials alone.
The panel also discussed where AI genuinely helps and where it is oversold. The game development community's relationship with AI tools is more nuanced than the broader technology conversation suggests. AI-assisted asset generation, code completion, and localization workflows are producing genuine efficiency gains for small teams working with limited resources. What AI cannot do is replace the design judgment, playtesting intuition, and cultural grounding that make a game feel considered rather than assembled. For a small Indian studio trying to compete in the global market, AI might not be the answer to the underlying question of creative direction and craft.
What Gujarat Needs to Do
The panel's conversation about Gujarat's specific opportunity kept returning to a few concrete themes.
The clean slate argument cuts both ways. Gujarat has no established game studio culture, which means no entrenched outsourcing model to break out of, but also no anchor studios to attract talent or build a community around. The first games studios to establish themselves in the state will define what Gujarat's game development looks like, for better or worse.
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On the question of cultural material, Gujarat has sites that remain largely untouched by interactive media. Rani ki Vav, the stepwell at Patan, Dholavira's Harappan ruins, the maritime history of the Saurashtra coast, the textile traditions of Kutch are just some of the possible inspirations. They are the kind of culturally specific raw material that have been successfully demonstrated to global audiences in other markets like China and Japan. The question is less about whether there is viable game material in Gujarat's heritage and more about whether the state is willing to back the studios that could turn it into something.
The infrastructure that matters most for a game studio is not what most state policies fund first. Office space and connectivity are table stakes. What actually moves the needle for a small team is access to hardware for testing across platforms, legal and accounting support for navigating international publishing agreements, and a community of other developers to learn from and collaborate with. A shared facility equipped with development hardware, test devices, and engine licenses would address several of those gaps simultaneously and at a cost the state could absorb far more easily than direct studio funding.
On funding specifically, the first 18 months before a game earns revenue is where most studios die. A small grant programme structured around milestone delivery rather than upfront allocation would give early-stage studios enough runway to ship something without creating the dependency that larger, less accountable funding structures tend to produce.
Why the VGRC Panel Mattered
VGRC 2026's AVGC-XR session was explicitly framed as a pilot. Gujarat is deciding whether to build a policy around this sector. The fact that the conversation happened at all, in a conference dominated by semiconductors, pharma, and industrial investment, signals something about where the state's ambitions are pointing.
India's AVGC conversation has been happening the loudest in the states that already have studios. Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are all building on existing foundations. Gujarat is at an earlier stage and is finally taking a serious look at AVGC-XR. For an industry that has spent years waiting for state governments to take it seriously, that is a meaningful step forward for everyone involved.
