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Arimac launches NERO today

26 Sep 2021

  • Founder Chamira Jayasinghe briefs on what to expect
By Imesh Ranasinghe Arimac is among the pioneers taking the gaming industry in Sri Lanka to the next level to compete in the global gaming market. The company is releasing its second game NERO today (Sunday, 26 September) after three long years of making. Speaking with The Sunday Morning Business, Arimac Founcder Chamira Jayasinghe spoke about the hard work and effort put in by his team to finally launch the game amidst a pandemic. The entire storyline of NERO is purely fictional and it walks gamers through the journey of a soldier who is involved in a deadly conflict. While the game will not have any resemblance to the civil war the country had to face, through the game, Arimac pays massive tribute to Sri Lankan war heroes, especially Nero, who is among the world’s best sniper. The entire title is focused on him and his family. Jayasinghe said the game will not have any location in Sri Lanka, adding that it is a completely different virtual location their game artist has created. NERO is set against a breathtaking backdrop of a tropical forest and gushing rivers. Players will track down and eliminate targets hidden deep in enemy territories and sabotage heavily guarded military bases with all the tools at their disposal. Since 2011, Arimac has been trying to establish a gaming ecosystem in Southeast Asia by empowering engineers, creative designers, game-level designers, sound engineers, etc. to compete with the global gaming company. The year 2021 is the peak of their 10-year effort, and the company has so far successfully worked on two game titles – Kanchayudha, which was released in 2016, and NERO. The story behind building games such as Kanchayudha and NERO is to build a separate gaming economy in Sri Lanka which will help the national economy. A 12-member team is behind the development of NERO with an investment of around Rs. 40 million for the game. The game will have a PC-based single-player campaign and a mobile-based multiplayer. Minimum system requirements for PC include: ◦ A 64-bit processor and operating system ◦ OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8.1 or 64-bit Windows 10 ◦ Processor: Intel CPU Core i3-2100 or AMD equivalent ◦ Memory: 4 GB RAM ◦ Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB) ◦ Storage: 10 GB available space Recommended requirements are: ◦ A 64-bit processor and operating system ◦ OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8.1 or 64-bit Windows 10 ◦ Processor: Intel CPU Core i7-3770 or AMD equivalent ◦ Memory: 8 GB RAM ◦ Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 970 / AMD GPU Radeon RX 480 ◦ Storage: 10 GB available space The PC version of the game could be accessed through Steam at $ 9.99, as it will be a Steam-based or Epic Games Store-based download. Jayasinghe also said the company will be partnering with multiple e-commerce shops and try to distribute licenses, for which the company is still analysing its feasibility. The mobile multiplayer version would be released as a freemium model, but the company would be partnering with multiple telcos to introduce a Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) component, where players will have to play for campaigns and tournaments. “We would have multiple campaigns and we would onboard a few partners to monetise and have more merchandising from the game itself,” Jayasinghe said. There are three main difficulty modes in NERO: Easy, Normal, and Hard. There is a fourth difficulty mode, “Brutal”, which is unlocked once the player completes the game. Players who are experienced in shooting games and are looking for more of a challenge can play in higher difficulty modes. The player can change the difficulty at any point in the game. Changing the difficulty mode in-game will make the player restart the mission. This is done to prevent players from consistently changing the difficulty in a mission, which will degrade the gameplay experience. The satisfaction lies in completing missions with higher difficulty. In higher difficulties, enemies are tougher and more intelligent, forcing players to be smarter and more tactical in their style of play. NERO will have multiple versions, including the move to PS5 and Xbox versions, and will be coming up with multiple patches according to user feedback. “There might be issues, so we are patching them up. There is a separate team we have arranged to do the needful. Whoever wants to enjoy a third-party shooter game with a bit of stealth, sniper, and tactical element, they are more than welcome to get the experience,” Jayasinghe said. Publishing and monetisation of games Jayasinghe said that while looking into other game titles in the future, Arimac wants to up their publishing and monetisation skills. “The last 10 years, what we actually focused on is engineering, creativity, 3D elements, and how to do better realistic graphics, game label design, etc. For that we onboarded a few foreign engineers and they are working with us here in Sri Lanka,” he said. The next plan of the company is to master the art of game publishing and how to do innovative business models and make money out of the game. “So, this is the starting point for us as a company, more or less driving towards new innovations – as to how we can bring more value to customers and consumers we are dealing with,” he said. He said it’s high time for their gaming company to be a commercial gaming company because they have given enough free experiences for Sri Lankan as well as global users. Future plans and environment Jayasinghe said that Arimac will be trying to innovate a new genre and a new dimension in terms of gaming both in Sri Lanka and globally. “We have been researching a lot in the AI (artificial intelligence) sphere and how we can bring more inclusive experience in gaming, and maybe we will introduce another gaming interface, where it will not necessarily be keyboard and mouse but a new novel way because the world is evolving crazily. Human-computer interaction is shaping up in different angles,” he said. He added that Arimac will introduce a new gaming paradigm for their next game. Speaking about the support environment in Sri Lanka for the company, Jayasinghe said there is a right environment for the industry in terms of resources, such as engineering, creativity, and innovation, but the team has to work towards it rather than nagging about it, even if there isn’t a support system.


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