ITLoW takes a sneak peek into what Babar Ahmed of Mindstorm Studios is up to

They say that entrepreneurs start their businesses with money that they are able to get from friends, families and fools. Of course it helps if you have a father who believes in what you are doing and decides to invest in your venture.  Babar Ahmed, CEO of Mindstorm Studios, Lahore, is one of the lucky individuals who has just such a parent.

However, when you are developing a video game product and it takes about 3 years, the funding does start to dwindle which is what happened in the case of Mindstorm. So what did Babar do? Like several other companies that we have featured on ITLoW, he started a services division offering design, 3D rendering, architectural walkthroughs and drawing services. In the last 8 months of so, the income from these services has supported the 20 member team and the product development division of the company.

In my interview with Babar Ahmed, he tells me a little more about the product and the vision that he has for it. The fact that it is a cricket game is in itself exciting for a country that loves its cricket – no matter how badly our team may be doing right now. We will come out of it. They surprise us when we least expect it.

Anyway, back to the game. From the sounds of it, a lot of thought has gone into its development. It is going to be available for you to play by yourself on your desktop computer and it is also going to be available as an online game on a network where you can build teams and play against individuals and groups. The idea of a cricket portal where all the scores and records of fours and sixes and wins and losses will be available, will lead towards the building of an online community of cricket lovers and players who don’t need to be fit to play – people like me for instance .

Babar has a BS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Wireless Communication, Electrical Engineering and Management Science from Stanford University. He says he has a passion for teaching and it is no wonder then that he is Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

While googling for Babar, I found this exclusive interview that he gave to Planet Cricket regarding Cricket Revolution – that is, in fact, the name of the game that he is launching in the summer.

At the moment, since the feature set on the game is more or less closed, Babar says that they are working on improving the User Experience and soon they will be having a beta launch where the game will be made available to several hundred testers from around the world. I hope we at ITLoW and CIO Pakistan are included in the exclusive set of people who will have access to the game in a couple of weeks. How about it Babar?

Babar is also looking at how to distribute the game – he is naturally talking with Publishers but is at the same time exploring Valve’s Steam which is an iTunes equivalent for game developers. Interesting stuff! The world certainly has gone through a paradigm shift. Here is a trailer of the game:

How does Babar describe the role he plays at Mindstorm Studios? In his own words (which I borrowed from his Linked In profile), he says:

We’re a startup, so I wear multiple hats as required: Business Management, Business Development, Game Design and Programming, Mocap management, Physics and AI, and of course, Taking out the Garbage

Interesting young man. Entrepreneur. Engineer. Business Manager. Passionate. Talented. Excited about what he is doing. He is going to make us all proud. Good luck Babar. You certainly have got us in your corner. The Cricket Revolution website can be found here.