The Asvathaa Story
The Asvathaa team are storytellers… we find tales to tell, dream up ideas, and help others tell stories. We find new ways to tell these stories in the ever expanding media universe. We love technology that connects everyday people from around the world with these concepts, letting them realize the common human threads between cultures that are weaved in stories.
Asvathaa was inspired by Ashok Desai’s desire to bring to market a new generation of original games and content based on the complex and little known mythological stories from Asian Cultures. Recognizing Singapore’s role as a Global Media City and Asia’s leading media marketplace and financing hub, Ashok chose to use Singapore as the launch pad for Asvathaa. This prompted Ashok to quit his cushy corporate job and to contact his longtime friend Jayesh Parekh. Both had met in Singapore as businessmen with common interests; a love of stories, culture and their sense of giving back to those less fortunate.
Ashok invited Norm Stangl, an award-winning producer of animated children’s stories to join the team. Norm has a vision that is sought in the entertainment industry for its clarity and purpose. He brought to the team an artistic story aesthetic that reaches out and connects with people. Together they began to shape and realize that vision and invited Aaron Matthew to join the team and complete the mix. Aaron demonstrated prolific interest in Asian cultures and brings to the team a deep background in game development that includes technical leads on social and casual games centered on story.
Today we have completed Karma Kingdom, a social game deployed on Facebook that uses traditional Indian themes and mythologies that are universal enough to appeal to all demographics. The goal of the game is to allow players to create their better world. The game is a journey that takes a player to an island where they are given a quest to establish a new world with their friends. While the island represents a personal journey to the individual player, the emphasis is on not walking alone but hand in hand with society, directing the focus from “me” to “you”.
Each player will recognize the need for balance and the existing interdependence of the island’s resources against the physical, spiritual and environmental needs of the residents. They are awarded goodwill and karma points for building upon those tenets inside of the game and also for practicing this awareness of community in the real world. Initially Asvathaa is giving a portion of the proceeds of in-game purchases to various Indian oriented charities. The global philanthropic nature of the company will expand to provide proceeds to various international charities and causes in addition to its continued support of India.
Asvathaa continues to develop, amongst our partners, and ourselves ideas for bringing meaningful and entertaining animated television series, including broader technology inclusion, to the market. So with the launch of Karma Kingdom, Asvathaa begins to bring to life our first story with many more original ideas to follow.
And our story has just begun…