Over the years, the Indian Armed Forces have promoted many campaigns and heavily depended on them to instil pride for motherland among the youth, to promote them to join the Army, Navy and Air Force and to increase awareness about how much their motherland needs them. These campaigns generally always work during recruitment, invoking grand patriotism in them, and promise glory and adventure.
Recently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) employed a novel - at least in India - recruitment strategy by launching mobile game Guardians of the Skies, in an attempt to induce intense patriotism in the youngsters, compelling them to sign up for the IAF.
Launching the 3D mobile game Guardians of the Skies (GOTS), Air Marshal S Sukumar hailed the event as a significant milestone in encouraging youth to join IAF and also expressed concerns over tapping the best of human resources from upcoming generations.
"We are getting the numbers, but we want to attract the best of the boys and the girls to join the Air Force," Sukumar told Digit.
"The best message actually goes through if we can make people go through the act of playing the game as a fighter pilot," said Sameer Joshi, former fighter pilot and the creative director of Threye, "a young playful" Delhi-based start-up which created the game.
While your enemies in "GOTS" are the fictional Zazurians of a neighbouring country, the players are privy to the life of an Air Force officer during combat with a briefing before every mission, war-like situations, and search and rescue missions.
Couple it with top-notch graphics, thumping music and aircraft such as Sukhoi 30 and MiG 29, which are real jets flown by the Air Force, you will feel like an actual officer by the time you put the mobile/tablet down. You will even achieve campaign ribbons and gallantry awards as you progresses across various missions.
On 4 June, YouTube channel "Guardians- Indian Air Force" had posted the teaser for the game, which consists of a training mission and two operational missions, under the title, "'Guardians of the Skies' - IAF Mobile Game Teaser", which found over 64,535 views.
"'Guardians'... breaks the cliché by bringing the first Campaign based air combat game play on the mobile platform. It also sets new benchmark in graphic and game play optimization techniques and has the most elaborate collection of flying missions ever seen on a mobile platform," reads the Windows Phone description of the game.
As hoped by the IAF, the game has evoked many positive responses among the youth.
Indian Air Force Launches Official Android Mobile Game "Guardians of the Skies-Grapes Digital http://t.co/pj19LAaXPg Fly For India Jai Hind
— Sujit Bhardwaj (@sujit_kr_lucky) July 4, 2014
GUARDIANS OF THE SKIES....... Really awesome game by INDIAN AIR FORCE............. I am loving this game pic.twitter.com/xfz66JsSnn — Sam Mathew (@Sammathew07) August 1, 2014
RaGa: Yaaaaaay! "@NBTDilli: In a first of its kind, the Indian Air Force is launching a mobile phone game soon to woo youngsters."
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) June 17, 2014
The second phase of the game, comprising eight additional combat missions, will be released on 8 October coinciding with the Air Force Day.
Meanwhile, for information about career options at the Indian Air Force, click here.
