PESHAWAR-A mobile game prepared by a group of IT-educated youth from Peshawar sets record attractiveness across the globe by scoring more than 20 million downloads and a rating of 4.9 by subscribers on the Google play store app within a year.  Titled `Ryuko, Legend of Shadow Hunter’ is prepared in 2022 by a group of young IT experts from Peshawar who submitted a startup in the name of Horizon games with the National Incubation Center (NIC).  “This is a combat game reflecting Japanese culture wherein a girl fights to rescue her grandfather and had to fight with different monsters for reaching him,” informs Adnan-ud-Din Digital Media Strategist at NIC Peshawar.  The team members of Horizon Games consist of around 12 members who all are IT educated and belonged to different cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and resides in Peshawar, Adnan informed. Ryuko can be claimed as the top game in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which attracted more than 20 million subscribers from across the globe.  The promotion and positive feedback to Ryuko have highlighted the potential of gaming as an export industry and diverted the attention of IT experts from gaining from opportunities offered by this sector, Adnan added.  Adnan said in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa most IT professionals and youngsters show their focus on e-commerce, but this startup of Ryuko by Horizon Games and its success at the international level has opened new avenues for youngsters and trainers as well.  NIC Peshawar will now focus more on the promotion of the gaming sector in the startup ecosystem for opening new opportunities for youngsters to explore, learn and earn. The Ryuko, Legend of Shadow Hunter, has also made very handsome earnings for its founders by selling it to a US-based IT firm, Monstermob.  “It took several years to gain success in the gaming field and we are very much satisfied with the outcome of consistent efforts,” shared the founders of Ryuko who spoke on the condition of not disclosing their identity.  

They disclosed that the Horizon team members are working on re-making its game `Takashi’ which was prepared a couple of years earlier.  It will take around one year to complete the re-make of Takashi and will also give the same feedback as is received from Ryuko, they hoped.  

Team members of Horizon Games said their success in the mobile gaming field helped in the creation of 13 jobs within their startup at NIC Peshawar and have imparted training to countless youth. They said in Pakistan IT universities are not giving due consideration to the gaming industry and only Air University in Islamabad is offering courses for bachelors. Realizing the potential of the mobile or video gaming industry in the international market, its time for the government and IT industry to focus on courses for training youngsters to benefit from this potential sector, they suggested.