Chennai: South Korean gaming company Krafton has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to launch KIGI Academy, a new industry-academia programme designed to train India’s next generation of game developers through hands-on experience in game creation.
Announced on September 1, the six-month programme will combine academic training at IIT Madras with an industry residency at Krafton India’s Bengaluru headquarters. The initiative is aimed at addressing a growing gap in India’s gaming ecosystem: while the country has a large mobile gaming audience and a substantial pool of technology talent, companies say there is a shortage of professionals with specialised, end-to-end game development skills.
First KIGI Academy batch to begin in January 2027
The inaugural KIGI Academy cohort will consist of 30 students, with the programme scheduled to begin in January 2027.
The first four months will be conducted on-site at IIT Madras, where students will build their core game development capabilities. This will be followed by a two-month residency at Krafton India’s Bengaluru office for selected participants.
Of the initial 30 students, 10 will be selected for the residency phase. Krafton will cover the cost of the programme.
The programme will initially be available to IIT Madras students. Third- and fourth-year bachelor’s students and dual-degree students across all years can participate in the academic phase, while the residency phase will be restricted to third-year students.
The partnership gives students an opportunity to work directly with industry professionals rather than relying solely on classroom-based learning.
Programme focuses on complete game development
KIGI Academy is designed to cover more than programming.
According to Krafton executives quoted by Moneycontrol, the company wants participants to understand the wider gaming ecosystem, including game design, user interface, user experience and other elements involved in building and launching a game.
The on-site programme at IIT Madras will focus on strengthening fundamental game development skills using the Unity game engine.
Students will work on collaborative weekly builds, giving them regular opportunities to develop, test and improve their projects.
The approach is intended to expose students to the iterative nature of professional game development, where concepts have to move from an initial idea to a functioning and polished product.
Bengaluru residency will provide industry exposure
The second phase will take students from the academic environment into Krafton India’s Bengaluru headquarters.
During the two-month residency, participants will work in small teams to take a game concept through multiple stages of development.
The objective will be to transform an initial idea into a polished, playtested vertical slice — a playable version of a game that demonstrates its core mechanics, visual direction and overall experience.
The residency is intended to provide students with experience closer to the workflow followed by professional game studios.
Krafton has also indicated that selected participants could receive opportunities to take up full-time roles at Krafton India after completing the programme.
Mobile gaming will be a major focus
India remains predominantly a mobile gaming market, and KIGI Academy will reflect that reality.
Krafton plans to train participants to develop games for mobile devices while also teaching them how to create experiences that can run across a broad range of hardware, from low-end to high-end devices.
This focus could be particularly relevant in India, where differences in smartphone specifications, connectivity and purchasing power mean developers often have to optimise games for a wide variety of devices.
The programme’s mobile-first approach could therefore help students understand both game creation and the technical challenges involved in reaching India’s diverse gaming audience.
KIGI Academy builds on Krafton Jungle
The new academy is modelled partly on Krafton Jungle, a project-based developer residency programme that the company operates in South Korea.
Krafton Jungle focuses on helping developers strengthen their technical skills while working through the complete game-development cycle, from prototype creation to public launch.
Since its launch in October 2022, the South Korean programme has trained more than 1,000 developers, according to Moneycontrol.
Krafton is now adapting a similar skill-development approach for India, while tailoring the programme to the country’s predominantly mobile gaming ecosystem.
The company has also indicated that KIGI Academy could eventually expand beyond IIT Madras to include more educational institutions over the coming years.
Krafton deepens its India gaming ecosystem
KIGI Academy is part of Krafton’s broader strategy to develop India’s gaming industry.
The company already operates the Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), which supports early-stage gaming startups and studios in the country.
The incubator has backed around 14 startups across three cohorts, according to the company. Krafton has also invested more than $250 million in Indian startups since 2021 across interactive entertainment, gaming, esports and technology.
The company’s India portfolio and initiatives indicate that its ambitions extend beyond publishing individual games. Krafton is seeking to build a broader ecosystem involving developers, startups, technology companies and gaming talent.
The KIGI Academy partnership with IIT Madras adds an education and talent-development component to that strategy.
India gaming market crosses $1.5 billion
The timing of the programme comes as India’s gaming industry continues to expand.
According to data from gaming-focused venture capital firm Lumikai, India’s video games market grew 17% in 2025 to more than $1.5 billion.
The market is projected to reach approximately $3.2 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of around 17%, according to the report cited by Moneycontrol.
The growth creates opportunities for developers, gaming studios, publishers, esports companies and technology providers. But sustained expansion also requires a larger pool of developers with specialised gaming expertise.
This is the gap Krafton says it hopes KIGI Academy can help address.
Why specialised gaming talent matters
India has a large technology workforce, but game development requires a combination of skills that extends beyond conventional software engineering.
A successful game can require programmers, designers, artists, UI and UX specialists, sound professionals, producers and experts in monetisation and user acquisition.
Krafton executives have argued that India’s challenge is not simply a shortage of talent, but a shortage of industry-relevant gaming talent capable of understanding the complete process of creating a game.
KIGI Academy is therefore designed around practical, project-based learning rather than only theoretical instruction.
Students will have to work collaboratively, build playable products and refine them through testing. This could give participants experience that is closer to what gaming companies expect from entry-level developers.
IIT Madras sees industry-academia collaboration as key
IIT Madras has welcomed the partnership as an example of collaboration between academic institutions and industry.
Prathap Haridoss, Dean of Academic Courses at IIT Madras, said such partnerships can help students learn directly from industry experts while working on practical challenges.
The institute’s participation also gives Krafton access to an established academic environment and a pool of technically trained students.
For students, meanwhile, the programme offers exposure to a global gaming company and the possibility of moving from academic projects into professional opportunities.
A new route into India’s gaming industry
KIGI Academy represents a shift towards more specialised industry-linked training as India’s gaming sector expands.
The first cohort will be relatively small, with only 30 students and 10 progressing to the residency stage. However, Krafton’s indication that the programme could eventually be expanded to other colleges suggests the initiative could grow beyond its initial IIT Madras partnership.
If expanded, similar programmes could help create a larger pool of developers capable of building original games for both Indian and international audiences.
With India’s gaming market projected to more than double from its 2025 level by 2030, the availability of skilled developers could become increasingly important.
For Krafton, the academy also offers a way to strengthen its long-term presence in India by investing not just in games and startups, but in the people who will build the country’s next generation of gaming products.