Mukti: India’s Storytelling Reboot, One Tap at a Time

From mobile roots to mythic heights, Mukti reimagines Indian storytelling. No shortcuts or ports, just handcrafted worlds built with purpose. More than game development, it’s legacy in motion, one powerful scene at a time.

Except for the rapid rise of mobile games that were built fast, played fast, and scaled fast, there hadn’t been a moment in gaming in India that was like Mukti. The latest narrative game from UnderDOGS Studio, Mukti, is not a game; it’s a full reset! All the previous mobile games from the studio had tap-based loops; Mukti has a fresh, immersive, story-rich design. For Vaibhav Chavan, founder and CEO of UnderDOGS Studio, it meant starting from scratch and not looking for shortcuts.

A console mindset: Ignoring the mobile rules

Before Mukti, UnderDOGS Studio’s game development process was all about massaging into mobile’s constraints. Short development cycles, lightweight assets, and lean production pipelines were the norm. Mukti’s console and PC development for game design, business decisions, audio, etc. threw everything out the window in a good way.

“It’s a completely different game, literally and figuratively,” says Vaibhav Chavan, founder and CEO of UnderDOGS Studio.

The changes made to develop Mukti impacted all workflows as poly counts and detail went up with substitution for compressed textures; scripting was around drama; and quality assurance transformed from simple one-device validation to multiple resolutions and multiple hardware specs and doubled as both QA and research. Before Mukti’s development, what was a two-step validation by game developers in mobile was now ten tools, all specializations, and more.

Departments had to adapt. Narrative scripting, asset modeling, and QA all evolved to support long-form storytelling and more nuanced gameplay. It wasn’t just about upping the graphics; it was about redefining the way a game is imagined, built, and delivered.

AI in development: Not the driver, but a fast lane

In an industry often divided between hype and hesitation around AI, UnderDOGS Studio found a middle ground.

“AI hasn’t replaced our artists. It has enhanced them,” Chavan says.

Used in early production, AI tools helped test animation flows, dialogue pacing, and scene composition. It let the team try more ideas faster, without committing to final decisions too early.

But final content was always under human control. Every texture, every line of dialogue, every camera angle was reviewed, refined, and authored by the creative team. AI was not the storyteller. It was a rapid prototyping tool in the hands of storytellers.

Building the tech backbone: From mobile pipelines to mid-tier engines

Mukti wasn’t just a jump in ambition. It was a complete shift in infrastructure. After joining Sony’s India Hero Project, UnderDOGS aligned its production model with international console standards.Mukti is India's mythic game-changer, handcrafted from the ground up. It transforms every tap into epic storytelling with no ports, no shortcuts, just pure vision building a new legacy one unforgettable scene at a time.

“Just creating one 3D asset now takes five times longer than our mobile days,” Chavan says.

Each asset went through an exhaustive pipeline: modeling, retopology, UV mapping, baking, importing, and optimization. Levels were built using modular systems with dynamic resolution scaling and trigger-based scripting. Custom-built tools helped sync art, design, and engineering across the studio.

With Indian gamers playing on a range of hardware, scalability was non-negotiable. Mukti was tested with dynamic LODs and hardware-based asset swaps to ensure consistent visual and gameplay quality across all devices.

Designing with a story-first lens

At the heart of Mukti is something more than tech: a story rooted in Indian heritage, shaped by historical nuance and regional detail.

The studio’s narrative vision wasn’t about cultural gloss or mythology for the sake of it. It was about authenticity. Dialogue was written and tested in multiple Indian languages. AI helped with early voice pacing tests, but real voice actors delivered the final performances. Historians, artists, and linguists were consulted. Scenes were approached like cinematic sequences, with attention to camera framing, lighting, and timing so the story felt lived in rather than layered on.

The result is a game that aims to entertain and resonate.

A game with purpose, power, and PS5 polish

The indie gaming community is full of stories about emotions. Mukti is going for a gut punch and a bigger concern. The game is from Mumbai’s UnderDOGS Studio and published by Sony via the India Hero Project. Mukti just dropped its first gameplay trailer, and we are starting to see interest build. Mukti is for PS5 and PC and is a first-person narrative adventure game that puts players into a mystery with histories, secrets, and social realism.

Set in India of the mid-2000s, Arya is a young woman who visits her grandfather’s large private museum after he goes missing. What starts as a personal discovery turns into a network of hidden artworks, lost knowledge, and human trafficking. For players out there who want more than fetch quests or magical incursions, Mukti looks like one of the more thoughtful games of 2025.

The Mukti gameplay trailer shows emotional depth

The new trailer reveals the core gameplay loop: exploring museum corridors, finding story-rich clues, solving quiet puzzles, and peeling back layers of emotional and social trauma. It’s a psychological thriller wrapped in a walking simulator, all in a super atmospheric package.

What really sets Mukti apart is its ability to mix local with global without losing its Indian roots. Every detail, from broken display glass to flickering fluorescent lights, feels lived in. This grounded realism helps you connect with Arya’s story in a big way.

Why Mukti matters for indie gaming

Indian developers have struggled to get a foot in the global gaming market. Mukti can change all that for developers everywhere. It shows that stories about an Indian identity matter to gamers everywhere.

“Every wish list matters. It proves there is demand for Indian stories through quality games,” says Vaibhav Chavan, founder and CEO of UnderDOGS Studio.

A long game: Building India’s narrative future

With Mukti around the corner, UnderDOGS Studio is looking beyond their first game. The game is the start of something bigger: building narrative games that can compete… not just on visuals and mechanics but on storytelling depth and cultural voice.

“We now feel we can build a full-fledged AAA title in the next 5 years,” says Chavan.

Sony’s support and UnderDOGS’s evolved production pipeline have also given the studio longer-term projects with more substance—meaningful games that are not just short and shallow.

Whether Mukti expands or they launch a new IP, either way UnderDOGS has moved on from short-form, tap-heavy design to a whole new area of immersive, story-led gameplay.

A leap that was made in scenes, not skips

Mukti is not just a game; it’s a signal.

A signal that Indian studios are ready to move on from the expected. That development in India can evolve from ‘hustling for downloads’ (a phrase in the app space) to developing experiences that speak, last, and mean something.

UnderDOGS didn’t just level up its tech. They rebuilt their approach to what a game could be. And in doing so, they’ve carved a space for Indian stories to be told, not just locally, but globally.

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