Indian techie's iPhone game has highest download

T. Harikumar, who quit his job as an engineer with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to start Trivandrum based software firm Travancore Analytics, has developed the snakes and ladders board game for iPhone and iTouch.

"The Apple company after seeing the game asked us to re-do it as it had the iPhone logo. We removed it and the game was released on September 27. In a short span of time, the game has achieved more than 250,000 downloads - the highest for an iPhone application developed by any Indian software firm," said T. Harikumar. More than 70 percent of downloads have been from Canada, the UK, and the U.S.

Anyone who has an iPhone or an iTouch can log on to iTunes website and download the game for free. The free version of the game allows the user to be one of the players, while iPhone itself takes the role of the second player.

"We have given it a real feel. When the dice appears on screen, just shake the phone as you would do it while playing on the board game, and the dice shows the number," said Harikumar. The company currently has 22 employees and is mostly into image technology and processing.