What’s the (Kannada) word?

Learn Kannada words and pronunciation in a fun way through this new game

BENGALURU

Bored of Candy Crush, Temple Run or Among Us? Fret not. There’s a new game on the block that will not just help you pass time but also help you learn Kannada. City-based digital agency Panorbit has come up with a word search game called Pada, which can improve Kannada vocabulary.

The game currently has 48 levels and the makers assure that both non-Kannadigas and Kannadigas can easily play the games. “It has 1,000-2,000 unique Kannada words. The levels begin with two-lettered words and goes up till six and seven-lettered words,” says Madan Kumar, co-founder of the company. By the end of a level, a player can expect to learn the meaning of the words in English, along with its pronunciation. “It’s not just for non-Kannadigas.

I am a Kannadiga and I still would not know half the words. Anyone can try it,” adds Kumar, who co-founded the company with Kameshwar Nayak and Varshaa Kulkarni. The game also has daily challenges for extra points. The player gets an option to choose the game in English or Kannada. “If people are choosing English, all the instructions will come in English but the words will be written in Kannada,” he explains.

The game comes following their research that there are hardly any games on regional languages. “We try and do some in-house projects. This is one such thing,” says Kumar. It began as an experiment between their design and content team.

Soon they realised there is scope for a larger project. “Next billion digital users are going to be in tier-2 or tier-3 cities and they have many people speaking regional languages. Rather than making them learn a new language, why not make something they are already comfortable in,” says Kumar, who shares that a new update would include multi player options. The app is available on iOS and Android platforms.