An exiled Chola prince hacks down his enemies with a whip-sword in a thrilling quest to claim the throne. Welcome to Son of Thanjai, an Xbox original open-world Tamil videogame that promises to revolutionise Indian gaming.

Ever since PlayStation and Xbox dropped the game’s now-trending promos, the attention of the global gaming community has rightfully turned towards India. Set in the 11th-century Chola dynasty, the gameplay takes place in an eight-kilometre area around the iconic Brihadeeswara Temple in Tanjore. Players get into the shoes of Vinnendhiran, a fictional Chola prince inspired by Rajendra Chola.

Created by Chennai-based Ayelet Studio, the game has a story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics written by acclaimed writer and lyricist Madhan Karky. The project realises Madhan’s 20-year dream to write a video game. “In the Assassin’s Creed version set in Egypt, I was able to climb on the pyramids and even get inside them. When I actually went to Egypt, I felt like I already lived there. This is what the games offer,” he says, adding that his journey with Son of Thanjai began when Abraham K, Studio Head and Creative Director at Ayelet Studio, approached him to write the lyrics for a song in the game.

Abraham’s vision to create a Tamil game about the Cholas began long before Son of Thanjai. His team worked on a demo version called Unsung Empires: The Cholas, which was released on Steam. “We did that game to evaluate the pipelines; we had just a 4-member team then, and so it was more like a start-up. When we released it, we got 75,000 downloads. Later, in 2025, we released a new version called Unsung Empires: The Cholas 2, which also got a good reception.”

However, he knew the limitations and understood that the game had to compete globally, while staying true to its cultural representation. “So we began reworking the character, world, combat, and so on. We invested a chunk of our budget in the OptiTrack motion-capture technology. Then we had Madhan onboard, and the entire narrative changed,” says Abraham.

The developer adds, “We chose the Cholas because they’re one of the most documented kings, and we want our players to experience a new world and its mechanics.” While that excited Madhan, he knew making it a story on Rajendra Chola would restrict them tremendously. “Whatever is documented in history was all that we’d have been able to tell. But especially because it’s going to be a different world — and a violent world — for video games, I suggested we fictionalise it.” That’s how the team decided to create Sengazh Chola and his son, the protagonist, Vinnendhiran Chola.

Madhan and his team researched the many elements that made up life in the 11th century. “We looked into the type of professions, stories and gossip that were documented in history. There was a document about the tunnels used during the period of Rajendra Chola, which was not documented elsewhere. So we analysed to see what could help the gameplay, and then gradually created a few characters around that,” says Madhan.

Then began the examination of the linguistics and iconography. “Tanjore Tamil has a dialect. For ‘dream,’ they wouldn’t use ‘kanavu,’ but ‘soppanam.’ We want Tamil gamers to understand it without needing any translations.” The game will be released worldwide in Tamil, with subtitles.

As per the logline of the game, the story wouldn’t just follow Vinnendhiran’s journey in reclaiming the throne, but also deals with what kind of person he’ll be when he gets there. “Vinnendhiran is a prince spoiled by the pleasures of the world. The kingdom is falling, enemies are around, and Vinnendhiran’s mother has gone mad and is put in chains. So he’s a disturbed child, and the last in the line of the Cholas. Now, his father decides to throw him out of the palace, and that’s when the story starts. He has to survive the streets, be with the people, try to see their issues, help them — or choose not to — because he always has a choice. So he is going to decide what he’s going to be,” explains Madhan.

For Abraham, Vinnendhiran is his attempt to create a new action-hero archetype rooted in South Indian history, warfare, and political cunning. “Since this is a narrative-driven game, we wanted to make sure the story gives agency to the player. That’s when we decided to have both stealth and combat.” For combat, Abraham and team opted for the South Indian martial art Kalaripayattu, which is relatively unexplored in games. “This ensures it doesn’t feel like a sword-and-shield game we have played multiple times. Stealth-wise, we used many new mechanics. Moreover, the entire world reacts to the stealth — if you walk on water, you stimulate sound to a certain radius. If you are someone who likes stealth, you can complete the entire game without combat by sneaking, bluffing, and luring.”

What is particularly of interest is the concept of ‘combat through fear and morale’ that the developers have experimented with. “Usually, whenever there’s combat, the enemies would be in a 140-degree arc, and at any point in time, only one enemy will be attacking you. But we wanted to break that. So enemies will surround you in 360 degrees. And whenever you hit someone, their ‘morale’ gets affected. If you kill or target-strike someone, it affects the morale of other enemies, and they feel ‘fear.’ So the sooner you invoke fear, the easier the combat gets. At the same time, if there’s a commander amongst the enemies, he can increase the morale of the entire group, which makes it harder. So this system will be really interesting if players use it right,” explains Abraham.

Given Kalaripayattu’s advanced techniques, Abraham’s team used advanced motion-capture technology to capture the physicality. “We had to experiment a lot and see how much time and fluidity each attack should have, and whether the combat should be reactive or not. Initially, the combat designers would plan the shots.” Then, the team rehearsed the attacks with real Kalari practitioners. “On shoot day, we capture them performing those attacks while wearing the motion-capture suits.”

What truly makes any game stand out is its world-building, and there are many joys to exploring the open world in Son of Thanjai, says Madhan. “In this world, you could meet many people from different professions. From an old lady telling children stories about the old Chola dynasty to therukoothu performances.”

Abraham adds how every single non-playable character (NPC) has a story of their own. “Each NPC also has gossip about what’s happening in the village, as well as what’s happening with Vinnendhiran’s journey.” The game also pays tribute to Sangam-era literature and music. “We have dropped Sangam-era songs written on palm leaves as collectables in different places,” adds Madhan.

Abraham accepts that there have been many challenges in creating a Tamil game for a global audience. “We don’t have a publisher in India to publish a game on console because we don’t have a game from India that has created a global movement. When we talk to investors outside India, they ask for references, which we don’t have. When we talk about Tamil, they ask for data, but there is no data on Tamil games performing in the market. Hopefully, once this game comes out, we’ll change the entire market.”

He says he is grateful that this project is likely to encourage more raw talent in Tamil Nadu. “There are a lot of developers who left India for work in the gaming industry, just because they don’t have opportunities here. But we have a lot of raw talent: this game was possible only because of the team. So there is a huge opportunity on the talent development side.”

Abraham plans on putting out more promos in the near future to give a glimpse of what they have been working on. “We’re waiting for the right timeline to release the game as well because we have huge games like GTA VI coming. We still have a lot to do, and so we’ll are planning a release in the first quarter of next year,” he says.

Madhan adds, “Whenever I go travelling, and people realise I am from India, they start talking to me in Hindi. This game is an opportunity to tell the world that there’s more to India than what they see. I love playing games in the native language because it takes me into a new world more naturally. Now, I want the world to experience Tamil culture.”