KRAFTON India Signs MoU With IIT Madras, Launches KIGI Academy For Game Development Talent
Highlights
- KRAFTON India and IIT Madras launch the fully funded six-month KIGI Academy.
- 30 students will train in coding, game design, UI/UX, art, and product development.
- 10 students will advance to an eight-week KRAFTON Bengaluru residency, with standout performers eligible for full-time roles.
KRAFTON India is not waiting for game developers to show up. It is going to build them.
The publisher announced KIGI Academy on September 1, signing an MoU with IIT Madras to run a six-month, fully funded training program covering coding, game design, UI/UX, art, and product development. It is the first partnership under the initiative, and it borrows directly from a training model KRAFTON has already established in Korea.
Highlight: The program builds on KRAFTON Jungle, the intensive, project-based residency KRAFTON has run in Korea since October 2022 to train developers through the full game creation cycle rather than classroom-style instruction. Operators from the Jungle program will also mentor developers selected for KIGI Academy.
How it works
The inaugural batch will take 30 students, with 10 advancing to a residential phase after an online application, screening, and interview. The structure splits cleanly in two:
- 16 weeks on-site at IIT Madras: Core game development training built around Unity, with a mobile-gaming focus and weekly collaborative builds.
- 8-week residency at KRAFTON India's Bengaluru HQ: Hands-on exposure to real-world game production, ending with a final vertical-slice game developed under industry mentors and KRAFTON's global development standards.
Eligibility is broad: third- and fourth-year Bachelor's and Dual Degree students, as well as postgraduate and Master's students from any engineering discipline at IIT Madras. No prior game development experience is required.
Standout performers could also get an opportunity to join KRAFTON India through full-time roles.
Why IIT Madras
The pairing is not new territory. KRAFTON India has built an existing campus relationship with IIT Madras through Rendezvous, technical festivals, and game jams, with the relationship having previously resulted in full-time offers to IIT Madras students.
IIT Madras is the founding academic partner for KIGI Academy and has been ranked India's No. 1 engineering institution for 10 consecutive years under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
Anuj Sahni, Head of KRAFTON Incubator Program and Director Publishing at KRAFTON India, framed the gap the program is meant to close: talent was never the problem in India. The missing piece was a structured bridge between academic learning and the realities of game development.
That bridge now has a name, a curriculum, and a starting class of 30.
In other news, check out KRAFTON's [BGMI esports roadmap for H2 2026] for a full breakdown of what's coming up this year.
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