While half of our second cycle teams are having a blast in San Francisco, some of the teams are still enjoying the summerish weather in Estonia. One of those is Time Plus Q Technologies – three guys from India who decided to take the step to the unknown and fly all the way to the exotic Estonia. Here is the story of Sri Prasanth, Satheesh Kumar and ShivRaj Koman, who are currently in Tallinn, developing their game called “Draw N Guess”.

These guys found out about GameFounders programme by a chance – one day Sri was checking for marketing possibilities from internet and clicked on an ad that lead to www.f6s.com, where he saw the offer for applying. Then they applied and as a surprise to them – got selected for the first round. So far they had not taken it too seriously. That was the moment when Time Plus Q guys actually started to search for more information about the programme by checking the website and getting to know more about where they are getting themselves into. AND then they got into the next round and the expectation got higher and higher.  After the final interview it was quite serious indeed – the letter from GameFounders basically stated: “You got selected. Now you have to move to Estonia”.  They accepted the challenge and moved to Tallinn!

“At first I thought it was in Africa”, says Satheesh, laughing about it. Ethiopia and Estonia sound kind of similar, right? Also they heard some doubts and concerns coming from friends and family. “Do you really think they are going to invest in your company?”, “Maybe it is some kind of a scam?”, “Maybe they are going to cheat you?” are  few of many questions that were asked from them. In the end, fortunately, these 3 friends decided to trust in the founders of GameFounders and say “yes”.  Also by the time they arrived in snowy Tallinn (it was a perfect stormy day!), they already knew in which part of the world they are going to live and work for 3 months. This is how the venture started.

“Before coming here we were sort of just sitting in the office. Not many contacts, networking etc. We just sit, develop and publish games and that’ s it”, describes Satheesh their regular working days back in India. Shivraj adds to that: “Here we meet with all these mentors, get to know all sorts of tricks in the gaming business and learn-learn-learn – this has been possible for us only because of the GameFounders programme”.

Talking about their Estonian experience and impressions from the very beginning, they say: “First impression of Estonia was completely terrible! We set our feet on Estonia and it was full of ice, REAL ice!” “Before we had only seen rainfall and it is not a problem. But snow? “ wonders Sri. They also mention the plane landing on the ground without even seeing a ground – everything was white. One quite a humorous scene took place when the guys were trying to find their hostel in Old Town and had to drag their stuff for 100m. They were so not prepared for the cold weather – no gloves, no scarfs – so one of them had a good idea in the situation: took some socks out of the luggage and used them as gloves. Smart guy, isn’ t he?

About Estonian people they have good impressions so far. Even though they see Estonians as cold in the beginning, they have found out that if you get to know them more, they turn into warmer and friendlier. One thing they don’ t like is that everything is in Estonian everywhere – in the supermarket, in the bus etc. For example, they have had trouble in reading the labels of products. However, Estonia has still left them a really good impression. They like that everything seems so perfect, organized and in order: buses arrive on time and so does people.

Being around already 3 months, they have participated many events and have had some good times here. “The funnest event I think was the photo shooting”, reveals ShivRaj. He liked that instead of normal photo shooting (with suits and ties and everybody being too pretty) it was totally a different thing. “We had so much fun with costumes and settings ready there”.  Then again, Sri mentions the ice skating evening, as it was their first experience on ice! ShivRaj, talking about ice skating, only remembers around thousand falls.  That is why he did not select it as the best event: “We had seen the snow in the movies and always wanted to take it and play with it, throw it at somebody. Now the snow was just right where we were and we didn’ t even feel like touching it, it was freaking cold out there!”

Food is another big topic to discuss. They say they don’t actually know what the Estonian cuisine is about. “I think they only eat pasta and potatoes”, thinks ShivRaj. That is why tehse fellows have mainly sticked to the junk food (like pizza for lunch) and actually miss Indian food (spices!!!) which they try to cook sometimes at weekends when they have some free time.

Something really unexpected for them is meeting some people who are playing cricket in Estonia. “Cricket indoors? Really? We have never played it indoors”, says Sri enthusiastically. They are playing in Estonian Premier League now!

Time Plus Q Technologies is going to develop from Estonia another 2-3 months, they just got their visas extended. If you see 3 cheerful Indian guys walking on the streets of Tallinn, it might just be them!

The last thing before wrapping up the story – their advice for people applying for GameFounders: “Do it now! It’s not about the investors or publishers, it’ s more about the mentors and the experience you will gain here. Apply today!”

Time Plus Q Technologies (from left): ShivRaj, Satheesh and Sri