How Zatun Built a $25K/Month Game Studio Mixing Client Work and Its Own Titles
Abhinav Chokhavatia left a job at Ubisoft Montreal to start Zatun in Ahmedabad, growing it into a profitable studio that pairs work-for-hire game art and development with its own games across PC, mobile, and VR.
Founder · X
Part of Agencies that scaled
Business snapshot
Monthly revenue
$25K/mo
reported Mar 2021
- Business model
- Agency or productized service
- Started
- Jul 2007
- Team
- Solo founder + 25 staff
- Based in
- Ahmedabad
- Monthly revenue
- $25,000
- Employees
- 25
- Game titles collaborated on
- 200+
- Clients served
- 300+
- Repeat client rate
- ~80%
Tools
- Hootsuite
- Tasks
- Dropbox
- Liquid Text
- Excel
- Mailchimp
Founder-reported figures, not independently verified.
Who built it, and what they built
Abhinav Chokhavatia is the founder and CEO of Zatun, a video game development company based in Ahmedabad that he started in 2007. The studio runs two lines of business: work-for-hire game art and development for industry clients, and its own games.
On the products side, Zatun has shipped 15 games across more than 15 platforms, including The Legend Of Vraz, Sniper Rust VR, and an upcoming title called Down & Out. On the services side, it has contributed to over 200 game titles for more than 300 clients, from large AAA publishers to small indie teams.
The company employs 25 people and reports $25,000 in monthly revenue.
Where the idea came from
The idea took shape in 2006 while Abhinav was working with a friend at Ubisoft Montreal, at a time when outsourcing to India was drawing heavy attention. Coming from a business family, he had long expected to run his own company, and the two decided to leave their jobs and set up a studio in India.
His friend soon moved back, but Abhinav stayed and built the company alone, funding it from savings and loans from his parents. The early team was just him and one employee, taking any design jobs available before narrowing to game industry clients.
He had started his career as a 3D animator and modeler, with no background in managing a company, client relationships, or full game development. He learned each of those on the job while running Zatun.
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