Avinash Rohra 
In an era where gaming trends lean towards sprawling open worlds, cinematic storytelling, and live-service models, there’s something undeniably refreshing about a title that embraces simplicity while delivering depth. Enter Chromadi, a vibrant, fast-paced arcade shooter from Kleanup Games, a small but passionate three-person studio based in Madurai, India. At its core, Chromadi fuses colour-matching mechanics with the pulse-pounding intensity of classic shoot-’em-ups, offering a hypnotic and strategic gameplay experience that feels both nostalgic and innovative.
The name Chromadi itself is a clever fusion of “chrome” (colour) and “adi,” a Tamil word meaning “to hit,” encapsulating the essence of the game: a celebration of colour theory and high-energy action. Players must mix primary colours to unleash different attacks, crafting a unique balance between intuitive play and deeper mastery. While easy to pick up, its layered mechanics ensure a rewarding challenge for those who seek to refine their skills.
What truly sets Chromadi apart is its devotion to indie spirit and creative freedom. Spearheaded by Jaiwanth Shanmugam, the game is a testament to the power of small teams with big ideas. Jaiwanth’s journey—from UI designer to working on major titles like Underworld Gang Wars—ultimately led him to pursue his passion for creating something original. Chromadi is the culmination of that vision: a game that doesn’t chase trends but instead carves its own path, paying homage to arcade classics while standing as a fresh, modern experience.
Visually, Chromadi is a neon-soaked feast for the eyes, with a minimalist UI designed to keep players immersed in the action. The soundtrack, composed by DarkGray (Niranjan Nair), complements this with a retro-inspired yet contemporary soundscape, amplifying the game’s kinetic energy.
Perhaps most intriguing is Chromadi’s approach to accessibility. While it challenges players with its skill-based mechanics, it aims to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore audiences. The decision to launch as a free-to-play title with no microtransactions or ads further reinforces Kleanup Games’ commitment to delivering a pure, uninterrupted gaming experience.
As Chromadi gears up for its 2025 release on mobile and PC (with Steam Deck support), it stands as a promising contender in today’s crowded gaming landscape. In this interview, we sit down with Jaiwanth Shanmugam to delve deeper into the creative vision, challenges, and aspirations behind Chromadi. Whether you’re a fan of arcade shooters, puzzle mechanics, or indie passion projects, this is one game worth keeping on your radar.
Jaiwanth Shanmugam, Studio Director at Kleanup Games
How did the concept for Chromadi originate? Was there a specific moment or idea that sparked its creation?
Early last year, I remember having a conversation with DarkGray about wanting to work on bite sized games which we could wrap it up over a weekend or two. We started exploring various different ideas and prototypes, sadly none of which was quite unique or fun enough. Around the same time, I was going around learning about color theory, especially the color wheel which I often forget. Don’t ask me why but I was not able to make sense of it and remember the colors in the wheel with their proper order. That was a problem for me. I wanted to find a way which would let me remember these with ease, and as always I started thinking if I could potentially leverage this as a mechanic which would ensure that I remember the colors and would also learn from it in a fun way. That was when the concept for CHROMADI originated.
How does the color-based gameplay of Chromadi evolve over time to keep players engaged?
The Color Mixing Mechanic we have in Chromadi right now synergies a lot with the randomization of the coloured tiles we have during each and every run. Since the mechanic by itself is novel and unique, we see players taking some time to get used to it but once they do, it just immediately clicks and it becomes second nature for them. There is a good level of thinking involved when the game expects you to mix the proper colour to get the respective secondary colours to destroy the enemies coming at you. The learning curve is an intended choice which we expect that the players would get more familiarized with the mechanics with the more time they spend playing it.
About the next steps to keep the players engaged over time, we do have a lot of different modes and systems in production which leverage this mechanic we built and offer the players a completely new experience. We are also working on introducing tertiary colors very soon, that brings 6 new colors to the game which would deepen the mechanic which is on offer currently. We are really excited to see how the players adapt to these new systems and modes.
What are the origins behind Chromadi’s Tamilian roots?
In all fairness, we actually do not have a lot of Tamil cultural elements in the game right now. One of the main things where Tamil is used is the name of the game itself, Chromadi. The name fuses “chrome” (as in colour) and “adi” (meaning “to hit” in Tamil). I just wanted the game to have something personal to me, and what better than to name it with my mother tongue.
What was the most rewarding part of developing Chromadi, and why?
I’m not exactly sure if I can pinpoint to one aspect of the entire journey to have been most rewarding, since Chromadi helped me do what I always wanted to do my whole life. To be able to finally set up my own studio and make a game which people would have fun playing. I think everything else which comes after are just extras for me personally, but I’m super happy that the game has resonated with a lot of people in the industry and it’s so exciting to know what comes next after the game’s launch.
What inspired the unique blend of color-matching and arcade shoot-’em-up mechanics in Chromadi? Was there a specific moment or game that sparked this idea?
There wasn’t anything particular which inspired the color-matching and the shoot-’em-up mechanics we have in Chromadi right now. During the initial few weeks of development, it was just about figuring out a core loop which could seamlessly blend with the color matching idea I had come up with. Once we started testing out the color-mixing mechanic, we knew there was potential in it to have a richer sense of feedback and a heighted real time engaging experience if we utilize this to build it on top of a shoot-’em-up. We decided to code some basic enemies in, and once we had those it became evident to us that it was the right way to move forward.
Chromadi is described as an ode to retro classics. Which specific games from that era influenced its development, and how did you modernize those influences?
Space invaders for obvious reasons, that became the root for the whole Shoot-’em-up genre we are going for. Tetris, Pacman and Galaga are a few of the other games which really influenced us during the course of development. These games really influenced us extensively with how we designed our systems and mechanics, similar to the games aforementioned we wanted Chromadi to revolve around a single unique core mechanic which is easy to pick up while having its own course of mastery.
The way we wanted to modernise CHROMADI was with how the auxiliary features are built around it. If you take the music in CHROMADI, I think what DarkGray has come up with is quite unique and fresh, yet has these familiar beats which you would have once heard in a NES game.
Niranjan Nair aka DarkGray, Audio Director at Kleanup Games
How have player feedback and beta testing shaped the final version of the game?
Player feedback and beta testing has been extremely helpful for Chromadi. One of the things we follow as a studio is extensive playtesting, and we really ensure that we gather feedback for everything we possibly ship. We even go to an aspect where if we even add a new button for the UI, that is sent out to all the play testers we have on board to test how it feels to click it and how the feedback is while clicking it.
The feedback we gather and hear from all the people playing the game really helps us understand their expectations and their pain points, which directly impacts how we make our design choices for the game. A lot of accessibility features and the difficulty tuning has been done especially after these playtest sessions. We are so happy to have a lot of people personally invested in the game, which tremendously helps us to make the game even better for launch.
Can players expect any seasonal events or limited-time challenges after launch?
Absolutely, I can’t comment on how and what exact events we have planned for the game right now but we are confident that players would have enough content post launch to keep enjoying the game.
Chromadi is free-to-play with no microtransactions. What motivated this decision, and how do you plan to sustain the game post-launch?
Chromadi is always going to be free. We want Chromadi to be played by everyone and to jump on the global leaderboard and chase the world record.
The thinking was quite simple and this was decided very early on. One of the main reasons was very personal to me. I have always hated when my experience in a game is interrupted by ads or requesting me to purchase a skin or whatever it is. I understand the business side to it and that’s fair but as a player that hinders my experience and my fondness for a game.
I realized this when I saw my girlfriend complaining to me a lot about how she hates the games she once used to love playing on her phone, only because the ad placements and the microtransactions were interrupting her time during the game. So, it was something that I agreed with and I just wanted to make a game for her and my friends that they could enjoy without anything interrupting their gameplay sessions and most importantly for everyone to have a similar experience with Chromadi.
How do you envision Chromadi contributing to the growing presence of Indian indie games on the global stage?
We believe that Chromadi offers a mechanic that is globally accessible and understood with its design. With Color theory driving its foundational design principle, we believe that this is globally well known. We expect that when players get their hands on Chromadi that they would have a great time with the game and appreciate the mechanics for it’s novelty and uniqueness rather than appreciating that the game was developed in India. It’s a big victory if we could get the global audience’s question and ponder over who the developers are after they have initially fallen in love with the game, and not the other way around. If we are able to achieve that, we think that the contribution to the presence of Indian indie games would definitely benefit since other studios and talented designers and developers would not be scared of trying something totally unique and smaller in scope. Chasing trends and building battle royale games are not the only options we need to take to build good games.
If Chromadi were to become a franchise, what future ideas or expansions do you have in mind? Are there plans for multiplayer or co-op modes?
Too soon to comment on this, we have something really exciting in development which we would announce very soon.
What advice would you give aspiring indie developers inspired by your journey with Chromadi?
First of all, I would be absolutely humbled if I could inspire a single developer with Chromadi. It would be an honor for me to be able to do that. I think my only advice for any developers would be to Start Small and to Fail Fast. I see a lot of studios and developers wanting to create the next big thing in India, and it’s usually a battle royale or a mythologically inspired third person action adventure game. I would like to see these developers starting small and failing faster with the prototypes because the learnings I have made from doing that is non-substitutable. Keep your games small, but make them yours. Simple, Unique which screams all you!!
The Quest Unlocked’s Final Thoughts
As someone who’s covered games for years, I can say with confidence that Chromadi is one of the most exciting indie games to emerge from India. It’s a game that understands the magic of arcade gaming while modernizing it for today’s audience. It challenges players, respects their intelligence, and offers an experience free from corporate interference or monetization tricks.
If you’re a fan of skill-based gameplay, arcade nostalgia, or just great indie games, Chromadi is a title you need to have on your radar.
