Forty people worked hard for eight months and suddenly became an overnight sensation: The most “uncool” hit of 2025 has left the whole internet bewildered.
Unexpected yet reasonable.
Recently, the global gaming industry seems to be in the midst of a trailer frenzy. The PVs of major game manufacturers are blooming one after another like fireworks, and the lineup of upcoming games is like a battle among the gods. Players' expectations have been completely ignited.
(Among them, the most representative one is definitely the new game Black Myth: Zhong Kui by Game Science.)
It can be said that whether it is the annual blockbusters of 3A giants or the creative new works of independent studios, they are all vying for players' attention. The entire gaming community is immersed in a festival-like excitement and discussion, as if a grand feast is about to begin.
Against this backdrop, the game trailer of an "epic masterpiece" from India, Release the Avatar, has gone viral in China.
The in-game demonstration PV instantly went viral on the Internet with an extremely quirky "dodge and touch the head" action. The contrast between its unique "rustic charm" and "confidence" made it unexpectedly stand out among numerous well-produced trailers and become a hot topic among players.
(The origin of all the madness)
This iconic action - after dodging an attack, the character deliberately and slowly raises their hand to gently stroke their hair, showing no sign of stress in the battle.
When people first saw this action, they were filled with great doubts. It seemed very out of place and even a bit ridiculous in the game, completely different from the usual cool or realistic combat actions.
But later, when people thought about it again, they might think, "Oh my god! This is exactly how I feel." Because it precisely captures and magnifies the little thoughts in players' hearts after a successful dodge, creating a wonderful resonance.
(Same as in Indian movies)
Take Bilibili as an example. Currently, there are more than a dozen videos related to Release the Avatar with over one million views, and the highest - viewed video has reached 4.5 million views.
In the comment section, the top - rated comments are all like "The dodge action that will change the history of gaming", "The dodge is so cool", "Predicted to be the best action design of the year", full of both teasing and affection, forming an internet meme culture.
It is this kind of "show - off" psychological activity that inspires people to apply this action to other characters, which is why there are a large number of second - creation videos based on this action.
From anime characters to movie stars, and even historical figures, they have all been given this iconic "dodge and touch the head" moment, showing the powerful power of viral spread.
Later, this action was no longer limited to second - creation videos. Some players even added this action to Black Myth: Wukong.
(Even cooler)
If the production team of Release the Avatar knew that their game had become popular in China in such an unexpected and humorous way, they would probably add more similar actions.
With this development, it's hard to imagine what new tricks players will come up with after the game is officially released.
Trapped in the "Curry Flavor"
Most of my knowledge of Indian popular culture comes from the exaggerated singing and dancing and nonsense plots in Bollywood movies. Perhaps this is just how Indians confidently interpret their own culture, and the viral PV of Release the Avatar is also full of this "curry flavor".
At the beginning of the PV, it shows the typical tin - roofed slums in India. With the support of the Unreal Engine 5, the scene details are quite decent.
Without any plot foreshadowing, the male protagonist with a knife has already knocked down a harmless - looking woman. This nonsense behavior made me frown at the beginning.
Then, when confronting a police officer with a gun, the male protagonist, just like in Indian movies, effortlessly and precisely blocks the bullets with his knife. This kind of combat where cold weapons prevail over hot weapons fits my impression of Indian works very well.
During the subsequent fight, you can see the exaggerated amount of blood and the glaring sparks when weapons collide. You can also see the execution operation after blocking and eliminating the stance bar, which is the same as in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
After passing by a shrine save point, there comes a boss encounter full of dramatic tension. After some tug - of - war between the male protagonist and the boss, that "dodge and touch the head" action with a typical Indian shooting style finally appears.
At the end of the PV, after the male protagonist is hit by a fatal attack from the boss, he unexpectedly enters a CG, and at this time, he has transformed into the appearance of a "blue - skinned avatar".
This sudden transformation feels like trying to forcefully tie up loose ends when realizing you've gone off - topic in an essay. Netizens also joked that "the male protagonist has been beaten into his second phase by the boss".
After watching the whole PV, from a gaming perspective, there are many obvious problems. For example, the NPCs have stiff movements and dull expressions, the combat feel is lacking, and the boss has serious clipping issues. It makes the PV seem more like the level of a college graduation project demo.
Like everyone else, I'm very curious about the story behind this PV, which is only 4 minutes long but full of flaws throughout. What kind of Indian team could design such "counter - intuitive" operations? Is it a genius - like creativity or just pure recklessness?
Repeated Revisions and a Blurred Product Positioning
The Up - master who released this in - game demonstration PV is an Indian named Varun Mayya.
He was born in 1993 and grew up in Bangalore. His mother is in the customer relationship management industry, and his father is in the medical industry. Since he was 11 years old, he spent nearly 10 hours a day on the computer. By the age of 16, he founded his first company with his online friend James.
During his time at Manipal Institute of Technology, Mayya earned about 3 million Indian rupees (about 246,000 RMB) by selling T - shirts. In the first half of his senior year, he and his friend used this money to found the Jobspire recruitment platform. Later, this startup raised 170 million Indian rupees (about 13.95 million RMB) in venture capital.
During this period, Mayya also founded other companies. Later, he chose to join Aeos, focusing on combining artificial intelligence with content creation. As a well - known Indian YouTuber with nearly one million followers, he introduced himself on his homepage like this:
"Science and business follow the same principles; in fact, they are the same thing - experiment, observe, draw conclusions, and then repeat. I help entrepreneurs build software, content, small companies, and freelance careers and provide practical advice. I do my best to distill new technological developments for the public. Most importantly, I practice what I preach. I've failed countless times in numerous projects and also achieved some small successes. Now I realize that this is the norm."
Mayya started posting videos on YouTube in 2013, and his content focuses on technology and entrepreneurship. His channel mainly features popular science content and online conversations with well - known figures in the tech circle, including Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe, and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.
It seems that Mayya has not only achieved success in entrepreneurship but also has a certain influence in the tech circle. However, there was hardly any sign of his involvement in the gaming industry before.
It was not until last August when Black Myth: Wukong emerged and caused quite a stir globally. After that, Mayya posted a video titled "India Can't Make a 3A Game". In the video, he pointed out that India has obstacles such as a PC market with lower returns than the mobile market, the limited popularity of high - end PCs, a lack of large - scale investment, and cultural sensitivities.
But at the end of the video, he believed that India still has rich mythological stories to draw on and hoped that there would be an Indian version of Black Myth: Wukong in the future. As a gaming enthusiast and a proud Indian, he would think twice before investing 100 million US dollars in making a 3A PC game in India.
From his YouTube homepage, we can find that the in - game demonstration PV of Release the Avatar has far fewer views in India than in China, and its release time is not very recent. Eight months after the release of the video "India Can't Make a 3A Game", that is, in April this year, the in - game demonstration PV of Release the Avatar was released.
(As of the time of writing, it has only 590,000 views.)
It seems that Mayya really practices what he preaches, and he has actually made the game. Moreover, before this, he had no specific business or experience in game development. So this bold move made me admire this producer for a moment.
Maybe out of admiration, there wasn't much discussion about the "dodge and touch the head" clip in the comment section of the original video. Instead, most of the comments were expressions of gratitude and encouragement for Mayya's courage to try in the Indian gaming industry.
Mayya also revealed in the video that his team has created the world's largest scanned material library for Release the Avatar, which includes more than 1,000 unique 3D scanned materials.
For this purpose, they even blocked an entire town, and the video team conducted a panoramic scan of the local buildings, streets, vegetation, and even the tiniest details. After the scan, the results need to be repaired and sorted out, which is a time - consuming and mechanical process.
To make the combat as smooth as in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and not rely entirely on the Unreal Engine,