Hollow Home from the Twigames team, a game about a Ukrainian teenager trying to survive in a city surrounded by Russian troops, has won in two nominations at the festival.

The winners of the main Indie Cup Ukraine’23 competition, selected by the festival jury:

• Most Anticipated Game Award for the best game of the festival went to Oberty (Dmytro Denys).

• Most Promising Game Award for Best Early Development Game went to Hollow Home (Twigames).

• Rising Star Award for Best Unpublished Small Team Debut went to Blessed Burden (Podoba Interactive).

• Critics’ Choice Award, selected by members of the press and influencers, also went to Hollow Home (Twigames).

The winner of the Indie Cup Ukraine’23 special competition:

People’s Choice Award, a charity nomination for the game’s most active community. The winning game that managed to collect the most funds for the charity fundraising of the festival is Through the Nightmares (Sandmanteam).

A total of 72 games participated in Indie Cup Ukraine’23, from which the competition jury selected 26 nominees. Jury members include experts from CD Projekt RED, Creative Assembly, Remedy Entertainment, Red Beat, etc., as well as game journalists, vloggers, and winning developers from past Indie Cup seasons.

Indie Cup Ukraine’23 is a completely charitable festival, within the framework of which a number of fundraisers for the Armed Forces and volunteers took place. The organizers managed to collect around €10,600 (UAH 437,899), of which a portion of UAH 38,353 was donated in the People’s Choice category).

AIN.Capital reminds its readers the story of how this build got into the hands of gamers from the Russian Federation, and how they blackmailed Ukrainian developers using it.

• Continuation of the legendary series from the studio GSC Game World, the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is due out in the first quarter of 2024. The release of the game was postponed several times, which is not surprising: because the studio works in Ukraine and the war affects the development.

• Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the studio and its owners have taken a fundamentally pro-Ukrainian position: they donate to the Ukrainian army, and in the summer of 2022 they announced that they will remove the Russian dubbing from the game.
• The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series has a historically large fan base in Russia. In March 2023, in response to the patriotic stance of Ukrainian developers, Russian gamers began blackmailing them by leaking early game files. They demanded an apology from the Ukrainian studio for the “indecent treatment” of Russians and Belarusians, as well as the return of the Russian dubbing.
• Russian gamers published this “appeal” to the Ukrainian studio in the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with tens of thousands of citizens dead and entire cities destroyed. GSC Game World worked on the game under air alerts, from basements and bomb shelters, and many of its employees entered the ranks of the Armed Forces. In December 2022, the famous S.T.A.L.K.E.R developer Volodymyr Yezhov died in battle near Bakhmut.
• Then the studio reacted to the blackmail with an official statement that it would not give in to threats. In response, Russian gamers, blackmailing the company and demanding an apology, published 15 GB of leaks: design documents, art books, concepts, and, according to the Russians, the plot of the game. In June 2023, they started sharing the stolen build of a game that wasn’t even out yet.
• Now, the Russian gaming media like Igromania shares the “happy news” that this stolen build has finally been “fixed” and can be launched and played. “Fans messed with the leaks for a long time and finally managed to improve it,” the publication’s journalist rejoices in the video review. She notes that the studio continues to work despite various difficulties, such as a fire in the Czech office. The fact that her fellow citizens are shooting and killing studio employees is left unsaid.

About the game

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most recognizable RPGs of the last decade, made by the Polish studio CD Projekt RED, known for its series of games the Witcher (the popularity of the games, in particular, influenced the release of the series The Witcher from Netflix). Not so long ago, a large DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, called Phantom Liberty, was finally released. Both the game and the add-on received Ukrainian voice acting (unfortunately, this is connected with the case of the developers apologizing to the Russians). According to the data for 2022, more than 20 million copies of the game were sold globally.

What did the Ukrainian team work on

According to Serdiuk, not only Respeecher is mentioned in the credits of the game, but also representatives of the team who worked on the project: Volodymyr Ovsienko, Dmytro Vasylets, Anton Ankudinov, Vitaliy Knyr, and Ihor Kaniuk, and this is a cool precedent.

Due to the terms of cooperation, the team does not disclose the details of the task itself, but it is known that Respeecher specializes in creating AI voices that sound very similar to human ones. For example, in 2022, the startup team worked on recreating the legendary voice of world cinema in its “younger” version: actor James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader, for the series about Obi-Wan Kenobi.

They worked on the project for three months. “In projects of this scale, there is usually a lot of feedback from the customer, while less time is needed to train the AI models themselves, depending, of course, on the input data,”

the CEO of the startup says.

How did they get the client

After six years in the industry, Respeecher has quite a few big names in its client portfolio. Its work has been credited on Disney+, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Paramount, Audible, and hundreds of other projects, the CEO recalls. The startup also worked on a large game project: the AAA game God of War Ragnarok.

How working with gamedev differs from cinema

According to Serdiuk, the common feature of working with Hollywood and AAA gaming studios is that they require the highest quality of sound and voices. And this work differs primarily in volume: if a movie may require the reproduction of several cues, then a game may involve 60 hours of audio conversions.

Gamedev remains one of Respeecher’s core markets. “Now it’s hard to draw a clear line between a film, a series, a video game — one flows into the other. In the media market, video games and film studios remain our priorities,” says the CEO of the startup.

The team is also currently working on their Respeecher Marketplace product for content creators, as well as launching a new real-time voice and accent change product for the communications market.

Many global businesses exited the Russian market, but many didn’t, what was your company’s stance on that? When have you decided that you would be leaving the Russian market?

Ukrainian Persha Studiia (Wargaming Kyiv) reports up to me, so I frequently visited Ukraine. The last visit was in October 2021 and had two purposes: to look at the game projects in development and to assess the situation on the ground. Before I left I agreed with Serhii Shumyhora (Executive Director of Wargaming Kyiv) that we should begin preparing for the worst. 

So the weekend before the invasion, we opened a site in Truskavets with a capacity of 200 people with infrastructure and networks ready for work. Within 4 hours of the first Russian troops crossing the border, we had buses ready to transfer our people to a safer place. I was contacting Serhii and the team regularly to make sure they had everything they needed. 

Immediately after that, I began to work with our chief executive team to put together the options around what we should do next. By the first or second week in March, I concluded that the right decision for the company was to exit Russia and Belarus completely. You can imagine how huge a deal that was.

So how did you organise it?

We did some preliminary work and it all culminated in what we called a work week. We didn’t want to have lots of people speculating about what we were discussing, so it was a kind of nondescript way of talking about it. We gathered all the senior executives together for a week in a head office and by Wednesday (30th of March) we had made the decision to exit Russia and Belarus. We didn’t want our games seized by the state and used for propaganda purposes. 

We had a board meeting on the 31st of March to confirm or reject the decision. Some questions were asked like: should we have the ability to buy it back? But my position was: there’s no going back, no hidden clauses. So the board voted for it. 

So legally on the 31st of March, the Lesta Studio ceased to be part of Wargaming (it was acquired by Wargaming 10 years earlier — editorial note).

Amusingly enough we decided against publishing a press release about it on the 1st of April, to avoid people thinking about it as a joke. So we made the media announcement on the 4th of April. All of our Russian operations have been withdrawn since then. 

As you announced your exit from the Russian market in April, could it be safely said that Wargaming has not received any dollar of revenue from Russia since then?

From the 31st of March, no money has gone in or come out of the Russian market for us. We’ve been very clear about that.

The business was disposed of to local management at 0 cost, debt free, cash free, with no consideration to take it back. We went through the formalities of registering the sale in Russia and completed the registration 8 days before Russia passed all the laws preventing international businesses from exiting its market.

Was the Russian market one of the key markets for Wargaming? How much money did the company lose due to leaving Russia? What were your estimates and did they prove to be realistic?

The estimates were almost precise, within 3% of the revenue for our fiscal year that ended March 23. We lost $250 million of revenue due to that decision. However, we managed to stabilize the losses and operations through asset disposals, some exits, and so on. And by August 2022 we brought ourselves back to breakeven. 

In terms of staff, 2/3 of our employees were in Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine before the invasion. Around 3400 people out of 5400 were in those three countries. The vast majority of the Russian employees stayed in Russia at Lesta Studio. So our headcount shrank to 2800 but till September 2022 bounced back to over 3000.

How many players have you had in Russia and Belarus? Did you get any sort of hate commentaries from your Russian user base concerning this decision?

The user base we lost was about 5 mln. These were significant markets to us and significant player numbers. 

When you make a really difficult decision like that, there will be hostile people. But we believed what we were doing was right for our company and for Ukraine. 

Could you say anything about the Ukrainian office’s performance during the full-scale war?

I haven’t visited the Ukrainian office since the full-scale war started but I talk to them regularly. There’s an English expression: they’ve barely missed a beat. That’s about sums it up. The team has been incredible.

Some were already working remotely, and some made their own arrangements when the war started, but the core of our teams have not missed a beat. They provided all of last Halloween’s events in World of Tanks. Our Central Art team in Kyiv has worked at full capacity and full utilization. 

We obviously have done everything we can to support them. And as I said before we were not going to lay off people. In fact, we’re we’re planning potentially to grow a little bit there and in Ukraine.

How many people are you going to hire in Ukraine?

For example, if we are talking about our Central Art Team, there will be growth in headcount numbers. It is not finalized yet, but we think our Central Art Team will grow around 40% and much of that will be in Ukraine.

Many people here worry about the winter and potential Russian attacks that will bring lasting blackouts. Is the company ready to support its Kyiv office? 

The unequivocal answer is yes. In Kyiv, we have backup generators, sheltering capabilities, additional supplies for water, and other facilities.

If we are talking about the state of the global gaming landscape and the company’s place in it, Covid seemed to give some sort of a boost to gamedev with everyone staying home and playing games, what changed since then for gamedev companies? 

First of all, we take great pride in being able to support a lot of people through the time of COVID. Games were one of the very few forms of entertainment available to most people. You either watched Netflix or played games. We’re very proud of the contribution we made to people’s mental health. 

In our company, there was no question that remote working affected productivity.  What we found is certain types of activities and certain types of processes actually work better remotely. It’s often leaders and managers, who struggle to run a remote team integrated with an in-office team. But we all got better at managing during Covid. 

Now the majority of our colleagues attend the workplace almost full time, or at least three days a week. But there also are teams who continue to operate in whatever mode their leaders and managers feel best.

Are there any specific challenges for them now, financially speaking, especially with some sort of crisis going on in global IT?

All of us expect a decline the next year, certainly on the mobile side. But there are a lot of other forces and decisions at work here. For example, Apple’s decisions on privacy have severely impacted mobile game publishing. If you have an existing franchise as we do, the impact is not so visible. But we feel deeply sorry for people trying to bring a new mobile game to market. To launch a new mobile title now you’ll probably need $100 million of launch marketing. 

It is raising the cost of user acquisition, it’s hurting the economics of the games and it’s playing into the hands, to be honest, of big players like EA, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, and so on. 

As for the decline in mobile gaming, unfortunately, I think we’ll continue to see this trend next year. Those who will be trying to break into the market will find it to be more challenging. 

Speaking about independent studios, you most definitely saw the recent conflict between Unity and its new business model and indie developers…

It’s fair to say I was surprised with their decision to pivot and become an engine/platform. It is more recession-proof to own an infrastructure that the industry runs on. So I think I understand their strategy. But I also think they have to find ways to support and help small players who might suffer from that. 

And that brings us to the rest of your question. From my personal point of view (not the company’s CFO), the economy’s now looking quite challenging for those small developers. 

In 2019-2020, and even 2021 globally we had incredibly low interest rates, and investors with huge amounts of liquidity they wanted to put to use. So then anybody who could spell ‘video game’ was getting funding just fine, whether the idea was good or bad. But lots of those games are running out of that funding. There are even huge titles that simply ran out of cash.

What you see is now an industry-wide reduction. At the same time, we are seeing great talents becoming available that weren’t available earlier.

People still believe that if they fund the right game, they’ll make x10, x30, but the reality is that one on maybe 100 games becomes a hit. If I had to summarize it, I’d say the market is correcting to become more normal.

I’d say we see some of the same trends we saw in Hollywood, where a shrinking number of studios and huge franchises pumping out similar stuff. Every now and then you could get a ‘Blair Witch’ project or a ‘Squid Game’ from an independent studio of course. And I think gaming is moving in that direction. 

The ability to develop a successful game for someone is still there, but it’s getting tougher and the availability of funding is going down. But I’d still encourage those startups to keep going. The breakthroughs in gaming are worth it and the immense pleasure they give gamers is worth it as well. 

What will the pavilion look like?

The Ukrainian pavilion at Gamescom will be located on a 100 m2 area in the business zone of Hall 3.2 (C-050g, D-051g). It will look like this:

The purpose of the Ukrainian pavilion is to present the high level of achievements of the Ukrainian gaming industry, demonstrate innovative domestic developments, support the image of Ukraine, and attract specialized investments in the industry from international partners.

The Ukrainian pavilion was organized by the VG Entertainment studio, the Games Gathering conference, and the GDBAY platform. AIN.Capital was informed, that participants will be provided with tickets to the conference and promotional items at the event.

“The idea of a Ukrainian pavilion has been around for a long time. We wanted to do it last year, but we didn’t have time because everyone had huge problems due to the war,” the CEO and co-founder of Games Gathering told AIN.Capital. “I think there will be more than 100 participants from 20+ different Ukrainian companies. Fortunately, Gamescom provided us with 100 square meters of space for free, however we had to pay for the pavilion.

We hope that this is the beginning of a good tradition, and every year the Ukrainian pavilion at Gamescom will be bigger both in terms of area and number of companies.”

Who will represent Ukraine at Gamescom?

The list of companies that have already announced their participation:

• Game development studios:
  • GSC Game World,
  • Frogwares,
  • Frag Lab,
  • Fishing Planet,
  • 4A Games,
  • Tatem Games,
  • Red Beat,
  • Room 8 Group,
  • Farom Studio,
  • Bini Games,
  • PlayToMax,
  • Plazma Studio.
• Service companies and platforms:
  • Postmodern.ua,
  • Drope.me,
  • Values Value.

Why it is important?

GamesCom is one of the world’s largest gaming and pop culture conferences, held annually in Cologne, Germany. In 2019, it was attended by a record 373,000 people from 56 countries. It is considered to be the largest in terms of the number of visitors and expositions. Presenting your projects there is a пкуфе opportunity for the Ukrainian devs to gather contacts of potential partners, promote their product, and enter the global market.

• Founded in 2016 by Robert Wesolowski and Michał Gembicki, Klabater is a publisher and video game studio quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The company offers complex services to the developers, including financial support and investments, through production process support, to PR and marketing campaigns.
• Klabater’s game catalogue consists genres like: tycoon, strategy, tactical, arcade, adventure, platformer, simulation, etc. Its studio is best known for the story-rich management game Moonshine Inc. and Crossroads Inn, a real-time management sim.

• The €125,000 funding round was mostly led by Pure Alpha Investments, who contributed over €90,000 to the round. It is a Polish investment fund founded by Marcin Kuciapski and Michał Szpin, who both have over 10 years of experience on the capital market.
• Thanks to the funding, Klabater wants to release Crossroads Inn 2 in 2024. The parallel team will also work on the Heliborne 2 concept, as well as the further development of Moonshine Inc.

• The new studio will be a part of the Group’s QA Service Line, initially in Poland and Romania.
• Highlight QA team has already worked on FIFA, Subnautica, Gears of War franchises, as well as Minecraft, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, For Honor, Heroes of Dragon Age, Carrion, etc.
• Highlight QA is the second new studio to be launched by Room 8 Group in March 2023. Previously, it has already opened a new trailer production studio, Heroic. Most of its personnel are from Ukraine. This studio produces videos for console, mobile, and PC games. It belongs to the company’s Art Service Line, led by Vadim Krayevoy.
• In the summer of 2022, it became known that Room 8 Studio was to split into several subsidiaries. Currently, the studio unites seven brands, including Room 8 Studio, Massive Black, Dragons Lake, Solid Bash, PUGA, Heroic, and Highlight QA.

The Ukrainian gaming community has collected some of the worst examples from Russian resources where videos and screenshots of the game appear.

• A screenshot from the game where the drone carries a pot of geraniums. With “Geranium-2”, as the Russians call Iranian drones, the Russian army is shelling Ukrainian cities, killing people:

• Using old photos of “Soviet” Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. Donetsk has been occupied by the Russian army since 2014. The developers could not be unaware of this fact, adding such photos to the game. As well as the rhetoric of the Russian authorities about “the restoration of historical injustice and the restoration of the USSR.”

• Cans painted in blue-yellow color with “pork” minced meat. It is interesting that Russian users justify the picture by the fact that it had a Soviet original. But without the inscription “pork”.

• Poem-quote from an old World War II poster about “Nazi pigs”:

• Many users from Russia are outraged that these are “just pigs”, Ukrainians are offended by the nonsense, saying that there is no need to look for hidden meanings. But the game’s target audience, Russian gamers, read these meanings unambiguously (even in discussions about the same game, calling Ukrainians “pigs”). One of the Russian commentators was so inspired by the game that in the review he called on Putin to “give the developers a medal”.

• A robot’s speech about nuclear blackmail and expanding the borders of the USSR:

• A photo “from the future” of a Russian soldier reciting the oath, without commenting on what the Russian army is doing now.

• And more interesting findings like photos of Mariupol in the column “Cities of the USSR”, and hidden letters Z and V on the cars.

Why is it important

Atomic Heart, as a part of modern Russian culture, is not apolitical, no matter what they are saying. The developers tried to subtly please “patriotic” Russians who welcome the war with Ukraine. And they obviously succeed, as you can see by the comments of some russian gamers.

This game should be removed from online game stores. After all, Russia has made its culture a tool of propaganda and war. But of course, everybody decides by themself whether they are ready to tolerate genocide in order to play a game just for $10.

Quick overview of what is wrong with Atomic Heart

• Atomic Heart is positioned by the developers as Bioshoсk-like Soviet shooter.
• The game is developed by Mundfish studio, which claims to be international with an office in Cyprus, but it is Russian in fact.
• It is sponsored by Russian investors, including an ex-Gazprom top manager with close ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the sanctioned VTB bank.
• Therefore, it’s no wonder that Mundfish studio never commented on the war in Ukraine and didn’t condemn Russia either. In a recent tweet, developers stated that they “do not comment on politics.”
• You can find out more about what is wrong with Atomic Heart and its developers by the link below.

New concerns for users: be ready to provide all your data to Russian FSB agents

The privacy policy published on the studio’s website directly refers to the collection of user data, and the possible transfer of this data to Russian state authorities, in particular, the tax office and FSB.

It is interesting that this document is available only in Russian and is not available on the English-language version of the store.

As for whose data will be collected in this way, the studio explains: the data subjects are all customers/consumers and visitors of the mundfish.com website, including those who are going to purchase the studio’s services and products.

Moreover, the authors of this policy, citing the legislation under which the data are collected, also mention Russian mobilization laws, under which soldiers are currently being recruited in Russia to continue the criminal war against Ukraine.

Why is it important?

The studio’s privacy policy is direct proof that Mundfish is a Russian company (that is what it literally states by specifying the studio’s legal address in Moscow as well). But if you still believe that Mundfish is an “international” developer, ask yourself why does a Cypriot company that is “out of politics” want to comply with legislation on mobilization in Russia and transfer data to Russian special services?

A rhetorical question, the answer to which, we hope, will reduce the interest of the Western gaming community in this project.

The game title indeed arouses some curiosity, which is, however, not about if it will be “soviet-punk Bioshock” as is shown in teasers. What is really interesting about the game is that its developers and investors are Russians with close ties to sanctioned Gazprom, the state-owned multinational energy corporation. This is the key point due to the ongoing genocidal war in Ukraine launched by Russia.

AIN.Capital publishes the details about the project.

Make the Soviet Union great again, or what is wrong with the game: m?

• Atomic Heart is positioned by the developers as Bioshoсk in the USSR. It describes the events of the alternative history of the 50s, where the Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War scientifically and technologically advanced, reaching the peak of development with cold nuclear fusion and intelligent robots.
• The protagonist of the game is a KGB major. The game seems to show the Russian military and KGB in a neutral or even favorable light.
• The party in honor of the game was held in this design.

• Of course, this is not the first game that exploits the curiosity of the Western audience for Soviet style and (pseudo) history. In the Russian Federation, this game is released only in the VK Play store, but in the world, it will be sold in the Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam stores.

Who is behind Atomic Heart, and what it has to do with the pro-Kremlin institutions?

• The game is developed by Mundfish studio. On the website of the studio, there is currently no mention of the fact that it is a Russian game developer. The story of the company begins with its launch in 2017 by a team of like-minded people in Cyprus.
• At the same time, the studio was mentioned as a Russian one, with an office in Moscow, in Russian gaming and IT medias a few years ago. At DTF 2019, there was even a report from the Moscow office of the studio, where, according to the publication, about 30 people worked at that time.
• On LinkedIn, you can find the profiles of the founders of the studio: Artem Galeev, Robert Bagratuni, Oleg Horodishenin, they are from the Russian Federation. Bagratuni is a former top manager of Mail.ru.
• The investors of the studio are Chinese Tencent and Russian GEM Capital and Gaijin Entertainment. GEM Capital is a Russian fund founded by Anatoly Pali, who previously worked at Gazprom’s subsidiary, Gazenergoset. The studio raised investments from them in 2021.
• Moreover, some internet enthusiasts found Paliy’s connection to other Russian state institutions, like RusAl of Oleg Deripaska and sanctioned “systemically important” bank VTB.
• Mundfish studio never commented on the war in Ukraine and didn’t condemn Russia either. In a recent tweet, developers stated that they “do not comment on politics”.

• As TheGamer’s Jason Wojnar noted, Mundfish is going as far as blocking those who call on the company to comment on the matter. This has now led to Mundfish being accused of knowingly spreading Russian propaganda, another claim it has not addressed in this statement.

So what?

Possibly one may say that this is just a game, but taking into account the war crimes and terror of Russians and their authorities, as well as the history of Soviet crimes against Ukrainians, such projects should be boycotted by both digital game stores and the global gaming community.

The lack of transparency from the developers, shady investors, and a strong flair of Soviet nostalgia should be alarming for gamers. The popularity of Atomic Heart on the global market, along with media support, turn the game into a dangerous tool of Russian propaganda.

If Atomic Heart is being developed with money that originated from sanctioned Russian businesses and banks “systemically important” to the Russian government, profits from the game could be directed to help the Russian government in its invasion of Ukraine.

That’s why you should, at least, think twice before buying Atomic Heart. But the best that can be done is to reject purchasing the game and call on Microsoft and Valve to stop selling it.

About Frag Lab and Wargaming cooperation

Frag Lab is a Kyiv-based game development studio founded in 2017 by ex-employees of Kyiv-based Crytek, in particular, people who worked on the Crysis franchise, Battlefield 2, and Warface. The team’s CEO, Max Dembic, was formerly the managing director of Crytek Kyiv.

In March 2019, Frag Lab and Wargaming announced a partnership: the companies informed about joint work on a new generation free-to-play shooter that was supposed to work on AWS, Amazon GameLift, and Amazon Lumberyard services. It was about the game Shatterline (now in early access on Steam), which the team continued to work on even during the full-scale war.

In August 2022, Wargaming withdrew from the project. As the company informed AIN.Capital, cooperation with Frag Lab was completed “within the optimization of the company’s product portfolio.”

“For several years, Wargaming financed the development and acted as the publisher of Shatterline, which allowed the Ukrainian studio growing from 70 to 200 employees, developing and improving the title all this time. According to Wargaming’s decision, all developments and technologies remain with Frag Lab,”

the company said.

Wargaming did not comment on AIN.Capital’s questions about the selling of a stake in Frag Lab. The company also did not confirm or deny that it was a co-owner of the Kyiv studio.

What is known about the deal

There are no details about the studio’s new partner yet. Frag Lab CEO Max Dembyk told AIN.Capital that Wargaming has indeed left the project, but the company has yet to comment on the new agreement:

“Wagaming completely left the project and the studio. As for the new partner, this information is currently confidential, as all the formalities have not yet been completed. We hope to be able to provide more details in a month.”

• Founded in February 2022, Makea Games is developing a platform allowing for player creativity and giving them tools to maximize their game experience. Using the platform, players can create games ranging from sports to racing and shooters just with their controller.
• Makea Games’ first game is the parkour game Supermoves. The company says the game is fusing together free movement and, above all, interaction with other players in multiplayer. Supermoves uses the latest Unreal Engine 5 game engine, which lets players build their own levels and provides massive multiplayer arenas.

“Our vision is that Makea Games will become a universe of several games, where there is always something new to play. Because the players themselves participate in the creation of the game content. With our gaming platform, it’s easy to make UGC (User-generated content) and enable creativity,”

Tomi Toikka, Makea Games Founder, CEO and Creative Director, explains the startup.

• Play Ventures led this funding round. It is an early-stage VC fund focusing on the gaming industry. Recently, the firm closed its Fund II at $135 million to invest in the world’s best game makers and entrepreneurs. Business Finland, a Finnish state fund, and some experienced angel investors also participated in the funding.
• With the fresh funds, Makea Games will expand its platform to be capable of making almost any kind of game. The company has bigger plans on creating a unified Makeaverse, where games are developed together with the gaming community.

• Founded in 2013 by experienced AAA game developers, Plot Twist is an established Polish gaming company. It is also built on the foundation of Awesome Industries, a company making mobile and console games since 2013. The studio claims to be creating story-driven independent titles fuelled by compelling gameplay.
• During the round, over 30 investors acquired a total of 1,176,470 series E shares, equalling to about €580,000. Now, the valuation of the Krakow studio amounted to almost €6.4 million (31 million PLN).

“Once again, investors believed in us, for which we would like to thank them. Last December, we obtained a 2 million PLN (nearly €410,000) private funding. We allocated this amount to the first stage of production of our flagship project, The Last Case of Benedict Fox. The fresh funds will be spent for the next stage of this game’s production and marketing,”

Paweł Czapla, President of the Management Board of Plot Twist, comments.

• The Last Case of Benedict Fox will take place in a Boston house where a child goes missing because of some strange circumstances. The self-proclaimed detective, connected at birth with a creature from another dimension, Benedict Fox, together with his demon companion, will try to discover the fate of this mysterious family.
• Plot Twist will use the fresh funding to launch the game in spring 2023 with the help of its publisher Rogue Games. The title will be available on the Xbox Series X | S and PC.

CharStudio employs about 25 people today. They have up to 10 active games in their portfolio, and the total amount of downloads in the markets is slightly more than 10 million. The games are mainly popular in the USA, UK, Germany, and France.

I will try to explain our experience in detail. In the beginning it was difficult sometimes, but to this day still magical.

First CharStudio games and releases on the App Store

In 2010 I was a third-year math&mechanical engineering student. I realized that this was a good path for starting a career in IT. I was looking for freelance work – I had created websites, developed different modules, and started working with applications.

One day I received an order to develop a browser game, and I started trying out how games are basically programmed. But after a while, I went to Norway as an AIESEC intern and referred all freelance cases to my brother Igor and now a partner, who was also a software developer.

I was an intern for 2.5 years, and Igor actively started programming various games during this time and implemented quite a lot of projects. When I returned to Lviv, I began to think about what to do next – work for an IT company or launch my own startup. At that time, my brother set up his own freelance strategy: he discovered how to develop and sell games. So I decided to start developing games, too.

It wasn’t easy at first, but I worked on my portfolio. I was selling game licenses at a price from 500 to 800 dollars. The growth was becoming more complex, so my brother and I decided to form our own registered business.

At that time, Match 3 Games were gaining popularity, and one of our customers from Belgium recommended that we publish a game to the App Store. We released it, and it gradually began to bring a stable income of several hundred dollars monthly. Since then, we have partnered with this publisher and have seriously focused on mobile game development.

Christmas Sweeper was almost an accidental success

Among all the projects, Igor created the Christmas game named Christmas Sweeper. It quickly began to gain momentum in the United States.

This game has not been in stores for a long time, but this was what it looked like:

It was just another game in the Puzzle category for us, but the players really loved it. We had a game downloaded tens of thousands of times for the first time. I consider it almost an accidental success.

After seeing the result of the seasonal game, my brother started developing Christmas Sweeper 2, which surpassed even further. This game is still in the App Store and Google Play; it has continuous profit and a loyal pool of players who have downloaded more than 1.3 million times.

After the 2-nd Sweeper’s success, we started a game development company. That’s how CharStudio was founded. 

The first project we took on was Christmas Sweeper 3. We realized we had found our niche and should scale the holiday game idea.

And we achieved it. In 2014, the Christmas Sweeper 3 monthly earnings brought us to a budget level where we were ready to hire people and rent an office. Our company really looked like a full-fledged business.

We had fluctuating successes with other games, but the Sweeper series still gives us a stable profit. Christmas Sweeper 4 was launched a few years ago on Unity, but the game’s popularity is just starting to grow.

We have a total of 10 games today and more in production. Our Sweeper series at the moment gives us 90% of the profit. 

How long does a mobile game live?

A moderately popular game’s lifetime is about 3-5 years. Hyper-casual games and some others usually live less, and some games can generate profits for 10 years and more.

The game lives when a developer constantly programs into it new functionality, new mechanics, locations, and levels. That’s how we have been developing improvements for Sweeper 3, which is more than 8 years old. We are working on the game every day, not leaving the players behind, communicating with them, and adding various features, new events, and competitions. That’s how we are breathing life into the gaming community. 

I really love this version, and I still play in Sweeper 3 even when we have new editions. 

Six steps for creating a mobile game

Let’s overview how to create mobile games step-by-step. 

1. Step #1 — Market Analysis. We need to analyze what games are popular now, how each category or genre grows, what are the trends in game design, etc. The deeper we research into the market, the better we will understand what players are interested in. This step is sometimes skipped, but then game developers often lose their money. You can make a really wonderful game that surpasses all competitors in terms of mechanics, but you won’t have any success with it if the niche is currently in decline.

2. Step #2 — Game Idea. You need to consider what the game will be about, what setting, what type of game, and what genre to choose. What makes you different from others? Where is the heart of your game?

3. Step #3 — Concept and MVP. At this stage, a developer creates an MVP. It’s a basic mechanic that can be evaluated and tested by friends to get the first feedback. I believe this is the right approach — to do something small first to feel and understand whether the game will be engaging. We can also publish a game MPV on the markets and buy traffic in a test country to evaluate the functionality and see how players interact. If it turns out that something is nuanced with the game, we can stop development as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary costs.

4. Step #4 — Game Design and Game Development. If we are satisfied with the MVP metrics, we complete the full development. This is a very big topic that needs to be considered additionally.

5. Step #5 — Soft Launch. When we have decided that the game development is complete, we can release it, but this should be a soft launch limiting the audience and testing the metrics. It often results in the tested game becoming great, but we need to add balance and make some levels more difficult or simpler. We can call this process polishing up the game.
   

6. Step #6 — Game launch. At this stage, we fully release the game and take a step back to analyze, do marketing, and hope for success.

7. Step #7 — Scaling. If everything is flowing good, and our ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) pays off the initial marketing budget, then we scale the game. We use localization, work with traffic, development of updates and releases. Finally, we do it again in a cycle. Until the positive trend in the niche begins to decrease. 

You may face the problem when the traffic acquisition becomes so expensive that it is unprofitable to attract more players. In this case, we freeze the marketing campaign and consider how to stay profitable. There may come a phase when a game has a base number of loyal players, but new ones no longer download. Then you need to profit from this game as long as possible and give the remaining loyal players new content but not as much as before when you were scaling-up the game.

Mobile game profitability and finding game publishers

You can sell any game because you can profitably buy traffic for it. People won’t like the game, but it will still be profitable for the owners for a while. I know studios that choose such a short-term strategy for themselves and bet on the number of games, and not the quality. 

If you plan to make money from the game for years, then the audience must constantly expand, and the game must receive positive reviews.

But remember that even an captivating game does not always earn significant money. Traffic in a specific category is so expensive that the profit does not cover its production costs. You need to find a compromise. 

And we always need to analyze market metrics. Players consciously limit how much they are willing to spend on games. It depends on region. A player in Japan spends on avarage of $200 in the category “Casual Games”; in South Korea they spend $110, and in the USA up to $80. This is the most important metric, when we calculate future revenue, because we operate not with downloads but with formulactic strategy.

Basically, mobile game studios focus on app development and then collaborate with a game publisher. A publisher analyzes the game, buys test traffic, and then observes whether it is worth publishing the game and scaling it. I would say it is difficult for a small studio to work without any publisher, but we at CharStudio try both strategies; work with publishers or independently release games.

Top mobile game studios are usually both developers and publishers. We consider such a model as an example to follow.

Sometimes a developer makes a game and it becomes a instant hit. This occurs in 2 cases – either the game is brilliant at its core, or the game is just satisfingly good, but the developer has invested in it to create more visualy-bright and engaiging functionality. 

Mobile games compete with Netflix

No one can say for sure how mobile games will develop further. Let’s experiment and consider the example of Match 3 Games:

• At one time, everyone just played Match 3, and everyone liked the simple mechanics.

• Then it becomes not really interesting for the players to simply pass the levels. So, developers started adding meta-elements to their games – when you play Match 3, you collect stars or crystals and spend them to build something.

• After the meta-elements, developers started to add story plots to their games. So players build something to achieve specific goals and experience a shared story together with the game charecters.

• Now there is a trend to create a dramatic cinematic-like story as possible. It should be non-stop action, and also there should be engaging drama in the plot. Even casual games start competing with companies like Netflix, which also focus on their retention rates and engaging mechanics.

This approach greatly increases development costs. But a good story is worth the money to pay the game plot authors; it is also necessary to implement all their ideas qualitatively in mechanics.

We at CharStudio have grown with the mobile market’s development. Now the market has already formed, and companies need large budgets to compete with major studios with thousands of employees. We manage to compete with them by developing niche products, like Christmas or Easter games. It’s such a small market for big companies, but it’s advantageous for us right now.

We are also evolving towards game stories and plots, although not so quickly. After all, it is not only investments but also our creativity that matters. Because we believe games are an art.

Attempts to appeal the decision only worsened the situation

The founder of the Ukrainian Geek community, Artem, shortly after the release of Diablo Immortal (June 2022), created the game clan with the name Azov. However, just two months later, Blizzard’s censorship team renamed the clan, giving it a technical name, and muted Artem’s account for a day.

Artem turned to the support service and tried to prove that the name Azov does not violate any rules and is generally a common toponym for Ukraine. The Sea of ​​Azov, for instance, or at least 4 villages with that name.

However, the dialogue quickly went south, and Blizzard support began to repeat the Russian propaganda, remembering imagined neo-Nazism and war crimes.

“As the name Azov resembles the name of Azov Regiment that “Had drawn controversy over its early and allegedly continuing association with far-right groups and neo-Nazi ideology, its use of controversial symbols linked to Nazism, and allegations that members of the group have participated in torture and war crimes,” Blizzard support suddenly declared

Of course, there’s no more talk about any return of the name. The simplest explanation for the support’s staff behavior is that Ukraine, from Blizzard’s perspective, still belongs to the Russian region. So, any player questions are moderated by Russians. Artem has already sent a request to American support and is waiting for a response.

Blizzard likes to kiss totalitarian regimes in the ass

In March 2022, Blizzard published the SUPPORTING THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE letter on its website. In the letter, Activision Blizzard stated that it was suspending new sales of games in Russia while the so-called “conflict” continued, and that the company itself would continue to look for ways to support the Ukrainian people.

This in no way stopped the company from inviting players from Belarus and Russia to participate in the beta testing of the new WoW expansion Dragonflight, which is set to release on November 28.

Although, it’s not only about Russia. In general, Blizzard has a stupid habit of bending under any totalitarian regime. For example, in 2019, the company suspended a player nicknamed Blitzchung from participating in any official Hearthstone tournaments for calling for the liberation of Hong Kong (at the time there were mass protests against the Chinese authorities). Blitzchung was taken his GrandMaster title away, as well as prizes for the second season of GrandMasters 2019 — about $3,000.

Why is it important?

In the situation with Hong Kong, Blizzard was simply afraid of losing the Chinese market, falling out of favor with the Communist Party. With Ukraine, the matter is more complicated. Most likely, Ukrainian players are still moderated by Russians. (Although the support letter was signed by Blizzard Entertainment Europe, technically Russia is Europe).

Any routing of Ukrainian traffic or moderation of Ukrainian content through Russia is an unacceptable disregard for the security and rights of Ukrainian users. In this situation, Ukrainians should not just ask permission for the right to name our clans as we want, but demand the transfer of Ukrainian moderation to some truly European country.

• The veteran game developers Michail Katkoff, Michael McManus, and Nad Adjir founded Savage Game Studio in 2020. The startup makes action games with epic stories to foster lasting connections with players around the world. Now, it is working on an unannounced new AAA mobile live service action game.

“I’m really excited about what Savage is working on and I’m confident they will deliver a high-quality experience. Our move into mobile, like our expansion into PC and live service games, strengthens our capabilities and our community, and complements PlayStation Studios’ purpose to make the best games that we can,”

Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, comments on the deal.

• Sony Interactive Entertainment, a global leader in interactive and digital entertainment, is the buyer. The company has been operating since the launch of the PlayStation gaming console in Japan in 1994, and delivers innovative products to this day.
• Savage Game Studios will now join the newly created PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, an independent operation from console development. After the acquisition, the day-to-day operations will continue to be run by Savage Game Studios’ current management team.

According to the description, Playtika arranged a movie night with catering, bar, disco, and other entertainment for its Belarusian employees. The video was noticed by Ukrainians indignant at the expensive party on the territory of the aggressor’s allied state.

Actually, this is not the only party to have been held in Belarus. While Ukrainian children are dying under fire, there have been parties in Minsk. The last post dedicated to Ukraine on the Playtika account is dated March 7, 2022.

Playtika’s stance on the war in Ukraine

Playtika is an Israeli company that makes $1 billion in net profit a year and has R&D offices in Ukraine (Kyiv, Dnipro, and Vinnytsia). There is also an office in Minsk. As of 2021, Playtika employed 1,000 people in its Ukrainian offices and 600 in Belarus. As the channel Konspekt reported, Playtika cut about 40% of its staff from its Ukrainian studio House of Fun in late May. In its comments to Globes, the company said that the 250 laid off employees were from offices in Montreal, London, and Los Angeles, and most of the Ukrainians were not fired but assigned to other projects or relocated to Romania.

The company claims to have supported Ukrainians in every way possible during the war:

“Ukraine has always been an integral part of our operation, and we have supported our employees throughout these tragic times,” Playtika representatives said in a commentary to AIN.Capital in June this year in response to the news about large-scale staff layoffs.

According to information sent to AIN.Capital by sources familiar with the situation, Playtika did not disclose details of its war response plan until the last moment. And after February 24, the company was unable to ensure the organized evacuation of employees who asked for it. Over time, when the situation stabilized somewhat, the Ukrainian workers received one-time financial aid and assistance with housing and employment in the cities of relocation. Playtika reported this on LinkedIn.

Playtika also reported donating $100,000 to the Red Cross Foundation for humanitarian aid during the war in Ukraine. It should be recalled that the Red Cross Foundation officially calls the war in Ukraine a “crisis,” and for almost six months, the organization has repeatedly provoked criticism from Ukrainians, in particular over its negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about opening a Red Cross center to help Ukrainian refugees… on Russian territory! That is the state that actually made them refugees. Also, we cannot ignore the case of water delivery to the city of Dnipro, which was not needed there. There is still the question of how effectively the money donated to the Red Cross Foundation is spent and whether it really helps anyone in Ukraine.

Playtika ignors the question in the comments whether it is going to close its office in Belarus. Currently, the site has seven job openings in Minsk and ten in Ukraine.

Playtika also did not explain its decision to keep the Belarusian office open to Ukrainians forced to keep working with its staff. According to AIN.Capital sources, the company simply does not talk about this, and the management evades direct questions.

AIN.Capital asked Playtika’s press office for a comment, but so far there has been no response.

• Founded in 2022 by Cezary Skorupka, Jakub Witczak, Anna Żurawicz-Skorupka, and Piotr Goguś, Something Random is based in Łódź, Poland. It is a game studio focusing on developing virtual reality games, like the former project of its founders — VR shooter SUPERHOT.
• The global giant of digital entertainment NetEase has led the seed investment. The company has invested several million dollars. The firm develops, finance, and operates some of the most popular products in the industry of gaming, e-commerce, advertising, and music. According to Crunchbase, NetEase’s portfolio includes 36 investments in companies like Point One, BUD, AccelByte, and Lightforge Games.

“NetEase’s experience and contacts will be of great value to us. It is a serious and reliable partner that will allow us to scale our business,”

Piotr Goguś, the company’s Vice President, talks about the investor.

• Using the fresh funds, Something Random is actively expanding its team. The startup is looking for a Lead Artist, Level Designer, and Programmer. You can find the details about each job opening on the Something Random website.
• The company is also currently developing two VR titles, with one of them, a first-person shooter, to be released in 2023.

• The new office of the Ukrainian company will appear in Ottawa.
• As Pingle Game Studio says, the Canadian office opening does not mean a business relocation. The creative and development teams stay in Ukraine. It is the company’s conscientious position.
• Pingle already has offices in Dnipro, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. In March 2022, the company also set up an office in Lviv, as well as announced the opening of a new location in London. In addition, the company has a representative office in Los Angeles.
• Pingle Game Studio is a global game development partner. The company focuses on providing porting, full-cycle development, design, and testing services for AAA games. Since its inception in 2007, Pingle Studio has worked with Epic Games, Disney, Lucasfilm, Embracer Group, Team17, Zynga, Square Enix, Qualcomm, and tinyBu.
• As of June 2022, Pingle Game Studio employs 400 people, as per Dmytro Kvtun, CEO of Pingle Game Studio.
• The company’s well-known projects include porting the games Hello Neighbor and My Time At Portia.

“Years of experience with major game-making technologies and various generations of consoles make us a powerful contributor when it comes to developing and porting games. We’ve completed more than 75 projects since starting the company,” Dmytro comments.

• Gamers have been waiting a very long time for the second installment in the cult post-apocalyptic game series about the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and the stalkers who explore it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The release of the sequel was announced several years ago, and since then, little by little, the developers have been sharing the details about the future game and showing gameplay videos.
• The game is developed by a Ukrainian studio. So the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, of course, affected the development process and the company in general. At the event, it was confirmed that the game’s release was postponed to 2023.
• But what really surprised the audience of the event was the screening of the Ukrainian developers’ video diary, where they spoke about their work during the war, about basements, sirens, and their colleagues who had taken up arms to defend their country. This is surprising mostly because companies like Microsoft usually make every attempt to avoid any negativity at their entertainment events. Showing the war, bomb shelters, and guns at an Xbox event may indicate the high level of support for Ukrainians from the world’s biggest IT companies. Microsoft announced that it ceased operations in the Russian market back in March, 2022.
• In their video diary, the developers from GSC Game World share how they work in the time of the war. They show how the war in Ukraine looks like: sirens, buildings smashed by missile attacks near the company’s office, ravaged Irpin, the evacuation of the staff members.
• Not all of the team members could evacuate. The video shows how their workday begins with air raid alerts and how they hide in a shelter during heavy shelling.

“This is a carrier for my cat, who died back on the first day of the war,” one of the employees says.

• Maxim Tkachenko, the Community Lead, shows his bathroom: now it is his usual workplace. Daria Tsipkova, the Narrative Designer, says that she has been living and working in her corridor for over two months. She lives with a one-eyed dog rescued from shelling in Hostomel.
• Many of the company’s staff has joined the Armed Forces (ZSU). One of them, the Lead AI developer Dmytro Yasenyev, says he has never imagined that a full-scale war could break out in the middle of Europe in the 21st century.

• Previously, it also became known that the company had removed the Russian language from the list of voice-over versions of the game, leaving just Russian subtitles. The civilized reaction of the Russian gaming community to those news can be viewed, for example, here in the comments. Their outrage and threats not to buy the game look all the funnier, because in the very beginning of the war, the company announced that the game would not be distributed in the RF.
• The developers have also renamed the game, changing the transliteration to Ukrainian. Chornobyl not Chernobyl.

“PUGA joining Room 8 Group is another step forward in our ongoing global expansion, including offices, teams, and service offerings,” says Sviatoslav Pohrebnoi, Room 8 Group Chairman.

• Room 8 Group is a Ukrainian game development company with a large development office in Kyiv, cooperating with  Ubisoft, Gameloft, Activision, CD Projekt RED, and others. The company is headquartered in Cyprus. The company employs 1,340 people.
• PUGA Studios is a service company providing game styling services (concept art, illustration, storyboard animation, cinematography) for game development and production companies such as Gearbox, Jam City, Socialpoint, Futureplay, Aquiris, and Kwalee. The company has more than 140 employees.
• The takeover will allow Room 8 Group to perform all stages of creative game development on its own, from pre-production to post-production and live ops.
• The acquisition of PUGA is another step in Room 8’s expansion of its business. In March, the company acquired Massive Black, an American art studio, and in February, it opened new offices in Spain, Romania, and Poland.

What’s happened

On March 17, 2022, Ukrainian game developers started receiving letters from Valve stating that payments would not be made to their cards. The explanation in those letters was as follows: Due to the current environment, we are unable to send bank payments to Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

One Ukrainian solo developer, who wished to remain unnamed, told AIN.Capital that he also received a similar letter. And when he contacted a support team of Steam, they said that payments would not be made until at least the end of March, and the reason was the decision of the American bank:

“Our bank requires us to provide data on all intermediary banks for payments to the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Also, it will not allow payments to Belarus.”

The developer was promised that the company would process information about correspondent banks and resume payments. And in case he could not wait, he was advised to provide payment information from a non-Ukrainian bank.

This was happening en masse. The company actually limited Ukrainian developers’ earnings during the war, when these funds could have been critical for business survival, family evacuations, volunteering, etc. Given that Ukrainian banks were not subject to US sanctions related to the war, this decision by Valve looks strange.

Ministry of Digital Transformation Actions

On April 15, 2022, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Oleksandr Borniakov, published an official letter from the Ministry to Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell:

The Ministry of Digital Transformation called on Valve to resume payments to Ukrainian game developers or provide a clear explanation of why the company can not make these payments.

AIN.Capital will follow the further development of this situation.

P.S. Shame on you, Gabe.

According to the company’s announcement, over the past weeks, Wargaming has been conducting a strategic review of business operations worldwide. The company has decided it will not own or operate any businesses in Russia and Belarus and will leave both countries.

On March 31, 2022, the company transferred its gaming business in Russia and Belarus to the local management of Lesta Studio, which is no longer affiliated with Wargaming.

“The company will not profit from this process either today or going forward. Much to the contrary, we expect to suffer substantial losses as a direct result of this decision. We will be completing the operational transition with all due speed while remaining in full compliance with all laws and ensuring the ongoing safety and support of our employees. During the transition period, the live products will remain available in Russia and Belarus and will be operated by the new owner,” reads the company’s statement.

Wargaming has also started the process of closure of its studio in Minsk, Belarus. It was the first office and former headquarters of the company, from which its history began.

About the company

Wargaming Group Limited (alsWargaming Group Limited (also known as Wargaming.net) is a formerly Belarusian video game company now headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Wargaming is famous for its military-themed team-based games World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. The main markets for those games were Post-Soviet states, primarily Russia and Belarus. So exiting those two countries will be painful for Wargaming.

The company condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the first days of the war. On February 26, 2022, Creative Director of Wargaming Sergey Burkatovskiy resigned from the company due to his support for the war. Following his resignation, Wargaming made the statement: “Sergey Burkatovskiy is no longer a Wargaming employee. His personal opinion does not reflect the company’s position in any way. Wargaming works hard to provide aid to 550+ employees and their families in Ukraine.”

Wargaming indeed has a team in Ukraine. Persha Studia in Kyiv, founded in 2000, was acquired by the company in 2011.

• Volmi Games is the first company from Eastern Europe to join Virtuos. According to the developer, the Ukrainian studio will become “a key node in Virtuos’ expanding global footprint and bringing the company closer to its European clients.”
• Under the terms of the deal, Volmi Games will change its name to Volmi – A Virtuos Studio. The founders of the studio, former c-levels at Wargaming Kyiv, Vladimir Loban and Miroslav Baranenko, will continue to run it as CEO and COO, respectively.
• Volmi Games plans to increase the team from 140 to 500 employees within three years.

About Volmi Games

Volmi Games was founded in 2016 in Kyiv. Its portfolio includes over 800 projects, including Diablo 2: Resurrected, Metro Exodus, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, Smite, Paladins, and Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Volmi Games clients are Blizzard Entertainment, CD Projekt RED, Bethesda, 4A Games, Hi-Rez Studios, and CI Games.

About Virtuos

Virtuos, headquartered in Singapore, was founded in 2004. It specializes in game development, 3D art production for AAA consoles, PC, and mobile titles. The company has worked on games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, Dark Souls: Remastered, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

• The new office will be called Nordcurrent Dnipro.
• The RinGames team consists of 28 developers. Most of the employees are graphic designers and artists. In 2022, the team plans to expand to 100 people.
• RinGames has previously collaborated with Nordcurrent — it created graphics for the company’s games. In particular, RinGames worked on Cooking Fever, Sniper Arena, and Murder in the Alps. Both companies are now working on a new time-management game, Happy Clinic.
• RinGames became the second Ukrainian game studio that signed a contract with Nordcurrent. In 2018, the Lithuanian company acquired Blam! Games Studio, an Odesa-based game developer with a staff of more than 60 people.
• Nordcurrent is the largest company in Lithuania that publishes and develops mobile games. The company is known for such games as Cooking Fever, Murder in the Alps, Airplane Chefs, and Sniper Arena.

What kind of backlash are we talking about? If to look at the replies under the company’s previous tweet about the metaverse, you can see responses such as: “This is deeply disappointing”, “I won’t buy this game if it’s NFT”, “I lost interest in the game”, etc. There are similar comments in the Reddit thread, which has been locked by the authors because the discussion has become “uncivilized.”

AIN.UA is awaiting comments from the developers on the situation.

The next-gen sequel to the cult game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is expected to be released in April 2022. It is already available for pre-order. There is not too much information about the game. According to the developers, it will be a mix of shooter and horror with a rich atmosphere.

• The developers will use blockchain to allow the community to own a piece of the game. The rights to certain unique items will belong to players and, according to GSC, it is the first time for the AAA video game.
• Starting in December 2021, users will be able to register for item drops (such as in-game items or NPCs), and later, this feature will become part of the game itself.
• The first drop will take place via auction and is scheduled for January 2022. As part of the drop series, gamers worldwide will be able to buy the first-ever metahuman. According to the developers, the metahuman will be an in-game NPC but with the face of the real owner. The second drop will follow in February, and the next ones will be announced on Twitter and Discord.

“At the auction in January, it will indeed be possible to buy an NFT, the right to use your face in the game through NPCs. Also, users will be able to trade this right as an NFT, even before the official game release,” DMarket confirmed.

• Auctions will be held through DMarket, on a separate landing page. As the company told AIN.UA, the price would be calculated considering the lowest bid, a starting point for bidders to outbid each other. The amount of the opening bid will also include the cost of minting and transfer of a metahuman to the user.
• According to Vlad Panchenko, CEO and co-founder at DMarket, this is one of the first steps of the game to implement the idea of the metaverse.

In November 2021, he came to Ukraine to participate in the Games Gathering conference, where he got acquainted with Ukrainian game dev studios and developers. iLogos asked David to give an interview to AIN.UA about the game dev, his experience with famous games, and the future of the game industry.

You have over 40 years of experience in game development. How has the industry been changing during this period?

For the last 40 years, games have evolved in many different ways. When I started, the most basic thing was that it was one person — me, myself, and I — I did the design, programming, artwork, and audio for it, all by myself. And then, during the years, things become larger and larger and larger. The last big team I managed had about 50 people. And now there are teams with hundreds and even thousands of people.

Another thing is that AAA project budgets also become larger. The publishers are less risky now because budgets are so big, and games are so expensive to make. Nowadays, continuing a franchise is a very popular way: a publisher and a developer find a successful game, make a sequel for it, then another sequel, etc. (like in movies).

Although just like in movies, there are a lot of innovations from indie studios, the game dev faces the indie game development. And it is much like it was when I started: one person or a small group of people can easily make a game.

And there are a lot of tools available to develop those games. Moreover, an indie developer does not always need a big publisher to release a game because Steam and other platforms exist. But it also is a problem for them. Because it is so much easier to make a game, many people are doing this — a lot of competition. Nowadays, it is much harder to make games known.

One more thing is that now the games have a brighter audience. As I started, it was a hobby of the narrow group — computer nerds. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the number of people over 50 who play games is almost the same as that of gamers under 19. It’s a very bright audience, so the game developers need to work harder to find the audience, including social media. Any developer has to spend at least 25% of the time on marketing.

You speak about game dev as a business. Looking at games as a type of art — how have they changed?

Now you can see how new technologies influence game design. I think the greatest of them are VR and AR. The problem you have with VR is that when you are wearing a headset, you can’t see the environment. That is why I think AR has more potential. However, this technology is not so immersive.

Gamers sometimes claim that games are not hardcore anymore and have become too casual, and it is because of mobile gaming. What do you think about that?

I remember very well when I attended the first game conference in the USA called The Computer Games Developers Conference; its moderators discussed if they should let developers of console games because they are supposed to be “not true” 🙂 Such a discussion has continued for over 30 years, and I don’t understand it.

Games are games. It doesn’t matter whether they are hardcore or casual or something else. If at least one person is having fun by playing it, it is already a real game.

Speaking of VR gaming, do the metaverses, like one from Ready Player One and those Zuckerberg recently explained so much, have perspective?

You don’t really need the VR headsets to build a metaverse and interact with it. You can still add aspects of the multiverse to any platform: PC, console, smartphones, etc. And it happens so. The idea of a multiverse is to be able to see the word, create content, transfer it, and interact with the world and other players. But this is also possible on different platforms and with various technologies.

Let’s dream a bit and imagine how gaming and gamers will look like in 20, maybe 50 years?

If we dream about it, there will be a moment when technologies become invisible to users. You won’t have to worry about having a controller in your hand or a visor in your face. Technologies won’t be a physical limitation to you. Sure, these technologies are in a pretty early stage now. But as we know, technology grows by leaps and bounds. Now we have 3D displays, cloud computing, smartphones, HD graphics, and you never guess that. Who knows what we will have in half of a century?

So forecasting is always a bad thing because you will highly likely be wrong. But I think the game dev technologies will evolve to unbound us from the physical limitations of gadgets we use now for gaming.

What does it feel like to be the author of one of the most popular games in the world? People lose jobs because of your game. So it’s a huge impact. Also, looking back, how do you think the series has evolved with time?

It’s funny. It originally started with Jon Van Caneghem [Editor’s note: author of Might and Magic series]. He was a nerd playing Dungeons & Dragons and brought his love for that game into computers. So, the original version of Heroes appealed to that very small nerd audience. And it appeared today that people from all over had played this game developed from a project for a small group of nerds and geeks to such a broad audience. Even today, an Uber driver told me how he played Heroes. And one of our fans in Belarus showed a picture of his pilot friend who plays Heroes just in his cabin. In particular, here in Eastern Europe, it seems that everyone played this game. It is surprising and makes me happy. It made all the hard work we put into it worth it.

All these questions from fans worldwide show us how much we all need escapism. There are so many difficulties in the world, and it is nice that you can play a game and feel an escape from the problems, although you still have problems to solve in the game world, develop the skill of problem-solving and get a reward for that. It is great games can give this experience, but it is sad the real world doesn’t provide such an experience.

I think a lot of activities in the real world should be gamified. In terms of that, we all get what we need: achievement, recognition, and creativity.

You mentioned many times that you are more popular in this part of the world than in the US. Did you ever consider moving?

I had a wonderful time during all my visits. Actually, it would be fun to go around. My wife plans to retire from her job, stop teaching, so who knows? Maybe in a couple of years, we’ll move.

Speaking of game development, what is the hardest thing about making a game, the Heroes series in particular?

Developing Heroes IV had a lot of difficulties because the team members couldn’t work well with each other. There was not an agreement on the vision of the game. We had problems with development, and I think it impacted the game. Usually, at least what I can remember, when we had issues with games, it was not technical problems. It is always a people problem. Sometimes creative people are difficult to cooperate with, and the trick is to get creative people to collaborate. The first I always remember from the game development process is the people I worked with. It can also be a sort of excuse, “Hey, I am a professional, and I don’t need the soft skills.”

Another moment is that, unfortunately, if you work on a game, it is not fun to play it 90% of the time. You spend a lot of time and effort making the game fun. There were games in my life I didn’t want to start after their release. But the exception was Heroes. It is probably the only game I worked on and played many times after its release. Do you know what? This trip and all the conversations with fans made me remember that I didn’t start it for a while. Maybe it’s time to return to it. To those times when games were fun.

And what games do you like? Do you have time for gaming?

I love puzzles, strategies, and games that require problem-solving. But now, it is hard for me to find time for a hobby. I am always busy either doing work or trying to find work. I feel a bit guilty because making games has taken so much time in my life. Whatever time is left I prefer to spend with my family and maintain some work/life balance.  But if I have time to play, I mostly play casual games, for example, smartphone games like Words with Friends, Jetpack Joyride, Monument Valley. I also love to play board games with my family.

Because of the lack of time, I can’t play big games. However, most of them have a core game loop: you must do the same things repeatedly, and once you learn the mechanics, you don’t need to play any more of it. OMG, it’s been a long time since I could afford to play a game for many hours. The last one I’ve got super addicted to was Candy Crush because my wife was playing it and asked me for help. I miss this hobby, the games.

What is required to become a game developer and create a great game?

First of all, excellent Internet research skills. You can find everything on the Internet — from the info that your audience needs to marketing and publishing. All the helpful knowledge for game development and expertise are available there! Finally, there are forums for game developers to ask questions and be involved in the process.

How can you know would be a game successful or not? Of course, you cannot forecast it, but it’s essential to be passionate about the project. If you don’t, it won’t happen despite all your effort. If you do, you can check if your game can inspire others. But the most important is the realization of the project. You can have a brilliant idea. But if you realize it terribly, it is the end.

Based on the game idea only, it is hard to forecast whether it will be successful or not. Everything depends on its implementation. You can get a sense of it when you involve testers. Even if you get results “it’s boring,” “I don’t understand how to play,” “it’s too hard,” get this feedback and re-iterate it.

But there is no secret recipe for a successful game?

Of course, no, if so, everyone would have successful projects. It’s like a scriptwriter William Goldman said once about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” Nobody knows exactly what is gonna be successful. Even the authors of bestseller games don’t know it. You can reverse-engineer your success to learn the reasons. But you won’t necessarily apply it for your next game. The environment is not the same, it has already passed. You must try something new and see if you can discover this secret recipe on your own and remain flexible.

Is it good momentum now to participate in the game dev market?

It is a big industry, and it continues to grow. The more people want to get there, the higher competition. It is a case of if you really want to develop games.

Now you are visiting Ukraine; there are a lot of famous studios and projects here; maybe you plan to collaborate with some of them or perhaps lecture in a Ukrainian university?

I came to visit Games Gathering. I must admit Kyiv is a beautiful city. Your food is simply great. Even for such a short period, I met some game developers and spoke with them. Sure, I am open now, and I will be happy to come here more and cooperate.

About Appsulove

The company was founded in 2016 in Minsk. During five years of its operation, it has released more than 35 mobile applications and games for iOS and Android. The most famous are UNICORN, Numberzilla, 3Tiles, Catris, Lava, Castle Rush. According to the company, these games have over 250 million downloads on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

There are currently over 130 employees working at Appsulove.

About the office in Kyiv

The first Appsulove office in Ukraine was opened in the middle of October 2021. It is located in Business Center “Arena City.” The company is planning to employ 50 specialists in the nearest future. The company has already posted ten job openings for Kyiv: Senior Mobile QA Engineer, Senior Unity Developer, Project Manager (gamedev, office), Lead Graphics Developer (Playable Ads), Lead Motion Designer, Game Producer, UI Artist, Motion Designer, Lead Monetization Manager (Head of Monetization).

As the company told the magazine, they have been working remotely with Ukrainian professionals for several years, and not only developers.

• Scopely, a company that has in its portfolio such game titles as Wheel of Fortune: Free Play, The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, and Star Trek: Fleet Command, will acquire GSN Games from Sony Pictures Entertainment in a deal worth about $1 billion.
• Half of this amount will be paid in cash and the remainder in equity of the acquiring company, giving GSN Games a minority stake in Scopely.
• In November 2019, Sony Pictures Entertainment, which had already owned 58% of Game Show Network at the time, bought the remaining 42% from mobile operator AT&T for $380 million. And now, Scopely is acquiring the GSN gaming division from Sony.
• The portfolio of GSN Games includes such games as Casino, Bingo Bash, Solitaire TriPeaks, and WorldWinner. It has an office in Ukraine.

• The Kyiv office of GSN Games was opened on the base of the acquired Zaporizhzhia studio Idle Games, which had previously bought its contractor — Zaporizhzhia outsourcing company Trafford. According to DOU, the Ukrainian office of the company employs up to 80 professionals, with the total number of employees worldwide being about 400.

• This deal has some conditions. Playtika has so far bought 80% of Reworks for $400 million in cash. The Israeli company will acquire the remaining 20% of the studio for another $200 million in 2023, but only if the Finnish company meets its EBITDA target for 2022.
• If Reworks fails to meet its KPI target, the remaining stake will go to Playtika for $1.
• Playtika expects the deal to contribute about $30 million more to the company’s 2021 revenue.
• This deal is Playtika’s eighth acquisition of mobile game studios or similar intellectual property since its founding in 2010.
• The Israeli company has another $1.4 billion for future M&A deals.

Playtika has developed Caesars Casino, Slotomania, House of Fun, Bingo Blitz, and other popular mobile games. In 2011, Playtika was acquired by Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $100 million. In August 2016, a consortium of Chinese companies, led by Giant, bought the company for $4.4 billion.

The company has offices in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Dnipro, with more than 600 employees. In 2019, the company opened the R&D center of the previously acquired German game company Wooga in Ukraine.

• Fighting Stance is a mobile puzzle game in which you can choose the weapon you want, the battle pose, and fight a virtual opponent. With each level, the task gets harder, and new mechanics are added.
• The game has over 500,000 daily downloads.
• The game was developed by Flime studio in partnership with publisher Gismart. The studio has launched more than a dozen games globally in the past ten months. Six of them have garnered more than 200 million downloads in total. For example, the recent games Body Race and Pencil Rush 3D have 50 million and 40 million downloads each.
• Now Gismart and Flime are expanding their staff in Ukraine and have over 20 job openings. About 85+ people are working in Gismart’s Kyiv office.

Gismart previously announced that it would invest in gaming studios: look for teams that already have completed projects and have producers, game designers, unity developers, and 2D/3D artists in the team. And present the concept of the game to the studio (which has shown good results on tests), and the studio will work on it.

In 2021, Product Madness moved to its new Ukrainian office in Lviv. The company told AIN.UA what it will work on and what specialists it is recruiting to join the team.

The first Ukrainian studio, Product Madness, appeared in Lviv in 2018. The Ukrainian office is engaged in the full cycle of mobile game development, including the LiveOps part. Today, it employs over 100 professionals — artists, developers, game researchers, as well as HR teams, data analysts, financiers, lawyers.

The company is planning to double the number of employees in 2022. That is why Product Madness moved to the bigger R&D in Lviv, which is designed for 200 people. Current job openings include 2D Animator, Middle Front-End Game Developer, Middle QA Engineer, Project Manager, Data Analyst, and others. Check out the full list of the positions here.

Financial results

In 2020, CD Projekt reported about €478 million of revenue (four times more than in the previous year). It was mainly due to the release and sales of Cyberpunk2077 in December: by the end of last year, CD Projekt traded 3.7 million copies of the game. The company’s net profit for the year was about €257 million and grew by 558% over the year.

Aggregated data for the group of companies (which includes the Cyberpunk2077 development studio, the GOG store, and other companies) are as follows:

How much money was invested in Cyberpunk2077

In the financial statements, the company also disclosed some details about its latest game:

• Approximately 5,200 people worked on the game, including 530 developers from CD Projekt and 2,000 voice actors. Cyberpunk2077 was released in 18 languages.
• The company launched 55 marketing campaigns in different markets to promote the game.
• From its release date, December 10, and till the end of the year, about 13.7 million copies were sold. Despite the refunds and criticism of the game, the studio earned hundreds of millions of euros in 2020.
• The overall development budget for the game was 1.2 billion PLN (around $317 million or €263 million).
• Most of the 13.7 copies sold were digital copies (73% versus 27% physical ones).

The distribution of copies sold on game platforms:

The distribution of copies sold by region of the world:

Portrait of Ukrainian game dev

The majority of the surveyed game developers are men (70% vs. 29%). 41% of them are middle and senior-level specialists:

The majority of respondents work in Kyiv, and many are also employed in Lviv and Kharkiv:

The majority of respondents chose to work in the game development industry because they are passionate about computer games:

Working conditions and salaries

Depending on the specialization, the respondents have different types of employment. Artists, for example, equally work from the office or remotely, whereas top managers prefer to work in an office.

Over 55% of the respondents said that, in general, they were satisfied with the conditions of work (but there are shortcomings). 29.4% are more than satisfied, 13.4% of respondents are not completely satisfied with the conditions, and 1.5% are completely dissatisfied.

Top employers

The survey participants indicated that factors such as project, salary, and team were very important to them:

The respondents mentioned salary (24.7%), completion of a project (22.04%), and lack of opportunities (19.76%) as the most frequent reasons for leaving the company.

If to consider median salaries in the industry, the actual earnings and expectations of professionals correlate as follows:

According to the participants’ responses, the ranking of the top employers looks as follows:

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

About Boolat Play

Boolat Games has almost a 20-year history. The studio works on games of different genres, from casual to hardcore: slasher games, RPGs, time-management games, Hidden Objects, and strategies. Boolat’s portfolio has dozens of projects, including Lagsters, Topatoi, Harvest Land, and Decurse.

“Boolat Games, like Playrix, has been developing games for many years. Sometimes our paths have crossed for a short time, yet this has yielded little fruit. But combining teams, knowledge, experience, technology, and creative ideas expands the boundaries of our possibilities! Together with the Playrix team, we can set new standards in game development and popularize the game industry,” Alexander Chigorin, CEO of Boolat Play.

“I am sure that combining the Boolat team’s unique experience with our expertise and resources will together create hits that millions of players will appreciate,” Dmitry Bukhman, co-founder of Playrix.

Playrix is a mobile game developer founded in 2004 in Russia. The company has offices in Dublin, Russia, and Ukraine (Kyiv and Kharkiv). It ranks among the top 3 most successful mobile publishers in the world. Playrix’s portfolio includes such games as Manor Matters, Wildscapes, Homescapes, Gardenscapes, Fishdom, and Township played by 130 million people every month. The company employs over 3,000, and more than 1000 of them work in Ukraine.

According to dev.by, citing Bloomberg, during trading, the price per share of Playtika reached $27.

Playtika’s IPO

Initially, the Israel-based publisher had marketed the shares for $22 to $24. However, during trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the company sold 69.5 million shares for $27 apiece. The total offering amounted to about $1.88 billion at $27 per share.

According to Reuters, the company had planned to sell 21.7 million shares with a further 47.8 million sold by existing investors. However, 18.5 million shares were sold by Playtika while 50.98 came from the existing stockholder.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Playtika will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the investors.

The funds raised by Playtika will be used to cover general corporate expenses, repayment of loans, and future investments and acquisitions.

About Playtika

Playtika developed Caesars Casino, Slotomania, House of Fun, Bingo Blitz, and other popular mobile games. In 2011, Playtika was acquired by Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $100 million. And in August 2016, the company was acquired for $4.4 billion by a consortium of Chinese companies led by Giant. According to the company, it has about 500 million installations for all its applications and 11.5 million active users per day.

The company has offices in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Dnipro, with more than 600 employees. In 2019, the company opened an R&D center in Ukraine previously bought by the German mobile games developer Wooga.

• It is not yet known whether these employees will stay in Kyiv for a long time or will return to Minsk.
• Also, according to the sources, the company plans to move to Vilnius about 500 employees and their families.
• In total, the Minsk office of Wargaming employs about 2,000 people.
• After the presidential elections in Belarus, protests, persecution of the opposition, and cuts in the Internet service, some Belarus-based tech companies considered the relocation of employees to neighboring countries. For example, some PandaDoc employees have moved to Kyiv.

Previously, we published an article on how Belarusian IT teams can relocate to Ukraine.

In short, according to the studio, it removed the game from stores itself due to a long conflict with the distributor.

According to the company, the full story goes like this.

In 2017, the studio signed a licensing agreement with the publisher BigBen/Nacon for The Sinking City. Under its terms, the publisher had to financially contribute to development, in return for receiving the right to sell the game on four platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Steam, and Epic Games Store. The intellectual property for the game belonged to Frogwares.

The studio had to receive funding for each stage in development achieved, and after release – a share of the revenue. But BBI/Nacon consistently delayed payments, as reported by the company. Then, the publisher bought a rival studio, which also made the Lovecraftian game, and demanded access to the sources for The Sinking City. After the access was denied, the publisher stopped paying the money.

After the release of the game on June 27, 2019, the studio received a letter from the publisher stating that it did not meet the set goals, so it would not receive a share of the revenue. In August 2019, the studio filed a lawsuit against the publisher.

At the same time, the publisher removed the studio’s logo from some marketing materials (including game covers), bought domain names for the Sherlock Holmes series and The Sinking City without notifying the developer.

And when the publisher went public, the official records stated that The Sinking City was its property. Although the studio did not transfer the rights to the game.

Due to these and other problems, the studio terminated the contract with the publisher on April 20, 2020. The latter disputed this, citing the French legislation to protect businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. On July 17, 2020, the publisher litigated against the termination of the contract, but it was to no avail.

Now, the studio estimates that the publisher owes Frogwares about €1 million for the sales of the game. To prevent the publisher from further profiting from the game, the studio has removed The Sinking City from some platforms.

Players who want to buy the game are offered to purchase it from the developer’s website, or on Origin, Gamesplanet, and Nintendo Switch.

These are not the first studio problems of this kind. In 2019, the company accused its former distributor, Focus Home Interactive, of trying to block its projects in major stores that sell PC games.

The deal

Zagrava Games has been operating in Rivne since 2010. The company employs 60 people. The developed titles include The Hunt for Red Panda, Greedy Bunnies, and Misssion: Impassable, Chasing Chaster (was not released).

The main model is outsourcing, the commissioning of projects developed to order or in cooperation with major publishers such as Playrix, MadData, Renatus, and Nord Current.

Zagrava Games in Rivne will serve as a platform for Playrix office employing 120+ people, and the team of the acquired company will move in there.

Money

The amount of the deal has not been disclosed. According to AIN.UA estimates, the amount of the deal is about $1 million.

Acquiring company

Playrix is a Russian company founded by the Bukhman brothers in 2004. Its projects include Township, Fishdom, Gardenscapes, Homescapes, and Wildscapes. The daily audience is more than 30 million users.

Playrix employs more than 1,400 people in total. The company has 16 offices, including in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Tell me where you worked after CCP, how did it happen that you got hired by PUBG Corporation?

I wanted to take the time and think about my career, life, the universe and all that, but I got headhunted by Mycom (Mail.ru Group) following the layoffs in CCP while I was at the event for players in Amsterdam. I visited their office, attended several interviews, everything went well. They made an interesting offer, and to be honest, I always thought that I would like to live in Amsterdam, so I decided to take their offer for a senior position and relocate. I really like Iceland, but I have to admit that it is not the easiest country to live in, so it was easy to make up my mind about relocating.

As for PUBG, I started playing it in September 2018, for me, it was more of a casual experience, especially when compared to the hardcore level of the game in EVE Online. PUBG undoubtedly grew strongly and became a noticeable phenomenon, this game always intrigued me. And in Amsterdam, our offices were located nearby. I learned about an opening in PUBG from a couple of friends, I also learned about it from a recruiting agency with which I spoke. At that moment I already fell in love with life in Amsterdam, so I applied.

Tell us about relocation to Amsterdam (documents, housing, difficulties), did the company help with the relocation?

Helping employees with relocation is a fairly common practice in the game development industry, so in both cases Mail.ru and PUBG offered support. In the Netherlands, if you apply for a visa for highly skilled immigrants to be able to work in the country, the process must be initiated by the employer. For me, this greatly simplified the situation because I did not have to deal with papers.

The biggest problem was the transportation of my belongings to the Netherlands from Iceland. It took a lot more paperwork than I expected, so I had to spend almost 2 months without my stuff.

Finding an apartment was also quite easy, especially when compared to Iceland, where nothing can ever be found for rent and everything that is there is wildly expensive. A friend had been looking for housing for me before my relocation, so I was able to check in literally two hours after landing. A huge number of hotels is also available here, so when I was looking for an apartment at the end of my first year in Amsterdam, I stayed with friends for a while and then briefly moved to the Student Hotel (and I highly recommend it).

In the end, I managed to win a rental lottery (this is literally a lottery between the potential tenants, the local rental market is also problematic). I settled in an excellent three-story house in the south-eastern part of the city, near the park. The only oddity was that I had to redo the flooring there, install the lighting and paint the walls. But, as I was told, it is a common practice there, especially for new buildings. You can even sell your flooring to the next tenant or, um, take it with you when you leave.

Can you compare with previous relocation experience?

The Netherlands is very friendly to expats, from my personal experience. All immigration requirements are simple and clear, and the mountains of paperwork are much lower than in Iceland or the UK. The last two, to put it mildly, are unfriendly to immigrants. But the Dutch, it seems to me, understand the value of this phenomenon, so the system is built reasonably in this regard. Dutch compared to Icelandic is far simpler, I still do not speak it, but the context is more or less clear.

Photo: Medical Center of Leiden University

Here, obviously, you can see much more than in Iceland, transport seems to be also cheaper. The weather is much milder, although the winds often resemble Icelandic ones.

The easiest way to commute in the city is by public transport or, of course, by bicycle. It seems to me that getting a car here makes no sense, it is very expensive because of the crazy parking fees (besides, by 2030 Amsterdam will ban petrol and diesel cars – Ed.). And in Iceland – on the contrary, one cannot do without a car.

About working at PUBG:

Tell me about the selection procedure, interview, is it difficult to get a job in the company? Were there any odd requirements upon enrollment?

Interview at PUBG so far has been the best experience of my whole career in game dev. The process is surprisingly fast and hassle-free. I think there were only five interviews in the span of one month. I don’t recall any odd requirements. I had to start almost instantly, but it was even to my advantage since my contract with the previous employer had ended.

What are the conditions of work here? Is it forbidden to play Fortnite?

PUBG is a great place to work in. There’s a myriad of perks, the office is a mere two minutes’ walk from a large metro station and train station, the team is constantly expanding. This is probably the most multicultural company of all the companies I worked in. We have over a dozen different nationalities here, employees always converse with each other, we play games together.

Tell me about your area of responsibility: what are you doing?

Usually, my friends, speaking of my work, suggest something to the tune of “Oh, so you spend days on Twitter,” which, of course, is far from reality. Job requirements differ from company to company; roles that vary in seniority imply different responsibilities. But in general, SMM is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s strategy in social networks: on which platforms the company is presented, why, what is its “voice and tone of communication”, budgeting, etc. The work actually never ends, even if you have set everything up, you continue to research, analyze, collect data to adjust future projects.

What distinguishes the audience of PUBG from other games? What is the best (and worst of all) thing the audience reacts to?

I cannot comment on this.

Was there any experience resolving some kind of a tricky situation (disgruntled players, etc.), how did you manage to cope? Does the company have any guidelines in place for such cases, or are you free to do whatever you deem necessary?

I cannot publicly share the docs, access to which is restricted to employees (speaking about guidelines). In addition, my role is not related to communicating directly with the players. However, I am involved in resolving conflict situations at a strategic level.

The publication quotes PlayStation support: “In response to your appeal on the disappearance of the game MK11 from PSN, we inform you that this game will no longer be published in the Ukrainian region. This decision was made by Warner Brothers.”

The reason for this decision could be the inconsistency of the game with the Ukrainian legislation. The publication gives the answer of WBGames Support:

Users who pre-ordered the game were promised to get money back.

In related news: Ukraine is in the 46th place in the top 100 countries in terms of video game revenue.

In Ukraine, there are three times less players on iOS than on Android. Their habits are slightly different: iOS users often play on tablets than Android users. However, the duration of the session is approximately the same for both platforms.

iOS – 22.1% (583,000 Playgendary players):

• IPhone accounts for 78.1% of users.
• On iPad – 21.9%
• The average duration of the game session is 10.3 minutes
• Average daily number of gaming sessions per player is 1.71

Android – 77.9% (2.05 million players):

• On smartphones – 91.34%
• On tablets – 8.66%.
• The average duration of the game session is 10.6 minutes
• Average daily number of gaming sessions per player is 1.64

In which cities and at what time

Top 5 cities by number of gamers on iOS:

• Kyiv
• Odesa
• Kharkiv
• Lviv
• Dnipro

Top 5 cities by number of gamers on Android:

• Kyiv
• Kharkiv
• Odesa
• Lviv
• Dnipro

Most often, users of both platforms play in two time intervals: in the afternoon from 11 AM until 1 PM (18.3%) and in the evening from 6 PM until 9 PM (21.3%).

The most active players on iOS devices are men (63.28%) aged 35 to 44 years old (36.3%). On Android devices, men play even more – 69.12%, and the main age group here is 18-24 years old (35.1%).

It should be noted that the data for Ukraine as a whole corresponds to global trends.

How much money Ukrainians spend on mobile games

Owners of iOS devices have traditionally been more willing to spend money on games than Android users. They are also several times less tolerant with respect to advertising and are willing to pay not to see it.

IOS users

• Average cost of a single purchase: $6.97
• Median spending for all time (depending on the game): from $1.98 to $9.99
• Average number of purchases per user: 2.34
• The number of users who pay for disabling advertising in games: every 37^th

Android users

• Average cost of a single purchase: $3.92
• Median spending for all time (depending on the game): from $1.61 to $8.07
• Average number of purchases per user: 1.77
• The number of users who paid for disabling advertising in games: every 333rd.

Playgendary is a Belarusian developer of mobile games for iOS and Android devices. Company offices are located in Minsk, Munich and St. Petersburg. At the end of 2018, the company entered the top 10 of the world’s largest mobile gaming publishers (according to data from App Annie and Sensor Tower analytical services).

“Kyiv studio has evolved along with the game, and we want to announce an important strategic and structural change that will positively affect the future of the Warface franchise. The Warface development team, led by creative director Mykhaylo Haimzon, will form their own independent development studio, Blackwood Games,” it is reported in the release.

The new studio will be responsible for both future and already released Warface updates. “We have kept the development team in its original composition, and its expertise will help us move forward in line with our plans and ideas,” said Haimzon.

It is not yet clear whether it is a question of the reorganization of Crytek Ukraine together with the entire state at Blackwood Games or whether a particular team has broken away. In the Kyiv office, the situation is left without comments. In fact, Crytek Ukraine was engaged only in Warface, where the full cycle of game development is concentrated.

The departure of the Warface developers was confirmed by a co-founder of Crytek Anvi Yerli. “The Warface team has always inspired us. Becoming independent for a closer partnership with the publisher is a strategic step, and it is in the best interests of the game itself, which we all cannot but agree on. At the same time, this reorganization will allow us to focus on our own IP and long-term plans,” Yerli said.

In the past, AIN.UA published a report from Crytek Ukraine, in which we told a brief history of the studio and Warface. The game was completely created in Kyiv and was its main project. In 2016, Crytek survived the crisis, with the result that it closed almost all external offices, leaving only the Ukrainian one. “The Kyiv studio is the only one which made a product that earned money,” commented Crytek Ukraine producer, Yevhen Skachkov.

The growth rate of the gaming industry in Ukraine is slightly higher than the global average: worldwide, video game revenue in 2018 grew by 10.9% to $135 billion. In Poland, this market amounted to $541 million last year, in Russia – $1.7 billion.

There was the largest increase in revenue for console games, smartphones and tablets: by 15.6%, 4.6% and 14.9%, respectively. The only industry that has demonstrated a decline in revenue over the year is browser games (revenue declined by 1.4% compared with 2017).

“The fact that our country has shown growth that is ahead of the industry is both a positive and an amazing fact. It is amazing because over the past three years, the number of gamers in Ukraine has remained unchanged, and the number of paying players even slightly decreases. If you look at the data on the number of Internet users in Ukraine, we will see that it has not changed over the past three years, but even in such a situation, the video game industry is growing,” says country manager of the Ukrainian office of Wargaming, Dmytro Bazylevych.

Earlier, we published the results of the salary survey of Values Value company about how much Ukrainian game developers earn.

Last summer, the deputy of the Polish Seym, Yusef Brinkus paid attention to the game. In his address as of August 26, he clarified that it was unethical to make entertainment out of the tragedy of millions of people, and that, in particular, there were scenes in the game where SS men kill and mock people, send them to gas chambers, etc. He also noted that the words “Polish death camps”, “where is your honor, Polish dogs”, etc., in the promotional materials of the game are offensive to the Poles.

In the same address, he indicated that “the official developer of the game is a Ukrainian company, but its real authors are Russians, and above all, Dmytro Dybin from Odesa, who was associated with the Moscow studio Studcinemafest for years.” At the same time, the appeal was published by the Polish Institute of National Memory. The appeal also includes phrases about “Polish dogs” and “Polish concentration camps” in the video that advertises the game.

At the request of the Institute, the Warsaw Prosecutor’s Office began investigating the situation. Meanwhile, news about the Ukrainian studio, which wants to make blood money for the tragedy of Auschwitz, appeared in the Polish press, and later they were picked up by the Russian media. The publication in the newspaper Rzeczpospolita is called “They want to make money on the tragedy of Auschwitz: the Ukrainian game under the magnifying glass of the Polish prosecutor’s office.” The publication says that in this game you can play for the Nazi, who shoot people and put them in gas chambers, and again, the phrase about “Polish dogs” is quoted. The topic with the Ukrainian game, where you can play for the fascists, was picked up by the Russian media (here are some more examples).

“Nowadays, it’s especially convenient to convert the tragedy into hard currency when the Ukrainian authorities aren’t obsessed with the resurrection of nationalism,” REN.TV.

Ukrainian media also did not ignore the topic. In the majority of news stories, phrases about “Polish dogs” are repeated and the title of the game’s promo The Cost of Freedom is a game about polish death camps.

However, the YouTube video with the title The Cost of Freedom – a game about polish death camps, where offensive phrases sound, was not created by a Ukrainian company. This is a montage from the trailer of the game, written by Pierro Cocco, who took the footage from the game and voiced it with his own track (the phrase “Polish dogs, where is your honor” sounds here).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcpUCe_Gm9g

Pierro Cocco indicated a link to the game site under the video among other things. But, as the editorial board of AIN.UA was told by one of the game’s authors, Dmytro Dybin, Pierro Cocco has no relation to the game, the authors are not familiar with him, and have repeatedly complained to the YouTube administration about this video. Partially the accusations towards the studio are true: there were indeed elements in the game that allowed associating it with Auschwitz (for example, the inscription Arbeit macht frei on the gate), and it was possible to play for the warders, however, these elements were removed from the game as soon as there were first complaints.

Ukrainian journalist Alexander Zinchenko found information about who Pierro Cocco is. He noted that the “musical” accompaniment of the video sounds in Polish (considering the content of the video and the sound series selected for it, one can understand what angered the Polish authorities). The journalist looked at the address of the blogger indicated on the YouTube channel of Pierro Cocco, googled the conflict between a certain vloger Tomasz Turka and Krzysztof Kononovich, during which Thomas’s address was indicated, similar to Pierro Cocco’s address, and suggested that Pierro Cocco is Tomas Turka, who wanted to offend the Institute of National Memory with such video.

“On the day when the head of IPN [Editor’s note: Institute of Memory] Jaroslav Šarek lodges a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, another video appeared on Pierro Cocco’s channel called “Important news for IPN haters” with some kind of nonsense that the young man pronounces in a changed voice… (video is no longer available – ed.). IPN robi mi loda is indicated in the official captions for the video and a link to the official report on how Sharek asks the prosecutor’s office to investigate the appearance of the video. I find it difficult to find a non-vulgar Ukrainian correspondence of the translation of the Polish idiom robi mi loda. In fact, lody stands for ice cream in Polish. “Doing Lodi” means something completely different… What this character had in his mind is probably completely understandable. However, what is not clear is what did the Polish prosecutor’s office spend two months on,” writes Zinchenko.

Dmytro Dybin says that the authors of the game did not intend to insult the memory of the victims of the concentration camps. “There were no Nazi symbols or references to Poland in the game. We wanted to be tied to historical facts, however we were asked to remove them, and we removed them all, made it an abstract prison. Regarding the ability to play for the warden, it can be viewed as a psychological experiment, whether an adequate person can play for the bastard,” he says.

As for relations with Russian companies: Studcinemafest is a festival of student short films, which is held in Moscow. Dybin said that previously he was directing, shot short films, and in 2012 sent his video to festivals, including to the Moscow festival, respectively, he is listed among other participants.

The development of the game has so far been stopped, and there was an announcement posted on the website of the game that the Pierro Cocco’s video is not related to the game.

“I saw the accusations that this is some kind of a promotional campaign. However, it is not very pleasant to see footage from the trailer of his game on the channel “Russia-1” with the words about fascism in Ukraine. We stopped the development of the game, I lost the money invested in the project. So where is PR?” says Dmytro Dybin.