Devlog #20

Denis Baytserov, Developer

What is your greatest impression of a video game?
Imperial Glory is probably still in my heart. Imperial Glory is a 2005 strategy and it was the first strategy to make a huge impression on me. It had mediocre graphics, the gameplay side of the issue was not for everybody, but it impressed me, a schoolboy who was just looking for something to play in a box with discs, a lot! The game has excellent Russian voice acting, a great soundtrack, which is sometimes mixed with cannon shots. All this is superimposed on the screams of the soldiers, the sounds of the march and the battle, as they say, “ everything is mixed: the horses and the people”. And from time to time, in front of my eyes, the cannons were flaring up, cavalry on the flanks shouting "Hurray!" eager to impose hand-to-hand combat on the enemy army, and after the battle on the ground, still living soldiers were groaning in agony. In general, coupled with my rich imagination, it could not fail to impress me.

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
It was 1997's Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. I looked at it over the shoulder of my elder sister. I don't remember any puzzles, but I remember the oppressive atmosphere when we tried to escape from the dark corridors of the factory. I remember when we went outside, there were barracks with some animals, and we had to go down to the level of that barrack, and ran in a different direction from the beast. I was scared as hell.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves is an indie game that mixes strategy and action. The game puts us, two bearded brothers, in the Canadian outback, and lets you play only for one brother at the selected level of difficulty, because one brother protects the surrounding buildings from wolves and werewolves, and the other brother stays to look after the sister, who is hunted by the devil... The game develops quite gradually and unhurriedly, at first there is nothing in your arsenal, except for hanging nets with stones and baits with meat, and in the city you can hardly buy anything, because in the village they think that our sister is a witch.

However, gradually we either save the smithy's daughter, or protect the neighbor's mill. With this, confidence in us increases. First, “chiseled peaks” appear (as in an anecdote), towers with fast movement across the map in the action component, then the opportunity to work in felling and it should be noted that all actions in strategic mode cost time and most often - money, so there is a strong desire to save on traps to work and buy yourself a new ax, but on such thoughts the night (stage of the battle) is lost.

It is also worth mentioning the feature with the fear factor, when the enemy catches up with you, then whether he attacks you immediately or waits depending on how afraid he is of you, when you do nothing the fear factor in front of you falls, he decides and attacks. If you repulse the attack, then he leaves the thoughts to attack you for a while. Because of this, situations occur in the game when you are surrounded by many wolves and they walk around you in circles, attacking not with the whole crowd, but in groups, and it looks damn cool. And, of course, all this is accompanied by perky folk music, which I still listen to either separately or when I replay the game itself.

Stepan Nikiforov, Developer

What is your greatest impression of a video game?
Arcade simulator of ATV racing - PURE brought a lot of pleasant emotions in its time. It had a great and bouncy soundtrack consisting of drum and bass, electronics, alternative rock. I especially liked the freestyle mode, the idea of ​​which was to perform various tricks and get points for them. With cool music, it created its own drive.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
I have always loved video games and at some point I wondered how they were created. Gamedev attracts by the fact that it unites people with different interests and pushes them to constantly develop themselves.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Minecraft. On rainy days and late evenings, it was cool to get together with friends on your server and survive in the generated world. Wander through the meadows, forests and mountains to the accompaniment of meditative music, dig and blow up caves, farm, build cozy or not) very homes. Minecraft has always had something to do.

Georgy Burobin, 3D Model

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
I first encountered games as a child, when two legendary consoles were at my hands: Dendi and Sega. I remembered the two games: Doom Trooper and The Lion King the most. I'm certainly not talking about hits like Tanchiki, Pacman and Mortal Kombat 3 Ultimate. I cannot even say how much time me and my brother spent in it!

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
It is very difficult to single out my most favorite game, because I like a lot of games. But I can emphasize Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls in general. It was them that I constantly replayed.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Because I have always loved games, I loved the worlds that their creators come up with. I wanted to be a part of this, to create something that will be talked about, something that will give people different emotions. Before, I didn't have the courage to try myself in this. But, having studied at the university, having been in the army, having worked at a regular job in the office, I realized that the path that I was following was not mine at all, and this absolutely does not interest me and that it is necessary to change it. And that's when I stumbled upon 3D modeling courses by accident and decided to give it a try. And that was a turning point, so I decided to completely retrain and become a 3D artist.

Nikita Proskurin, Head of Development

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
It was back in 1994, in Vorkuta. My father once brought home a computer and showed me Prince of Persia and The Lost Vikings. Since then, all the entertainment of the world for me has come down only to computer games. Cartoons, books and everything else seemed to me somehow cardboard and inanimate compared to the fascinating interactive worlds that opened up to me on the computer in my childhood.
Until now, I have a fondness for the entire Prince series, this is one of my favorite franchises.

How did you first explain to your parents that “video games are not just toys”?
It seems to me that I never explained anything to my parents. I remember explaining to my parents that I wanted to be a tattoo artist, but there was nothing like that with games. I was just talking about how I like to play, but I never got into the idea that this can be done from a development point of view. And by the time I started doing this, I was already an adult and my parents somehow did not ask me why I was doing this. Today games have already won the title of "profitable business" for themselves. Thanks to this, in my opinion, it seems to be inappropriate to explain to someone today that "games are not just games/toys".

What is your greatest impression of a video game?
"I'm sick, it's time to sleep, otherwise it's already more than 20 hours at the computer." This is perhaps the strongest impression of any game. But I have not done this for a long time, there is no time.

Nevertheless, many games leave very pleasant impressions, emotions, and memories. Sometimes you can feel sad over your favorite plots, or even go through them again. Good games always evoke a whole range of emotions. Among which, by the way, is sometimes present: "I want to create the same game! How did they do it?!"

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
I love the gaming industry as a phenomenon. It can not only be profitable here, but also interesting and fun. Here I communicate with those who share my views and my hobbies. And it also allows you to realize yourself, "upgrade the skill of the creator", so to speak. After all, we came to this world to leave some trace in it. I would like to leave behind not only descendants, but also a couple of games in which they will play and receive the emotions that me and my team will lay in them.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Oh, there are a lot of them. As I said, I have special feelings for the entire Prince of Persia series. Also the Diablo series, The Witcher, X-COM and many more games. Of the latter, I really liked Subnautica and Cyberpunk (I am risking to cause a holy war now, am not I?). I have played, I think, a lot in my life, and so far I still like global, spectacular projects with a good narrative. I love the AAA segment.

A funny story about a gaming or "near-gaming" experience
In the 7th grade, my parents enrolled me in the sports section. We went there together with a friend. After playing sports for about 3 months, I realized that I didn't want to anymore, but I didn't want to upset my parents either. Therefore, for about 7 months more, instead of classes, I went to the very same comrade and we played the third part of Heroes. The funny thing was when my parents told me that the competition is coming soon and they are going to come to see it. But I wasn’t going to...

Vasil Lazarovich, 3D-modeler

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
Since in my childhood I did not have a computer, the first time I got acquainted with games at my relatives’. They had Worms and Madagascar on their PC. I played Worms with my sister and almost always lost. And I still haven't finished Madagascar, but all the same missions from there were stuck in my head for a long time. I still want to somehow try to play it again after so many years, to check if it is really so good or if it was my childhood perception.

What is your greatest impression of a video game?
When I already got my laptop, I was finally able to play cool games. My sister's boyfriend used to bring me CDs from his home collection all the time, just for me not getting in their way. And one of these games was Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It is simply impossible to convey the delight that I experienced when I played this game. I liked literally everything about it. And when I already thought that I had already seen everything in this game, then I found some new feature or a missed mission and it was super cool.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
I believe that the main incentive to do something for a person is to do what is really enjoyable. The prospect of working according to the major at the University doesn’t make me particularly happy. Therefore, I decided to choose what appeals to me most of all.

Yuri Fartukov, Game Designer

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
There are several such games, but Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos occupies a special role in my list. I got acquainted with this RTS when I was still a schoolboy.

After classes my friend and I often ran into the computer club. There we usually played the co-op missions of Serious Sam, but one day, the club admin invited us to play one game. As he said, "about the Lord of the Rings."
Back then, we were really dragging along the fantasy setting, and so we happily agreed.

After several hours of playing, our delight knew no bounds. It seemed that it had everything:
- Orcs, murlocs, skeletons, ghouls and other evil spirits, saying funny things all the time.
- Diverse gameplay with an abundance of units, buildings and CRPG elements.
- Multiplayer.
- An interesting story to follow (but not the Lord of the Rings at all).
- Nice art, including beautiful cinematics.
- Jaina. (что это такое?)
Then Warcraft 3 brought me a lot of fun moments. And even now I often play it, because every day modders release tons of content for it (although the game will soon be 20 years old).
Summing up my short story, I want to say that Blizzard managed to create a masterpiece that remained in the hearts of many gamers, including me.

Lina Ismankulova, Technical Game Designer

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
When I was 5 years old, my parents assembled the first computer, and different discs with games began to appear at home. It was mostly educational or something. I still remember how my aunt and uncle could replay the same part of Freddie's Fish in a circle, and at my dad's house I played on my knees with him the first parts of Harry Potter: I couldn’t do it alone, it was too difficult. But my parents did not allow me to play a lot, and it happened so that most of the cool games and classics in general passed me by. I began to consciously and actively get in touch with the world of games already in 2014, when my uncle bought me The Last of Us for playstation, saying that this is just an incredible game and taking from me a promise to definitely go through it. Then, for the first time, probably, I began to relate to games on some other level.

How did you first explain to your parents that “video games are not just toys”?
In fact, I did not have any such clear tipping point. That is, I remember that as a child, my parents' attitude to games was mainly as something that could interfere with my studies (how ironic that now I am graduating from university with a game designer degree). And then when I said after finishing the school that I wanted to enter a department where they teach how to make games, everyone accepted this very warmly and said that this is a good developing industry in the market. Later, I began to slowly draw my family into my world, talking about e-sports and the industry in general. The only thing that the grandmother still sighs, how can she tell someone that her granddaughter makes games: it's not serious, not like being a lawyer or an accountant. But I am not offended and, on the contrary, I even laugh at it.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Throughout my life, I wanted to be part of a close-knit group that is working together to create something that can become important for people, have some impact on their lives: to inspire, support, bring them joy. At first I thought of going into cinema thing, not as an actress, but as part of a film crew or production team; then there was an unfulfilled dream of becoming a musician, and together with the band to create “important music for fans”; then somehow imperceptibly for myself I came to the idea of ​​game development, carried away by games and saw it on the list of departments at the university which I was going to enter.

Andrey Zemlyansky, QA manager

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
The first time I came into contact with games, when I was 6 years old, I was given a Super Nintendo console for my birthday. There was a Donkey Kong Country game. For the 96th, it was a very cool console with great graphics. The console and that game started my fabulous journey through the games world. The games made a huge impression on me. They allowed to write its own story, not to watch from the outside as in books or films.

How did you first explain to your parents that “video games are not just toys”?
At the age of 25, I began to seriously think about not only playing games made by others, but also participating in the development myself. My parents still do not understand me in this regard. Probably the difference between the times in which we lived our childhood affects. But now they feel quite calm about it.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Because it is interesting to work in a team of like-minded people, the same guys who love games and work to please and bring positive emotions to other people.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
StarCraft. My path began with it among games for personal computers.

A funny story about a gaming or "near-gaming" experience
That was skipping the school classes at my friend's house, sitting with him three of us, and then, if his parents suddenly appeared at the house, quickly hiding under the bed, along the way I took my shoes with me while my friend turned off the console and hid it in the closet at the speed of light. His mother worked not far from home and sometimes she could drop in. After she went back to work, we crawled out from under the bed, being all in the dust, and I scolded my friend that he did not often wash the floors under it. Playing games together on one console and the constant adrenaline that we could be seen playing, instead of studying at school, constantly brought enormous joy that “mischief managed” and no one caught us.

Anastasia Medvedeva, VFX designer

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
The computer at home appeared very early, when I was about 4 years old. But it just so happened that my first games were standard solitaire games. I was little and it was very interesting and fun for me, and then my dad often began to bring me other games. I was very happy when I received a new game and played them pretty quickly.

How did you first explain to your parents that “video games are not just toys”?
I didn't explain, I guess. They played with me. And even my grandparents played with me.

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
When you are at a difficult level or at a boss fight and cannot successfully go through it for several weeks, and then - boom! And the first time you are through it.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Because I love games, it is interesting for me how they work and what they consist of.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Sonic Heroes and Moorhuhn Kart. These are the ones of my first games. I still play them at least once a year.

A funny story about a gaming or "near-gaming" experience
I don't know if it can be considered funny, but my friend and I still laugh.
Once, with a friend, we played Fire and Water: The Pursuit of Fruits. But we did not read the rules, although they came out every time the game began, but we stubbornly did not notice them. Therefore, we were constantly dying and could not figure out what to do. In the end, we decided that we would play until some of us died and that one who died would fulfil the other’s wish. Of course, that was me who lost the game, and I screamed from the window to some guy: Hey, man! How are you?

Alexander Griboyedov, Developer

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
I came across games at a fairly early age, on the Dandy console. After that there were DOS games: Goblins, Transport Tycoon and even Doom. But none of these games impressed me as much as SimCity 2000. Nice pixel graphics, a bunch of building options, the development of the city from the village to the city of the future. It looked like a real simulation of life, even though I was not smart enough not to go bankrupt in a few years.

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
Each of the games impressed me in their own way, and I prefer to divide by genre the list of games that made the strongest impression on me.

Shooters: Max Payne, the strong plot, a tragic story of the protagonist, snowy streets of Brooklyn, drug addicts and shelters, and in the end the villain gets what he deserves.
RPG: Gothic, unlike many other games of this genre that I already played then, that one had a very good plot, and one could play as a character, partly faceless, but still having its own character. In addition, the world lived its own life and did not seem empty.
Horrors: Gorky 17, frightened not so much by sudden moments or monsters, but by the inevitability of what was happening.
The strategy was already mentioned earlier.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
I decided to engage in game development, because games and how they were made was always always interesting for me. Over time, in addition to this, it became clear that gamedev has quite complex tasks, plus sometimes science-intensive ones. I love challenging tasks. And since it is problematic to engage in science in our country and earn money at the same time, I consider gamedev for myself as an alternative development option.

Yaroslav Andreychuk, 3D-modeler

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
The first game I played was Breath of Fire III (on Playstation 1) then I probably fell in love with turn-based battles and Final Fantasy... Everything was very difficult and not very much understandable: the game was in English... But no less interesting because of this.

How did you first explain to your parents that “video games are not just toys”?
When I told my father about the fees in esports tournaments in Korea, he looked at this world in a different way... OF course, the whole world is still far behind Korea at this point).

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
Challenge and beautiful story. Probably this is the very first reason why it is worth playing games.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Because it's cool. I like to think that the game, in the creation of which I will be involved, will be appreciated and praised by many people... For the pleasure of other people, and it is worth doing this.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Here's a tricky question... There are many cool games, and it is difficult to choose... Anyway top turn-based RPGs! (the author of the diary, Igor Milako, cannot but agree with the interviewee).

Igor Konyaev, Lead Developer

How did you first get in touch with the games and what were your impressions?
4 years old. Sega F-22 Interceptor. Feelings: the joy of the first crashed plane.

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
Loss of 2 million loot at the exit in Escape From Tarkov.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
I really like the game design and the internal technical component of the games.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Quake 2

Egor Ershov, Leading Marketer

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
Half-Life 2 pleased me with an intricate plot and replayability. I want to return to City 17 again and again. Chases, action, tactics, puzzles in one game are rare.

What game do you “keep in your heart” until now?
Warcraft 2 is still in my heart as a nice graphics and balanced strategy with an interesting storyline for both sides of the conflict. Stored on disk even now!

A funny story about a gaming or "near-gaming" experience
Quest game about Pilot Brothers (aka Koloboks). Mission with a refrigerator. Whoever played will understand! For a very long time my father, brother and me tried to "hack" it, we were trying to find a solution to this puzzle. And so, late at night, my father comes to my brother’s and mine room (we were asleep at that moment) and happily says: "I got through!" We spent about a week to complete the level.

Alex Kaganovich, Live Show Producer

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
My father played when he was young, in the early 90s. He had a powerful computer, and even when I was born, my mother said that he continued to play. Then my father let me play. From what I remember, it was an acquaintance with Heroes Might and Magic 4, Dune, Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament 2003-2004. Since then I started playing. I was motivated to study by the fact that if I learned the whole primer, then they would let me play.

Why did you decide to engage in game development?
Since I grew up in Sweden and learned what the best internet cafe in Europe is, I got to know the gaming industry with its possibilities of getting professional acquaintances; I understood how to participate in exhibitions and how to learn the secrets of the industry; how to create a game and communicate with players and developers. For myself, I learned that this is not just office work, but the freedom to do what you love.

What is the strongest impression of a video game?
There were many strong impressions, and every one is different. For example, in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, when Ghost died. In Mass Effect 3, when the outcome of the ending in the game depends on your choice. Or when decisions affect the next game, as in the Witcher series. But the strongest impression was with my favorite game: Assassin’s Creed, when Ezio, that is, the main character, grows old as you progress through the series of games. When I finished the last part of the Ezio story, my soul got empty.