Casual games the Russian way
There are a number of Russia-based casual game developers here at Casual Connect, and I had the opportunity to speak with two of them today. Playrix, based out of Vologda, is known for their Fishdom and Call of Atlantis games. They made an announcement at the conference to pursue, as they put it, a “cross-platform development strategy”. Their press release state that all future projects would be developed for all platforms that Playrix currently develops for.
I stopped by the Playrix booth today and had a chat with Sean Elliot regarding what this really meant. He said that the announcement was more than just a move towards multi-platform releases. Though Playrix would strive towards near simultaneous releases for PC, Mac, and online, they were also intending on integrating cross-platform thinking in game design from the beginning.
“We feel it’s very important from the early ideation phase to see where this will work beyond just the PC and Mac platform,” said Elliot. “Customers are looking for rich gaming experiences, so when we build games, we will be able to bring that experience to a broader audience.”
Playrix has several games that are slated for Fall 2010 launch, so we should be looking forward to some more interesting games from this developer.
Realore Studios, a Russian-Lithuanian game development company, released a prediction today that the volume for the Russian game market would reach $130 million by the end of 2010. This is based on the fact that the Russian market has already hit $65 million in the first six months.
Realore is responding to this by launching Realore Social, which will turn many of their current titles into online social games, first on Moy Mir (the Russian equivalent to Facebook), and then more globally.
I spoke briefly with Natalia Zhuravleva of Realore about their Mac, iPhone, and new iPad titles. Zhuravleva said that more titles would be coming out soon for the iPhone, including Jane’s Zoo, possibly as early as August. Two titles were also going to be coming out soon for the iPad as well, an iPad version of Jane’s Zoo, and Dress Up Rush, a time management game.
Zhuravleva said that Realore is hoping to bring future titles to the iPhone and iPad, and continue to bring out titles for the Mac.
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