Wargaming alumni release coop shooter built on in-house engine

Minsk-based BlitzTeam founded by former World of Tanks Blitz devs launched their first project. It’s a mobile shooter created on the original engine and published without Wargaming’s involvement.

The title is called Battle Prime. It’s a coop third-person shooter in a realistic setting.

When developing the game, the studio used its own engine. The company decided not to resort to popular third-party solutions (Unity and Unreal Engine ), but to create a game using its own tools. As the developers explained, they were inspired by the example of their Ukrainian colleagues:

From day one, we knew that we would develop our own technology. We were inspired by the success of 4A Games, which left GSC, wrote an engine from scratch and created the acclaimed Metro series of games.

BlitzTeam also wanted the full control of the technology. According to them, many console exclusives are created on the original engines so that developers can squeeze the most out of the target hardware. Blitz Team wanted the same opportunities when creating and optimizing the game for mobile devices.

Stanislav Patskevich, one of the former managers on World of Tanks Blitz, leads the development of Battle Prime as executive producer. In his commentary on the global release, he notes that it only took one and a half years to make the game.

BlitzTeam positions itself as an independent studio. It also launched their debut project, without any publishing support.

As the studio representative told Russia’s App2Top.ru, Blitz Team is not interested in signing with major publishers:

Working with a major publisher offers both pros and cons. On the one hand, a major publisher helps a lot with expertise and marketing. On the other hand, they have too much say in the final product. We wanted to make a project that we would play ourselves, with no external interference.

The studio believes that at the moment, publishing support is not as critical as it used to be. The main stores – the App Store, Google Play, Steam and Epic Games Store – actively support independent developers. This can help BlitzTeam succeed on its own.

Then again, the studio management does not rule out other scenarios. The studio has been in talks with publishers since the very beginning of the development and will continue to do so.