Casual Connect Kyiv 2013: interview with Big Fish

At the Casual Connect conference currently taking place in Kiev, we caught Big Fish producer Anna Rix and asked her about the event and the casual industry in general.

How is Casual Connect better than other conferences?If we talk about specifically Kiev, then everything is simple.

Not all developers from the former CIS can go to a conference in Singapore or the USA to establish contacts. Everyone, in turn, comes here. In addition, the whole team often comes. That is, we can look at the people who make games. For example, as a producer, it is very important for me to see the people with whom I will work in the future. Well, the people here are mostly from our casual industry. 

How much has Casual Connect changed in recent years?This is my seventh Casual Connect in Kiev.

I got to it when it was held for the second time. At first, everyone made games only for PC, then there was a terrible boom in social games, everyone was afraid that the traditional casual died, which urgently needed to be done under Facebook. Then these moods subsided. In 2007, the first iPhone was released, a year later a store appeared for it and people began to look at this new niche, saying that everything was dead and it was necessary to make games only for mobile platforms. Now there is another hype, everyone rushed to develop free-to-play. It seems to me that there will always be some kind of trend, some kind of gradation, a topic that will excite developers. But here’s what’s important to understand: there is always a place for developers on the market, no matter whether they create a mobile, social or PC game. 

How does Big Fish see the future of the industry?I don’t know if I can speak for the whole Big Fish.

I would say that now we are smoothly moving into casual free-to-play. It is very difficult for paid games to compete with free projects. We have to make certain concessions.

What exactly is the difference between the Russian casual audience and the American one?She’s younger.

Computers appeared in the USA 15 years earlier, and it is clear that our older generation does not know how to work with them at all. In Russia, in many ways, our target audience is young mothers. Plus, another feature of the market, of course, is piracy.  It is very widespread.

Are there any differences in genre preferences?I don’t have such information.

I think it’s unlikely.