"We made the FatalZone game and made good progress in the development of Adrenaline Rampage," Ilya Boytsov from MidHard Games said about the results of 2023
We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the game teams. Next up is an interview with Ilya Boytsov, co-founder and CEO of the MidHard Games outsourcing studio.
What was the year like for the company? What have you done, implemented, and what would you like to highlight in terms of achievements?
The year was difficult due to the decrease in the game development market (especially for the Russian team, which is located in the Russian Federation). At the same time, the year turned out to be a success. The secret of success lies in the team, its incredible amount of energy, optimism and passion for games. We've definitely moved mountains:
- This year we made a FatalZone game. We did it together with the publisher 101XP. The game is already in early access on Steam.
- We have strengthened the Unreal department and made good progress in the development of our Adrenaline Rampage game. The demo is available on Steam.
- We have also completed the transition to the project type of development. We are assembling a profile team for a specific game. This approach greatly improves efficiency in game development.
FatalZone
How has the gaming outsourcing market changed over the year?
Someone "turned off the light." The situation is relevant for the second year in a row. If in 2021 there was a queue of customers who "threw money at the monitor", then in 2022 and 2023 the opposite situation is observed. Game developers don't have to choose.
This is partly due to the crypto winter that came last year. The crypto industry once invested well in the gaming outsourcing market.
Requests for marketing orders, it seems, remained, but we stopped creating games for marketing companies.
Adrenaline Rampage
Has the practice of working with customers, their requirements, approaches, and expectations changed?
The short answer is no. Each customer is always a unique story, rich in cases and emotions.
Several new customers were VERY surprised this year (it's a pity that the NDA cannot publicly distribute achievements in the spirit of "the most amazing customer of the year" or "the customer of the 80th level, legendary"), but we have something to compare it with. We know a lot of customers, we have been doing various business in Russia for more than 20 years, we have seen a lot.
What are the company's plans for next year?
We will continue to invest in the team and swing. We have already created and experienced so much together — we are dragging it on!
Let's create a couple of our own Action RPG games — this is the studio's strategic goal for 2024. We are looking for partners with publishing expertise.
We will continue to improve our game development competencies on Unity and Unreal (if there are enough resources, we will start developing one of the projects on Godot).
In general, there are changes in the market. Customers change, performers change, platforms change — and this is great, since movement is one of the signs of life.
