"The project is capable of paying off and generating profit even solely in the CIS market," says the firm "1C" about the mobile game based on "Three Heroes"

In January, the company "1С" (not to be confused with 1C Game Studios) released the mobile battler "The Three Heroes: Adventure Arena," created with the support of the animation studio "Melnitsa" and the Internet Development Institute (IRI). The editorial team of App2Top spoke with Timur Musin, the project manager, about the game's history and development plans.

Timur Musin

Alexander Semenov, App2Top: Hi! Can you tell us about the development of "The Three Heroes: Adventure Arena"? How long did it take, and what resources were involved?

Timur Musin, 1С: Hi! Full-scale development began a year and a half ago. We spent about three months on prototyping and hypothesis testing, followed by production and release stages.

Initially, the team was small, consisting of only five "veterans" of the studio. During production, the team expanded significantly and now includes around 20 people. Part of the team works on the game continuously, while others join in to address specific tasks as needed.

The production is continuing at almost the same pace as before, as there are still many content enhancements ahead. But now we're also including marketing.

One of the key USPs of the project is its graphics. Do I understand correctly that the visual aspect was completely handled by "Melnitsa"?

Timur: We have been collaborating with "Melnitsa" for about 20 years, including on the "Three Heroes" series. However, the studio's specialists are not directly involved in creating graphics and animation because they operate in a different field and work with entirely different tools. Besides, they're not idle either—there's a new "Heroes" series in production, which will be released at the end of this year.

The guys always help us get the necessary content from the cartoon (graphics, music), provide actors for voice acting, and participate in discussions and approvals of game elements. We have plenty of creative freedom. For example, many characters in the game were invented by us, and they haven't appeared in the cartoon yet. The same applies to several locations, not to mention the heroes' gear and weapons—such diversity isn't required in a cartoon, but it's essential for the game's mechanics.

The game mechanics represent a typical battler for the mobile market. Considering that you're perhaps targeting a younger audience, why did you choose this mid-core genre?

Timur: Our audience is more teenage than children. The cartoon "Three Heroes" caters to a broad family audience and addresses quite mature themes. The first series of the cartoon even had a scene showing blood! So, it's not a project for the little ones. The core audience gradually matures along with the brand—it's a natural process. Those who once loved the cartoon at five years old are now raising their own children, and the brand remains close to their hearts, eliciting positive emotions. On the other hand, modern children of primary school age comfortably play mid-core titles—we see this clearly with this project as we're in constant contact with the audience. The brand helps us slightly to expand the genre's boundaries, which is one of its advantages.

Which projects did you consider during development? Did you look closely at experiences from authors of Hero Wars and Raid?

Timur: Our main references were AFK Arena and Cookie Run: Kingdom. We also studied many other projects in adjacent genres. Among the projects that partly influenced our decisions were Epic Seven, Reverse 1999, Dragonheir: Silent Gods, Genshin Impact, Solo Leveling, and the recently released AFK Journey.

Of course, we also looked at Hero Wars and Raid. The former came out quite a while ago, and many of its graphic and gameplay decisions are now somewhat outdated. The latter is heavily oriented towards a male audience aged 35+, whereas our audience is considerably broader, so our decisions were quite different.

In our development, we aimed to create gameplay and visuals tailored to a young (not childish, but young, youthful) audience, including both boys and girls.

"The Three Heroes" is primarily a Russian brand aimed at a domestic audience. However, the profitability of mobile games usually requires international presence. What are your plans for international expansion, and what are you doing to achieve this?

Timur: The brand is indeed mainly Russian, although the cartoon has been released in some foreign countries, both eastern and western. The game will be translated into other languages, primarily English—we are already receiving such requests in reviews. We will strive to distribute it as widely as possible—we're not alone in this, as many projects with a Slavic setting are attempting to conquer foreign markets right now. Hopefully, with combined efforts, we can give the Vikings a run for their money. As for the commercial side, such a project could quite feasibly break even and be profitable even just within the CIS market.

What are your expectations regarding audience and revenue?

Timur: We are confident that the project will be commercially successful and our audience will be in the millions. All the prerequisites for this are present. Currently, the game is launched only on Google Play, and the metrics are already very promising. Over the year, the amount of content in the game will significantly increase, we will fine-tune the mechanics and balance, and we'll launch on other platforms: RuStore, AppStore, VK Play, and so on. Our goal is to create a truly high-quality battler that will thrive for many years, and hopefully not only in the local market.

You mentioned metrics just now. Can you share specific numbers?

Timur: I’d prefer not to disclose specific numbers at this stage, as the project has just launched, and it's too early to obtain an objective overview. Furthermore, the initial audience tends to be the most loyal—people who followed the development and awaited the release.

Currently, we see the project is rapidly acquiring new users (usually four-digit numbers daily), it has a good rating, and players are spending several hours on average in-game. For us, this indicates that the audience likes the project.