"Game Designer Is Not a Creative Profession": Experts from Owlcat and Cyberhead Discuss "Russians vs. Lizards 2"

The latest episode of the monthly deconstruction show "What's Up with the Game?" aired on April 25. This time, industry experts shared their impressions of the sequel "Rus vs. Lizards" and discussed the potential future of this series.

The hosts of "What's Up with the Game?"—Alexander Semyonov, the chief editor of App2Top.ru, and Maxim Fomichev, a producer at Owlcat Games—were joined by Evgeny Sudak. Evgeny is currently a producer at Cyberhead Games and has previously been the head of game design at Pixonic and a monetization manager at Wargaming.

Opinions on "Rus vs. Lizards 2" varied significantly depending on how one evaluates the new project by the Bratans studio.

Looking at the game seriously, its professional execution is clearly lacking. Sudak had the most criticism concerning the game design. He believes that many aspects of the second "Rus" were sloppily executed, especially in terms of consistency.

Sudak noted that the game lacks a sense that certain decisions were made consciously. The developers seemed to be guided by how cool or camp something would look, rather than how consistent and comfortable it would be for players. According to Sudak, this doesn’t constitute proper design work.

"Game design is not a creative profession, but an engineering one," Sudak believes. "It's someone who turns an idea into working documentation, processes it, deconstructs it, breaks it down into building blocks, and then feeds those blocks to the programmers. A good game designer understands the type of experience they want to deliver to the player and whether specific decisions support that experience. This is what I call the consistency of the design process."

Fomichev, on the other hand, suggested that "Rus vs. Lizards 2" should be seen not as a multimedia product but as a cultural phenomenon: "It's an interactive three-hour meme."

Despite all its shortcomings, there are plenty of well-made elements in the second "Rus," especially considering budgetary and other constraints. These include the general quality of the 3D models and attempts to diversify gameplay situations.

Both experts agreed that there is room to expand this universe. At the very least, they could consider developing games in other genres, not just sticking to third-person action games. The question is how long they can monetize this meme without taking a more serious approach to the projects themselves.

"I believe that if the team progresses with 'Rus vs. Lizards 3' to the same degree they've progressed so far—in mechanics, art, dynamics—their next project might well reach the level of 'Smyuta' with adequate funding," noted Fomichev. From there, it could become a genuinely quality and large-scale game.

It all depends on whether the Bratans have the resources to develop in this direction and how many more projects it will take for them to gain the necessary experience for creating more extensive games in terms of production and game design. And, most importantly, whether they even have such goals in the first place.

"I hope the team moves forward and creates something bigger and perhaps less camp," concluded Fomichev. "Something that can be scaled and turned into a series."

"What's Up with the Game?" is a monthly show available on the educational platform WN Academy. Anyone can watch it and ask questions live—all you need to do is register on the platform once. After that, reminders of each upcoming episode will be sent to your email. Upon attending your first show, access to the archive of all past recordings is unlocked.

The next episode will take place on June 4 at 6:00 PM Moscow time.