Who's Who: Heart beat Games

We continue to publish materials in our “Who’s Who” series (recall, instead of posting game announcements from young and not only studios, we invite them to tell about themselves). This time we talked to Kharkiv Heart beat Games.

App2Top: Hi, tell me a few words about yourself, as well as what the team is doing, and how did it start?

Yura: My name is Yuri Sysoev, now I am promoting both our team and our games. The team, and the company in general, is called Heart beat Games. We are located in Kharkiv.

It all started with a dream, like many. I wanted to create games, we were moving in this direction. We found a team of like-minded people. And now we are “sawing” the third project, it turns out.

App2Top: Have you been looking for a long time?

Yura: We didn’t look for long. There were the usual interviews. We invited people, looked at the works. That’s basically it. Since we are “turkeys”, we chose people who, let’s say, are enthusiastic. Those who were interested not in making money, but in developing and doing something new, which is not on the market.

App2Top: You said that you started conducting interviews. Now, when it comes to independent developers, it is assumed that these are two or three people. And they are slowly “sawing” something in their free time. And interviews are something big. Some big investments, the office is rented. Or did you, it turns out, have a big budget, a non-core business?

Yura: Initially there were only six of us. Not so much. The office wasn’t that big either. Our manager is an investor. In principle, this is his merit – he provides the development. And, accordingly, all financial issues are on it at the moment.

App2Top: I saw you have two projects – Endless TD and Stars Dash, which was written about on Kanobu. Both games are completely different. In which direction are you moving now, in which direction do you want to move? Do you have any understanding of what you want in a year or two?

Yura: Okay, but first I want to tell you a little about the team. There were six of us, now a little more. The composition sometimes changes, now there are eight of us, programmers have been hired, because we have super-cool 2D and 3D artists who manage to do everything quickly.

As for development in general – we always wanted to do something in mechanics that we didn’t see ourselves. At the same time, so that it would be interesting to play by yourself.

Endless TD was a trial project. In principle, it turned out to be quite good. Stars Dash is what we do when we have time. The main project we have now is Space Animals. Looking ahead, I will say that we hope to show it soon. We choose the direction – we look at those genres and mechanics that we haven’t seen. That is, to combine something with something. Then we plan to focus on… I probably can’t even tell you right now, because we have a project in the active prototyping stage. So, unfortunately, I can’t say yet. We have tried ourselves in several areas. We understood where and what we are doing better. And we will continue to move in the same direction.

Endless TD

App2Top: Let’s talk now about your first released project, Endless TD. What I saw was Plants vs Zombies, but in a post-apocalyptic setting. Two questions, actually. First, why didn’t I find the project in the App Store? The feeling that you are running everything on Google Play. The second question is: this is a casual mechanics in fact. And you loaded her with such a serious hardcore setting. Why did it happen and how satisfied are you with the result?

Yura: Look, initially everyone played in tower defense in their youth, in childhood. Loved him. And tower defense games were not so casual. Some were quite hardcore. Take, for example, some custom maps for Warcraft III.

We tried to do something similar, that is, we have a free building, we have a bunch of towers, and even now, looking back, I look… People still send some tactics, show strategies that you yourself would never have thought of. That is, in principle, a person will come in, try two or three tactics, choose some optimal one and play with it. It’s been more than six months since the release, and people are still sending some new ones.

Initially, Endless TD was even more hardcore. But since there are more casuals, respectively, it had to be “casualized”. Of course, some players were not happy with this. Well, well. “Shield to do”!

About the satisfied and dissatisfied… Let’s just say not everyone had the experience. Someone had more of it, someone had less. We made mistakes, learned from mistakes and try not to repeat them again.

App2Top: And what mistakes would you note? If I started advising other developers – what kind of rake not to step on?

Yura: The first mistake we made was that we rushed the release. We had a game, but without some features, which then decorated it. If we compare the first version with the seventh one published literally not so long ago (1.0.7), then the difference is huge.

We really wanted to publish, we were in a hurry, and we didn’t file everything we wanted.
The second rake is marketing. At that time, we had no one to actively do this, because I am a game designer on current projects and many others, and at that time it was not possible to promote projects effectively enough. Therefore, unfortunately, the indicators are not the best. We plan to restart the line, add some things, change them. We want to release and see, with new knowledge, new strength – how it will go.
The last but not least mistake is planning. There was planning, but it was not good enough and extensive.

App2Top: Planning – what do you mean? Was the game being developed longer than it should have been, or something else?

Yura: Yes, it has been developed longer than it should. Initially, we did not plan the resources, did not plan the roles, let’s say. There were young and “green”, they stepped on such a rake. Therefore, I would advise you to definitely start with planning, to devote a lot of time and effort to it. If the team plans its actions, if it understands what is going on and how, it will be much easier.

Stars Dash

App2Top: And how long have you been developing it, if it’s not a secret?

Yura: It’s not a secret. We did it for two and a half months, it turns out. And released.

App2Top: Well done, you released the project so quickly!

Yura: Thank you! It turns out that we released, and then for several months we “finished” the updates.

App2Top: Well, this is understandable, this is now such a norm. Another question is: did the project pay off, did it go to zero?

Yura: Unfortunately, I can’t tell you. Perhaps in the future I will be able to answer this question.

App2Top: Then the question is about platforms. The project is only on Google Play, but it is not on the App Store. Is this a deliberate policy because we decided to test it on Google Play, or is it due to something else?

Yura: Yes, this is a conscious practice. We understood that we would not sit on all the chairs at once. We chose Android because it is simpler and more “open” to developers. We looked, tested, understood what, where and how. Stars Dash will be released for at least two platforms, a maximum of four. These are Amazon, Android, iOS, Windows Phone.

App2Top: Let’s move on to Stars Dash. This is such a minimalistic project, they are, in principle, now in fashion. But it’s still a very unexpected transition – from the initial, as you said, student project to a minimalist one. Did it happen that you first learned something from one project, and then had to step on the rake again, developing a completely different project in style and approach?

Yura: Partially – yes, it turned out that way. We stepped on some rakes again, but these are trifles. The project is small in itself. Not that simple. Now, as you correctly noted, “time killers” are in the trend. In principle, the mechanics are simple. We tried to transform it, sharpen it “for ourselves”, add something there that is not found anywhere else. And especially something complicated did not arise specifically in the mechanics itself. I can’t say that TD-shka went easy for us, but this kind of game is very difficult. Yes, there were nuances, but these are trifles.

App2Top: What unexpected difficulties did you encounter when developing a minimalistic project? Because it’s one thing to make a tower defense, and quite another to make, I won’t say a simple, but minimalistic project.

Yura: Stars Dash is faced with multiplatform and in-game purchases.

App2Top: What are you “sawing” on, on your own?

Yura: On Unity.

 Space Animals

App2Top: Are you using the third, fourth, fifth version?

Yura: We are using now, in my opinion, version 4.6.3. We haven’t switched to the “five” yet: it seems that 4.6.3 is more stable now. I had to switch from 4.6.2 now, although it suited me. They started with her. There were, if I’m not mistaken, some problems with 2D in our current project, Space Animals. And I had to switch to 4.6.3. But everything was fast and painless, it’s Unity.

App2Top: The pitfall of Unity is that if a company earns more than a certain amount, you have to pay for each copy of Unity. Unreal Engine does not require this. Autodesk recently also introduced a new engine. There the subscription is simple, $30 is withdrawn per month from each computer. Have you considered any alternatives, or are you satisfied with everything so far?

Yura: We initially chose. When the team got together, we sat down and started thinking about what we would use in the end. We decided Unity, which bribed with its cross-platform, multiplatform nature. In principle, it suits. Not without problems, of course, but in general it is possible to work on Unity. Regarding payment, we do not feel any problems in this matter yet.

App2Top: At the very beginning, you said that marketing was the problem. As far as I understood, there was no time to deal with this moment as such.

Yura: Yes. And there was no time, and there was little knowledge. Rather, like this: time and knowledge were pumped up at that moment. There was marketing, but it wasn’t good enough. We reached the top of the list, we lasted in it, everything is fine, horse racing, users. Then they plummeted. This is a standard schedule, you can look everywhere. The question is that if they had spent a bigger budget, invested more knowledge and effort in it, they would have soared higher and fallen a little higher, respectively.

App2Top: Such a question: you are now going to restart the first project, you have made a trial run of Stars Dash. How will you carry out marketing? What is marketing for you? Is it draining traffic, additional PR stuff, comparing analytics and working with it? How do you plan to develop your projects?

Yura: In short, that’s it! (Laughs). Marketing is our everything. There are a lot of useful books on this topic on marketing, there is such a thing as ASO [App store optimization – approx. editorial offices], which is also related to marketing. There is community management, there is analytics. And traffic, of course, also “pour”. All this must be done without fail. Something to a greater extent, something to a lesser extent, but everything needs to be done.

In a good way, there is some kind of community management, a person or several people who rock the community, entertain it, and so on, so that it is interesting.

Space Animals

App2Top: How effective is such a swing? Your project, Endless TD, is not a farm, not a match-3. That is, his audience is not the kind that you support with contests. A little different. Accordingly, the question is: how do you work, how effective is it?

Yura: In general, community management is a “long” swing, “long” marketing. This needs to be done, and it needs to be done constantly, for a long time. As with traffic, they poured and there is a result – this will not happen. But if your goal is not only to promote the game, but also to promote the company, your team, then community management plays a very important role. When we are moving forward somewhere, we post on forums and in social networks, we always try to talk on behalf of the team. The team acts as a whole. Decisions are made collectively, and so on and so forth. That is, if we have posted, then the whole team agrees with this.

App2Top: Have you ever counted how many payments come via social networks?

Yura: Unfortunately, I can’t tell you right now, because now we use Google Analytics, and it has its own nuances. There is a lot of spam, it is not always possible to evaluate traffic qualitatively. The setup is not the easiest. Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about the numbers.

App2Top: Could you tell me about the third project, which you have now, as far as I understand, all your efforts and main attention are going to?

Yura: I can tell you, yes, and I will tell you with pleasure. The project is called Space Animals. This is another game in a hybrid genre, that is, it is a clicker plus a runner. It will be in 2D with very beautiful art, with a lot of customization, with a lot of everything. Briefly about the game, your task will be to fly as high as possible, enjoy the beautiful scenery, collect coins and buy a new pet and rocket. This is very short.

There will be a bunch of mini-games in the game, that is, during the standard session you can get to some kind of mini-game, which, in turn, is also in different mechanics. It will be such a surprise for users. We showed the game on Get IT! on August 15th. We are now putting it in order so that people are not ashamed to show it. And somewhere around September we will release the game. And everyone will be able to watch and enjoy. I hope so!

App2Top: It turns out that it was also made for less than three months, or so?

Yura: If there is a clean development, then somewhere in the region of three months. Maybe even a little less. If taking into account the fact that we have three projects, plus we Endless TD at the same time “sawed” and prepared for launch… Then it came out a little more. In the region of five months or six months.

App2Top: How do you do it so quickly? You have a small team.

Yura: We work 25 hours a day! (Laughs). The guys are all well done, all professionals in their field. Artists have time, programmers have time. There are, of course, delays sometimes. Some bugs are unsettling. But, in general, we try to give ourselves. Everyone wants to be known about the company, to be known about us, to see how cool we are and make cool games. That’s it.

App2Top: And the last question. Are there any business tasks set for you? That is, they say from above, here, we need so many downloads and such a payback. Or is there no question about it yet?

Yura: Let’s just say that the question of making money is always there, of course. Because without money there is no work and there is no development. There are specific goals, but, unfortunately, I cannot voice them. Everyone here knows what needs to be done, everyone knows how and when to do it. And they do. Once again, there is no need to say, and we strive higher and more.

App2Top: I see. Thank you very much for the interview!

P.S. If you want to tell us about yourself and your experience working on games, write to alexander.semenov@app2top.ru .

Interviewed by: Alexander Semenov

Transcript: Irina Smirnova