Results of 2016: Alexey Ilyin from Interactive Cartoon about the company's results for the year

Alexey Ilyin, the head of children’s projects of the Interactive Cartoon VGTRK gaming direction, told App2Top how 2016 was for the company.

A year for you and for the company

For a little more than a year, Interactive Cartoon has been operating as a gaming division of the VGTRK media holding. Focusing on the creation of products based on the key franchises of the children’s TV channel “MULT”, over the past time we have released 6 products based on popular animated series (5 educational children’s games and one VOD application).

We have a plan for working with brands for a year ahead. In 2016, the publishing house “Interactive Cartoon” has grown more than 3 times. It is gratifying that the game based on the animated series “Mi-mi-bears”, which we released in April this year, was among the best apps of the year in the App Store and Google Play. We were able to achieve such indicators thanks to the well-coordinated creative work of the team.

And for me personally, the main event was the birth of my second daughter. After the birth of my first daughter, I had a desire to immerse myself in the development of children’s games, I think that now the confidence in the correctness of the decision will only increase.

Event of the year in the world

The triumphal march of Nintendo franchises on mobile platforms. With the support of the app stores, Pokémon Go and Super Mario Run were able, albeit for a short time, to move the leaders, who seemed to have finally taken root in the top box office applications.

These games were neither a technological breakthrough nor a breakthrough of game design thought. It turned out that nostalgia for the 8-bit era and childhood experiences on the market were underestimated. And the result of the release of old popular brands to a wide audience surprised not only the industry, but also Nintendo itself.

Trend of the year

All year long, everyone has been talking, writing, groping, testing and trying to figure out what to do with VR. At some point, it seemed that soon everyone would begin to feel sick from these conversations, as well as from a number of implemented projects in this area.

But, no.

Devices, except for Cardboard, are not sold out en masse in stores. Both the assortment and the average quality of the products are clearly weak so far. I pin my hopes on Sony, but I think VR will remain in the status of a “promising direction” for the next year.

Keeping up with the trends, we also plan to realize ourselves in the field of virtual reality: as a developer and publisher.

Game of the Year

As for the project that won my heart, I will not be original: I spent the most time in Clash Royal. A balanced cool game that allows you to kill time in short trips and pauses.