2020 results: Ivan Kozyev from Crazy Panda on the main thing for the year

We continue to summarize the results of 2020 together with the heads of gaming companies and market experts. Next up is an interview with Ivan Kozyev, director of analytics at Crazy Panda Studio.

How was 2020 for the company?

The year 2020 has changed a lot in people's lives and in business, so the story should start with the transition to remoting. For our projects and departments that were already working remotely, it was a painless process. The rest had to adapt quickly. In general, everything went smoothly. At first, the productivity of the teams increased markedly. We have scaled and polished the processes. Now I can confidently say that we like the result. We are not planning to return to the office yet, but we are not going to give up office space either. Still, in full agreement with what the Valley companies say: a place for employees to communicate is needed. Lively discussions and spontaneous conversations in the kitchen often provoke work decisions that would not otherwise come to mind.

From the point of view of operational results, we are doing great. I think this will happen to any visionary company in the gaming market due to the pandemic and the boom of gaming applications. At the same time, just following the market, of course, is not enough, so we have worked hard and are working on the mentality.

We highly value quality and thoroughness, and we are ready to develop our products as long as it takes to produce the perfect product. But the realities of the market and industry are changing. Now it is necessary either to invest significantly more effort and money (than three years ago) in the development of one project, or to make more prototypes, checking the viability of your ideas at an early stage. Our choice is a combined strategy: while maintaining quality and a fundamental approach where it is justified, we actively gain experience and hone our skills in rapid prototyping of products.

Last year we launched the hyper-casual direction, and in the middle of this we started prototyping casual and midcore products.

I would like to note separately that this year the company turned 10 years old. An important change was timed to coincide with this event — updating the logo for the first time since its foundation. Yes, our flagship World Poker Club celebrated its anniversary in October.

What new trends in your niche do you consider worth paying attention to?

The mobile gaming market has long ceased to be easily predictable. This is especially noticeable against the background of how companies that have released a successful product cannot actually repeat their success. The lack of a working expertise on "what will be the next hit" led the market to a strategy that began to be applied in creatives two years ago — "test more". In order to enter the market, many companies choose not the strategy of creating the perfect game in a few years, but the strategy of many prototypes in order to find the one that will bring worldwide fame.

The alternative is only very expensive production, such as in Genshin Impact.

The level of personalization in games has also increased significantly over the past year. We are still far from the concept of "own content for each player", but steps in this direction are not just being taken, the industry is essentially running towards this. However, there are still many difficulties to overcome in order to achieve "absolute" personalization.

What new market trends would you note in general?

I'm impressed by phenomenon games like Fall Guys or Among Us. The success of the first one, even if it does not relate to the mobile market, is amazing. The second one, released two years ago, suddenly straightened her shoulders this year. In my opinion, the success of both games lies in the gradual paradigm shift in the minds of people in a situation of isolation: we all want socialization, common activities. Both games offer a similar experience. In support of this hypothesis, I will also cite the success of Animal Crossing.

I also want to note the trend towards strengthening the role of streaming. As a product promotion channel, I rather dislike stream /blogs — it's quite difficult to count the size of the really attracted audience, virality and the intersection of the target channels. At the same time, there are already a decent number of desktop products on the market that have become widespread and recognized precisely thanks to this method of attraction. Perhaps mobile gaming should come up with something in this direction, for example, what the hell is not joking, instant posting of the best gameplay moments in TikTok?

What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2021?

As I mentioned, we are working a lot on mentality. In 2019 and, frankly, 2020, we were focused on the quality of our products. But the world is changing, or more precisely, it has already changed. Therefore, we plan, while maintaining our fundamentality, thoroughness and self-criticism, to work towards achieving results in several directions at once. Or, to put it informally, we will rely on cool new features in current products and the rapid production of moderately complex games in production. Already at the beginning of 2021, we have planned two releases of new projects. And their number will only grow.

Another big challenge next year will be Apple's privacy changes. We expect significant changes in the advertising industry as a result of Apple's new policy.

The challenge will also be the complete transfer of our social games portfolio from Flash to other technology stacks. Testing of an automatic converter of social media-based games on WebGL is now at the finish line. Considering that the responsiveness of the game, the smoothness of the picture and other visual part have not deteriorated, but even improved — we are full of optimism.

Which third-party game releases are you interested in this year? Which ones did you pay attention to as a gamer?

The key discovery for me was Hades. This rogue-lite (yes, it is lite, not like) has shown that it is possible to combine pleasant gameplay, constant progression and even a small decorative meta, a magnificent plot and an amazing audio sequence in this genre. The acting and especially the music in it amazed me.

I've spent a lot of time on Genshin Impact. It so happened that Nintendo and its releases bypassed me, which is probably why Genshin Impact came as a considerable surprise to me. This is a great game with a fairly serious plot, a well-designed environment and a tough (well, where without it) gatcha. Separately, I would like to note the cross—platform nature: exploring the world was easy and convenient on a tablet, and defeating difficult bosses with the mouse and keyboard.

Of all the hyper-casual games, I will probably single out Hunter Assassin. I'm not too big a fan of the genre, but this representative got carried away for a while with his simple mechanics and pleasant controls.