Results of 2021: Gauhar Aldiyarova from Wargaming RED about the main thing for the year

We continue to summarize the results of 2021 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Gauhar Aldiyarova, the operating director of the Wargaming RED studio.

How did 2021 go for the company?

In autumn we opened a new office in Moscow. It was organized to support ongoing projects and further development of Wargaming throughout Russia and the CIS. The name of the Moscow branch was chosen collectively, and it fully reflects our tasks and aspirations. This is an acronym for Research, Experiment, Develop. We also meticulously searched for a beautiful spacious room where it would be convenient to get to, all summer we were preparing it for the reception of employees, and now it is like a second home for us. So since 2021, the history of the Wargaming RED studio begins. I hope it will be long and successful.

We managed to assemble a team in Wargaming RED to perform individual tasks for an unannounced project on the Unreal Engine 4 engine. It has been in production for about two years, and the St. Petersburg team has over 130 people. We have so far recruited 12 specialists of different levels — taking into account our plans, this is not enough, but we hope Moscow will not let us down. Developers, welcome!

In 2021, we launched the first two Wargaming Academy groups in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, this training program for potential employees has been held for the sixth year. The internship goes in three directions: programming, game design and art. Everyone can become a participant of the program, regardless of education, gender and age, it is only necessary to successfully complete the test task. In 2021, the Academy received more than 300 applications and accepted a total of 90 people. Due to the pandemic, training is still mostly online. I’m in charge of one of the Moscow groups. These are very cool students and superactive people. I admire their enthusiasm, drive, determination and would very much like to see them all among our employees in the future.

What event or trend of 2021 do you consider central within your niche?

For me, the trend of 2021 coincides with the trend of the last few years — with the explosive growth of the gaming industry. A lot of capital became interested in the market, investors and serious money came.

Growth is great, but difficult. The overall outpacing pace of development of all types of Internet commerce, games and entertainment has led to a shortage of experienced programmers. All large companies are “vacuuming” the market in search of talented employees (from juniors to seniors) and are ready to offer them almost any money. At the same time, our guys from the gaming industry are among the coolest and most experienced, so the demand for them is incredible. Fortunately, really strong developers cannot be outbid with money, bonuses and options alone. As a rule, they also need large-scale interesting tasks. We have a lot of such tasks and they are only getting bigger.

Therefore, despite all the difficulties, I am optimistic about the future. The gaming industry has something to oppose even fashionable fintech. At interviews, I always ask — what is your plan for the next few years? If you want all this time, roughly speaking, to repaint one button and do a routine, this is not for us. Everything is more complicated for us, almost every task is a challenge. But you can come to us in june, on a hundred different and sometimes very non-trivial tasks in a year or two to pump up to the middle, and then build your team — welcome to the seniors.

What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2022?

It will probably sound a bit grandiloquent, but we see the growth of market expertise as our mission. This is our task not only for 2022, but also for the years ahead. Right now we are focused on working on a large unannounced project. I can’t talk about it yet, but it will be a cross-platform AAA title in the best traditions of Wargaming. In addition, we will grow teams on other projects, including mobile and cross-platform.

The Moscow studio should become a regional center of expertise in the field of game development. To do this, we plan to make even closer cooperation with universities. In 2021, we managed to get acquainted with universities all over the country: from Krasnodar to the Far East. For example, the Wargaming RED studio took part in the FEFU forum “Universities and the Gaming Industry”. We sponsored the regional stage of the international Olympiad in sports programming, which was held at FEFU, and presented prizes to the winners.

Negotiations are currently underway with several universities on the organization of departments on their basis that will produce specialists in the gaming industry. It can be a long story, because very serious preparation is needed here. But next summer we are waiting for masters from ITIS at KFU for a paid internship. We will also organize guest lectures and distribute Wargaming Academy content. In 2022, we are going to work with universities of the Far East, Kaliningrad, Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We have big plans, we believe in our mission and we are not going to stop there.