Cyberia Nova about game dev in Russia: "We are the third militia"

The developer of the game “Smuta” at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum compared the game dev located in Russia with the Nizhny Novgorod militia, which defeated the Polish army near Moscow in 1612.

Alexey Koptsev, CEO of Cyberia Nova, was one of the speakers of the round table “Russian Game Development and trends of its development”, which was held today as part of the SPIEF.

He said that the release of the game “Smuta”, for which the Internet Development Institute has allocated more than 500 million rubles, will take place at the end of this year.

In addition, he gave a peculiar assessment of the state of the game dev located in Russia. Below is his quote in its entirety:

“How has the situation changed over the past year? I will say as a developer (…) Education has been established at various levels. We, the developers, have overcome the panic moods. Several gaming associations have emerged. The situation is unique now. As Winston Churchill said, every crisis gives new opportunities. It’s practically visible now. Firstly, they began to actively communicate, help each other, share some resources, recommendations, books, information. If earlier we somehow communicated at conferences, but it was still some kind of commercial confrontation, now we, how did I come up with such a maxim: we are the third militia. The second militia is the Nizhny Novgorod militia, which drove the Poles out of Moscow, and now we are standing back—to-back, men, holding the defense so that everything will turn out well for us in the future. We managed to establish a calm regular production. We already know how to make games, now, echoing the words of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, we need to make useful games filled with historical meaning.”

UPDATE: in a press release sent out after the round table, it is noted that the release of the game is still scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.