"A very tough year for the entire industry," Kirill Zolovkin from ILL on the results of 2023

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 with the game teams. Next up is a column about the results of the year from Kirill Zolovkin, producer of ILL and author of the Gripper game.

2023 was the year of the crooked mirror. All the things I've done and loved have been turned upside down.

As soon as I started doing a course on game design for Contented, the infocygans flooded the game development market. It has become popular to sell hope: a job in the industry, a country, a life. I honestly selected the best experts in the field, analyzed the courses of my colleagues, and consulted with the heads of the leading studios. But the unpleasant feeling does not let go.

It was worth dreaming a couple of years ago about a game based on "our" setting — such as "Kupchino 2077" — as patriotic projects captured the information field. Smuta attracted a billion investments. "Russ vs Lizards" blew up the Steam top.

It became scary to get to the wrong conference with a report. I made it a rule to clarify who the organizer, sponsors, and speakers are. I have eliminated a number of offers. I couldn't get to the others because of the difficulties with the visa.

The Torn Away game I was rooting for failed financially. The team of another interesting project, Indika, published a video statement about the reasons for the relocation. Just think: one of the most Russian indie games is made in Kazakhstan.

This is a very, very tough year for the entire industry. Especially for indie. There are several frozen projects and dead studios. I'm afraid to imagine how much is behind the scenes. In personal correspondence with their creators, we agreed on the formula: the winner gets nothing.

We did everything we could to release our author's games, but we were faced with the monstrous indifference of the market. We won by releasing Gripper, but we lost financially. This led to a large reduction and complete restructuring of the team.

Gripper

Familiar founders also resorted to extreme measures: cuts, freezing of projects. Even games from experienced indies like Noch don't pay off. The most accurate survive, regardless of scale: Potion Craft, Rogue Trader. They also die independently of him — you will not wish the fate of the enemy The Day Before.

A lot of indie stalled at the stage of the contract with the publisher: layoffs in 3D Realms, Versus Evil closed, tinyBuild is shaking.

I want more stability next year, but I'm afraid this is just the beginning. There are more and more regulators and laws. The Militsioner game becomes a reality: you break the law to escape from the city from under the hood of big Uncle Stepa.

According to this year's Siberian Game Jam, one can judge the thoughts of Russian indies. Here is a simulator of a minibus at the border, which puts people in the cabin like figures in Tetris. Or a game about a fugitive who drowns a locomotive with everything on the platform: a guitar, a cat, a military commissar.

The Ukrainian industry is responding to the winner of the Indie Cup: a simulator of a teenager in a city captured by the invaders. There are a lot of scary simulators in the everyday wrapper.

I'm currently working on ILL, the most ambitious survival horror movie to date. The team gathered is amazing, capable of developing an AAA-level project. And yes, we are growing up and looking for cool specialists.

ILL

Ironically, the book "The Basics of creating successful indie Games" is coming out soon, where I acted as an editor. I plan to write my own next year. Not about successful success, but about the authors, their dreams and feelings embodied in the games.

At least let everything end well in it.