Creative Director of "The Front Line": The state doesn't care about player feedback; it needs properly completed reports
Last week, the Russian studio Cats Who Play officially reported on the results of their work to the government, which supported their development of the real-time strategy "Frontline". Creative director Vitaly Shutov described this process as hellish in a post on VKontakte.
"Frontline"
Shutov explained that the submission of the project took nearly five months, beginning in May after the studio achieved the necessary KPIs for "Frontline". He did not specify what those KPIs were, but it was reported at the end of spring that the game had over 100,000 downloads.
According to Shutov, the situation was significantly complicated by the absence of an accountant on the Cats Who Play staff. Financial specialists from the Internet Development Institute (IDI) assisted in the final stages, working closely with Cats Who Play.
"If anyone plans to work with the government in the future, keep in mind that having a good accountant/financial expert and lawyer for your project will be significantly more important than having a good programmer and artist. If you think it's enough to just make a good project and meet the KPIs, and that will suffice, no, definitely not. The government couldn't care less about player reviews; properly documented expenses and completed reporting forms are much more important," stated the creative director of Cats Who Play.
Shutov advised other studios to work without the government if there's even the slightest chance to do so. On the other hand, he pointed out that Cats Who Play managed to successfully overcome the challenges, proving that everything is achievable.
