Interview with Room 8

How Cyto was developed, where its authors were looking for inspiration, why a publisher is needed, and much more, in an exclusive interview with App2Top, the executive director of the studio Room 8 Svyatoslav Pogrebnoy told.

Hello, Room 8! Tell us a little about yourself!

Hello, App2Top! Room 8 is a young independent studio developer of mobile games, which received investments from the venture capital company Vostok Ventures. We recently successfully released our first Cyto game, and we have two more f2p products on the way.

The main character of the game

Cyto is the studio’s first project, right? And what did the company’s employees work on before they came to Room 8?

Cyto turned out to be the first project not only for the entire studio as a whole, but also for each of our employees. We started out without any special experience in game development, but we were all united by a passion for creating a quality product and a willingness to learn from our mistakes (who knew there would be so many of them!). Therefore, we are especially pleased that Cyto has been so well received around the world: not only Editor’s Choice in more than 40 App Stores, but also a huge number of positive user reviews confirm this.

By the way, we promise to localize the game into Russian with the update:)

How did the development of Cyto begin? With what idea? Were you originally planning to make a game about microorganisms? You were inspired by cytology, weren’t you? What were the alternatives and why were they abandoned?

In fact, the history of Cyto began with the development of another project codenamed Sticky. As is often the case in game development, the original project had to be closed, but its ideas continued to live and transformed into Cyto. One of these ideas was to give players the opportunity to immerse themselves in a colorful world with unusual physics. The microscopic world was perfect for such a task – we could show it rich, “juicy” and minimalistic at the same time. We are not sure how strongly the Cyto universe is connected with cytology, but, yes, we used photos of real cells and viruses as a reference for its creation.

Your game is built around the Cyto hero. He is very cute, despite the fact that he looks like a little bomb. And when red cells pierce his cytoplasm, you really shudder every time. How long have you been coming up with it? How many iterations has his image gone through? Can you share with us other versions of it?

We came up with the character completely spontaneously, and everyone immediately really liked the overall shape of the “bomb” and big eyes, but at first the character did not have a mouth. It was decided to add it later. We thought for a long time about how to draw it and chose the “kawaii” form from a variety of options :-). In general, the character didn’t have many iterations – the overall shape was approved immediately, more fiddling with color and emotions. As a result, Cito quickly became a favorite of our entire studio. We also still flinch when something happens to him. So, dear players, be careful with him there!))

Cyto could look like this

Looking at the game, it’s not hard to guess that you were inspired by Angry Birds. What other games were they based on when developing?

Angry Birds can be remembered by any developer whose game has at least some reliable physical model. Yes, Cito can sometimes launch himself like a slingshot, but that’s where all the similarities end. In fact, we were much more inspired by the game Osmos, which has cool physics, a lively environment and good music. We were also positively influenced by the game Cut the Rope with its various game mechanics. 

Today, many believe that the game for a $1 model is outdated. They say, you can only earn money on F2P. Based on your own experience, tell me, how fair is this opinion?

If you make a high-quality product, you can normally earn both on f2p and on Paid, although the market is certainly moving towards the former. For any model, there are publishers who know how to make a profit on them. The main thing here is to choose the right publisher.

Somewhere in the middle of development

Are you planning to create an F2P project in the future?

Yes, we are currently working on creating f2p projects.

When releasing the project, you resorted to the help of the publisher. What was the reason for this decision? Why Chillingo?

Since this is our first product, it was important for us to confirm that we are moving in the right direction. For us, a publisher is a certain quality mark. We didn’t think about choosing a publisher for a long time, it was obvious that there are no equal Chillingo puzzles in the genre: Cut the Rope, Contre Jour, Angry birds speak for themselves.

Did the publisher actively interfere in the development of the project?

In fact, publishers have never interfered directly, interaction rather takes place in the form of feedback, feedback discussion and decision-making. Globally speaking, Chillingo’s publishing expertise has been useful to us.

And this is how the game looks now

What lessons have you learned from development?

There is a wagon and a small cart;) For example, setting deadlines should be treated very carefully, in the creative process it is possible to manage risks rather than deadlines. We have also seen that play-testing is a very powerful tool, but, like any tool, it must be used wisely. In fact, according to the conclusions, we will somehow write an article separately)

And the last, traditional question about plans. When can I expect the next project from you? What it will be about, if not a secret.

In the next 2-3 months, we will delight you with 2 new f2p projects – the first will reveal the theme of slavery and freedom in the steampunk world (we are shocked ourselves), and the second is being created specifically for Asia – it is very interesting what awaits us in this market!