LingPlay about finding a publisher and your own runner

Last week it became known that the domestic company LingPlay has become one of the studios funded by the Kongregate investment fund. In this regard, we contacted Elena Stolbova, who is responsible for marketing in the team, and asked about the project.

Elena Stolbova

Let’s start with the project. Please tell us about Sheep Happens. For ourselves, we dubbed it a 2D runner with elements of the apocalypse, in which, for example, you can face demonic rams, try on a minotaur helmet, and also out of the corner of your eye see cyclops eating sheep horns and hydra fighting with the Spartans.

Why do you call this project midcore? How is it fundamentally different from other runners?Because it’s not casual and not hardcore.

As for the fundamental differences: I would not like to praise and/or advertise Sheep Happens in advance – you can wait for the end of summer, play and draw conclusions yourself :)

How and for how long have you been looking for a publisher? Who were you addressing?To say that we were purposefully looking for a publisher would be deceit, because initially the team was preparing for self-publishing.

While attending conferences, we naturally got acquainted with representatives of different publishers: we were keenly interested in the game, but we never received the “same” offer from which there is no desire to click the “Delete” button after reading the letter. As a result, by the end of 2012, having several specific proposals, we decided to stop at samizdat after all.

That is, you simply refused many people? Why?I repeat: we did not receive the “right” offer.

I’m not talking about advances, revshare and guaranteed marketing, here the question is more about cooperation, when the game is interesting to the publisher, and the publisher is interesting to the developer. And they are working on the game together.

What ways did you come to Kongregate?In February of this year, before the scheduled release, we went to Casual Connect in Hamburg, where, among others, Kongregate was “modestly” listed in the list of participants.

To be honest: I’ve been playing flash games on their website for several years and was extremely surprised by the announcement about the publishing of mobile games. Inner instinct insisted on making an appointment to at least say thank you for the resource, sleepless nights and toys like “Elephant Quest” – which was done through the conference website. As a result, our gut did not deceive us and, apparently, we received the “same” offer that the entire development team liked.

What exactly attracted you to them?Attitude to projects and development teams, their openness and willingness to share experience.

If it’s not a secret, how much exactly have they invested in the project? NDA.

Was the budget divided into parts (this is for development, this is for marketing)?NDA :)

Do they interfere much in the development?Interfere is a negative word.

We have a fruitful cooperation with Kongregate, in which they share their experience and direct our creativity in the right direction.

How does working with them work in general?Productively and smoothly.

Due to the time difference, we get non-stop production: when we go to bed, Kongregate employees get to work, and vice versa. Plus, we now have an official reason, if anything, to come to work for lunch and stay in the office late (and the fact that we have a big sofa and an x-box with “Injustice” and “Tekken” discs has absolutely nothing to do with it) :D  

Will you monitor the project after the release (by yourself or with the help of the publisher)?Yes, together with Kongregate.

This is an f2p project, it will not be possible to “just” release it and “forget” it by starting a new one :)

When to wait for Sheep Happens?By the end of summer.