June 1, 2009 at 17:34Report on the "International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine"
April 24, 2009 in the city of Kiev hosted the first international conference of developers of online games in Ukraine!
To be brief, the reports that were delivered turned out to be useful to most listeners. Speakers turned out to be not only good professionals in their field, but also born speakers.
During the conference, a round table was held on the topic: “Features of attracting investments in game projects”, where Alexey (darkGengeral), head of Unique Games, Denis Dovgopoly, entrepreneur and investor shared their experiences, Andrey Lvov, Dark Joker Games CEO, Tatyana Zolotareva - Director of Art4Art Entertainment.
Everyone who wanted to declare their company or themselves, share their experience and make new business acquaintances - achieved their goal at this conference, which is what we were striving for.
And now about how the conference went:
Registration at the reception, a brief overview of the rest of the exhibition "Internet Ukraine 2009" and moving to the "International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine" itself - in a small conference room with advertising signs and a decent amount of the people. Further, an introductory word from the organizers of the event - Tatyana Zolotareva and Viktor Andriychuk from Art4Art Entertaiment with a smooth transition directly to the reports. The most important details of these are below the course.
“Community online, attracting investments, the internal currency of games”
The first to take the floor is Alexei DarkGeneral from Kiev Unique Games with a story about the formation of the community in online games. The guys from UG, by the way, have two projects behind their backs: the first - “Heroes Lands” - has existed for more than six years, has managed to gain an active audience of 200 thousand people and is the author's world in a fantasy style, and the second “K.O.D . Post-apocalyptic "- launched recently and is still gaining momentum. We paid a lot of attention to attracting gamers to the post-development process itself. For example, to create a successful skeleton of a project (from among mere mortals) you need not only ideas and a miscalculation in advance, but also game gatherings, the choice of the administration, and also near-game developments. Moreover, Alexey spoke extremely enthusiastically about the same meetings outside the online world - it was clear that there was experience in organizing such events. The urgent question about Game Masters did not go unnoticed - whether to pay them or to recruit from the most active players of a particular project. In the worlds of Unique Games, “recruiting” is done directly online - experienced users are preferred, as they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by companions for personal gain. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand. since they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by associates for selfish purposes. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand. since they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by associates for selfish purposes. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand.
The key point of “DarkGeneral community” is the coordinated work of developers and their support team. For example, in Unique Games, ten people engage in a forum (and this is not only constant moderation), and a dozen of their colleagues administer in-game chat. In conclusion, DarkGeneral spoke about the so-called "difficult players" who were, are and always will be. He divided them into four groups - conservatives, verbiage, revolutionaries and cheaters. The first may not like any changed trifle - at least the font size ("I will now put on my glasses / go blind!"); do not put a second finger in your mouth, but let me talk about the imminent demise of the server; the third naturally take away comrades from a toy if administrators have offended them; fourth may be useful, but at least sometimes they should be punished. However, Alexei reluctantly, but admitted
On the whole, the report turned out to be interesting, holistic - many points for beginning developers just need to be adopted.
Then Denis Dovgopoliy and Gleb Kaplun talked about the features of attracting investment in game projects. Just a small caveat: in Ukraine there are no real investors - an economic fact, plus people are not interested in promoting the entertainment industry - they prefer shipping and foundries. By the way, Denis specially flew to us from Silicon Valley to talk about the investment life of the projects there and “change at least something” here. Naturally, hopes for a bright future in the CIS countries do not fade away - ambitious and ready to give money people have always been and always will be. Another thing is that in the USA there is a stir and panic around the entertainment industry in a good way - dozens of different projects are reviewed there every day and venture capitalists select the best ones for cash injections. It was extremely interesting to listen to discussions about the prospects of our gaming industry and, again, indeed, many were interested in “bourgeois” financing. In fact, in Ukraine to raise money for the launch of a worthwhile project you need to sweat, while abroad is easier. Denis, of course, also affected the domestic market with its prospects in his report, but in the conditions of crisis shaking, few dared to draw conclusions.
The report “Internal electronic money” turned out to be a small self-PR - Vitaly Kursinov from Unicom Systems presented options for a universal currency, thanks to which several online projects could make a profit - something like the euro in the EU and the dollar in other countries. Of course, a weighty argument was presented by the speaker - they say that online worlds (sooner or later) will face massive monetization - almost all the “things” and achievements can now be bought for real currency only on “black” websites. Unicom makes it easy to receive money by creating secure online terminals for secure and instant shopping. Projects are provided with a place on the trading floor, their own “supermarket” for placing goods and a convenient authorization system.
“Teamwork, integration into social networks, casual online games”
One of the best reports of the conference is “Teamwork” by Denis Voikhansky from Reaxion. A guest from distant Minsk presented really interesting material, which told the participants about the opportunity to assemble their own “dream team”. Moreover, this is not just a theory, but a practice from the personal experience of Comrade Voikhanovsky. The House House team, flickering behind Denis, as if symbolized the general goal of the speech - Voikhanovsky so convincingly told and showed that during a coffee break a whole line of people gathered around him to get advice. Your humble one was also there and even received a clear answer on building a working day in gaming offices.
Denis Voikhansky not only told how the work cycle in Reaxion was built, but also reinforced the words with a convincing theory. The fundamental phrase “for Teamwork, if you don’t know how, it’s better not to take it at all” confirmed that it’s really very, very difficult to make candy from a scattered team. It’s another matter that thanks to people like the Reaxion manager, rallying techniques become known, such as: the whole team in one room, mutual assistance every minute (“I will ask Petya, you will ask Sasha ... Profit!”) And the like. Attendees also liked the red “Do not disturb” cap, which every Reaxion employee has and symbolizes the general attitude towards discipline. If it were a woman, then one could say: her team is “under the heel”. Only in the best sense.
The next report - “Integration of the gaming portal into social networks” - was presented by the guys from the regional department of the Polish Gadu-Gadu. Using the example of their own flash portal and a number of other sites, they showed the convenience of OpenID technology, which allows you to have only one account for any number of portals. They also developed a blog system with its own messenger, which is characterized by pleasant functionality (video calls, conferences, etc.), a site where you can create your own family tree, a convenient network of forums and - especially for travelers - a whole site of the shortest routes for exciting travel in Ukraine. It is worth adding that the brainchild of "our" unit of Gadu-Gadu is made in the form of blogs (though not all) - anyone can add a piece of their information that may be useful to someone.
For starters, a story was offered about casual online games, their development and monetization. Speaker - Vitaliy Khit - is not the first year on the market, so he quickly switched from theoretical numbers to practice. He spoke about his own experience of “colonizing” Western publishers and about the absolute futility of our market. He noted that, unfortunately, the “15 minutes rule” is working abroad, where people can spend 15-20 euros on a casual toy that will be removed in the same 15-20 minutes. With us, lovers of freebies can spend an hour browsing through warez-portals, just to dig out and play for free.
At the end of his speech, Heath invited the creators of online browser worlds to cooperate, because his company is not only aware of trends and progress, but also in anticipation of large projects. Again, the young teams were extremely interested in such an offer and did their best to snatch Vitaly’s attention after the conference.
In this article we examined the most interesting reports. The fact is that some of the missed works were purely technical in nature, while others were really uninteresting from the point of view of the average gamer. The event "The International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine" took place to be, and this is already a big event in the life of the country, which many perceive with a bang! And do not forget about the exceptional usefulness of such meetings - at them publishers can easily “hook” young and talented development guys, and the latter can listen to the reports of professionals and not step on the neatly laid out rake of the gaming industry.
Conference photos, materials on reports on the site of the First International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine
To be brief, the reports that were delivered turned out to be useful to most listeners. Speakers turned out to be not only good professionals in their field, but also born speakers.
During the conference, a round table was held on the topic: “Features of attracting investments in game projects”, where Alexey (darkGengeral), head of Unique Games, Denis Dovgopoly, entrepreneur and investor shared their experiences, Andrey Lvov, Dark Joker Games CEO, Tatyana Zolotareva - Director of Art4Art Entertainment.
Everyone who wanted to declare their company or themselves, share their experience and make new business acquaintances - achieved their goal at this conference, which is what we were striving for.
And now about how the conference went:
Registration at the reception, a brief overview of the rest of the exhibition "Internet Ukraine 2009" and moving to the "International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine" itself - in a small conference room with advertising signs and a decent amount of the people. Further, an introductory word from the organizers of the event - Tatyana Zolotareva and Viktor Andriychuk from Art4Art Entertaiment with a smooth transition directly to the reports. The most important details of these are below the course.
“Community online, attracting investments, the internal currency of games”
The first to take the floor is Alexei DarkGeneral from Kiev Unique Games with a story about the formation of the community in online games. The guys from UG, by the way, have two projects behind their backs: the first - “Heroes Lands” - has existed for more than six years, has managed to gain an active audience of 200 thousand people and is the author's world in a fantasy style, and the second “K.O.D . Post-apocalyptic "- launched recently and is still gaining momentum. We paid a lot of attention to attracting gamers to the post-development process itself. For example, to create a successful skeleton of a project (from among mere mortals) you need not only ideas and a miscalculation in advance, but also game gatherings, the choice of the administration, and also near-game developments. Moreover, Alexey spoke extremely enthusiastically about the same meetings outside the online world - it was clear that there was experience in organizing such events. The urgent question about Game Masters did not go unnoticed - whether to pay them or to recruit from the most active players of a particular project. In the worlds of Unique Games, “recruiting” is done directly online - experienced users are preferred, as they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by companions for personal gain. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand. since they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by associates for selfish purposes. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand. since they provide significant assistance in detecting bugs, and rarely approve of the use of world glitches by associates for selfish purposes. According to Alexei, even with cheaters you can be friends and not use the Ban button too often - offended can easily drag a couple dozen of their friends into another online fun, and these twenty, in turn, will take their friends and ... well, you understand.
The key point of “DarkGeneral community” is the coordinated work of developers and their support team. For example, in Unique Games, ten people engage in a forum (and this is not only constant moderation), and a dozen of their colleagues administer in-game chat. In conclusion, DarkGeneral spoke about the so-called "difficult players" who were, are and always will be. He divided them into four groups - conservatives, verbiage, revolutionaries and cheaters. The first may not like any changed trifle - at least the font size ("I will now put on my glasses / go blind!"); do not put a second finger in your mouth, but let me talk about the imminent demise of the server; the third naturally take away comrades from a toy if administrators have offended them; fourth may be useful, but at least sometimes they should be punished. However, Alexei reluctantly, but admitted
On the whole, the report turned out to be interesting, holistic - many points for beginning developers just need to be adopted.
Then Denis Dovgopoliy and Gleb Kaplun talked about the features of attracting investment in game projects. Just a small caveat: in Ukraine there are no real investors - an economic fact, plus people are not interested in promoting the entertainment industry - they prefer shipping and foundries. By the way, Denis specially flew to us from Silicon Valley to talk about the investment life of the projects there and “change at least something” here. Naturally, hopes for a bright future in the CIS countries do not fade away - ambitious and ready to give money people have always been and always will be. Another thing is that in the USA there is a stir and panic around the entertainment industry in a good way - dozens of different projects are reviewed there every day and venture capitalists select the best ones for cash injections. It was extremely interesting to listen to discussions about the prospects of our gaming industry and, again, indeed, many were interested in “bourgeois” financing. In fact, in Ukraine to raise money for the launch of a worthwhile project you need to sweat, while abroad is easier. Denis, of course, also affected the domestic market with its prospects in his report, but in the conditions of crisis shaking, few dared to draw conclusions.
The report “Internal electronic money” turned out to be a small self-PR - Vitaly Kursinov from Unicom Systems presented options for a universal currency, thanks to which several online projects could make a profit - something like the euro in the EU and the dollar in other countries. Of course, a weighty argument was presented by the speaker - they say that online worlds (sooner or later) will face massive monetization - almost all the “things” and achievements can now be bought for real currency only on “black” websites. Unicom makes it easy to receive money by creating secure online terminals for secure and instant shopping. Projects are provided with a place on the trading floor, their own “supermarket” for placing goods and a convenient authorization system.
“Teamwork, integration into social networks, casual online games”
One of the best reports of the conference is “Teamwork” by Denis Voikhansky from Reaxion. A guest from distant Minsk presented really interesting material, which told the participants about the opportunity to assemble their own “dream team”. Moreover, this is not just a theory, but a practice from the personal experience of Comrade Voikhanovsky. The House House team, flickering behind Denis, as if symbolized the general goal of the speech - Voikhanovsky so convincingly told and showed that during a coffee break a whole line of people gathered around him to get advice. Your humble one was also there and even received a clear answer on building a working day in gaming offices.
Denis Voikhansky not only told how the work cycle in Reaxion was built, but also reinforced the words with a convincing theory. The fundamental phrase “for Teamwork, if you don’t know how, it’s better not to take it at all” confirmed that it’s really very, very difficult to make candy from a scattered team. It’s another matter that thanks to people like the Reaxion manager, rallying techniques become known, such as: the whole team in one room, mutual assistance every minute (“I will ask Petya, you will ask Sasha ... Profit!”) And the like. Attendees also liked the red “Do not disturb” cap, which every Reaxion employee has and symbolizes the general attitude towards discipline. If it were a woman, then one could say: her team is “under the heel”. Only in the best sense.
The next report - “Integration of the gaming portal into social networks” - was presented by the guys from the regional department of the Polish Gadu-Gadu. Using the example of their own flash portal and a number of other sites, they showed the convenience of OpenID technology, which allows you to have only one account for any number of portals. They also developed a blog system with its own messenger, which is characterized by pleasant functionality (video calls, conferences, etc.), a site where you can create your own family tree, a convenient network of forums and - especially for travelers - a whole site of the shortest routes for exciting travel in Ukraine. It is worth adding that the brainchild of "our" unit of Gadu-Gadu is made in the form of blogs (though not all) - anyone can add a piece of their information that may be useful to someone.
For starters, a story was offered about casual online games, their development and monetization. Speaker - Vitaliy Khit - is not the first year on the market, so he quickly switched from theoretical numbers to practice. He spoke about his own experience of “colonizing” Western publishers and about the absolute futility of our market. He noted that, unfortunately, the “15 minutes rule” is working abroad, where people can spend 15-20 euros on a casual toy that will be removed in the same 15-20 minutes. With us, lovers of freebies can spend an hour browsing through warez-portals, just to dig out and play for free.
At the end of his speech, Heath invited the creators of online browser worlds to cooperate, because his company is not only aware of trends and progress, but also in anticipation of large projects. Again, the young teams were extremely interested in such an offer and did their best to snatch Vitaly’s attention after the conference.
In this article we examined the most interesting reports. The fact is that some of the missed works were purely technical in nature, while others were really uninteresting from the point of view of the average gamer. The event "The International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine" took place to be, and this is already a big event in the life of the country, which many perceive with a bang! And do not forget about the exceptional usefulness of such meetings - at them publishers can easily “hook” young and talented development guys, and the latter can listen to the reports of professionals and not step on the neatly laid out rake of the gaming industry.
Conference photos, materials on reports on the site of the First International Conference of Online Game Developers in Ukraine