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Game producing companies. The bitter experience of creating a gaming company

Who among us doesn’t remember Pac-Man or Tetris, which you could play on the first personal computers, enjoying the sound coming from the beeping speaker? Since then, the gaming industry has undergone significant changes, the days of solo players are gone (with a few exceptions), and the gaming world is now ruled by video game developers and publishers. I propose to evaluate the most famous companies that have released a huge number of games that have become cult favorites.

Rockstar North



Rockstar North Ltd is a developer of computer and video games, based in the UK. This company is the main developer of the Grand Theft Auto series, which is one of the best-selling games - both on PC and on consoles (especially the sixth generation).

Nintendo



Who doesn't know Nintendo? Everyone knows this company, even the smallest children. Nintendo specializes in developing and publishing video games, and its masterpieces are famous all over the world. For example, the same Super Mario, even its old versions, sells millions of copies. Nintendo's market value is currently estimated at US$85 billion.

Blizzard Entertainment



This company, headquartered in the USA, has been developing and publishing video and computer games for a very long time. Remember "Vikings"? Since then, such masterpieces as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo have already been developed. You don’t even have to think about World of Warcraft at all, that goes without saying.

EA Canada



Yes, this famous company started in Canada - now it is an international corporation that creates games with one hand and releases them with the other. The EA Canada computer game development studio was opened in January 1983, and is now known to everyone. The Canadian branch of the corporation alone employs about a thousand people.

Capcom



This company is one of the largest in Japan that develops and publishes video games. In 2008, Capcom was included in the list of the 50 largest companies in the world. In 2009, due to the crisis, its assets decreased by 10 percent, but still amount to $924 million.

Ubisoft Montreal



French company headquartered in Montreal. She is responsible for the development of such game series as Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed. The most prominent representative of this company is Tom Clancy (developed by Splinter Cell).

Treyarch



This company may not be well known to some gamers, but it includes the Gray Matter Interactive division, which is responsible for creating such hits as Tony hawk pro and Quantum of solace.

Infinity Ward



The California-based company Infinity Ward was founded in 2002, and its main task is the development of computer games. Well, the company is quite able to cope with its work, and the computer game COD is a good proof of this.

Epic Games



This company is located in North Carolina, USA. Epic Games' most successful product can be called Gears of War. By the way, the same company developed the engine for the hit Unreal - probably everyone knows it.

Bethesda Soft works



The best works of this company, without a doubt, can be called such magnificent hits as Elder scrolls, and of course, Fallout 3.

The 50 best game developers of all time were chosen by the editors of the IGN portal. We invite you to take a look at the first half of this huge list and find out what contribution each company has made to the gaming industry.

The top ten looks like this:

Founded in 1983. Journalists write that the word “legendary” is not enough to describe this studio, which has led several revolutions in the gaming industry. Nintendo EAD created Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Super Mario 64. They say it saved the entire gaming industry after it crashed in the early 80s. Plus, Nintendo has forever changed the way we interact with games, and does so again every few years.

Capcom

Founded in 1983. Made a name for themselves when the NES came out, the Mega Man games are the most memorable old-school games of all time. In the 90s there was Street Fighter, then the Resident Evil series of games. Among the key games, IGN highlights Devil May Cry.

Rockstar North

Founded in 2002. Key games: Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, Red Dead Redemption. It was for the games GTA, Red Dead Redemption and Manhunt that she was elevated to third place in the ranking.

Konami

Founded in 1969. It took fourth place thanks to the games Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2.

Atari

Founded in 1972, it not only released the console that popularized gaming, but also developed the important arcade games Gauntlet, Marble Madness and Paperboy. In the 90s, the company created Primal Rage, Area 51 and San Francisco Rush.

SquareSoft

Founded in 1986. Main games: Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears

Valve

Founded in 1996. Key games: Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead. Don't forget about Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Dota. And of course, an invaluable contribution to the industry as a Steam platform.

Blizzard Entertainment

Founded in 1991. Diablo, StarCraft, World of Warcraft - and that says it all. One of the most influential companies in the world. Their WoW still has over 10 million subscribers. In addition, they dominate in real-time strategies.

Maxis

Founded in 1987. The games The Sims, SimCity, Spore left their mark on the industry.

id Software

Founded in 1990. Created Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, the revolutionary 3D Quake that set the rules for what first-person shooters should be. In addition, their Quake 3 Arena has become a very popular multiplayer game.

The following studios are located below:

11. LucasArts(1982) Games: X-Wing, Monkey Island, Star Wars: Dark Forces

12.Looking Glass Studios(1990) Games: Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief

13.Bethesda Game Studios(1986) Games: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 3

14. BioWare(1995) Games: Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate

15. HAL Laboratory(1980) Games: Earthbound, Super Smash Bros., Kirby's Dream Land

16. Naughty Dog(1984) Games: Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

17. Ubisoft Montreal(1997) Games: Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

18.Enix(1986) Games: Dragon Quest, Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia

19. MicroProse(1982) Games: Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization

20. Insomniac Games(1994) Games:: Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, Resistance: Fall of Man

21. Namco(1970) Games: Ridge Racer, Pac-Man, Galaga

22. Level-5(1998) Games: Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

23. Epic Games(1991) Games: Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal Tournament, Gears of War

24 Polyphony Digital(1998) Games: Gran Turismo, Omega Boost, Gran Turismo 5

25.Infinity Ward(2002) Games: Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Well, who took the remaining 25 positions?


This story is about a passionate dream with a sad ending.

In the summer of 2012, I decided to devote myself to my main passion - creating computer games. I had the funds and thought I had what it took to create a game development company.

We decided to call it “Supersonic Parachute”.

I will not go into details, but I will indicate the most important reasons that led us to failure.



It all started out pretty well. With a budget of 100,000 euros ($140,000 at the time), we began creating the first game.

I decided to focus on a new gaming platform - iPad. When we worked on the first game, we wanted to create something that our kids would want to play. And about 6 months later the game “Starkey and Peggy” appeared.

Everything was the way I wanted. The gameplay was great, we also paid great attention to the playable characters and beautiful landscapes.

It has become my children's favorite game.

Starkey and Peggy














So what went wrong? No one knew. We had absolutely no sales in the Appstore; only three copies of the game were sold per month. Since its launch in 2013, we have only managed to raise $100, while it cost $30,000 to create.

Lesson #1: Don't create games for markets you don't know much about.

Even though I'm a gamer, that doesn't mean I'm familiar with the market. We didn't have a market strategy.

But at the time we thought the failure was due to the game not being made well enough. From that moment on, our ambitions only grew. We started creating two games in parallel. I had to transfer more responsibility to my colleagues, since I needed to manage our main (network) business, which financed our activities.

Lesson #2: Never let a team with no experience work on two ambitious projects at once. They can't handle this.

Dungeon Attack

It was supposed to be a mixture of RPG and strategy with elements of real-time combat. And this task was assigned to a team that had never created a successful game in any of these genres.








Lesson #3: When you start a job, start small, with what you can handle. Or you won't succeed.

Max Bug Buster

A 3D shooter in which the player plays as a mouse living in the house of a mad scientist. She has to shoot back from hordes of approaching creatures armed with deadly weapons. At the same time, it was originally supposed to be a paper airplane simulator, do I still need to continue?








Lesson #4: Drastic changes are acceptable, but remember that at least the genre of the game should remain the same. If you decide to change it during your work, then most likely you will face a fiasco.

We weren't able to finish a single game before we ran out of money. There was still a lot of work to do, and we still hadn’t created a go-to-market strategy. I decided to name the amount spent. We spent about 120,000 euros ($170,000 at the time) on one released game, a bunch of code that we would never use again, and beautiful graphics.

Looking back, I realize that most of the mistakes could have been avoided if I had created a clear work plan and been a strong leader for my colleagues. But this was not the case, and therefore, only money and my passion for games could not help in achieving the goal.

Lesson #5: Creating games and the companies that develop them require outstanding leadership. If you hope to succeed without devoting all your time to the project, then you are in for a fiasco.

For some reason, I believed that my team would cope with the work without me, so at that time I was dealing with what seemed to me the most important problem - money.

Lesson #6: You can’t trust a project to a team that doesn’t have experience. Most likely, it will not cope with the job, and you will lose a lot of money, without realizing at what point everything went wrong.

However, when I think back on all this, the only thing I regret is that everything could have been different if I had known the right thing to do. To this day, that period of my life is associated with pleasant moments that could only happen among enthusiasts working on a new project. We solved many complex problems, created amazing technology and graphics, and found new solutions through collaboration. It is a pity that we did not achieve success, although among us there were many talented people who could have succeeded in this matter. Perhaps I will return to this some time in the future if the flame of my dreams burns just as strongly.

An article about the most famous European video game companies.

CPU publishes the translation of the article.

To favorites

In Europe, especially in the UK, France and Germany, there are many companies producing bright, unusual, successful video games. In making our rankings, we didn't take into account the size of these studios, but based them on their past accomplishments, the number of players and the uniqueness of their games, as well as taking into account video games that are just getting ready to hit the market.

31. Pretty Simple Games - author of the game Criminal Case, which became a hit on Facebook

Berlin-based Wooga makes free games for smartphones that attract a lot of fans. On its website, Wooga reports that more than 50 million people play its games across multiple platforms every month. The game Diamond Dash has about 200 million users - in it, players make combinations of precious stones.

But the company is not limited to one hit. In addition to Diamond Dash, it has released an artificial pet app for Apple Watch, as well as a detective game, Agent Alice. The company's CEO Jens Begemann said in an interview with VentureBeat that 80 developers worked on the new game for 18 months.

29. JaGex - developer of the hit RuneScape

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: RuneScape.

JaGex is the creator of the most popular free-to-play online adventure game, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records.

Released in 2001, RuneScape gives players a virtual world to explore while leveling up their characters (which can be done for money). JaGex also produces a RuneScape-based online card game and shooter for Steam. JaGex is headquartered in Cambridge and employs more than 400 people across its two studios.

28. Ninja Theory - British console game developer

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Heavenly Sword, DmC: Devil May Cry.

Ninja Theory is developing games for PlayStation consoles with Sony. The company name says it all: Ninja Theory specializes in sword fighting games. The company uses cinematic techniques and the most modern animation, so the screensavers of its games look like movies.

In 2007, Ninja Theory released Heavenly Sword, a fighting game that uses motion capture technologies used in Hollywood blockbusters. And although the game was not a worldwide hit, Heavenly Sword is rightfully considered a cult classic, and its fans are demanding a sequel. The company has twice started working on a sequel to Heavenly Sword, but has yet to release a single new game in the series. But a movie based on this game has already been released.

27. Gameloft is a company that creates versions of console games for smartphones

  • A country: France.
  • Famous games: Assassin's Creed (mobile), Brothers in Arms 3, N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance.

Gameloft's headquarters is located in Paris, and its numerous branches are scattered across 28 countries. The company focuses on mobile games and produces hundreds of them, many of them being smartphone versions of popular console games, including Assassin's Creed.

There are currently 113 different Gameloft games available for download. Most use the freemium model - free download with optional paid add-ons. The company's CEO Michel Guillemot says Gameloft games receive millions of downloads every day and the company has 5,200 developers on staff.

26. Guerrilla Cambridge - creator of futuristic shooters

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Killzone 2, Killzone 3, MediEvil, LittleBigPlanet (PSP).

It's not just hardware manufacturers who are active in Cambridge's technology scene. Video game developers are an equally important part of the local high-tech business. Guerrilla Cambridge is a well-known development company that collaborates with Sony Corporation. She specializes in creating console games that showcase the capabilities of the PlayStation system.

Guerrilla Cambridge became famous for its futuristic shooters Killzone 2 and Killzone 3, as well as the retro MediEvil series and the LittleBigPlanet game for the PSP portable system.

25. Rovio - developer of Angry Birds

  • A country: Finland.
  • Famous games: Angry Birds, Angry Birds 2.

Rovio Entertainment became famous after launching Angry Birds, a game that became, according to CrunchBase, the most downloaded application in the world.

Founded in 2003 by Niklas Hed, Jarno Vakevainen and Kim Dickert, Rovio has raised more than €68 million in two funding rounds and employed 700 people worldwide. Its annual revenue is approximately €156 million. The company's current CEO is Pekka Rantala.

24. Rodeo Games - Warhammer game developer

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch, Hunters, Hunters 2.

The British developer Rodeo Games is a small, close-knit team of four professionals who decided to leave their jobs in large studios and create games for smartphones. The company is working with Games Workshop on mobile Warhammer games, releasing digital versions of the popular board game.

23. Revolution Software - studio developer of the popular Broken Sword series

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky.

Revolution Software was founded in the 90s of the last century. The company released the popular Broken Sword series of games, in which players not only control characters but enjoy an intricate plot.

The explosive mixture of puzzles, music and hand-crafted graphics made the series a real hit. Revolution Software admits that it has sold about 4 million copies of games in this series, earning more than €100 million. The company continues to release new Broken Sword games, and also adapts these games for gaming consoles and smartphones.

22. Goodgame Studios - “Berlin's answer to Zynga”

  • A country: Germany.
  • Famous games: Goodgame Empire, Goodgame Big Farm, Goodgame Galaxy, Goodgame Poker.

Goodgame Studios specializes in free-to-play online games. The company's strategy is not too different from Zynga's, and its games have already attracted more than 270 million players.

21. Plinga - social game developer

Plinga is a Berlin-based developer of social games for a wide audience. Since 2009, the company has released numerous games, including Family Barn (27 million players) and Dragons of Atlantis (13 million players). Unlike its competitors, Plinga makes its games available to the entire network, so they can be played not only on the company's own site. This is completely different from how companies like Zynga and King operate.

Plinga started out as a direct competitor to Zynga, releasing a game called FunCards. The company was funded by Rocket Internet, an investment firm founded by German entrepreneurs the Samwehr brothers.

20. Sports Interactive - developer of the Football Manager series games

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Football Manager.

Sports Interactive is a British developer and owner of the Football Manager gaming series franchise. Players manage soccer teams, their preferences, and their money in hopes of making it into their desired league or division. Games have become more and more complex and interesting since the very first one, released in 1992. Today, players can get a highly realistic gaming experience by watching matches in 3D.

19. Quantic Dream - French developer of unique games

  • A country: France.
  • Famous games: Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit, Omikron: The Nomad Soul.

Quantic Dream is both a video game developer and an animation studio. The company produces unique video games that differ from all others in that their characters do more than just run and gun. One of Quantic Dream's early hits was Omikron: The Nomad Soul, released in 1999 and known for its original soundtrack composed by David Bowie.

The game Fahrenheit was released in 2005 and is an interactive investigation of mysterious crimes. But Quantic Dream's most successful game was Heavy Rain (2010), a game with many characters whose stories eventually come together.

18. Team17 Software - author of the Worms series

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Worms, Alien Breed.

Team17 is a British developer, creator of the Worms franchise. The company began its activities in 1987 by developing software for Amiga computers, and in the 1990s it began creating video games.

Worms was released in 1995 as a simple war game in which the player controls teams of animated worms. Despite its simplicity, the game unexpectedly became a hit, surpassing even such giants as Tomb Raider and Fifa96. Since then, Team17 has released many Worms games and continues to do so to this day.

17. Crytek - developer of Crysis and Far Cry

  • A country: Germany.
  • Famous games: Crysis, Far Cry, Homefront, Ryse: Son of Rome.

Crytek is one of the most famous video game developers in Germany. The company began operating in 1999 in Frankfurt, releasing the Far Cry and Crysis franchises. Now the studio is moving away from producing high-tech cinematic games. Its CEO, Sevat Yerli, told Venture Beat back in 2013 that he hoped to move into creating free-to-play online games within two to five years.

16. Media Molecule - developer LittleBigPlanet

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: LittleBigPlanet, Rag Doll Kung Fu, Tearaway.

The British company Media Molecule is known as the creator of the LittleBigPlanet series. In this creative series, the player, in the role of Sackboy, explores the virtual world and creates his own levels. The company is owned by Sony, the creator of the PlayStation, so Media Molecule runs on PlayStation Move hardware.

15. Supercell - creator of the mobile hit Clash of Clans

  • A country: Finland.
  • Famous games: Clash of Clans, Boom Beach.

Supercell started in Finland in 2010 with a small studio that could barely accommodate 15 people. Since then, the company has expanded its geography to San Francisco, Tokyo and Seoul and has developed more than 165 games for 12 platforms. Most likely, you know this company from its biggest hit - Clash of Clans.

Today, CEO Ilka Paananen has 150 employees, Supercell has received $140 million (€89 million) in funding and was acquired by SoftBank in 2013.

14. Criterion Games - racing game developer

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Burnout Paradise, Black, Need for Speed, Battlefield Hardline.

The British company Criterion Games often develops its blockbusters together with American game companies. The studio associated its name with the Burnout racing games about ten years ago, and then moved on to the Need of Speed ​​franchise. In addition, Criterion Games is working on the latest game in the Battlefield series - Battlefield Hardline.

13. Rebellion Developments - shooter developer

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Sniper Elite, Aliens vs. Predator

Oxford-based company Rebellion Games is known for its shooters. She became famous thanks to the Sniper Elite and Aliens vs. franchises. Predator. But Rebellion is also active in other segments of the media business - for example, it produces comics through its own publishing house, Abaddon Books. The company has offices in Oxford and Liverpool and recently closed its Derby office.

12. Mojang - a studio acquired by IT giant Microsoft for $2.5 billion

  • A country: Sweden.
  • Famous games: Minecraft.

Mojang became famous thanks to its only hit - Minecraft. Founded by Markus Persson (known as Notch) in 2010, the company oversees the development of Minecraft.

The simple construction adventure game has become a real hit, especially with children. The game was eventually sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in September 2014. All three co-founders left the company, and Persson bought a luxurious mansion in Beverly Hills worth $70 million (taking it over from the star couple Jay-Z and Beyoncé).

11. Frontier Developments - developer of the space simulator Elite: Dangerous

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Elite: Dangerous, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon.

Cambridge-based Frontier Developments is the creator of the Elite video game series. Developer David Braben created the first Elite game in 1984. It was unlike other games of the time: it allowed players to travel through space as merchants, pirates, or other characters.

In 2014, Frontier Development released the game Elite: Dangerous, selling more than 500 thousand copies. Today this series of games has a whole army of fans.

10. Wargaming - game developer based in Cyprus

  • A country: Cyprus.
  • Famous games: World of Tanks.

World of Tanks is a mega-popular online free-to-play game in which players control old tanks. Wargaming is located in Cyprus and is currently working on the next games in the series.

9. CCP Games - EVE Online developer

  • A country: Iceland.
  • Famous games: EVE Online, EVE Valkyrie.

CCP Games became famous thanks to the multiplayer role-playing game EVE Online. The company was founded in 1997. CCP Games calls its interactive multiplayer games "virtual reality". The company has about 500 employees, and the last financial injection in August 2012 amounted to $20 million (€12.8 million).

8. GXC Game World - developer of games from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise.

  • A country: Ukraine.
  • Famous games: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

GSC Game World is a Ukrainian company known for its S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, in which players explore abandoned areas of Chernobyl and Pripyat. The first game in the series was developed for seven years and after its release in 2007 it became a real hit. The company organizes regular costumed fan meetings. In 2011, GCS officially ceased to exist, much to the dismay of its fans. However, in 2014, the original studio reopened and is now working on the old paid version of the game.

7. Arkane Studios - developer of Call of Duty: World at War

more than 93 million active users. But the company is not focused on a single game, it has a huge portfolio and no “growing pains”, unlike Zynga, another famous developer of “light games”, plays this game. In addition to the super-successful puzzle game, ustwo develops apps and software for other companies, such as facial recognition software for Google's Android Wear operating system and software for Tesla's HUDL tablets.

4. Rockstar North - developer of the blockbuster franchise Grand Theft Auto

  • A country: Great Britain.
  • Famous games: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne.

Rockstar North is the Edinburgh branch of Rockstar Games, famous for its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series. The British office became famous for the Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings franchises, as well as work on the Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne series.

3. CD Projekt RED - author of the hit Witcher 3

  • A country: Poland.
  • Famous games: The Witcher.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the biggest video games today. In the first two weeks, the game sold more than 4 million copies, which is a huge achievement for a little-known Polish company.

The new game was praised in reviews for its breadth and depth, as well as for offering players a cohesive and expansive experience (as opposed to the common practice of releasing expansions for games after release), and its Metacritic rating rose to 92 out of 100. The company CD PROJEKT RED is focused on developing the Witcher franchise, based on a series of Polish fantasy novels.

2. EA Digital Illusions CE - the studio that works on Star Wars Battlefront

.

Hello Games is the creator of the Joe Danger series, in which you play as a miniature racer who performs crazy stunts.

Today, the company from Guildford is working on another ambitious project: No Man's Sky. This is a space simulator - a giant universe that players can explore. The huge scale and level of detail of No Man's Sky has attracted enormous attention to the company. Even celebrities such as director Steven Spielberg, entrepreneur Elon Musk and rapper Kanye West tried out the demo version of the game.

Oksana Alekseenko,

17 September 2014, 08:40

We write a lot on our website about video games: about games on different platforms, games released in different years, different genres and with different plots. So this article simply had to appear here sooner or later. All the games mentioned in it will have exactly one thing in common: they were all created in Russia. The list is far from complete; Perhaps these are not even the best of domestic games, but this is perhaps what we remember most of all.

Genre: turn-based strategy, text quest, arcade
Developer: Elemental Games
Publisher: 1C
Year of release: 2002

The beginning of the 21st century, deep space, five intelligent races and synthetic aggressors-invaders. Choose your race, character, difficulty level - and welcome to the world of the future full of dangers. Be a peaceful merchant, a heavily armed soldier, a scientist, a pirate, or an undercover agent. If you want, fly alone, or if you want, develop leadership and take over lower-ranking fellow pilots. All the NPC pilots you meet in the game live their own lives and, like you, trade, fight invaders, and improve their equipment. Become the best of the best, save the galaxy!

Genre: flight simulator
Developer: 1C: Maddox Games
Publisher: 1C
Released: 2001

At the time of its release, IL-2 Sturmovik was the most high-tech game in its genre. This is a flight simulator that simulates combat operations in the sky during the Second World War. Eight major campaigns await you, each with its own special set of scenarios and missions. The player will be able to choose both the side of the Allies and the Luftwaffe; all aircraft in the game are recreated according to real drawings and documents, which adds realism to the process. The game also has a multiplayer mode, with the opportunity to take part in massive air combat.

It is worth noting that a sequel to the game has been announced - “IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad”; The official release is scheduled for this month, and the game is available in early access.

Genre: role-playing game, real-time strategy
Developer: Nival
Publisher: 1C, Buka
Released: 1998

Allods became one of the first Russian games that were able to gain popularity in the world. The plot takes place in a fantasy universe that has fallen apart as a result of magical experiments. Each fragment of the world - the allod - is kept from being absorbed by the astral by the Great Magician who lives on it; he is at the same time the ruler of his land and its prisoner, since he cannot leave it. The rest can travel between allods using teleportation

Genre: quest
Developer: S.K.I.F., Saturn Plus
Publisher: Buka
Released: 1998

Petka and HIV is a whole series of nine graphic quests that tell, as you can easily guess from the title, about the adventures of well-known joke heroes who have to return Alaska to Russia (by accident!), save the galaxy, conquer Rome... Each game has its own a complete plot, minor characters wander from game to game, and do not have the slightest idea of ​​who they have already been before. By the way, the first part of the game was recently ported to Android.

Genre: quest, puzzle
Developer: DiP Interactive
Publisher: 1C
Released: 1997

Remember private investigation veterans Chief and Colleague and the malicious, insidious smuggler Karbofos? Pilot Brothers - games about them. This graphic quest based on a good animated parody of Sherlock Holmes is probably remembered by many; some even played with them in school computer science lessons. And someone may still have to solve the case of the abduction of an elephant, expose agricultural pests, save the cat Arsenic and find the missing Atlantic herring. Even if you don’t understand anything, this is not a hindrance to the work of a private investigation!

Rendezvous with a stranger

Genre: erotic interactive quest
Developer: ExE-Soft
Publisher: Russobit-M
Year of release: 2001-2006

This is a bit of a game that isn't worth recommending, but not mentioning it on this list would be a serious omission. Unpretentious photoshop of a medium-glamorous clumsy level, girls from entertainment complexes, fellow travelers on trains, beauties met in the south on vacation... Russian erotica, meaningless and merciless! The course of events in each game depends on the player’s ability to seduce the chosen beauty using phrases suggested at the bottom of the screen. There is no point in taking all this seriously either - it is a thing in itself, trash for the sake of trash, which is worth laughing at and which, once seen, is unlikely to be forgotten.

Parkan

Genre: space simulator
Developer: Nikita
Publisher: 1C
Released: 1997, 2005

And again into space. This time the player is the pilot of the ship and must find the missing researchers in the closed sector that survived the disaster. However, as soon as you get there, you will have to save yourself. After all, your ship is badly battered and now you only have the bare minimum of equipment working. Choose your style of behavior, make connections: you can be a merchant, a pirate, or capture other people’s planets. By the way, their surface in the first game is generated randomly. "", released a full 8 years later than its predecessor, is quite different from it in appearance, but the action in it takes place at the same time, and the player’s goals remain the same.

Genre: role-playing game, turn-based strategy
Developer: Katauri Interactive
Publisher: 1C
Released: 2007

Let's leave space behind and return to heroic fantasy. King's Bounty is an epic knightly saga, a mixture of tactical battles and role-playing adventure. The player travels through the game world in real time and fights enemies in turn-based mode.

Genre: simulator, arcade racing, economic strategy
Developer: Softlab NSK
Publisher: 1C
Released: 1998, 2001

This game is a cargo transportation simulator. You have a truck (which can later be exchanged for a more advanced one), some initial capital and a road map. Buy cargo cheaper, take it to places where it can be sold for more, but remember - you have many rivals on the track! Become the very first, both in racing and in economic planning. Hire other drivers to work for you. Remember - not only competitors, but also the mafia are not asleep! It is also worth noting that the soundtrack for the game was created by the Russian rock band Aria. It includes ten well-known compositions, as well as two new ones, recorded specifically for the project.

Genre: Tactical RPG, Real Time Strategy
Developer: Apeiron
Publisher: 1C
Year of release: 2005

Where are shots most often heard, according to the laws of the genre in such computer games? That's right: in hypothetical fictional "banana republics." This is exactly one such place that players will have to go to. The country is called Palineiro, it has jungles, tropical heat and a coup d'etat. Gather your own squad of mercenaries, choose the side for which you will fight (nothing prevents you from “throwing” it in the process, going over to the enemy), your main goal is to survive. And, perhaps, also get a considerable profit from all this.

Released: 2000

Who among us has not played “balls”? Did you know that this chic time killer was also invented in our country? Back in 1992, Oleg Demin, Gennady Denisov and Igor Ivkin invented that classic field of 9X9 cells. Back then the game ran under MS-DOS. Later, in 1995, the first version for Windows was created in the USA by Igor Nedelko and Andrei Axelrod, and thus Color Lines appeared with support for 256 colors, a graphical shell and buttons for all functions. Over time, the game gained an increasing variety of modes, and it turned into a flash game that everyone still remembers.

Tetris

Genre: puzzle
Developer: Alexey Pajitnov (algorithm), Vadim Gerasimov (code)
Released: 1984

And, perhaps, let’s remember an even greater classic. Tetris! Yes, we were not mistaken, it was also invented here, back in the USSR. In 2010, Pajitnov told reporters in an interview that he had been working on a multiplayer version for many years, but, according to him, the main problem here lies in the dynamism of the game. At the last levels, the player simply does not have the opportunity to keep track of his opponents. But, nevertheless, work is still underway.

Genre: Action Adventure, Arcade Racing
Developer: K-D Lab
Publisher: 1C, Buka
Released: 1998

The distant (and bleak) future, humanity gained the opportunity to penetrate into other worlds and living spaces, and rushed towards the unknown, losing all caution. The clash with the hostile Crispoid race cooled human ardor, and the consequences of the war with it gave rise to biomolecular chaos in the form of a terrifying Soup of Creatures. The events of the game take place a whole thousand years after the conflict. You have to carry out tasks of various clans of mutants, in the role of a mercenary driver. The game also has an online mode in which you can compete with each other.

Genre: role-playing game
Developer: 1C, Full Pe
Publisher: 1C
Year of release: 2006

Dungeon Santas is a non-linear shooting adventure. You find yourself on the prison-type planet Sailor's Silence, all of whose inhabitants are criminals, each of whom has managed to commit many extremely serious crimes. Your task is to command your own sabotage group to discover and destroy the ship on which the prisoners intend to escape. Don't let their plans come true!

The main characters of the game are borrowed from the book by Dmitry Puchkov, known under the creative pseudonym “Senior Investigative Officer Goblin,” so if you want to learn more about the world after the passage (or before it), you will have that opportunity.

Genre: turn-based and card strategy
Developer: Nival Interactive
Publisher: 1C
Released: 2001

Want to combine turn-based and card strategy? That way. Red, green, black and blue colors, four races - four paths, all in order to take the place of the Lord of the Ether. A strategic mode, magical duels, a unique assortment of available spells - in many ways this game is similar to the legendary adaptation of Magic: the Gathering made by MicroProse, and is not inferior to it in any way.

Not long ago, a free port of “Demiurges” for iOS was released.

Genre: quest
Developer: ZES"t Corporation, Auric Vision
Publisher: New Disk
Released: 1997

Six-legged crocodiles, a censor penguin, erotic flair, a bunny in a minefield, pointedly toilet humor... Are you scared yet? Then, quite possibly, you will appreciate it. The GEG in no way pretends to be serious or profound; that is not what it was made for. The forces of ancient Evil are gathering over the world, and you, a secret agent for the prevention of sexual and religious perversions, sacrificing your own vacation, must defeat them.

Genre: simulator, action with role-playing game elements
Developer: SkyRiver Studios
Publisher: 1C
Released: 2003

And we return again to the distant future of humanity. In this version, you have to cross the vast expanses of 8 different game zones on a glider, perform various tasks, fight with other pilots, engage in trade - in a word, do everything that is expected in the open world when the plot does not push you. No, he undoubtedly exists too. You have to go beyond the artificial world, into the natural environment of the planet, to search for a scientific observatory of people. Multiplayer is also possible in the game - one map can accommodate up to eight players.

Genre: eroge, visual novel
Developer: Soviet Games (Erogame Project)
Released: 2013

In the beginning there was a word, and the word were anonymous comments on the imageboard - they gave birth to the idea of ​​this game. Endless Summer is a completely free visual novel game created by a group of enthusiasts. The main character gets on the “cursed” bus, falls asleep on it... and wakes up in a completely different place and time! Just now it was winter and our time, and now in front of it is a pioneer camp of the 80s. What's going on? To find out this, the hero will have to live in the camp for the entire shift. And, of course, a lot of romance awaits him there.

Despite all the superficial frivolity, this is a game about deep human relationships. Will the hero be able to come back? Or... won't he want to come back at all?