New cellular video games developer KEK Leisure has simply closed its seed spherical, with $8 million in funding now going in direction of rising its staff and bolstering growth.
Based mostly in Cyrpus, the studio was shaped by ex-Pixonic administration Georgy Egorov and Oleg Poroshin, who performed key roles within the big success of 2014’s Battle Robots – a cellular recreation that’s generated over $750 million in its lifetime.
Egorov and Poroshin’s first focus for KEK Leisure is to create a platform-agnostic automobile shooter IP with a presence throughout PC, console and cellular. We spoke with Egorov to search out out extra…
PocketGamer.biz: Why are you specializing in crossplay in your first title? What’s the alternative you see there?
Georgy Egorov: Crossplay opens entry to a wider viewers. Extra platforms imply extra touchpoints with gamers and extra virality. We’re making a teamplay recreation and noticed numerous occasions when a cellular participant needs to ask a buddy to play collectively, however the buddy does not like cellular controls.
One other essential facet is advertising. Due to crossplay, we will flexibly select one of the simplest ways to succeed in our viewers. Positioning the sport as a cellular recreation for cellular gamers and as PC recreation for desktop gamers and utilizing all of the advertising toolset accessible will make advertising less expensive ultimately.
The principle problem in crossplay growth is making a recreation equally snug for gamers on all platforms
Georgy Egorov
Our long-term plan is to create a big IP that unites numerous tasks. Due to this fact, we goal to focus closely on constructing and dealing with communities. We love our gamers and need them to work together throughout all potential social platforms. PC gamers are normally extra social, and crossplay will permit cellular gamers to have interaction extra.
General, I consider that crossplay is the brand new actuality. It was more difficult to implement, primarily as a result of {hardware} limitations. Now, distinguished circumstances like Fortnite and Genshin Affect present that it is potential. Huge gamers are clearly transferring in that path too. As an illustration, Apple is popping the MacBook into a brand new gaming platform – an ideal match for us.
Cellular is a difficult market proper now. What’s the correct method to deal with this house and win?
Our advertising technique is actually a mix of cellular and PC advertising approaches. To achieve success on each platforms we will’t go solely with UA. Meaning we have to construct a model. And to do it we have to work with PC and console influencers, media, and go large with communications.
However on the identical time, UA remains to be an incredible instrument. The important thing to success lies within the manufacturing of creatives. That is why we pay numerous consideration to creating the visible model of our venture. As an illustration, in our recreation, there will probably be three playable factions with fully totally different visuals: from basic fight equipment to sci-fi, semi-organic battle tech. It will permit us to draw several types of gamers and create extremely impactful creatives.
How has the market modified in comparison with when Battle Robots was launched?
Even monetisation has modified. As we speak we must be artistic and player-oriented
Georgy Egorov
There was nearly no competitors again in 2014. Now even in our comparatively “blue ocean” area of interest there are numerous robust gamers. And high quality necessities are fairly excessive now – you can not soft-launch your recreation in an unpolished state anymore.
Even monetisation has modified. As we speak we must be artistic and player-oriented – it’s not a good suggestion simply to promote the overpowered content material. The market has additionally dramatically modified. It was 99.9% UA-driven, with the position of group and relations with gamers very underestimated. Now it’s important.
Again in these days, video games have been designed particularly for the platforms and the extra your recreation suits the platform, the extra advantages you get. Now everybody fights for a participant’s value so it’s higher to have a platform-agnostic recreation to get the largest attain.
I may proceed eternally; it was simply one other world. After all there are numerous challenges at present, however I consider that the quantity of latest alternatives is way greater than the quantity of issues.
Have there been any sudden challenges in creating a recreation that can play comparably on a number of platforms – controls, graphics and many others?
The principle problem in crossplay growth is making a recreation equally snug for gamers on all platforms. Take interfaces, for instance. Our process is to make them intuitive for cellular gamers with out inflicting frustration for PC avid gamers as a result of empty areas and “too cellular UI”. Moreover, we have to guarantee they adapt nicely to all display sizes.
One other fascinating case is battlefield orientation. Below load, cellular gadgets dim their brightness to save lots of power, whereas PC brightness stays secure. This creates a state of affairs the place battlefield readability is considerably higher on PC.
Since we will not management machine brightness, we should clear up this subject inside the recreation. So we determined to include a separate info block within the battle HUD.
Related circumstances come up often. Nonetheless, in our style, crossplay works nicely as a result of positioning and ways matter greater than reflexes and accuracy. A tank’s turret cannot reply to mouse actions like a gun would possibly in a recreation like CS 2. This helps neutralise the benefit of 1 platform over one other. Personally, I favor enjoying on a cellular machine and infrequently rank under second within the recreation.
