Plarium company is a developer of mobile, browser and social games, primarily known for such hits as “Rules of War”, “Pirate Code”, “War of Thrones”, “Conflict”. In 2013, the "Conflict" project, known to foreign users as Soldiers Inc. The game became one of the best games of the year on Facebook.
Plarium employees have decided to tell readers of the Casezz online portal about how they achieved such a high level in the international gaming arena, how to choose the right setting for a future project and which team would be needed for development.
The last six years were realy interesting for gamers and the gaming industry. These years (in some ways) can be compared to the 1970-80s – true golden age of video games. Social networks and their triumphant march across the whole blue planet and the rapid development of mobile devices started to open new unexplored areas for game developers. New platforms have created new money sources for young, ambitious, ”crazy” and talented developers.
Today the era of social games is little by little fading away. Brave enthusiasts who were looking for the “true game” turned into stern methodical professionals from large corporations. Their job is to analyze exactly what main factors make one game better than another.
The company started making video games six years ago and has gone all this way together with the industry. For today, there are studios in Simferopol, Kiev, Kharkiv, Nikolaev, Lviv. The company’s main office is in the capital of Israel - Tel Aviv. The Plarium projects audience consists of over 120 million gamers. It s hard to find a person who uses internet regular and doesn t know the Total Domination project or other company s projects. In 2013, Plarium’s Soldiers Inc. was best of the best game of the year by Facebook’s version. This article will show some secrets for success.
The selection of setting and genre
The setting and genre of the game is like a shot in the head and heart of a player, and only in this order.
The setting means the visual role of the project, gives to players the opportunity to open their inner super hero and supplements the game mechanics with pieces on which the final success of the game product depends.
The genre means the game mechanics. Without completely exciting mechanics, it is too hard to make a high grade project, even the mechanics of the game is like Flappy Bird.
When the work on Soldiers Inc. was sterted, the selection of the game genre was evident: Plarium is good in soldiery and economic strategy games and know very well what their target audience prefers. Sure, there is a place for experiment in a totally different genre, and even get a success in it, but there are also a bunch of striking illustrations (Paradox Interactive is one of them) showing how often such experiments might miscarry. This is a main thing at the primary stages of development: must be choosen only a genre and setting that the team know best.
The situation with setting was more complex: at that moment the three strategy games were already released. The first, Total Domination, was about post-apocalypse, the second - Pirates: Tides of Fortune - about pirates, and the third - Stormfall: Age of War - true dark fantasy. To decide what the setting is the best for Soldiers Inc., Plarium used some techniques, and the right solution was to use them in various proportions and combinations.
First step - market research. To understand what the players want from new game project, there is a need to be a player by yourself too. The company workers spend a lot of time researching trend projects for the better understanding of their monetization mechanisms. It is very important! Even if the final product is a free-to-play game. It must be understanding for what the future consumers will pay. Also market analysis helps to recognize actual gaming topics and decide what game design is the best.
Second step - market analysis. Internet gave forceful utilities to get info about a target audience. That`s why, all analytical facts should be gotten before the begining of project. Small example, there were facts that gamers clicked more active on modern warfare themed banners, not on pirate-themed or futuristic images, so it was the determining factor.
Yes, if your company just started its game dev trip with a poor budget, it will be difficult to give place money in intelligent analytics. In such cases the only way out is using other methods and just asking Lord for success.
Third step - Stanislavskian analysis. The perfect user of your future game is created. It is created virtually on the basis of analysis of the needs of the target audience. Many factors are taken into account: gender, age, favorite books / TV shows / movies / video games / sports games. Any target audience usually consists of two, maybe three person`s prototypes. Then the development team begins looking at the future game with through eyes of these prototypes and try to understand what they would like or dislike. More about such a method can be read in the book “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” by Alan Cooper.
Game development
Genre, we are working with you!
Work with the genre is equal to work with the gameplay. The image of the game is determined by three main factors - the framework, capabilities of the chosen platform and the timing of the project.
You need to set a clear and interesting mathematical model of the game, and make feature cut at all stages of its development. There are two sides of the coin in MMO games - strongest and weakness sides of all such games are their ongoing development. On the one side, continuous product improvement even after release. On the other side, competitors has an extensive game base due to an earlier start in comparison with your product. The more your game can give from the start and the better the game will become in the future - the more possibility that your project will have a long and happy game life.
Setting, we are working with you!
It all starts with collecting information. This is a rather long and serious job. Such work requires a very high-quality execution, but we must not forget about time - the game market sets its pace. Development begins with a collection of text and visual base, only then you can proceed to the desired design and game texts.
Also, in the game texts there are quotes from classic military films (as an example, “Flight of the Valkyries”). Collaboration with military consultants helps make such projects as realistic as possible. Arms companies also do not stand aside - the game uses true brands of weapons and military equipment. Of course, such a colossal effort in creating social or browser games by most companies is considered unnecessary. But it is worth noting that the games of these companies do not become games of the year according to Facebook.
Quality, we are working with you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOpHN8rMZ5THXTjBYhyTEnvEvHWtRJV2C&v=tdBpxcNx5Us&feature=emb_logo
The legendary game composer Jesper Kyd, the author of music for such series of games as Hitman and Assasin’s Creed, was invited to create musical accompaniment. Plarium was the first company in the world that managed to get such an artist to create a musical series for social games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOpHN8rMZ5TFdj6VX5vGJ3GggHh018e5m&v=-Zcfh4UssJs&feature=emb_logo
In parallel with the work on the musical and soundtrack, we began to search for outsourcers who could do cinematic for Soldiers Inc. This project was the first Plarium game for which a CG video was created. Alas, like many of the first experiments, especially experiments with outsourcing, this was not the most successful. But as a result, we formed our own Cinematics Team, which now consistently makes game trailers of the highest level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOpHN8rMZ5THTh8psnO-wIXxH0flWaBp5&v=74iNfuaUruc&feature=emb_logo
Team, we are working with you!
It is impossible to make a game that will become number one on Facebook if you are not ready or do not want to invest all of yourself for 10-12 hours a day. Plarium employees are distinguished by a high level of individual motivation. Repeatedly, a similar approach to work is embodied in the relevant results, and this has a very positive effect on the team.
The company also does almost everything for its employees: medical insurance, legal support, foreign language courses, visual arts, oratory. Concerts are held with the participation of such rock collectives as “Crematorium” and “7B”. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The company sees tremendous returns and incredible results on the part of employees, which motivates the Plarium to create the most ideal working conditions for all employees.
Result
After a short run on VK, on July 23, 2013, we launched Soldiers Inc. on Facebook. During the first week, the total user`s number reached amount of 274,101 people. On the 30-th day, the number of registrations was 1,951,466.
Five months after, Soldiers Inc. got the status - one of the best games on Facebook in 2013. The nowadays audience of this project is 478,990 MAU and 98,630 DAU.
Of course, we are still working on making the game universe bigger and better. Plus to huge game updates, there is a promo website. The future plans include a mini-TV show uncovering the plot twists and features` details. Also we are always in contact with the gaming community. If you want to ask us, what is the secret of Plarium company, the answer will be: no need to re-invent a wheel or a bicycle; ask the players what they want and make those wishes come true.
