We continue to summarize the results of 2024 together with gaming teams. Up next is an interview with Ilya Boytsov, co-founder and CEO of the outsourcing studio MidHard Games.
How did the year turn out for the company? What achievements would you like to highlight?
For the MidHard Games team, this year was successful — we significantly improved our corporate culture and game development competencies.
Our achievements for 2024:
- Independently released Adrenaline Rampage in early access.
- Developed a series of updates for FatalZone, and the game itself exited early access into full release.
- Embarked on the path of self-publishing, learning everything related to the business of games — working with Steam, promoting among YouTubers, bloggers, and others.
- Enhanced multiplayer competencies on several projects.
- Continued to work as professional full-cycle game development outsourcing providers. We improved a dozen different games.
I would also like to note that achieving and leveling up is generally our favorite approach. Throughout the year, we completed three seasons of sports challenges. From running up to 10 km and 1,000 pull-ups in 30 days to gaining mass (we build not only our brains but our biceps too). Our entire life is a game.
FatalZone
In your opinion, how has the situation in the gaming market changed?
At the beginning of the year, the market felt like it was in a state of "Oh, I'm dying!". By the end of the year, it had revived significantly, in the style of "I need more games." As a result, a large number of different orders appeared. While people are not throwing money at monitors yet (as they did in 2021, for example), many different people and structures want to make games. The world is definitely moving in the right direction.
How did the year turn out for the genre in which you work?
Our genre is Bullet Heaven (or Survivors-like). The genre continues to develop actively. This year saw the release of numerous projects from indie teams. There were also releases from giants of the genre. For instance, early in the year, Brotato was released on consoles and then received its first paid DLC, introducing co-op into the game.
Also, this year, there was the Bullet Heaven 2.0 genre festival on Steam. The organizers did a fantastic job.
What strengthening or emergence of trends in your niche do you expect in 2025?
First, the spread of multiplayer in games of the genre. It really begs to be included, and the leaders of the genre have already taken initial steps in this direction (Vampire Survivors and Brotato).
Second, the emergence of new sub-genres within the niche. For instance, our game Adrenaline Rampage can be referred to as a sub-genre — we took the core of the genre and projected it onto a platformer. No one has done it this way yet (a few side-view projects exist, but ours has significant differences). As indies, we can afford to take risks (cue a casual guitar chord).
Adrenaline Rampage
Third, the active integration of Bullet Heaven mechanics into games of other genres. The survivors' mechanic is already actively used as a mode in various games, for example, in League of Legends (Swarm mode). I assume that more and more games will introduce survivor modes in the future.
What are the company's plans for the coming year?
- Release Adrenaline Rampage in full on Steam and consoles. We plan for the 4th quarter of 2025.
- Launch the development of a new project. The concept and PnL are already in place. There's only left to do the small thing — create the game! That's what we're good at!
- Continue to improve our skills that help create good multiplayer games: PvP, co-op, rankings — that's where we're headed.
- Transform the studio into a group of companies — an indie studio and outsourcing. Outsourced development and development "in the true indie style" are two different approaches: different pipelines, different corporate cultures, different goals. The emergence of specialization will allow us to enhance the quality of the games we create.