Natives of the World of Tanks Blitz development team have launched their first project. This is a mobile shooter. It was created on the original technical basis and published without the participation of Wargaming.
The novelty is called Battle Prime. This is a cooperative team-based third-person shooter in a realistic setting. The closest obvious reference point, if you do not take into account the camera, is Call of Duty: Mobile.
One of the key technical features of the project is its own engine. During development, the company decided not to resort to popular third-party solutions (Unity and Unreal Engine), but to create a game based on its tools. As explained in the studio, they were inspired by the example of their Ukrainian colleagues:
From the very first day we knew that we would develop our own technology. We were inspired by the success of 4A Games, who left GSC, wrote an engine from scratch and created the acclaimed Metro series of games on it.
Also, the Blitz Team was interested in full control of the technical base of the game. According to them, many console exclusives are created on the original engines in order to be able to squeeze the most out of the hardware for which they are intended. Blitz Team wanted to get the same opportunities when creating and optimizing a game for mobile devices.
Stanislav Patskevich, one of the former managers of World of Tanks Blitz, leads the development of Battle Prime as an executive producer. In his comments on the global release, he notes that the game was created in a relatively short time — a year and a half.
Blitz Team positions itself as an independent studio. She also launches her debut project Battle Prime by herself, without any publishing support. And it seems like an amazing story.
The fact is that for the last year Wargaming and My.Games have been actively looking for teams for investment. First of all, they are interested in those that prepare cooperative shooters.
Most likely, both majors received offers from the Blitz Team. And the company (or its investor) decided to maintain both independence and full control over the project at this stage.
As stated App2Top.ru a representative of the Blitz Team, the studio is not interested in attracting major publishers to work right now:
Working with a major publisher has both pros and cons. On the one hand, a major publisher helps a lot with expertise and marketing. On the other hand, it has a pretty strong effect on the final product. We also wanted to make a project that we would play ourselves, without outside interference.
The studio also believes that publishing support is not so necessary at the moment. The main game stores — App Store, Google Play, Steam and Epic Games Store — actively support independent developers. This can help the Blitz Team succeed on their own.
In fairness, the studio management does not exclude other scenarios. In the comments for App2Top.ru they stressed that communication with major publishers has been conducted almost from the very beginning of the development of Battle Prime. And the studio plans to continue it.
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