Nekki is preparing a mobile version of 11×11

In connection with the announcement, we talked with Nekki CEO Dmitry Terekhin about a new project of the company, today better known for mobile action games.

Hi! Please tell us the story of the appearance of the original 11×11.

Dmitry Terekhin Hello.

It all started back in 2002 (at the dawn of the browser games market) with our first project – the Golden Boot football manager (butsa.ru ), who, by the way, is still alive!

“Golden Boot“ is such a completely ”hardcore” manager who grew out of the Play by email genre. Initially, it was played by less than 100 people.

Every game day, users on their computer made an application for a match in a special program (selected the composition and tactics) and sent the received file to the administrator.

The administrator uploaded all the files to the program (match generator) at the designated time and started the calculation. It could take several hours to generate the results of the tour (and even more in case of errors). All this time, the players were chatting on the site, asking the administrators “Where are the cuts?”.

Thus, there were usually 3-4 matches a week. The number of teams in the game was also limited – less than 100 at the very beginning, but then this number grew to several thousand.

If someone dropped the game, his team was released, and a new manager was chosen in his place. A queue was formed to receive the team, and after registration, the player could wait a month to receive the team.

There were also problems with monetization. Initially, the game was completely free (and what can you take from several dozen players?). However, it was possible to donate money (so we “collected the whole world” to a new server). As the audience grew, a subscription to a package of additional options appeared. By the way, these options were only cosmetic in nature. Due to the small number of players and the cohesion of their community, any monetization that violates Fair Play was boycotted.

11×11 (mobile version)
Such monetization, of course, could not bring large sums.

The maximum we could count on was 5 thousand dollars a month. This money allowed us to rent a small office in the basement and pay symbolic money to several people.

At the same time, the “Fight Club” was growing uphill, paving the way for free-2-play monetization in our country. Therefore, it was decided to do a new project in a new way, and this project was “Gladiators”, which became the first great success for the team.

But since the topic of football has always been very close to us, we wanted to move from free-to-play further in this direction. Within the framework of the Golden Boot, it was difficult to do this without destroying the community, so we decided to experiment with a new project.

But the catalyst for the work on the first project was a sponsorship contract from Castrol, which offered $ 5,000 for advertising during the European Football Championship in 2008.

We decided to make an experimental project for advertising. The domain and the name 11×11 were chosen, the design was drawn and work began. Using the achievements of the Golden Boot (generation and visualization of matches) and partly the code of the Gladiators, the project was launched in less than six months (the European Championship as a deadline worked very well).

At the same time, the game turned out to be “casual. In 11×11, there was something that no one would be surprised by now (but then it was a revolution for browser-based football managers): instant registration, matches at any time, the absence of a downloadable client.

We considered the biggest risk to be “fantasy” – the generation of fictional football players and teams. But it turned out that no one was confused. In addition, the minimalism of the project played into the hands. Due to the deadline, we postponed a lot of what was planned, but after launching the game, we realized that such complexity would only scare away players.

11×11 (mobile version)
As a result, the game began to grow by leaps and bounds (and as is our custom, without any advertising).

At that time, the leading browser-based football managers had a base of 10-15 thousand registrations. We have overcome this bar in a month. Six months later it was 300 thousand, a year later – a million, two years later – more than three.

The game entered the top 3 of all Russian browser games, next to the Arena and Legend.

These are, let’s say, the affairs of bygone days. Why did you decide to return to the project now?

In the current conditions of the wild overheating of the gaming market, we see our strategy in supporting and developing our brands. 11×11 is exactly the brand that you don’t want to throw away. At the same time, the browser games market has been stagnating for a long time, and only mobile reincarnation can breathe new life into the project.

And why exactly do you reincarnate him, and not the Golden Boot or Gladiators?

We believe that the niche of “midcore” football managers in the mobile market is not occupied right now. Top Eleven is successful and popular, but it rather belongs to hardcore, like the Golden Boot. Matches are rare, there is no visual representation of the gameplay, and the construction of even the first upgrade for the stadium takes more than a week. We want to create a football manager that can be played quickly and fun.

11×11 (mobile version)So, the new, mobile version…

But how much will it differ from the original, is it a new project or is the novelty just a port?

This is a completely new game written from scratch. We even rewrote the match generator, which was untouchable for us for many years. Now I believe that I have managed to make it better and develop it further.

As for the new features, compared to the classic game, it will be:

• the ability to make adjustments to the composition and tactics during the match
• watching a match online at the same time as an opponent with the ability to exchange short remarks (as in HearthStone)
• “perks” – special features of football players that affect the match and are visualized in it
• graphical display of buildings on the map, the opportunity to develop your football city
• advanced system of clans (football unions) and interaction between players
• new player training system

I see. Thanks for the interview.

You will be able to learn about the latest trends in the gaming industry first-hand, personally meet and discuss working issues with leading companies in the game development and publishing market at White Nights Moscow 2015, which will be held on October 13-14.