App2Top told about the main events and trends of the outgoing year Alexey Trushkov, General Director of the Moscow office of FunPlus.
Alexey TrushkovHow was 2018 for you personally?
For me personally, 2018 will enter the top three as the most intense and interesting year in the last decade. Mainly because of difficult decisions and interesting challenges.
Not just changed his job, but left one of the best companies in the gaming industry — Playrix.
Not just found a new job, but headed the regional office of the Chinese company FunPlus.
The eldest daughter went to the first grade, which added new emotions and flashbacks about the school.
My wife opened her pastry shop, which affected the weight indicators.
I started catching Pokemon again. I visited China, went to Elbrus again, finally fell in love with Rostov, began to play Quiz more often and win prizes, almost scored on Heroes of the Storm… Cool year.
Winning the Quiz How was the year for your company?
Can I change the question?! On “How was the year for your team?”
First of all, this year will be remembered as the year of her birth. It was this year that the Moscow office of FunPlus was opened, the backbone of the team was formed, and most of the processes for interaction with Chinese colleagues were established. It wasn’t easy, but it was very interesting. I can say without exaggeration that it was a year of explosive growth in the number of employees. In less than six months, there were 10 times more of us.
If we talk about the company, and not about the team, then this year, it seems to me, the most significant events are the opening of an office in Moscow and a position in the “Top 50 largest brands in China”.
Against the background of the Chinese WallWhat event of 2018 do you consider the most important for the industry?
For the first time, a non-Korean player became the StarCraft II world champion.
Seriously, there were a lot of events, it is difficult to single out one that would affect the entire industry. Perhaps, let the announcement of Diablo for mobile platforms be central.
This event can be attributed to the growing trend of “Migration of AAA products to mobile platforms”. But it may also turn out that we are talking about something more global.
Isn’t this the stage of “Cross-Platform 2.0”, when not only indie games are released on everything, but also large projects from well-known companies sacrifice features for exclusivity and get access to fans on all platforms?
And it’s not just about adapting franchises to clickers and match-3, but about full-fledged cross-platform gameplay with a single user base. If App Annie’s forecast that by the end of this year, 60% of the revenue of the entire gaming industry will be generated by mobile is true, then there will be even more cross—platform releases than just PUBG and Fortnite. We are waiting for announcements of mobile CoD, Battlefield and more.
What trends of the outgoing year would you note?
Another trend is the adaptation of the “majors” to the “early access” model. Everyone looks at the stories of PUBG and Fortnite and wants the same.
It is impossible not to note the inextinguishable mobile trend “match-3 + something else”. From release to release, the quality of products and the variability of the combination of mechanics increases. The depth of elaboration of some ideas is also pleasing. I am sure that 2019 will be pleased with several major and interesting releases. And there will be new combinations, new mechanics.
Plus, the match-3 genre itself has reached a new level of level design. There are also innovative mechanics, unexpected elements, adaptive adjustments of the complexity curve and neural networks in playing.
The main trend of the year is, of course, sharks from IKEAWhat are the third-party projects of this year that you liked the most?
Anticipating the presence of a mass mention of RDR2, GoW and Marvel’s Spider-Man, I will not write anything about them at all. As well as about Artifact, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Destiny 2.
Of this year’s projects, I would mention Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee on the Nintendo Switch. This is not the most popular game (compared to the same Zelda). It’s rather more for fans of the franchise, but still.
Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee
In the second half of the game, the fight will seem long, tedious and monotonous.
There remains only the excitement of catching Pokemon, searching and pumping. But what could be nicer than spending the weekend with my daughter catching Pokemon?! In my case, I rather work as a dialogue translator, but it’s interesting to play. And this is another game in the Nintendo piggy bank, because of which people buy Switch.
Cheapshot is not the game of the year, but it hooked me so much that I can’t help but mention it. If anyone does not know, then this is one of the few representatives of the game with geolocation gameplay. In conventional terminology, it sounds like “a farm with geolocation, real-time PvP, clicker mechanics, gacha and voice control.”
Cheapshot
Legends of Solgard is similar in terms of addiction to Blood Brothers in its best years.
It can also be called “match-3 for boys” with obvious difficulties for such an approach and not the simplest methods of solving them. The game has a great “wow effect” at the start, a very fast conversion into a payer, and then you play out of habit, but it still gives pleasure.
Legends of Solgard