The head of SunStrike Studios Alexander Shursha shared with App2Top.ru the way this year has passed for him and his studio.
Alexander ShurshaHow was 2018 for you personally?
The year was very “long”. The sense of time is generally relative. If every day is groundhog Day for you, then time flies fast. One month is like another, and at the end of the year there is nothing to remember. I had such a period in my life. Now everything is completely different. The concentration of events per unit of time is very high. I see photos of the beginning of the year, and it seems that they were taken a hell of a long time ago.
I started a personal blog in which I talk about the development of the company and share useful information, first of all, with game artists. I try to help those who want to get into game dev and build a career here. Fixed the habit of constant self-education. I spent a lot of time and money this year on taking courses on studying modern business technologies.
The eighteenth year of [management] helped to pump up my leadership skills. The success of the SunStrike team and the growth of the studio make me match the rapid pace of business development. I have formulated the mission and values of the company that will determine our further development.
How was the year for your company?
A year has passed in a state of incessant drive. We opened a second office in St. Petersburg, tripled the number of employees, and built an effective organizational structure. In a year, we have overcome the path from a team of enthusiasts in an apartment office to a modern company that is a reliable partner for game developers in Russia and abroad.
We managed to participate in the creation of cool domestic and not only projects. We cooperate with top studios in Russia and the CIS. Separately, I would like to thank Playkot, among other things, for allowing itself to be mentioned in this article. The NDA makes most of our partners “the ones you can’t talk about.”
It was very interesting to work on graphics for games based on popular Russian cartoons: “Leo and Tig”, “Mi-mi-bears”, “Fairy Patrol”. It’s great to come to the store and see merch with familiar characters.
Illustration for an internal studio projectWhich event of 2018 do you consider the most important for the industry?
I am extremely pleased with the success of shooters like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on mobile platforms. Another successful genre has appeared, which means that there will be more similar games. At one time, Clash of Clans became the same phenomenon.
The increase in smartphone performance allows you to release games with more detailed graphics on them. As artists, it is very interesting for us to work on different types of art. We’re rubbing our hands and getting ready to make a lot of cool characters, guns and locations next year.
What trends of the outgoing year would you note?
Chinese companies began to move more actively to the west. This will definitely affect the industry in the near future. The Celestial Empire already has a great influence on game dev. Let’s recall the problem with issuing licenses, which was resolved only at the end of the year. Given the resources of its domestic market, it will not be difficult for China to buy a dozen Western gaming companies or open its representative offices here. FunPlus recently opened an office in Moscow.
The second trend is the active development of neural networks. Every week there are posts in my Facebook feed that soon certain specialists in the field of computer graphics will lose their jobs. I think in the next couple of years we will see commercial products that will make life easier for artists. Whether they will replace anyone, time will tell.
What are the third-party projects of this year that you liked the most?
I learn about new releases first of all by the wave of beautiful works in trends on ArtStation. There was a wave of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a wave of Battle for Azeroth.
Most of the big hits bypassed me, but my wife and I enjoyed playing Detroit: Become Human together. Quantic Dream games are a separate genre. It’s a pity that they come out so rarely.