Russian indie developer Vladislav Meshcheryakov, known for the shooter VLADiK BRUTAL, is preparing to rebrand his studio. Soon, Narko Games will officially change its name to BRUTAL SOFTWARE.
Presumably, the rebranding is part of a plan to transform Narko Games into a "full-fledged studio," which the developer announced a month ago. In mid-October, Meshcheryakov stated that he would no longer make games alone. He assembled a team of 15 people who will work with him on a new project— a game set in a dark fantasy world.
The developer cited the release of VLADiK BRUTAL as the starting point for these changes. The game was released on August 9 and made it into the top five best-selling games on Russian Steam in its debut week. Meshcheryakov does not consider the shooter to be either a failure or a success. According to his statement, by the end of September, VLADiK BRUTAL had earned enough to allow him to buy an apartment in Krasnodar, but not much more than that.
According to SteamDB, the maximum number of concurrent players for VLADiK BRUTAL on Steam reached 2,009 people. This is more than any other title from Narko Games. The game has collected over 5,600 reviews on Steam, of which 90% are positive.