Last week, the Russian studio Cats Who Play officially reported on their work outcomes to the government, with whose support they developed the real-time strategy game "Frontline." The creative director, Vitaly Shutov, described this process as hellish in a post on VKontakte.
Shutov shared that the completion of the project took almost five months, starting in May after the studio met the necessary KPIs for "Frontline." Although he didn't specify what the KPIs were, it was mentioned in late spring that the game had 100,000 downloads.
According to Shutov, the situation was severely complicated by the absence of an accountant in Cats Who Play. Financial specialists from the Institute for Internet Development (IID) helped to submit the project, actively collaborating with Cats Who Play at the final stage.
"If anyone plans to work with the government in the future, bear in mind that a good accountant/financial expert and lawyer for your development will be significantly more important than a good programmer and artist. If you think it’s enough to simply create a good project and meet the KPIs, that won't do; the state couldn’t care less about player reviews, properly documented expenses and completed reporting forms are far more important," stated the creative director of Cats Who Play.
Shutov advised other studios to work independently of government involvement if there is even the slightest chance of doing so. On the other hand, he noted that Cats Who Play managed to successfully handle the issues, proving that everything is achievable.