How to create a game in six months?

How to create a game in six months?

I have a degree in technology from Izhevsk State Technical University. For 6 years I worked for a video production studio that created game trailers. We worked with World of Tanks and even made a cutscene for Darksiders 3.

We used to visit many conferences and talk with people from the gaming industry. They kept asking: “You`ve got such cool production. Why aren’t you making games on your own?” We remembered about it when everyone started making in-engine trailers, and production began to stall. We were sitting and thinking how we could help the process. Having looked at a bunch of successful cases of hyper casual games, we followed that direction. This is how the YePlay studio was founded.

In 2,5 years we managed to create more than 200 hyper casual projects. But the team and I always wanted to do something bigger. This is how Last Wish was created.

The Last Wish visual novel is a story in the mystery detective genre. All the wishes of the main character begin to come true, but it leads to no good. Her loved ones die, she gets problems with the law. There is only one way to stop this – keep making wishes until one last wish is left. What it will be depends on the player.

It happens that the entire YePlay team loves detective stories. We were brainstorming, and everyone liked one of the ideas, so we started developing it and creating a story. This is why we chose this genre. Then the creative team began writing the script. I believe they did a good job. The twist of the episode in the beginning of the game where the first murder occurred was a surprise even for me.

And besides the plot, many interesting details were invented during the development process. Each team member contributed something of their own, and this definitely benefited the game. I'd like to think that we managed to create something new in the visual novel genre.

I wouldn't put it this way. In any case, our project is different from what our competitors do. We have a unique story, characters and the plot. It's not about trying to be different from competitors, it is about doing what we think is right.

For example, our artists were sure that the project should be made in 3D. They are really good at 3D design, so it would be really stupid not to use their experience. Last Wish looks more like a movie than just a visual novel.

We focused on the characters – portrayed their personalities and came up with a life story for each of them. The developers proposed to let players scroll through messages in characters` phones and read their correspondence to find out how they lived before the beginning of our story.

Our game designer came up with or found a reference to a “cabinet of thoughts”. When the main character deepens into her thoughts, the player can find out what she is thinking about. This helps to better understand her motives and actions. All these details complement the atmosphere and drift players into the game.

I can list features of Last Wish for a long time. Playing it once is worth many words.

Deadlines became our major problem. We set this deadline ourselves. It is related to the studio's financial capacity. We had to skip some game mechanics in the first episode to meet the deadline. In the second episode there will be more gaming and pazzles.

We also had to cut some of the plot lines, because it added new locations and characters, and we simply didn't have enough time for production.

The game optimization became a surprise as well. Character animation, casting of voice-over actors. We have auditioned many voice actors for the part of Chris and are still not entirely sure about our choice.

The good thing is that the game is in early access. After release we keep on working to improve it. On September 28th the first update was released: we diversified Chris’s wardrobe, added game achievements and made lip movements and facial expressions look more emotional and natural. At the same time we are working on the second episode, where all the improvements will be used.

During the development of the game, we made sure that we had enough strength and experience to create a large-scale project. This is the main thing.

We learned that we need to change the approach to production. Add more technologies to development. We already have ideas and solutions, but they are not that easy to make under sanctions. If everything works out well, this will really speed up the process. We’ll test it and then share our findings with other Russian studios. I wouldn't like to reveal the details yet.

We also realized that game development is more difficult than it seems. There are so many details that can eat up a fantastic amount of time.

I can tell developers only one thing: ideas and desires without action will not bring results, but work multiplied by your desire will lead you to amazing results. Go for it!