"Calls — in Polish." Ex-Wargaming and Vizor employee opens casual game studio in Wrocław
Dmitry Molchanov is the CEO and co-founder of game development studio Flying Whale Games. This is his first business, which he launched after emigrating.
Dzik spoke with him about the challenges of running his own business.
«We never focused specifically on finding 'Polish' support»
According to Dmitry, he’s been working in game development «all his life.» He graduated from the first class of «virtual environment design» at the Institute of Modern Knowledge in Minsk, choosing to specialize as a 3D artist because he wanted to build his career in gaming.
He worked at Vizor on «Zombie Farm,» as well as at Wargaming, Playgendary, Sad Cat Studio, ZephyrMobile, and others — but always as an employee. Flying Whale Games is the first studio where he’s a co-founder.
According to Dmitry, they founded the studio in Belarus but were forced to relocate to Poland to access more opportunities for growth. «Partners simply refused to work with you if you were in Belarus. So Poland, as a simple, fast, and close option, turned out to be very convenient for us,» explains the CEO.
Setting up a Polish LLC wasn’t particularly problematic — Dmitry says he «prepared a bit, language-wise,» studying Polish at courses for three months. A firm specializing in accounting and legal matters in Poland helped with the documentation.
Initially, the co-founders hoped for support from Digital Dragons — a community and ecosystem for game development from the Krakow Technology Park. According to Dmitry, they applied to the accelerator with their game «Cow Lifters,» passed the selection, and were supposed to receive a grant — approximately €80k — and a mentor from a local mobile game studio.
But a few days before signing the documents, the full-scale war in Ukraine broke out, and the accelerator representatives said they were putting projects with Belarusian and Russian citizens on hold (Dzik reached out to Digital Dragons asking if they currently work with citizens of Belarus and Russia, but hasn’t received a response yet).
According to Dmitry, he doesn’t hold a grudge: «We understand the situation; it’s not a big deal. The only thing is that the money wouldn’t have been superfluous, especially for a startup studio. But we managed. We had partners in Belarus who supported us. Of course, we have our own savings, but we try not to spend them.»
After this, the studio worked on a game about environmental pollution, «Garbage Inc.,» and the creators were too busy to participate in accelerators.
«You know, we never focused specifically on finding 'Polish' support,» says Dmitry. «I think that after moving here, more doors opened to us than just those in Poland. When you’re a European company, it gives you more freedom. You can enter, for example, the English investment market. Recently, I was accepted into BAFTA (in the games section, not films) and it opened even more networking opportunities for me.
Yes, Poland is a huge market. But if you want to build a large company with decent turnover, then, it seems to me, you need to look a bit further west. That same €80k grant, but for a studio it amounts to a small budget that can be spent in a week, or even faster.»
Why casual games: «Two years ago we were at a crossroads»
Flying Whale Games develops so-called «casual games.» For example, one of their projects is «Car Out,» where players need to escape traffic jams, or «Cow Lifters,» where you must protect cows from aliens. As stated on their website, the studio has over 20 million downloads.
«Why casual games? Development is faster, the cycle is shorter, games are simpler compared to midcore,» explains Dmitry. «In the same period of time, we can do more — with fewer people and fewer resources.
Two years ago, we were at a crossroads. We could have started making more expensive games, something like Family Island or Klondike, Township. We even received a soft commitment from one fund for investment. But right at that moment, old partners approached me and offered to make casual games. And we had to choose between these two options.
We decided to stick with casual games because, let’s say, we don’t have that much time left for trials and attempts. And the more attempts you can make, the greater the chance that you’ll succeed.
Well, if it doesn’t work this time, you need to close the game with a heavy heart, leave it, and move on — make the next one.
If we had committed to a big game, we probably wouldn’t have even released it in soft launch yet. Instead, we chose the path of staying in the mainstream, keeping up with trends, and making casual games.»
How the studio works now: 12 Belarusians and one Pole
Currently, the studio employs 13 people, working remotely and in the office. They don’t plan to hire new employees yet — they say there’s no need for scaling at the moment.
Interestingly, among the Russian-speaking employees at Flying Whale Games, there is one Polish developer, Michał. According to Dmitry, he applied through a LinkedIn vacancy, beating other candidates. Since then, he’s been working there for a year with no complaints.
Team calls are conducted in Polish. «Michał helps us improve our Polish, and in return, we teach him Russian words. Only good ones!» adds Dmitry.
At Flying Whale Games, they try to avoid the «crunch» that game development is notorious for. After all, all employees have their own lives, families, and children. And in Poland, overtime is not common. So in the evenings, only a couple of cars remain in the office parking lot.
Dmitry shares that the studio currently has several games in development but doesn’t provide details yet. «I don’t want to jinx it, but I really want to conduct at least some preliminary tests by the end of the year, and then, possibly, I can tell more. We want to make it before the Christmas holidays, before advertising costs rise,» explains the CEO.
Is it worth getting into the casual games business?
We ask if it makes sense for newcomers to start a business in the casual games sector now, or if the train has already left the station?
«You know, I probably hear every year that everything is not the same, not like that, and impossible, 'guys, don’t enter, it was better before,'» laughs Dmitry. «And every year someone 'shoots up' in exactly those genres where, according to people, you shouldn’t venture. For example, they said that about 'Match-3' games — and then Royal Match appeared.
So I think it’s always worth trying if your heart and soul are in it. The best time is now.»
Bonus: Why casual game studios launch strange ads with freezing women
You may have come across strange game ads more than once or twice where you need to arrange balls in a row.
Usually, they feature a freezing woman with a baby, a girl overgrown with hair, or a suffering king. But if you install the game, it turns out it’s not at all what was advertised. This type of advertising is called misleading, and the gameplay shown in them was extremely rare in the actual games.
So Dzik couldn’t help but ask: why do companies do this?
«Yes, it happens. Usually, we see this in ads for games from Playrix or Royal Match,» says Dmitry. «The point is that these guys have already attracted almost all the audience they could potentially attract. That is, those who like 'match-three' games. And when they’ve already exhausted the market, they started luring new players with something else.
Yes, most likely, half of these players will drop off because they’ll see something different than what they expected. But the other half will stay. And yes, 'acquiring' such players will cost more than if you showed players what they see and expect. But these guys are already at the level where they don’t care — they’ve exhausted the market 100% and want to do 110%, 120%, and higher.»
Dmitry admits that sometimes he even receives angry reviews from upset players. The fact is that in Flying Whale Games, they occasionally show ads for similar projects (they have built-in advertising SDKs). And one user even wrote a long letter to the studio about how she was upset by a pop-up ad where a cute puppy is surrounded by snakes. But the studio can’t influence such videos — except for removing those that don’t comply with legal standards or decency.
«It’s just that there’s so much content now that producers have to shock users to get their attention,» explains the interviewee.
Why not make a real game where you actually need to save a freezing single mother with a broken window? Dmitry’s answer is that in words it sounds good, but in reality, no one will play it. It simply won’t be engaging.
As the interviewee clarifies, not long ago, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned such advertising as misleading. After this, developers began adding the gameplay shown in the ads as an additional mode, which is now called «non-core» gameplay.
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