July 11, 2005
Interview with Nikita, The First Russian Creator of Computer Games and a Leading Provider of Mobile Services
| Nikita Background
"NIKITA" company is the first Russian creator of computer games and a leading provider of mobile services. It was incorporated on October, 14, 1991. Since that time Company's scope of activity has increased: we are creating computer games, localizing games into Russian, providing mobile services and publishing life-style magazine. Interested in pursuing a career in programming? There are many online college degrees in Information Technology, so you can live your dreams. Find jobs in higher education as well as an online degree to help you on your way. How many employees does Nikita have?There are more than 150 professionals working on different directions at the moment. The "Nikita" localization department has adopted more than 70 famous titles for Russian users. The localization level of the number of our projects was called "excellent" by leading game magazines in our country. The "Nikita" development staff got awards for all main projects, made in our company. The next part of our specialists are working in the first interactive life-style magazine for young people. There are several high-rank projects for the day. Of course, as bigger the project as more specialists it needs, so best industry professionals continue to join our team. What mobile products has the company produced?Nowadays we have 2 innovative projects for wireless devices - mobile "Sphere" version and "CiTY". "CiTY" project is revolutionary entertainment software that will help people to start a new life in mobile virtual world. The product is based on Java technology, as a lot of mobile games, provided by "Nikita" company". The broad range of game features supported by the new service allows the client to create a realistic life model. Nowadays "CiTY" has about 15.000 settlers of all ages, meeting, communicating, living in the "CiTY" buildings. Mobile "Sphere" version is a client program of the multiplayer online role-playing game "Sphere", made for pocket PCs and smartphones. The PC-version of a game became the first Russian MMORPG. The last add-on to the project - "Sphere. The Land of Power" - gave the players new gaming opportunities, such as armor and weapons displayed on characters, new character appearance options, a number of professions for the character, and the others. Nowadays "Sphere" for PC has a wide community in Russia - we are sure, it would have a success abroad. "Nikita Mobile" is the leading content-provider on the Russian market. The famous companies, working in the electronic entertainment industry, are among our partners - THQ Wireless, Telcogames, Elkware, In-Fusio, Softwrap, Microforum and the others. The company has an excellent experience in providing mobile services (pictures, ringtones, SMS-entertainment,meeting services and so on) as in promotion, which is applicable in other countries as well. Has the company won any awards?We were awarded for all the main projects since 1991 when the company was founded and for the days:
Among the latest ones there is the Gameland publishing house award for the "Sphere. The Land of Power" project (the best multiplayer game 2004), KRI (game developers conference) award for the mobile "Sphere" project (the best Project for Mobile Platforms 2005), KRI award for the "Parkan II" game (the best PC project 2005). All the awards are presented on our official site. Is there anything else that you would like to add about the company?Our company started working in the first wave of game development in Russia. We've got huge experience in our sphere of activity for the 14 years, which is confirmed by our partners. Our projects are optimized and certificated for the launch on Intel® Pentium® 4 with Hyper Threading® technology computers under the Intel® developers support program. "Parkan. The Imperial Chronicles" project sales of the box version of the game remained a record up today, and the sequel "Parkan II" (released on May 2005) is on the sales top for the day. It is "Nikita" company, who brought the first MMORPG genre game on the Russian market, and, actually, opened the field in Russia. Nowadays we continue working on high-technological projects, making the new steps in the game industry. |
The new service is an entire world on the mobile phone. In this world, users can make friends and talk about what they love, create online diaries, send pictures, go sightseeing, have a rest, and order a number of mobile services. Modern busy cities in all their diversity are the only existing analogue of the project.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the game and its features?
"CiTY" is a new generation project, which combines the massive multiplayer game and the global mobile service with no analogues for the moment. The "CiTY" settlers move among the towns and buildings, using the special cart. All the geographical points are made real, so that, for example, the user from Moscow could register, communicate, have meetings etc in his native city. There are a lot of special features, which are available in the "CiTY". The service proposes picture and photo changing, several ways for communicating, taking a rest and a number of the other mobile services.
How long ago was this concept thought of? When did development start?
The idea of such a project appeared long time ago, but there was no suitable equipment to start working.
The concept was thought of about a year ago. The project had several changes since that time, but the idea was realized.
How big was the team that developed this game? Can you give a breakdown of software engineers, graphic artists, designers, etc.?
The "CiTY" was created by the best designers, artists and engineers of our company. The technological level of the service supposes not only developer professionalism, but also a lot of creative decisions. The team was as big as the project needed on different development stages - from 5 to 15 specialists.
One problem often faced by mobile multiplayer games is the latency of the wireless networks. How was this solved or avoided?
We reduced the information capacity between the mobile phone and the server to minimum. So, it was enough for "CiTY" to work without any problems, no matter, which phone model is being used.
Another frequent problem is that of handling human communications while still having game play controls available. Can you talk about any solutions or novel ideas development to overcome this problem?The opportunities we realized in the "CiTY" project were sufficient for the whole functional. The client doesn't need more buttons than the user operates for writing SMS!
What other technical challenges were solved during the development of the project? How were they solved?In a developing process we faced the problem of incompatibility. In spite of the fact, there is a production standart, there was a need to make different client versions to launch "CiTY" on every phone. We solved the problem successfully.
In developing an original project the team often learns some valuable lessons. What lessons has Nikita learned? Do any of the engineers have any tips to share?The main problem here is the limited resources, connected with the mobile platform. As we said, we needed to make several client versions with different graphical content and no changes in the functional. As a consequence, it's necessary to develop an easy tuned program in order not to have any problems with compatibility.
What is the future of CITY? Will it be made available world-wide?"CiTY" is a novel technological step in the industry. The project became successful and formed its community even before the commercial launch - we are confident in its success in future. The project has created the new niche and got the incredible popularity in Russia. The new business model which has been used in "CiTY", is extremely useful for all the kinds of partnership. The project proved its commercial success in Russia and, we are sure, "CiTY" will prove it world-wide. We are open for cooperation.
Is there anything else you'd like to share about CiTY?"CiTY" has become the new experience for us, and proved the possibility of such projects in Russia. Nowadays the quantity of "CiTY" inhabitants is growing, and the client has a lot of opportunities for cooperation.
Special thanks to Yan Udras, head of Nikita's PR and Advertising department, for providing this information.
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