We continue to summarize the results of 2024 together with game teams. Next up is an interview with Ilya Boytsov, co-founder and CEO of the outsourcing studio MidHard Games.
How was the year for the company? What would you like to highlight in terms of achievements?
For the MidHard games team, this year was successful — we significantly improved our corporate culture and game development competencies.
Our achievements in 2024:
- Independently released Adrenaline Rampage in Early Access.
- Developed a series of updates for FatalZone, and the game itself exited Early Access to full release.
- Got on the self-publishing track, started learning everything related to game business — working with Steam, promotion among YouTubers, bloggers, and others.
- Enhanced multiplayer competencies on a number of projects.
- Continued working as professional full-cycle game development outsourcers. Made more than a dozen different games.
I should also note that achieving and leveling up is generally our favorite approach. Over the year, we completed three seasons of sports challenges. From running 10 km and 1000 pull-ups in 30 days to building muscle mass (we train not only our brains but also our biceps). Our whole life is a game.
FatalZone
How has the situation in the game market changed from your perspective?
At the beginning of the year, the market seemed to be in a state of “Oh, I’m dying!”. By the end of the year, it strongly revived in the style of “I need more games”. As a result, a large number of different orders appeared. They’re not throwing money at the monitor yet (as it was in 2021, for example), but many different people and organizations want to make games. The world is definitely moving somewhere in the right direction.
How was the year for the genre in your niche?
Our genre is Bullet Heaven (or Survivors-like). The genre continues to actively develop. This year saw many projects from indie teams. There were also releases from genre giants. For example, at the beginning of the year, Brotato came out on consoles, and then got its first paid DLC, which introduced co-op to the game.
Also this year, Steam hosted the Bullet Heaven 2.0 genre festival. Its organizers did an amazing job.
What trends in your niche do you expect to strengthen or emerge in 2025?
First, the spread of multiplayer in genre games. It’s really asking for it, and genre leaders have already taken the first steps in this direction (Vampire Survivors and Brotato).
Second, the emergence of new subgenres within the niche. For example, our game Adrenaline Rampage can be attributed to a subgenre — we took the foundation of the genre and projected it onto a platformer. No one has done this in this form yet (there are a couple of projects with a side view, but we have significant differences). As indies, we can afford to punk (here a casual guitar chord sounds).
Adrenaline Rampage
Third, the active introduction of Bullet Heaven mechanics into games of other genres. The survivors’ mechanics are already actively used as a mode in various games, for example, in League of Legends (Swarm mode). I assume that more and more different games will introduce survivor modes.
What are the company’s plans for the coming year?
- Release Adrenaline Rampage in full release on Steam and consoles. We plan this for Q4 2025.
- Launch development of a new project. The concept and PnL are already there. It remains a small matter — to create the game! We know how to do that!
- We will continue to develop competencies that will help create good multiplayer games: PvP, co-op, rankings — that’s where we’re heading.
- Carry out the transformation of the studio into a group of companies — into an indie studio and outsourcing. Custom development and development “in the style of true indies” are two different developments: different pipelines, different corporate culture, different goals. The emergence of specialization will allow us to improve the quality of the games we create.
Source: App2Top.ru