Creator of Heroes of Might and Magic - about good and evil, about gamification of education, about a special mission of the gaming industry

Technology Forum "Open Innovation" died down two weeks ago. But his echoes have not yet had time to dissolve completely. One of these echoes was the interview with Sergey Orlovsky, who was the speaker at the forum. On November 12, the president of Nival, Sergey Orlovsky, spoke with Alexei Komissarov on the RBC channel.

Nival is a Russian developer of role-playing and strategic games. Founded in 1996 by Sergey Orlovsky, who is currently the CEO of the company. Over 18 years of operation, the company has released many successful games: Blitzkrieg, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Silent Storm, Demiurgi and Allods. The Nival team is currently working on a number of PC and mobile games, including the most anticipated strategy of the year, Blitzkrieg 3, Prime World's role-playing strategy, which has won many awards around the world, innovative cross-platform Etherlords and Prime World: Defenders.

Sergey Orlovsky spoke about the role of computer games in the education of the future, about hit-makers, about the place and significance of the gaming industry in Russia, about the "window of opportunity" and the company's development plans.
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"Megamind" leads the most interesting statements from the interview .

About the recipe hitmakers in the gaming industry

Keeping up on the mountain is harder than climbing, as you know. But we are ready to change constantly. The gaming industry is constantly evolving. It is impossible, having made one successful project, to rest on our laurels and enjoy success.

We must constantly move forward and, in many respects, forget what you did before, what methods you used. Everything is changing: business models, platforms, game design, technology. Every two or three years you have to reinvent yourself.

Not all projects were shot at us either: some were better, some were worse. On average, the indicator in the industry is 1 to 10. We have 1 to 2, 1 to 3, depending on different periods, which I think is not bad.

But this is a hit-driven industry, and one successful hit pays for almost all the losses on unsuccessful projects. [Therefore] to have a fairly good ratio for successful projects is one of the main tasks, and this is enough.

About the benefits and dangers of computer games

I am not inclined to turn a blind eye to the flaws that games have. And, of course, not inclined to deny the virtues that they have. This is media. And, like any media, they have pros and cons. Can books or films be perceived as good or evil? It is like a clean sheet. What you depict on it will bring good or evil, benefit or harm.

One of the definitions of the game is a sequence of interesting decisions. Obviously, making these decisions within limited time, limited resources is a very useful skill.

Games can help people become more decisive, [learn to] make more informed decisions. This is a very useful skill.

On the role of games in the education of the future

I think that the role of games in education is very underestimated. In a sense, we lost the connection between game and learning, which we had 10 thousand years ago. We have not changed much since then. However, we practically separated education and game. Although these two things are very well, organically, combined.

My idea of ​​how education should be arranged in the future [is]: a person returning from work [or from school], for example, instead of watching TV for an hour or playing an [normal] game for an hour, he also starts the game, but it should be 20-30-40% of something useful and educational. [And] this should be so good a game that people themselves want to play it.

10% of global GDP is the education industry as a whole. This is about $ 7 trillion. 10% of this amount is 7 times more than the entire game industry in the world. If we use these resources correctly, we will be able to make such educational games that will be cooler than any Fallout 4, Assassin's creed, and so on. [They] will be just as interesting, but they will still have a very powerful educational potential.

Docking this with existing universities is very difficult. Therefore, we are, in fact, going our own way now, we are developing certain practices. We have several educational projects. We continue to develop this area very actively - let's see where we will be in a few years.

The value of the gaming industry in Russia

This is one of the most dynamic IT sectors. It is an excellent industry, on the one hand, for technological exports, and on the other hand, for cultural exports. And a huge number of countries, in fact, understood this many years ago. Those countries in which the game industry has developed most actively in the last five to ten years are Canada, Korea and China. Everywhere the state played a major role in setting the direction of the industry.

In the basis of two things - education and taxes. In all of these countries, tax rates in the gaming industry have been dropped to almost zero. In Canada, taxes were offset by grants.

In all countries where there has been a breakthrough there are institutions, universities that train specialists in the areas of the gaming industry: game design, graphics, programming, and more. We have practically no universities that teach producing or game design.

Cultural export helps to understand how people think. If you take complex role-playing games or strategies, certain [models of thinking] are laid in them. For example, if you play Civilization, then you understand that democracy is a more efficient social system than feudalism. This idea, one way or another, germinates over time. Or you play Assasin's Creed and go through the events of the war for the independence of the United States. It also gives a certain view of history. Books form a worldview? Form. Games are more powerful media.

We saturated the fantasy games we made with a certain number of our Russian cultural references. Or historical games like "Blitzkrieg" - we show a very balanced look at the events of the Second World War, which not all countries are inclined to show in this way.

About the "window of opportunity" for small game developers

So it was quite a long time - 20 years ago. But recently [again] there was the same moment, by the way, literally four years ago. Very small groups could achieve impressive results. [Then just] the mobile gaming market emerged, it was not yet saturated. So it was a few years. Now, of course, this window has closed again, and now quite large teams are working even on small mobile "toys".

About the company's development plans

We work in the global market. We compete with all the leading players on it. It is very important for us to have our own niche and not go beyond it, because the “ocean” is, of course, very large. Now in Russia, production has become competitive. Therefore, we have a plan to expand production in Russia.

Of course, we must understand that sales here have collapsed twice. Not only with us - everyone now has this situation. The basic model, which we now adhere to, is an increase in production and export to Western markets, which, by the way, with new projects we are now doing quite well. Previously, we earned 50% on Russian and 50% on foreign. Now we have up to 80% of Western sales for some new projects, which I think is generally very good.