"In game development, you can lag behind the industry in a month" - interview with brand manager Evgeny Vasiliev

Evgeny Vasiliev is a jack of all trades who promotes games and the blockchain platform The Abyss for video game developers and gamers. The creators of the project in the future plan to compete with such a giant as Steam. We asked what it is like to promote a new product based on technology that few people understand, and how, in the end, to understand what cryptocurrency, blockchain and tokens are.

“You can't be unaware of such news” - about the ICO and the new gaming platform

Eugene, tell us what you are doing and what is now your responsibility as a brand manager

- The most interesting of the ongoing projects is The Abyss, a blockchain-based digital distribution platform. The idea itself has been in the air for a long time, and now some game development companies are starting to implement it in one way or another in their projects.

We are creating an ecosystem primarily for multiplayer free-to-play games with an internal cryptocurrency, where each player can earn money by inviting friends, getting achievements and creating game content (streams, guides, reviews, fan art, etc.). And similar benefits for developers: all players who enter the platform through their game will generate income for them, even after they leave this game for others. There are many goodies, it makes no sense to list everything here, they are described in the white paper on the project's website.

Thanks to the use of smart contracts - they are part of the blockchain technology - legal delays and additional confirmations are not required to conduct transactions. Transactions will happen almost instantly. It's just more convenient for users.

Before working on The Abyss, my responsibilities included PR, preparation and implementation of advertising campaigns, creation of banners, landing pages, interaction with partners and gaming media. That is, everything related to advertising and promotion of projects. Now this is a different job: we are promoting not just a game, but a new platform, entering the world market.

When I asked my acquaintances if they were ready to participate in the blockchain, most often I received the answer: “This is some kind of garbage, I don’t understand anything, I don’t want to get involved with it”. How do you work with it?

- In Russia, we are constantly faced with this. Over the past year, when the hype on the topic of cryptocurrencies and blockchain began, this word has become almost an abusive word. And we want to change the attitude towards this concept. The fact is that there were already many projects that announced themselves very loudly, but in the end they did not complete any of this. Or they even collected money, and then the owners disappeared, leaving people with nothing. This happened several times, and the word "got greasy".

We, of course, also use crowdfunding, but our main task is to create the platform itself. Destiny. Games, the founder of The Abyss, has been around for 10 years. The creator of the project became interested in the idea even before it began to force in the news. He himself participated in the ICO of other projects many times, is well versed in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He realized that such a platform was lacking in the video game market, because the blockchain simplifies a lot of processes.

In addition, there are a number of problems that everyone has been complaining about for a long time, but they cannot solve. Steam, for example, has a workshop where people can make mods and get a percentage of sales, but it is microscopic, so the community is not interested in doing this: the labor costs simply do not pay off. And we also want to fix this, because now we have all the necessary tools for this.

Do other countries respond to ICOs better than Russia?

- In general, yes. There are many markets now: China, Europe, North America. We work with everyone, so we have to constantly be involved in the process and react to events that occur in all time zones. Questions arise around the clock, people want to understand the project more and more.

Have you hired marketing professionals from the countries in which you are promoting?

- We have a separate marketing agency that works on outsourcing, and the people there specialize in promoting just such projects. They work with an international audience. The marketing company is headquartered in the United States. China is a complex market with its own foundations, which is not so easy to get into, so we need partners who help with promotion, being in China itself and understanding the specifics of working in this country.

We are actively working with social networks: we focus more on services that are popular in most countries: Facebook, Medium, Reddit. Although we use regional ones, the same "VKontakte" or WeChat.

When you came to the company, did you already know what an ICO is?

- Yes, one must be aware of such news. I was prepared for the fact that in game development you cannot predict what awaits you tomorrow, because this is a hellishly dynamic industry. Several years ago there was (and still is, although it has slowed down) a trend for mobile games. Everyone did them, then everyone started making VR games, now they are blockchain projects.

In game development, you can lag behind the industry for a month and stop understanding what is happening, so you need to keep your finger on the pulse. But when I found out that we were going to do a project on the blockchain and an ambitious product awaited us that would shoot the whole world, I thought: “How cool that I ended up right here and now”.

Wasn't it scary to engage in such an ambitious project?

- When such large-scale projects are created, you understand that before, in principle, there was nothing like this. Nobody knows how to do it right and how to do it wrong. This is not a labor lesson in school, where you need to make a pen from a screwdriver using proven technology. It's just that there is a specific situation here and now, with which you need to deal with, invest something of your own. It is important, based on your experience and the experience of colleagues, to make informed decisions and choose the best option. It's not scary, it's a really cool feature.

What to read to understand the topic of blockchain?

- There are specialized forums and sites about cryptocurrencies that appeared along with bitcoin.

There is a lot of information on the Telegram channels Mastrida, Mastvoch, Addmeto, and not so much about cryptocurrency, but about technologies and the world in general. The guys find good links with detailed explanations, infographics. For example, here's a video about why bitcoins are cool and how blockchain-based cryptocurrencies work. Not a bad educational program for those who regret not understanding such technical issues. I also advise:

a video from a Ted conference on the same topic;
a book about cryptocurrencies "The Bitcoin Phenomenon".

How long did it take to start collecting tokens from idea to pre-sale?

- We work in two directions. The first is ICO, the issue of tokens and their placement on exchange platforms. Almost everything is ready here, launch in January. On the technical side, we could launch in December, but there were too many legal issues, we had to take into account the laws of different countries, and we decided to postpone the start. The second is the development of the platform itself, filling with content, partnerships with game developers. Now we are carrying out preparatory work, the prototype will appear in the spring, development will take about six months, and the first version will be released at the end of 2018.

How many people are working on the project?

- More than 60, not counting outsourcing.

How did you organize your work processes? How do you coordinate the work?

- Key decisions are made by the founder and project managers. We use Google Docs, Google Sheet to coordinate the team. We have Jira as the task manager, the main messenger is Slack.

How to plan your day when you work with a large team? How to disconnect from work and relax?

- In addition to the main task manager, common to the entire company, you definitely need to use something for yourself personally. The simplest Todoist or Wunderlist, where you can write down tasks for the day, plan key tasks for the week. Or write down the results of discussions and meetings in a notebook, so as not to forget anything.

Free time should be devoted to sports or hobbies, at least walking after work and on weekends, cycling, snowboarding in winter, swimming in the pool - whoever likes what better.:) Charge to do. I do it every morning because going to workouts in the evening is not an option. You never know what time the working day will end, so it is easier to give yourself physical activity in the morning when you have time.

"Games will help create a more advanced society" - about new professions, machine learning and a bright future

How did you get into game development as a marketer?

- Before that, I made games myself for five years - it was a hobby. He was a developer, designer, animator, but in advertising, not in game development. And in 2016 I got to an open lecture at the Higher School of Business and Informatics (Higher School of Business and Informatics). And I was so hooked that I realized that game development is so interesting that I can no longer work at my old job.

The most logical way was not to break from scratch, but to take the course "Management of game projects", where they taught player psychology, game monetization, marketing, team management and much more. Plus a set of practical skills. This played a role, I met the most interesting people, implemented my own game project, which was cooler and more interesting than anything I had done before. The course and the project helped me to believe in myself and understand that I had found mine.

You took courses that defined your profession, taught at the School of Future Professions. Does this mean that the old ones are not needed?

- I taught at the CrushPro school, they understand that education lags far behind life, especially at school. The very approach to the organization of the educational process and school space drives children into a certain framework. At the School of Future Professions, for example, they teach robotics to children who have barely learned how to write: they do small projects, at the same time learn both teamwork and perseverance - not to stop, even if it doesn't work out right away.

I taught courses on game development for high school students and I can say that their work sometimes amazed: how do they do it at all? It's cool, and you need to give the guys the opportunity to try themselves in new technologies as early as possible. At the age of 18–20, they will better understand in which direction to move on.

Now, when information can be obtained at any time, it is especially important not to force you to memorize any specific things, but to teach critical thinking and communication with other people. Not to hammer in what is right and what is not, but to show how to try new things and look for an interesting area, to believe in yourself. If a person does not have a fear that he may do something wrong, then he himself will be able to find everything that he needs.

What professions will become the most in demand in the near future? What should you do?

- The position of Sergei Orlovsky from Nival Interactive is close to me. Machine learning will continue to evolve at a frantic pace in the coming years. Drones will also become commonplace, just like smartphones are now.

Already this year in India, tens of thousands of people have changed careers due to technological progress and automation, and this number will grow. According to forecasts, in the United States in the next 5-10 years, the profession of a truck driver will begin to die out, because it will be more profitable to put trucks on autonomous control.

Automation will affect the economy and leave many people unemployed.

The new stage of industrialization will be similar to what we went through in the 19th century, when workers went on strike against the opening of factories with machine tools that increase productivity, as they left people without a job.

There are several options for the development of events, one of the most interesting is unconditional income, that is, the distribution of benefits that will avoid collisions and unrest. But at the same time, people will have to be occupied with something. And this is where game developers face a challenge. The point is that games have become complex works. They contain psychology, music, plot, and graphics. Games have mechanisms developed over the years to attract and retain attention and reward the player for certain actions.

So: games will be made educational, motivating for self-development, they will contribute to the creation of a more advanced society in conditions where many people will not be able to work.

What to play now to understand which games are already combining education and entertainment?

In my opinion, now the most promising company that creates educational games is Luden.io. They have done it in an entertaining manner, interesting and exciting, moreover, in VR.

In general, you will need approximately such applied games that do not distract from the real world.

Life hacking from Evgeny Vasiliev

Books:

"Games People Play" by Eric Berne. There are many things in it that I remember and apply every day.
"Aggression" by Konrad Lorenz. Although it is about animals, animal instincts are very strong in us, which, after millions of years of evolution, could not so easily disappear within several millennia of the existence of civilization.
"The Eight Deadly Sins of Civilized Humanity" by Konrad Lorenz. The book was written several decades ago, but the urgency of the problems in it only grows over time.
The Psychology of Influence by Robert Cialdini. A handbook for everyone who wants to learn how to resist manipulation. It contains specific applicable things that you can use yourself and not let you use on yourself.

What you should definitely not do if you want to pump your personal brand

You need to be able to properly present yourself and your business to the audience. I am often asked the question, can an ordinary person create and pump their personal brand? From my own experience, yes! The main thing is not to confuse the creation of a brand with a banal window dressing.