Creators of Arizona Games on how to mix MMO and RPG, full-stack with project and marketing to achieve success

Arizona Games team has become a representative of a successful combination of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) and RPG (Role-Playing Game). In this interview, Valentyn Gomeniuk, Stanislav Dmytrenko, and Ilya Semak open the door to a world where virtual reality is intertwined with creativity, and success is built on the courage to experiment.

Bio: Arizona Games is a game development company founded 10 years ago by self-taught enthusiasts Valentyn Gomenyuk and Stanislav Dmytrenko. The main portfolio consists of action-adventure games in the open world, which are the epitome of "role-playing games" due to their unlimited storylines and the possibility of making various decisions. In the first three years of its existence, the studio's projects grew ninefold. Today, Arizona Games is one of the millionth largest in terms of player visits to servers. The team employs more than 100 people and is developing new products. Ilya Semak is a strategic marketer who has been with the project from the very beginning. He dropped out of the institute to work in his chosen field.

- Good afternoon, Valeriy, Ilya, Stanislav. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Let's start from the very beginning. How did the idea for the project come about?

Valentyn Gomeniuk:

- Hello. The idea of Arizona Games was born quite a while ago, before 2014. Stanislav and I had a common desire to create unique games, a kind of brain changers and challenge the global gaming platforms in terms of, of course, not the scale that only ultra-investors have, but the approach, i.e. the creation of formats, creativity, and satisfaction for gamers. That's how we eventually combined global AAA projects with indies. The name Arizona Games showed that we are focused on creating not just one, but many games. Stanislav, can you tell us more about it?

Stanislav Dmytrenko:

- Yes, that was basically the case. Since then, we have moved forward a lot, starting with the modification of GTA San Andreas and gradually moving to the creation of our own role-playing games. The trick is a mix of MMOs and RPGs, where players develop the character's fate in different vectors provided by these formats.

- Well, Arizona Games is a bright representative of the merger of MMOs and RPGs. How did you manage to combine these genres?

Ilya Semak:

- It was a creative process that required attention to detail, audience, and a sense of balance. We wanted to create a unique virtual world where players can realize their role-playing fantasies, while the scale of an MMO allows them to interact and create their own stories together.

Valentyn Gomeniuk:

- Exactly, it was important for us that each player felt unique in this world, fulfilling one of the many social roles. We realized that it was cool. It's just cool to play, to spend time.

- Tell us about the in-game roles and how they interact in Arizona RP.

Stanislav Dmytrenko:

- In-game roles provide an experience of social interaction. Players can choose any role, whether it is a builder, a policeman, a banker, or even a media worker. The interaction is similar to the real world.

- How do technical aspects of game development influence the creation and development of a project?

Ilya Semak:

- Working in the game development industry requires full mastery of technical skills. It is a real challenge. Our development team has fully mastered full-stack development, which allows us to create and maintain a project at all levels.

Valentyn Gomeniuk:

- Technical aspects play a key role. We strive to constantly improve the gameplay and graphics, following the latest technological trends. But in our case, we also create them.

- How do you combine programming and strategic marketing, and also the project in the process of development?

Ilya Semak:

- Our solution is to move away from the standard thinking, which usually looks like this: identify target audiences, set up and run ads, look at the results, and if something goes wrong, adjust or start over.

The standard approach, of course, works, but it requires more time and budget for testing, and the business requires results "here and now." This is especially important when launching new products or announcing updates. Based on this, I asked myself the question - how to implement advertising so that it works immediately? Through trial and error, we found our own method - the first step should always be a very deep and thorough study of the product/project/business, not from the point of view of the marketer, but from the point of view of the client.

In general, we follow an agile approach to project management, which allows us to adapt to changes related to programming and at the same time effectively attract the attention of the audience through strategic marketing.

Valentyn Gomeniuk:

- Project management is actually one of the key elements in project development. We were convinced of this. We had to figure it out, but then we figured it out so well that I even wrote and published my own methodology, and now I'm a scientist (laughs). I just wanted to give beginners in our field a springboard. By the way, I'm grateful for the feedback from those of the new guys who wrote to us and told us how they used the methodology.

- How do you minimize risks?

Stanislav Dmytrenko:

- You have to learn from failures. You shouldn't be afraid to experiment, and the most important thing is to be open to feedback. We work for people, so we need to understand their desires.

- How do you see the future of Arizona Games and what projects are in the pipeline?

Valentyn Gomeniuk:

- The future is to work and develop the sphere, the virtual world. We have several projects in the pipeline. We are interested in introducing new technologies, following and creating trends, and pleasantly surprising our players. And not just surprise, but also respond to their requests. By the way, we will announce a new project soon.

Stanislav Dmytrenko:

- I can add that we also use artificial intelligence in our projects and we see its growth in the industry in the coming years. But in general, as Valik (Valentyn Gomeniuk - Ed.) said, our future is what we want it to be - working and developing. We like what we do, even if we are very creative, but we have created a system that is efficient and comfortable in its flexibility and openness to new things.