«Triada Studio» compny’s Shadowmatic game worth of 3 dollars appeared in the App Store online store of iOS mobile operating system since January this year. Shortly after the publication, it was largely spread out all over the world and has won the best game in January. Articles about the game are published in such popular magazines as «The Guardian», the «Times» and so on.
Shadowmatic is a puzzle type game, where the objects consisted of 1, 2 or 3 pieces should be rotated in a way to come out of the required image with these shadows. In case of difficulty, there are paid hints.
«Triada Studio» company Director Ara Aghamyan, in the conversation with “Aravot”, said that they decided to create a game 10 years ago. Earlier, the company founded in 1993 was mainly engaged in computer graphics preparing advertising activities and visual effects for the films, and more. Therefore, the game was initially an unfamiliar sphere for the staff. “We had no clue about the complications. We decided to make such a complex game related to the Karabakh war. We were doing it in parallel to our work, therefore it was moving forward very slowly than we would like to. After a while, we realized that it was quite a challenge for us, as it is very costly, in other words, dozens of very high-level professionals are required who will work for years and it will become a completed product.”
Later, according to Ara Aghamyan, the idea Shadowmatic arose and since at that time the Apple iOS system was rapidly grow, it was decided to create it for this very system. “We wanted to release a game in more than a half year and after thinking long, we stopped on the idea of this game, because we thought that it has an interesting nature, our graphics has a very high quality for the time and the experience showed that 3 years later it is also relevant. And we believe that it is the guarantee of success.”
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He also noted that the Android operating system only years later was able to achieve the Apple and added that there are many break-ins in the Android. “By the data of other games, 95% are stolen games. While in iOS, this number is 40%. When we published Shadowmatic, a few hours later, its stolen version already appeared on the Internet. It is useless to fight against it, because the player of a stolen game will always behave so.”
Overall, the game was elaborated in 3 years. Four people worked in it, one of whom was a programmer, the other – a designer and one musician. “Pretty much attention is given to the music, which means that the musician was from our team and he was participating in all meetings and was perfectly feeling the game and the spirit.” The head of the company was reluctant to divulge data about downloads promising that he will do in the future. Referring to the number of downloads in Armenia, he said that they are very few. “Armenia has a small market”.
Xbox and Playstation computers have a chance to online devices to rule the games in the air and manually. To our question of whether it is possible to see Shadowmatic for computers in the future, Ara Aghamyan replied, “We have not thought about it. I suppose it’s possible, simply manually movable devices have a problem with the accuracy. There could be a move of millimeter in our game to get the right image, while the device may not support it. We have not thought in that direction. We do not rule out, but it is still too early to talk about it.”
To the observation that a number of users complain that the game is Armenia, but does not have settings in Armenian language, Mr. Aghamyan responded that they are already made and will be available soon at the App Store in the form of an update. “There will be other innovations too. The new update also enables passing to some stages more easily, because there were a lot of complaints made that they suffer a lot for this millimeter.” However, the game has some Armenian elements. “The game also contains some Armenian letters on the map and the photo of Komitas in one of the rooms, but there are no obvious vulgar things. Once the game starts, immediately, the letter “A” is distinguished on the map.”
Mr. Aghamyan did not rule out that the game may become free in the future or there will be a kind of sale. “Some time later, there can be some other things. We have not yet decided when and whether it will happen or not, but we do not rule out.”
Ashot ISRAELYAN
