The team behind BUBL, an acclaimed series of abstract digital art apps for kids (numerous App Store Editor’s Choice awards and Best of App Store mentions) is now working on a new game for all ages, with Apple TV as a target platform. In Oleg Stavitsky’s talk from Casual Connect Europe, BUBL CEO discussed a path the Supersonic team took in game development. This team consists of two game industry veterans, a contemporary artist, a classical-trained composer and a DJ. Join Oleg as he describes how they made abstract digital art for kids to creating a party game filled with laughter, explosions and BUBL trademark visual extravaganza. Oleg stressed, “Anything you do, the game reacts, you cannot lose.”
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Even in Oleg Stavitsky’s younger years, gaming was a priority — so the BUBL co-founder and CEO isn’t surprised at the way things have turned out career-wise. “I was missing my classes in school to go and play X-COM on my friend’s PC… so it was a natural path, I would say. I ended up exactly where I wanted to be.”
Beginnings
When Oleg started out in the games industry, it was as a journalist for Igromania, Russia’s biggest gaming magazine.
“My background is both games and media,” Oleg says. “I have huge video game experience, and there was a moment in my life when I actually played every single game that was coming out, every month. Plus, during my time as an editor I became an IGF judge and met a lot of wonderful and talented people.”
During his time as Features Editor at Igromania, Oleg became fascinated with crossovers between digital art and video games.
“I always loved art and nature and when game journalism became my day job, I started dreaming about creating games that would be a crossover between music, nature and art. It was before all that indie revolution happened, mind you.”
Eventually, Oleg decided to make those dreams a reality and founded an app production agency, and BUBL came two years later.
Advice: None Fits All
When asked what advice would apply to people wanting to follow a similar path into app and game startups, Oleg says: “Don’t listen to anyone. I got tons of advice from all sorts of different people and I ended up going against most of them. And it worked!”
For example, Oleg relates, shortly after founding BUBL and while running VICE 3, business partners said it would be best to quit one of the studios and focus entirely on the other. “I did exactly the opposite, And it worked well for both of the companies — one thing helped another and vice versa.”
Artistic Approach
For Oleg, game development is a transformation. For most of the development process, the game isn’t at all aesthetically pleasing and you’re flying blindly toward what you visualized the game could be, but then close to the end, it’s like a switch flips.
“When you develop an app/game, most of the development time it looks like crap: some assets are missing, there’s glitches everywhere, sounds are missing, etc.,” Oleg points out. “You sort of have to imagine this game while you review all those work-in-progress builds. And then there’s this time when everything is assembled, all assets fall into their places and the app comes to life … And when you see that it’s working, it’s a magical feeling.”
Getting to that point takes a lot of work, however. Oleg takes this opportunity to share an industry-favorite joke: The first 90% of development isn’t as hard as the last 90%.
Oleg has artistic vision and a love for gaming, so finding a place to fit in the industry has been very fortunate.
“I was always a hardcore gamer,” Oleg reveals, “But then I never was a tech guy, I can do very basic coding, nothing complicated. And I always loved talking to people, assembling them in teams. So it was only natural that I ended up running a studio.”
Dream Game
If Oleg could create any game without restraint on time or budget, it would be an interactive sandbox model of the Earth: “its flora, fauna, water currents and weather seasons, etc., and let people play with it to see how their actions influence what’s happening with the planet,” Oleg says.
Oleg is fascinated with patterns and closed systems, and loves it when someone creates a system, explains the rules and then lets you play inside that sandbox.
“Sandbox games are my favourite,” Oleg says. “I remember visiting The Sims studio in California during The Sims 3 world announcement tour, and I was stunned when they showed all the social interaction experiments and prototypes they did for the game. I was amazed by how much science and research was put into the game where you control a character and tell him when he has to pee.”
Studio Family
Things haven’t always been smooth sailing for BUBL, but the team has weathered the storms and become stronger for it.
“There was a moment when I literally didn’t know how I was going to pay salary to my team for several months,” Oleg says. “I used all the money I was getting from my second business and paid my team. In parallel, I was negotiating a merge and acquisition deal with Fox&Sheep, which then happened and we are now a happy part of Fox&Sheep.”
Now, Oleg says, the BUBL team is almost a family. “We’ve been through tough years and good years, and we always stand by each other.”
When looking for someone to join the team, Oleg believes a successful candidate has to be a highly motivated team player. “Everyone is a partner in BUBL, so we never look for people who are simply qualified to do the job.” Oleg says. “We are looking for someone who is willing to have 1 a.m. calls, who is ready to work whenever and wherever they have to. They have to be slightly mad about what they do.”
