2024-06-17 06:40:19
She went from a educated lawyer to a sport developer. Alexandra Lehenčenková, head of designers on the Prague department of the worldwide firm Wargaming, has greater than eight years of expertise within the subject of sport improvement. Due to the warfare, she needed to go away her house in Ukraine greater than two years in the past and transfer to the Czech Republic. “Making video games gave us the energy to persevere and proceed our work,” he says.
Like Poland or the Czech Republic, Ukraine has turn out to be a comparatively vital nation for sport improvement within the final decade. Nevertheless, the Russian invasion hit the gaming business there laborious.
The worldwide studio Wargaming, which is behind the favored video games World of Tanks and World of Warships, additionally has its department in Ukraine. Initially of the warfare, the Kyiv developer crew additionally included the present head of the corporate’s Prague design crew, Alexandra Lehenčenková, who spoke on the Sport Entry developer convention in Brno.
Earlier than Moscow determined to assault Ukraine, the developer thought-about touring overseas for work expertise. The invasion of the occupiers was a turning level for her. “My colleagues and I had been occupied with what we might do. The corporate provided us positions within the Prague department. I agreed, regardless that I did not know if it could solely be momentary,” Lehenčenková describes the tough interval.
She moved to Prague along with fifteen colleagues. The remainder of the crew remained within the Ukrainian department, the place, regardless of the continued warfare, new content material continues to be being created for World of Tanks followers. “Colleagues from Kyiv are wonderful. After the warfare began in 2022, collectively we ready a themed Halloween occasion and different tasks for the sport,” recollects the designer.
She noticed engaged on the title, during which gamers sit in armored automobiles and interact in digital battles, as an escape from the cruel actuality of actual warfare. “So we may let our imaginations run wild. We had been completely satisfied to design stunning new worlds for the gamers, carry them new content material. Briefly, it helped us.”
From the rights to the design of digital tanks
Alexandra Lehenchenko studied regulation on the Ukrainian Academy in Kyiv. After commencement, she labored as a paralegal, however by no means thought-about working in a regulation agency to be her calling. “The state, lawsuits, contracts, it is all filled with limits. It wasn’t for me, I longed for freedom,” she explains, including that she already dreamed of working in sport improvement as a baby. “However I had no thought get into the sphere, so I merely determined to bury this dream,” she says.
In the future, nonetheless, she determined to attempt her luck and despatched her resume to the Kyiv firm GrandMA studios, the place a sequence of so-called “hidden object puzzle journey” titles had been created. It’s a story subgenre of puzzle video video games during which the participant should discover objects which can be cleverly hidden in a scene. “They wrote me to attempt to put collectively a sport puzzle for the take a look at. Trying again at what I created, I truthfully should say that it may have been higher,” she laughs. Nevertheless, due to her enthusiasm, the corporate accepted Lehenchenko as a designer after the interview, and her profession in sport improvement may start.
Photograph: Wargaming
Many would marvel how the developer went from creating stress-free puzzles to designing sport mechanics for a world-famous warfare sport. “It is humorous. I’ve all the time been a fan of complicated on-line video games with plenty of interplay between gamers, like World of Warcraft and Last Fantasy XIV. That is why I needed to be concerned within the improvement of one thing like that,” she explains of the sudden change in profession path.
Now, after six years within the firm, he and his Prague crew create, for instance, particular sport occasions and different content material for gamers. “We are able to nonetheless develop. We’re including new enjoyable occasions, for instance we just lately launched a giant replace with Polish tanks and a modification of the sport techniques or a particular occasion to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Normandy landings,” he says.
We need to make the sport extra attention-grabbing for girls as effectively, says the developer
Though the design of the Prague department is led by a lady, in response to Lehenčenková, feminine gamers make up lower than ten % of the hardcore sport fan base. In accordance with her, the decrease proportion of ladies can also be typical for different areas of the gaming business. “For instance, statistics from the US present that solely 5 % of ladies play first-person shooters, whereas the upper illustration of ladies is in RPG video games (role-playing video games – editor’s notice), the place it reaches round fifteen %,” he describes.
Though warfare video games and historic shooters will not be as in style amongst girls, there are nonetheless feminine players who’re desirous about them. “We need to make our video games extra accessible and attention-grabbing for them as effectively,” he provides.
In accordance with the developer, the standard World of Tanks participant may be very particular. “A few of them even solely play this sport. Should you take a look at our followers, a great portion have been with us for over a decade and so they care loads concerning the sport,” he says.
In accordance with her, lovers have such a powerful bond with the sport that builders should be very cautious with any adjustments. “If we modify one thing within the core sport mode, we pay plenty of consideration to suggestions and historic accuracy,” he describes. The crew is attempting to stay to what gamers got here for when the sport first got here out.