2024-07-29 12:35:14
The mysterious atmosphere is created by the space
We meet with Gust and Dovydus in one of the Kaunas coffee shops, but before that, the twins allow us to see the premises, carefully furnished with their own hands, located on Kaunakiemi Street. This is where the game called “One of Us” takes place.
The game space is surprising – you can see that everything has been thought out down to the last detail. After renting an old basement, they divided it into several rooms. Each of them is different and unique. One resembles an ugly hospital with a mannequin instead of a patient, the other has a clumsy desk, as if intended for a detective. In another room, the atmosphere is more cheerful – round balls are thrown on the floor. Right next to it is a bright green room with walls surrounded by plants.
The people of Kaunas remember that they were inspired by two games – the classic role-playing game “Mafija” and the computer game “Among Us”.
“We introduce ourselves in two ways. For the younger audience, we say that our game is similar to the computer game Among Us. However, it can also be treated as a “Mafia” game in real life.
It is a strategy game where some players are peaceful inhabitants and others are invaders. The civilians have to figure out who the intruder is, and the intruder has to trick the civilians. The game is suitable for people of all ages, it is intended to strengthen the connection”, Gustas told the portal lrytas.lt.
Gust and Dovydu quickly explain how the game looks like – at first, all players secretly get roles, and then they run around mysterious rooms and perform small tasks for which they collect points, for example, turning on a light bulb, placing balls according to color, solving puzzles. Just be careful – an “invader” who suddenly retreated can touch the shoulder of a “peaceful resident” and that’s it – he falls out of the round. The rest of the “peaceful residents” wonder who could have eliminated their friend, and the “invader” is left to prove that it was not his work at all.
“It’s a lying game that shows how people can communicate, lie, or see others lie. It tests the limits of people, how much they can handle stress,” said Gust.
“When playing, you can feel the creativity of people, the ability to think about something cleverly, to strategize,” Dovydas seconded to his brother.
Both adults and children play
City people of all ages come to the game “One of Us” for adrenaline: both men and women, both adults and children.
“We laugh at ourselves that sometimes we don’t understand exactly what our audience is. In the same week, some of us celebrated a bachelor party, while others celebrated a ten-year-old girl’s birthday. The contrasts are big, but we adapt to them to make it fun and interesting for everyone,” said Dovydas.
“Depending on the band, we can change certain things like lights or sound to suit any age group. We offer a slightly scarier option for adults, because they want sharper sensations, their stress tolerance is higher. We offer a simpler version for children to play,” added Gust.
The idea was born on a trip
The idea of creating a playroom for the people of Kaunas came quite unexpectedly. Gustas remembers – in 2022 he went on a trip abroad with his best friend. In their free time, the couple spent time watching various videos on the Internet. One foreign video caught my eye where people were playing a very similar game.
“Then I got the idea that it would be fun to play by myself. We started looking, maybe there are similar games in Lithuania, but we didn’t find anything. When we returned from vacation, the three of us sat down with David and started thinking: what would we need to play? Or maybe it could also become entertainment for others?” Gust said.
David was interested in the idea of Gust and his girlfriend. However, not finding anything similar in Lithuania, they realized that they must install the game themselves.
“We started looking for premises. When we saw this basement, we thought that its aura was right for us, the arches caught our eye. We saw a lot of potential. We rented it in the spring of 2023. That’s when we founded the company. It took about nine months to prepare the premises. I remember we went through the rooms, sprayed on the floor with a paint can, how the rooms would be arranged,” Gust recalled.
“The installation of the premises was the most challenging. We rented an old basement. We only had an idea, we hadn’t touched construction, so we had to learn a lot – dad showed us how to put together profiles, plaster… Step by step, we spent a lot of time on it every evening,” added Dovydas.
The construction work was followed by visualizations of each room. The people of Kaunas wanted each room to be different, to have fun tasks in them.
“We were looking for decorations, furniture. It took time until we created the atmosphere,” said Dovydas.
“There are challenges in bringing a computer game to reality. We came up with the tasks in each room ourselves. We try to make them interactive,” Gust added.
However, the challenges did not end after fully opening and accepting customers.
“As soon as we opened, there were a lot of things that had to be learned: how to work with customers, how to communicate clearly and clearly to them, how to film, edit videos, create advertisements. Tests await every day,” said Dovydas.
“We still remember our first customers. They played in six. There were a couple of players who were so engaged that we didn’t even think that anyone could like our game so much. It was a good first impression. Those people came with such burning eyes, they said they were waiting for us to open,” Gust smiled.
Both directors and cleaners are in their business
Geminis are not just entrepreneurs at the moment. They also have main jobs and study at university. So there is really no shortage of activities.
Dovydas is in his third year studying mechanical engineering at the Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). He also works full-time as an electrical network designer.
Gustas is also a KTU student. Here he studies economics. In addition, he works two jobs – he is a financial specialist and conducts kickboxing training in the mornings.
“The days are not long, so you have to maneuver between different activities. We are busy people, we cannot sit on business from morning till night. Therefore, we do not divide our duties here according to skills, but according to who is least busy. If I have a day off, I create advertisements, posts for social networks”, smiles Dovydas.
“It’s good that there are three of us. We always support each other. If one has to learn more, the others do without him. But we are not complete workaholics who work all the time. We try to rest, spend time with family and friends. Sometimes it’s difficult, but we have goals we want to achieve,” Gustas assured.
The brothers joke that their business includes directors, cleaners, painters, builders, and accountants. However, this is not scary at all. Not at all – the twins see it as an opportunity to be together.
“We look at our business as a rest from everything, as a recovery, a time together. This is a family business. The fact that we create entertainment also leads us forward – we can see people’s emotions immediately. It gives satisfaction”, said Gust.
Although the joint business only brought the brothers closer together, they admit that before starting everything, they heard more than one warning: relatives threatened not to work together with their brother or their best friend – they say that everyone will just get angry.
“So far so good, we’re looking at it from an adult perspective. We share the work equally, the profit too. I know only one thing – these are the people I can trust,” Gust stressed.
Dreaming of expansion in other cities
The twins are convinced that business is only getting better at the moment, and the number of customers is only increasing. Therefore, the interlocutors are already allowing themselves to dream about the future.
“We want to show people that this game exists and that it can be enjoyed not only by us, but also by others, even though it all started with us wanting to have a good time for ourselves.”
Our plan is to fully develop what we have now so that we can say we have the perfect option. Then we will be able to think about expanding to other cities,” said Gust.
2024-07-29 12:35:14