"IGROMIR 2023" - "IGROMIR" is back!
Dear gamers, rejoice: "IGROMIR" is back! And it has returned exactly where it started its journey, and from where it left in 2011: in Pavilion No. 57 at VDNH. This event is doubly joyful, as we have been without "IGROMIR" for a whole three years... And finally, here it is! True, the area is small, and there weren't too many gamers, but this is just the beginning! I really hope that next time everything will improve. Meanwhile, I present to you a brief photo overview of the all-Russian festival of video game developers.
If someone forgot or didn't know where to go, the signs pointed the way. True, there was still the need to navigate through the construction chaos at VDNH, but can anything stop a true gamer?
There was no queue at the entrance, at least not like the ones we used to see here back in 2010.
The exhibition was given rather little space - for a start?
"IGROPROM" "nestled" itself only in a quarter of the former area of "IGROMIR."
It used to be brighter...
^2023
^2010
^2023
^2010
^2010
^2010
However, all this is not important! What matters is that the organizers managed to hold the exhibition after all.
The main organizers: Anna Kozlova and Dmitry Kutsenko.
The first thing that caught my eye upon entering was an invitation for training.
We are not just playing games here!
Someone was looking for employees, and soon the right half of the board was filled with ads from candidates seeking jobs.
The most comfortable spot was allocated to tankers.
Did you know that there is a museum of arcade machines in this pavilion? I didn't know! In my humble opinion, its owners made a terrible mistake by not making the entrance free for the two days of the exhibition: what advertisement they could have made for their museum! From my observations, visitors were in no hurry to go there: gamers didn't buy tickets just to pay the same amount for the opportunity to closely examine arcade machines.
Not allowed at the machines? But there are books, how could it be without them!
By the end of the second day, they sold almost everything.
Don't like books? Well, you can buy something else: for example, a 3D map of Skyrim; a passport cover with a coveted design.
Let's take a look at the Hall of Fame, paying tribute to the "founding fathers"...
...and let's go towards what we came here for: the games!
It's too early, gamers aren’t being let in yet...
...but medical personnel are already on duty: just in case?
To my surprise, there turned out to be unexpectedly many games - our games! - that I didn't have time to familiarize myself with them all.
People gradually arrived,
received commemorative souvenirs. (Someone paid, of course.)
And began to get to know the games more closely, we weren't an exception.
("We" - the three from "Gamer.ru": LootHunter, zini4thagrunt, and Doctor; and zini4thagrunt specifically flew in from St. Petersburg.)
"Kolovrat" - an adventure storyline action-roguelike; more detailed information is available here.
The weapon of the evil witch in this platformer is an oven!
Anton Zinoviev got "tied up" with this game for a long time; discussing many details with the creators and criticizing the unsuccessful spots, in his opinion. Overall, game designers constantly communicated with each other, sharing their experiences.
A "Heart of Altai" piqued my daughter’s interest.
She also discovered a bug: you can't enter the water, an invisible boundary won't let you. But if you approach the water from an unconventional side - and what gamer does not explore the hidden corners of the game? - then you will have to call its creator for help: the character moves easily underwater without scuba gear, but the same boundary that prevented entering the water keeps it from getting to the shore.
In "Roads of Destiny", I did not play but just watched how others play. And I made a comment to one of the creators of the game: in my opinion, they made the same mistake as Robert Salvatore, arming a hobbit... with a mace! And what damage will a half-kilogram mace on a short handle cause - with a more massive and dangerous weapon, the little one can hardly cope?
At first, I thought "Exilium" was created based on the movie "Constantine", but it turns out it was not. (You can find the game here.)
It extremely resembles the game "[How to Get Your Neighbor](/games?search=Как достать соседа)".
I didn’t find out who made it, for what purpose, or what the meaning of "this" was. Perhaps they started before 2014?
Who said Little Red Riding Hood should fear the wolf? In this game, she hunts, and not just the wolf. But not always successfully...
Oh! A strategy of indirect control! I played a little. Unfortunately, it was only on the first day. Just like the game "Blackness." (My daughter played it, thanks to her experience in "Dark Souls", she made it to the boss, earning the creator's approval.)
The game "Orientation", as its creators told me, was inspired by real events in a nature park in the Far East. Moreover, a real map of the park was transferred into the game, which is so large that ATVs are used to move in the game.
The next game called Finder I will describe in more detail. There is a maze map, and the player needs to find their way from the center to a point marked with a cross. The blue dots are ghosts; if they get close to the player - Game over. There is an invisible hunter on the map; if they reach the player - Game over. The player's location is not reflected on the map, and the surrounding buildings are identical. The only option: to get to the statues marked on the map and orient your position. The right-hand-rule does not lead to anything; the circle will close. Getting to the outer wall from the inside? It's possible, but the ghosts... However, you can hide from them in tall grass. My good friend passed the game on his third attempt, managing to "break" its ending: to the surprise of the creators, he climbed a tower and looked down at the city from above while the game should have ended when reaching its foot.
"The Day That Took You" is coming out in December. In the photo is its creator, Anna Kozlova, who is also the organizer of "IGROPROM", along with her team.
Meanwhile, special lectures for all interested were held in the hall on the stairs, presenting games.
On a separate site, they taught how to conduct a Stream most effectively.
In a word, there was a lot of interesting stuff.
A future gamer should be raised as early as possible!
I got caught up with the game "Song of the Spear", the process reminded me very much of "Warrior of the North". The player leads a Slavic squad (at least the heroes' names are Slavic) along marked paths, finds treasures, decides what to do when facing a challenge - free the bear from the trap or not? - and fights. I found two bugs: after completing a quest, the squad was not released from the zone; during a fight, one of the warriors threw a boar over himself and immediately rode it. Anton, however, "got stuck" for over two hours explaining something to one of the creators of the game. (In my opinion, the creator filled half a notebook.)
But most of all I was watching the game "Into The Abyss" from the Russian company "Biryuzki" (so secretive that I couldn't find out much about it.) The game immediately interested me with its isometric view. Some approaching referred to it as a "diabloid"; in my opinion, it has nothing in common. Unfortunately, I couldn't play it because I'm not good with the joystick.
My friend found "Finder" not enough, as he managed to drop a mini-boss into the abyss twice in a row, which was impossible according to the game creators. Along with the boss, a key flew into the abyss, and it's impossible to break doors in the game; he just barely missed finishing the first stage.
zini4thagrunt also "stuck" to this game, still giving instructions.
Meanwhile, the awards for winners began in the main hall. Anna Kopeykin single-handedly created the project "Save the Data", which received over a million views.
Teams that created a game in record time were awarded.
The program was capped off with a Cosplay parade. (I apologize to everyone: I sat in the second row, but the stage was poorly lit for my camera, so the pictures aren't very good. I took several shots from here.)
Morph attacked the jury...
...and was awarded for that.
That's it - sadly! - for now. I hope for a continuation - next year. Thank you for your attention! Good luck to all of you!