Globally, iLogos is a full-service outsourcing company. It covers all aspects of production, from pre-production, when it is necessary to develop game design documentation, market analysis, develop a visual style, make a prototype, to the live-action support at the stage of post-release of the game. The main focus is the Russian mobile industry, mainly on casual and mid-core mobile: this constitutes the company's key expertise. But now iLogos is starting to actively develop in the AAA direction. For them, game development is their favorite thing to do and their life's work.
Minaev said it all got its start with one of the founders of iLogos, Maxim Slobodyanyuk. Before iLogos, he worked on website development when the first browser games for Facebook and VKontakte showed up. At that time, sourcing was not standardized, it was not quite clear how to work with it. Nevertheless, Maxim began to develop games that were casual. The first one was his own, then there were custom projects. Over time, the company grew, and it turned into a fifteen-year history with an impressive portfolio. The total set base of games that the company has had a hand in is more than a billion.
The company now employs 250 people and it's still growing. This was originally a studio from Lugansk. After the events of 2014, it was decided to completely switch to remote work and adjust all processes to it. Since 2014 the company has been attracting people from throughout Eastern Europe, and there are also employees from Western Europe and the US.
How the pandemic has affected iLogos
According to Minaev, the stampede had the most effect. In the first months, when the blockage was introduced, no one at iLogos could understand what was happening and how to continue living, but then requests started pouring out of the horn of plenty.
Several factors came together. First: people started playing more games, the content consumption gained crazy momentum, and the updated calendar that used to be for games became irrelevant because people started consuming content at a faster rate. Secondly, if we speak globally about the history of Covid, we can draw a parallel with the Great Depression in the United States, when they started investing a lot of money in Hollywood, and it started growing because, in periods like that, people needed entertainment.
How remote working is organized
According to Minaev, one of the first and most important rules is that everyone should be on the same page. It shouldn't be the case that one part of the team sits at an office and the other remotely. iLogos has two offices in Kyiv and Kharkiv, but they are free to be visited. The people who set things up also have to work remotely every day. Nikolay himself has lived in Odessa for all those six years and is working remotely.
In terms of communication, everything is pretty simple: the team uses Slack, there is its own knowledge base where all HR processes are prescribed. iLogos has a bit different way of onboarding and checking people in by HR specialists: the company spends more time on doing this. More calls with new people to get them involved in the project more calls with leads to get them in sync. HR people communicating more with people, is everything enough, is it all clear.
There are no uniform rules for how to interact with your outsourcers. Each project is a small state with its own rules. There are people responsible for onboarding, controlling tasks, for communicating with the clients. All of this comes in a tree-like structure.
