Allods Team

Allods Team is a Russian game developer and a subsidiary of Mail.Ru Games.^[1] Founded in September 2006, it was previously known as Nival Online and Astrum Nival. On February 24, 2010, Mail.Ru announced the 100% acquisition of Astrum Nival from its former owners. From that point, Astrum Nival acts under the name of Mail.Ru. On September 29, 2011, the studio was renamed to Allods Team. The offices of Allods Team are located in Moscow, Voronezh and Bishkek.

Activity

The company’s central office is located in Moscow, Skylight business center. Skylight.^[2]

Allods Team is a developer of online computer games and mobile applications.

The studio created Allods Online, the first major Russian MMORPG, and is now working on the multiplayer online role-playing game Skyforge. The team has also released Allods Adventure HD, a puzzle game for iOS-devices.

The core of Allods Team includes industry veterans^[3] who developed internationally acclaimed games including Evil Islands, Etherlords, Silent Storm and Heroes of Might and Magic V. Professionals that played an integral role in the development of projects such as Pirates of the Caribbean, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey, Sphere 2, and Age of Pirates: Captain Blood have joined the studio to work on Skyforge.^[4]

Currently, the company employs several hundreds of people.^[5]

Company structure

• Vladimir Nikolsky — Operations Director at Mail.Ru
• Oleg Shpilchevsky — Head of Games Division at Mail.Ru
• Yaroslavna Glebova — Allods Team’s Head of Development
• Aleksandr Mishulin — Allods Team’s Creative Director
• Victor Surkov — Allods Team’s Art Director

The studio is divided into several project teams:

Allods Online

• Anton Turishchev — Head of Development
• Arkadiy Buyak — Creative Director
• Evgeniy Lashchev — Art Director
• Roman Gurov — Quality Director

Skyforge

• Aleksandr Vertyankin — Head of Development
• Aleksandr Pankov — Creative Director
• Sergey Makeev — Technical Director
• Anton Lavrushkin — Art Director
• Petr Ivanov — Quality Director

Projects

Allods Online

Allods Online is a fantasy multiplayer online role-playing game based on the famous Allods/Rage of Mages series of games.^[6] Along with the typical MMORPG activity (fighting monsters, completing quests, improving the characteristics of your character, etc.), Allods Online features the so-called Astral travels, a unique concept that gives players the opportunity to build and pilot their own Astral ship, which offers a variety of end-game PvE and PvP options.

Many elements in the game refer to specific historical periods of development of the Russian state, like some of the architecture.^[7] Kania’s, for example, is reminiscent of that of medieval Russia, and Xadagan is an obvious reference to the totalitarian regime of Stalin’s era.

Skyforge

Skyforge is a MMORPG set in a universe where mortals and immortals fight for survival against mythical creatures and invaders from space using cutting-edge technologies. Players start as immortals newly reborn into the world and vie to become gods themselves. The game has been in development since 2010.^[8]

First screenshots of the game were revealed at the private Skyforge showcase at the Russian Game Developers Conference 2012.^[9]

The game was officially announced at GDC in March 2014.^[10]

Allods Adventure HD

Allods Adventure HD is a puzzle adventure for iOS-devices set in the fantasy world of Sarnaut, the Allods universe.^[11]

References