“IgroMir” – the first immense exhibition of computer and video games took place in VVC, Moscow on the 4th and 5th of November. In spring, at the “KRI – 2006” exhibition (game development conference), the organizers realized the necessity of creating the analogous exhibition for gamers only. The entrance ticket to “KRI” was about 3 000 rubles but this couldn’t stop instant gamers. So they loosened their purses and saw all the innovations with their own eyes, visited interesting seminars, lectures and presentations. And now, at the beginning of November, the organizers of “KRI” opened the doors to a new exhibition of computer and video games “IgroMir – 2006”! The weather was frosty, the sun’s shining, kids were on vacation and students had holidays – all this has brought many thousands of gamers at the pav. ¹57 at VVC, Moscow. The developers of dtf.ru, who were responsible for the registration, noticed: “Well, we’ve surely surpassed all queues to McDonald's over the whole world taken together!”. And these words were far from being an exaggeration – a huge queue, guarded by militia troops, was twisting like a snake within a kilometer.
Just 150 rubles and you can enter this wonderful world of computer games! Although the organizers planned 30 000 of visitors within two days of the exhibition, on Saturday night they had to print more tickets. The ticket was valid for both days. The only inconvenience was a crowd during the latter part of the day; the sponsors were crying over spilt milk and regretted that they hadn’t given the visitors the bracelets with timers. After standing through that queue and entering the exhibition, the gamer not only didn’t want to leave it but called and invited his mates instead. And there was a reason for that – a PR campaign that had been launched before the “IgroMir” exhibition said: “IgroMir” exhibition – the analogue of the “E3” in Russia! Everyone’s invited!”.
The “IgroMir” exhibition was a precise name! Beautiful and expensive stands, new projects, games, novelties in the electronic entertainment, a great number of visitors, contests, quizzes, shows, prizes, autographs of famous people in the game industry… and much more!
Our company “World Forge” presented the “Ancient Wars: Sparta” RTS. The stand was located on the first floor, in the hall to the left of the exhibition center. Everyone could not only enjoy the game trailer, posters on the stand and take their photos with a Greek girl, but also play the demo-version the game.
There was a huge banner hanging over the stand and the stand itself was decorated by the poster with a Persian warrior on it. To the left of the stand there was a rotating cube with colorful artworks of logotypes of the developers, publishers and sponsors. If there was a contest, whose stand was better, then “Sparta” would get the first prize thanks to our talented artists – Roman Tulinov and Lev Boiko.
On the second day of the exhibition there was a press conference for the press and mass media representatives. The conference was really fruitful. I told about “Burut CT” and “World Forge” companies, about released games and projects that were still under development (“Hard to Be A God”, “UberSoldier”, “UberSoldier” add-on, “Atlantis”). But the main stress was made on the RTS presented at this exhibition – “Ancient Wars: Sparta”.
I was answering questions about the graphics engine which supports the latest graphic technologies (Parallax, Chrome, Bump mappings, Specular, Shadow map), physical model as an element of the gameplay (buildings consist of physical objects, the physics influences on units and many other features). The so-called presentation was closed by the storm of applause. After the press conference the journalists were being delighted by the graphics, interested in the storyline depth and sincerely excited about its realistic statement, surprised by the huge number of units and their detalization. It was really great to represent such a project.
Well, dear colleagues and gamers, they say that “Every cook praises his own broth”, so in spite of the fact that this game is really worthwhile, it’s up to you to decide how good it really is.
The release of our game will take place on the 1st of December 2006 in the “Renaissance” hotel!
