Two presenters from CM Games share narratives, insights, numbers, fails and plans on creating and nurturing premium live games for virtual reality, with Into The Radius VR and new products as the basis

1. Why Entering the VR Market
Aleksei Shulga
Producer
cm.games
Earnings and learnings from
Into The Radius VR and new products
Bohdan Sereda
Head Of R&D / VR

2. Who We Are
And why we are talking about VR
● CM Games (ex-Creative Mobile)
● Into The Radius VR
● Alexey, perspective 1
● Bohdan, perspective 2
● Who’s in the audience?

3. What is Into The Radius
Single-player survival shooter.
Explore the Pechorsk zone filled with
surreal landscapes and dangerous
anomalies.
● Requires tactical thinking, spatial
and situational awareness
● Realistic handling of diverse classic
and modern weapons

4. Stores
Steam, Oculus Rift,,Viveport
Launch
July 2020
Steam Rating
4 150 very positive
reviews (92%)
Awards
Best VR Game of 2020, Indie DB
Playtime
25 hours campaign,
50+ hours total
Discord members
5 000+
What About Numbers
Steam copies
150 000+
Wishlists
180 000+
Total net revenue
(Steam)
$2,7M+

5. ITR Now / Then
Spring 2017
Prototype start
3 months
to 1st pitch
(failed)
May 2018
First full time
employee
March 2019
Project started
(team of 4)
Feb 2019
Steam Closed
Alpha
Nov 2019
Paid EA release
July 2020
Leaving EA
Nov 2021
2.0 update
Feb 2022
Best earnings
month
April 2022
MQ2 announced

6. ITR Team
Producer Game Designers Audio
Designer
Programmers Quality Assurance
Artists Community
Manager
Marketing
Manager

7. Why I Got Into VR
● Transition from F2P to Premium
● Content drought
● Pioneer’s interest

8. Why I Got Into VR
● Quest 1 as a product got close enough to the audience
● New market surviving autumn → earning opportunities
● Premium live games business model
● Personal ambitions regarding product quality
● R&D autonomy

9. Why Into The Radius
● Idea behind the concept
● It’s a deep, full-scale game
● Setting:
○ Fantasy – oversaturated,
○ Sci-fi – too art intensive,
○ Realism – too restrictive
● Wanted to do lots of things differently

10. How It Evolved
Single Player
Battle Royale
Hardcore Single
Player Shooter
Midcore Single Player
Survival Shooter 2.0

11. Why Into The Radius
● Applying relevant experience to the project
in a challenging situation
● The setting invokes lots of diverse fantasies
● The timing of the project was just right
● Enough resources to pull it off

12. Why Live Games
● Scalable game concept, first game for the team,
new medium and scarce funding = Early Access
to validate, iterate and promote
● Market situation can contribute
● When your customer loves what you do, that really
makes a difference

13. Why Live Games
● Market situation with the buy-to-
play business model
● Reverse The Stegosaurus Tail
● Hades (2018) paved the way
● Company context

14. What Can Happen If You Have Live Game
Story of a bug turned into a community meme

15. What’s Happening Now
● Business model: premium, free updates every
two months, 30% discount on every cooldown
● Reinvestment in team development and quality
● Porting to Quest 2
● Live Gaming continues to evolve

16. What’s Happening Now
Prototyping, publishing, hardware,
platform contacts

17. What’s Next
I WANT TO REST

18. What’s Next
● Expand to new platforms
● Bridge the gaps in the
team's expertise
● Use what we have learned
about the audience,
the product and the
technology in the sequel

19. ● Franchise development
● Cultural development
● Success replication
What’s Next

20. What We Have Learned
What to do
Early and constant
feature scope control
What not to do
A prototype with
placeholder art and
open beta test it

21. What We Have Learned
What we will
keep doing
Looking for the right
people, self-identifying
What we want to
stop doing
Spreading ourselves thin,
following intuitive
predictions
What we want to do
differently
Develop skills, culture,
structure

22. Who Can Benefit from VR
● Small to medium teams, easier to be noticed
● People wanting to make exciting, immersive
and gameplay-driven games
● People wanting to make B2P games

23. Disclaimer: this is words on what could already happen
● What are teams and leaders' aspirations, composition, skills?
● Are you really motivated? Do you know someone who is
motivated?
● What’s your projected return on effort?
● Do you have enough funds and / or focus to bet on VR?
Who Can Benefit from VR

24. Who Can Benefit from VR

25. What We Think of VR Now
● VR is not a gimmick and not going anywhere
● The market is new, content-hungry and not overcrowded
with big players. Much fewer promotion budgets needed
● It's the closest we can get to pure gameplay

26. What We Think of VR Now
● Market impressions
● Production means (are you Valve?)
● Product landscape overview
● Intuitive and counterintuitive bets
● This is not an invitation

27. AlekseiShulga
aleksei.shulga@cm.games
Thank you! Any questions?
coauctor
bohdan.sereda@cm.games