VGTimes Interview with ATOM RPG Developers

Every aspect of ATOM RPG is made with care and love — this is what has ensured the game recognition among gamers all over the world. We interviewed game designer Alexander Kompanets and discussed the creation of the series, work on the sequel Trudograd, life in the nineties, burnout and much more.

ATOM RPG is a classic isometric RPG inspired by the first parts of Fallout. In the game world, the USSR after the nuclear war, although it turned into a radioactive wasteland, still retained the perestroika flavor.

We move around the global map in a restored Moskvich, look at plush Cheburashkas in abandoned houses, can become a victim of deception of the former host of the capital show «Drum of Fortune» with the face of Yakubovich, and save ourselves from a hangover with cucumber pickle. At the same time, the game works not only due to the nostalgic atmosphere, but also thanks to a good turn-based combat and well-developed quests, among which there are both absurdly funny and quite creepy ones.

Gamers highly appreciated the project's setting, story, quests, lore and gameplay — 88 percent of reviews about ATOM RPG on Steam are positive. Inspired by the success, AtomTeam released ATOM RPG: Trudograd in early access, which you can already play through in its entirety. The series' game designer Alexander Kompanets will tell you more about the games.

VGTimes: AtomTeam is a young team. In a short time, you have earned the respect of gamers from both the CIS and around the world. How did you decide to get together and start working on reimagining Fallout in the Soviet Union?

Alexander Kompanets: This is a provocative question. We haven't rethought Fallout. On the contrary, we are trying our best to show that we are not Fallout. Have you ever heard about our answer to something: our answer to Tesla, our answer to iPhone. Usually our answers to something end badly. They die before they even begin. That's why we avoid comparisons with Fallout. It suggests itself, because the games have a lot in common. But we are not the Russian Fallout, we are ATOM RPG.

And the history of the creation of AtomTeam turned out to be interesting. The founding fathers who initially started ATOM RPG had been hatching the idea for a long time. It was around 2008. At that time, they started writing their engine — it was customary to write an engine back then, and they are no worse, right? We even have a tech demo of what they did. It looks cool! Alas, the guys had no experience or money, and they gave up on the project. Some time later, they decided that the time had come, and began to assemble a team on specialized sites. That's how it all started!

VGTimes: I heard a story that you were fans of classic Fallout since childhood and were sad after Van Buren. But today the genre of classic isometric RPGs is not so popular. Even Pillars of Eternity 2 from the great Obsidian failed in sales... Have you thought about making a more popular RPG in the spirit of Dragon Age or Mass Effect?

Alexander Kompanets: I think that the development of ATOM RPG was a leap of faith, like in Assassin's Creed. Someone crashed, and we were lucky to end up in a haystack. Some people quit their jobs, including me: I gave up on everything, lived on savings and invested my own money in the project. We didn't work for money and buying a personal island. We had a goal: to make a game, and then let the grass not grow.

And everything worked out!

Perhaps the secret is that we are honest with the players and with what we do. We don't shout in advertising that we will surpass classic RPGs. We don't brag about big names like Chris Avellone. We just decided to make our own RPG and see what happens. In the end, we made it, and the players supported us.

Everyone on the team has an idea that it would be nice to make a game of a different genre, but the love for classic RPGs that brought us together is stronger. Fallout, Arcanum, Wasteland, Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate… The love for these games united us, and for now that's enough. It's enough that we have a common goal. At the same time, we are not going on some kind of crusade against everything bad and for everything good. We just do what we love and, it seems, it's working out so far.

VGTimes: So at the start, AtomTeam didn't have a clear plan, a financial cushion, or a stable salary? Did you just decide to make a game and that's it?

Alexander Kompanets: Yes. It sounds absurd in today's reality... If ATOM hadn't brought us a small profit (which wasn't enough for a personal island even in the Belarusian Sea), we would have continued working anyway. This is more important.

VGTimes: You went to Kickstarter when you were developing ATOM RPG and raised $33,000. Did this amount go towards salaries, contractors or something else?

Alexander Kompanets: Don't forget that Kickstarter also takes its percentage. Also, we didn't crowdfund directly, but through an agent — you can't go to Kickstarter from the CIS. So the final amount was less. Where did we spend it? We didn't pay ourselves salaries, you know? We just invested money in the game. And thirty thousand dollars is not the amount that would define the appearance of ATOM. So we had to invest our own money.

After entering early access, we started making money, which we primarily directed towards developing the game.

ATOM was made by eleven people from the core team and several people from the outside. These people worked more for the idea than for the money, because we couldn't pay much.

VGTimes: There were eleven of you when you made ATOM RPG? And how many people make Trudograd?

Alexander Kompanets: Eleven. Now there are more freelancers, but the core team has not increased.

VGTimes: How long did it take to develop ATOM RPG?

Alexander Kompanets: I'm not sure if we should count the period when the first version was being developed in 2008. We went to Kickstarter in early 2017. After that, we developed the game for some time and went into early access that same year. And then in 2018 there was a release. However, we continued to support the game and released updates. In March of 2019, a large expansion pack, «Dead City,» was released, which added a ton of content. We also supported the game with various events dedicated to New Year or Halloween... Even though it's a foreign holiday, you need to have some parity with the Western market. And this year we released an event dedicated to February 23. So development is always ongoing.

VGTimes: You mentioned parity with the Western market. Russian developers of Pathfinder: Kingmaker said that fifty percent of sales came from the United States, forty percent from Europe, and ten percent from other markets. What are your sales statistics?

Alexander Kompanets: Pathfinder is a more famous story and also a popular role-playing game. Plus, Avellone, a well-known personality all over the world, had a hand in it. And we got fifty-fifty. Half of the sales in the CIS, half in the West.

VGTimes: You said that sales don't allow you to buy an island in the Maldives. Off the top of your head, how many copies of ATOM RPG did you sell?

Alexander Kompanets: Initially, we thought that after the release we would have to disband and do other things, but in the end, sales exceeded our expectations. Instead of disbanding, we started making Trudograd. We did not become millionaires. We pay ourselves a very small salary and continue making the game. What we sold was enough to make a sequel. At the same time, we are now working at a qualitatively new level in terms of technology. Anyone who played Trudograd should have noticed that the level of graphics has increased incredibly.

VGTimes: Is there some approximate figure?

Alexander Kompanets: I can say that now we are approaching half a million copies. But you have to understand that ATOM RPG is not a new game, so we actively go on sale and do not sell at full price.

VGTimes: Half a million is really cool!

Alexander Kompanets: It's cool, but keep in mind that we did not ask for thirty dollars per copy. We ask for five hundred rubles or fifteen dollars. Usually, this is the cost of a project in the style of pixel art of average quality. We are selling a full-fledged RPG for sixty-plus hours. This is our conscious decision, because we work for our reputation, for quality. If one day we run out of money, we know for sure that we will be able to turn to the community and go to Kickstarter with a new project.

VGTimes: I've played many isometric games like Planescape: Torment and Wasteland 2, but ATOM RPG has one of the most developed universes. It seems that there is more text in the game than in War and Peace…

Alexander Kompanets: If we compare it to book series, we have more characters than in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. We have two writers who work on lore and dialogue. They work hard, because we understand that their work is our strong point. They are busy around the clock and all year round. Great job!

During the development of ATOM RPG, I also worked on some of the dialogues, but in Trudograd I moved away from this. We are an indie team, and in an indie team, every person is an animator, a scriptwriter, a tester, and anyone else. In a large company, you can hire a department for each aspect and watch how the work goes. But we have a limited number of hands, so we do what we can.

VGTimes: Many complain about the insufficient proofreading of the text. There are errors that occur in the dialogues. Do you not have enough time to look over the text again and correct something? Or is the scriptwriter already blind?

Alexander Kompanets: Blinded vision is the main problem. We constantly edit the text, but sometimes there are disasters. Recently, new items appeared in Trudograd, and I prepared a description for them — it went through two edits. During the update run, I read the description of the item, and my hair started to stand on end... We made two mistakes in one word. Three people saw it and everyone ignored it. We are already a little tired, but we continue to work on the mistakes. I think the text has become much better compared to what was on release.

VGTimes: Why did you decide to continue developing the universe after the release of ATOM RPG? Should we expect a new setting in a couple of years?

Alexander Kompanets: That's a good question. We are thinking about it, because working on one setting gets tiresome. Also, if you look at the community's feedback, you can see that people want variety. But I can't say anything specific yet. And we decided to work on Trudograd for a simple reason: we didn't finish the ATOM story the way we wanted.

Initially, we planned for Trudograd to be a small add-on for a few hours. And then we thought that we had an opportunity to improve the graphics. Then a new idea came. «Guys, we had a bunch of mistakes in the game design — it makes sense to fix them.» When we looked at the final result, we realized that it turned out to be more than just a DLC... It was impossible to combine Trudograd with the original game, there is a technological gap between them. It's like comparing a first-generation Toyota Corolla with a modern Corolla. It seems like there are four wheels and a steering wheel everywhere, but the difference is huge.

In the end, we decided that Trudograd would be a standalone add-on. But the longer we work on it, the better we understand that this is a separate big game. There are about 30 hours of gameplay in it now, and another 15 hours are coming.

VGTimes: I wanted to give special respect for Bombagan. It's a fun and cool mini-game. Who came up with the idea to implement a game inside a game? And how long did it take to implement Bombagan in Trudograd?

Alexander Kompanets: Bombagan was invented by one of our writers — he's a big fan of card games. At some point, he said: «Guys, let's make our own card game? Not the banal “twenty-one”, but our own.» In between working on dialogues, he worked on Bombagan. We didn't know how the community would take it, but we drew the mini-game, added it to Trudograd and... players liked it so much that they started asking us for an independent version. We're working on it now — an open beta test is already underway. If you have an Android phone, you can find Bombagan in the store and play.

VGTimes: But the separate «Gwent“ was not as popular with the audience as in ”The Witcher 3»... Aren't you afraid that the separate «Bombagan» will also fail?

Alexander Kompanets: There is a big difference between «Gwent» from «The Witcher» and the standalone «Gwent». These are different games. For example, I don't like the separate «Gwent». At the same time, inside «The Witcher», it is the most fun game. We decided not to create such problems: Bombagan in Trudograd and as a separate application are absolutely the same. Same rules, same maps.

The only thing is, when we started testing the stand Bombagan, we realized that there were balance issues. We are working on these issues: when we solve them, we will implement the changes in Trudograd. Perhaps I shouldn't have said this, because the final decision has not been made yet... But it is obvious.

VGTimes: There are very different stories in ATOM RPG. A minute ago you were laughing at the local Yakubovich, who dynamites the hero with a car, and then you meet creepy cultists, from whom the blood runs cold in your veins. Humor in this world successfully coexists with cruelty and madness. How did you achieve such harmony?

Alexander Kompanets: Players often tell us: «Guys, this is some kind of nineties, not a post-apocalypse.» And we say: «So? How are the nineties different from a post-apocalypse?» We took what we saw on the streets at the time. We are guys from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia... We were young at the time when the country fell apart, and our internal apocalypse happened. What we saw, we transferred to the world of the game. In ATOM, more time has passed since the catastrophe than in the real world, but the state has been destroyed, and the world is still inhabited by bandits. The fragments of the government that remain think more about themselves than about the citizens. Why should everything be good in this world? It shouldn't be.

At the same time, even in the most terrible times, you can smile when you come across some interesting and funny story. But this does not detract from the overall flavor of disaster, right? Therefore, in ATOM RPG there are funny tasks to find an item of underwear of an unfaithful wife, and a little later you find yourself in the sewers next to a terrible cult that sacrifices people.

VGTimes: So the nineties are the apocalypse?

Alexander Kompanets: I think everyone understands this, but not everyone wants to agree with it. After all, a lot of time has passed. We have a player who worked in the police in one of the post-Soviet countries in the nineties. Once he said: «Guys, everything is like in the days of my work.» So we were able to capture the spirit of those times, when there was real devastation.

VGTimes: Judging by the number of reviews and SteamDB data, fewer people play Trudograd than the original ATOM RPG. What do you think about this?

Alexander Kompanets: This is not a problem. After all, the original ATOM RPG is a finished game, and Trudograd is still in early access. I think you will agree that there were projects that ruined the reputation of early access. People are simply afraid to buy the game, because it may never be finished. Despite this, we have a lot of additions to the wishlist. People follow, watch, read our news. But for now they are just afraid. I think the main flow will be when the game is released. We plan for this to happen in September.

VGTimes: Will ATOM RPG and Trudograd be released on consoles?

Alexander Kompanets: Yes, there is such a possibility. We are slowly entering the console market. Almost a year ago, the Nintendo Switch version was released, and now we are working on the Xbox and PlayStation version. But so far no announcements. We hope that there will be more information by the end of the year.

VGTimes: You said that you think about different settings and genres. What are you planning to do after the release of Trudograd?

Alexander Kompanets: I hope that we will go on vacation. And as for the games: I can't say yet, because I don't know myself. We will support Trudograd. After all, within the framework of Trudograd, we would still like to tell a lot about this world. Maybe we will continue to make additional content for ATOM — there is a demand for it. This will also allow us to rest, because it is easier to work on an already finished project than on a new one. But as soon as we decide what will happen next, we will tell you about it. Moreover, I am sure that we, whatever the project, will most likely go to Kickstarter. Then I'll write to you and say, «Do you want to tell us about us?»

VGTimes: There are few of you, a lot of work, and tight deadlines. Aren't you afraid of burning out?

Alexander Kompanets: If some boss hit us with a stick and said, «Do it, do it, do it,» it would be difficult. But we work for ourselves. We don't have a specific manager in our studio. We have a «core» principle, in which each person is responsible for their own direction, mechanics, and features. We consult, talk, and make decisions together, but no one forces anyone else — unless we force ourselves.

If something needs to be done urgently, and you don't have the strength, you say, «One for all, and all for one» — and go to work. When you force yourself, you understand what it's all for. That's why I didn't notice any burnout. People get tired, but you can take a break for a couple of days, rest, go somewhere, and then return to work with renewed vigor.

VGTimes: Have you ever thought that ATOM RPG will probably never come out?

Alexander Kompanets: No. There were no such thoughts, because Kickstarter is a promise. People support and wait. It is a responsibility. When we entered early access, it became easier, because the game... here it is. There is still a lot to do, but it is already, essentially.

We have mistakes in planning, in the approach to development... After all, there are fewer than half of the team among us professional developers. Everyone else was enthusiastic. Now we can be called professional developers. Different companies often even show interest in us, but we refuse offers. We have our own little business here — we love it and will work until the end!

ATOM RPG: Trudograd is one of the most anticipated Russian games of recent years. Considering how passionate the developers are about their work, there is no doubt that the result will be excellent. We are looking forward to the full release and wish AtomTeam good luck and new successes!

What do you think about the ATOM RPG series? Write in the comments!

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VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has visited dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have collected many exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we got to a closed screening of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia CAGS, and also visited IgroMir several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers.