"Work hard, play hard". Interview with Eldar Satymov, Co-founder at On Off Games

We continue our series of interviews with developers and game industry experts. We managed to talk with Eldar Satymov, Co-founder at On Off Games.

Firstly, tell us please a little about yourself: who are you, what do you do, what do you like?

Taking our passion for gaming to the next level and combining it with our talents we established a professional gaming studio over a year ago. Despite all the challenges in our professionalization process, we have been able to produce successful works as a studio by reinforcing our dedication and integrity. Right now, we concentrate on idle arcade games and hyper casual games, and we hope to branch out into other genres such as hybrid and casual games in the future.

Tell us about how it started, how did you get into the industry?

CrazyLabs’ studio accelerator was a significant contribution to our professional development. Through the program, we were able to gain a great deal of knowledge in a very short period of time. Just in 6 month working with CrazyLabs we were able to publish our first profitable game.

Why did you decide to develop your own games? What game/idea has inspired you?

Different games available on the market, whether they were for smartphones or computers, always made us think how different would we make the game if we were the developers. Hence, we started making our own games.

Let’s talk about your studio, where are you located ? What is the size of the studio? What is your focus now?

We are located in the center of Istanbul. With a team of 8 people as of now, we are a rapidly growing studio. Our major accent is on hyper casual games as well as idle arcade.

Could you tell us about projects of your studio?

We simultaneously work on 3-4 projects. Every project has its deadline and expected standard quality. We very carefully hire our team members, making sure that their works will satisfy our quality expectation.

What are the results in 2022 of On Off Games so far? What are the key milestones?

For us,2022 started with a launch of our global hit game. We expanded our team from 3 people to 8 and kept growing. We moved to our new office located in the heart of Turkey’s gaming industry. We established new strategic partnerships.

What key news or events in 2022 would you highlight in a gaming market so far? And what they were in the last year?

In the second half of 2021 the success of VOODOO’s idle arcade games drawed our attention, in 2022 — the rise of hybrid casual and in-app purchases.

What 3 advice could you give to people who dream about developing their own game or opening a studio. What advice would you give to beginners?

Choose wisely your team members. At times, things can get very tough and only with good team spirit you will be able to overcome the challenges.
You have to learn to quickly adapt to the changes in trends and technology. The speed of your reaction affects your success the most.
Work hard, play hard. Especially when you start pursuing a promising concept you will literally race against the clock. Therefore your team should be able to put in extra effort during that kind of period. However, when it comes to leisure and holidays you should be able to rid yourself of stress.