Here at Pixel Perfect Gaming, we are big fans of Playrix titles, including the Splashdom series (Frosty Splash and Harvest Splash reviews). Playrix recently celebrated their 5th birthday in gaming, after checking out their site, grabbing some of their games and getting lost in them, it is not hard to understand why they have been around so long.
Here we have an interview of Dmitri Bukhman, President and CEO of Playrix so kick back, check it out and find out what makes Playrix tick.
Dmitri Bukhman, President and CEO of Playrix Entertainment
PPG: How did Playrix get started?
Dmitri Bukhman: Playrix was founded in 2004, however it all started much earlier, back in 2002, when my brother and I made our first foray into casual games. At that time I was a student majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. I was interested in crafting simple shareware games. My first game was created at home during the last month of my summer vacation. At some point my hobby turned into passion and eventually into a career. We started a company five years ago with four people on board. Today we have over 100 people who love making great games.
PPG: What game is your best seller so far?
DB: I would say that Fishdom is our best seller so far. I think, despite the wide popularity of hidden object games, high-quality and compelling match-3’s will always appeal to the audience. I’m positive it’s not just addictive tile-swapping levels that keep people hooked on Fishdom. Rather, it has a unique atmosphere with bright colors and a relaxing environment. Fishdom is a game where everyone can unleash their creativity, by decorating tanks to their taste and taking care of their virtual pets.
PPG: Offering such a varied lineup of games and gameplay, how do the designers come up with the concepts?
DB: I guess that’s the combination of exceptional talent and creativity of our team. Besides we are very passionate about what we are doing. Sometimes it can really be tough, but team work always helps.
PPG: The music in most of the games is exceptional, is there a chance to purchase the game music separately? Is one planned?
DB: You are not the first one to ask us about it, that’s why I am not very surprised. Once in a while we get e-mails from our fans with the same request. We’ve been working with great studios and talented musicians to come up with soundtracks for the games. Music plays a very important role in shaping the unique atmosphere of the game and we always try to make use of it. Unfortunately, at the moment you can’t purchase the game music separately, but we’ll consider this idea.
PPG: Do you have any prospects on what is the next big thing in casual gaming?
DB: I think that social gaming that is already having a blast will get even bigger in the near future. And we have started to explore this viable market. We have an internal team working on social games for Facebook, MySpace and vkontakte. Social games are all about interaction, competing with your friends for high scores and having fun together. What makes social games special for a casual games developer is that we can continue working on them after they go live, adding cool features and tailoring them to the needs of our players. Currently we have one game up on the social networks and there’s another social project that we’re excited about that will be going live shortly. (Keep your eyes peeled for it!)
PPG: Anything you would like to say to your fans?
DB: Thanks a lot for playing our games. We have a whole bunch of exciting stuff afoot for you and we’ll keep you in the loop on that. Happy holidays from the whole Playrix team!
This interview was made possible thanks to the great people at Playrix, not just Dmitri Bukhman, it would not have been possible without the assistance of Ms. Dasha Kobzeva who orchestrated this for us. To everyone at Playrix, thank you and keep on making great games and we will continue to cover them here at Pixel Perfect Gaming.
