Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have received many requests about game creation related to war. Speaking of which we were approached by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine to create a game that will raise Ukrainians morale.
A goal was to develop a mobile game that can be integrated into the official government application DIIA. We faced a new task - to develop a new game with minimum file size, running on limited capacities, which had to be done quickly, without compromising workflows.
Therefore, now players have the opportunity to try their hand as the operator of a «Bayraktar» unmanned aircraft, a symbol of modern warfare for many Ukrainians. We developed this mobile game in just 5 days, as our volunteer project, and it was successfully integrated and released last week.
How iLogos was developing the game for DIIA Company
DIIA - is a Ukrainian online service, a smartphone application that allows access to government services and electronic documents (passport, driver's license, insurance). DIIA has more than 12 million Ukrainians use the application.
Evgeny Gorbachev, Chief Product Officer at DIIA, asked us to help develop a simple morale-boosting game with player scoring and leaderboard features, as well as the ability to integrate the game on iOS and Android.
From the beginning, they had a more straightforward idea - make a 2D shooter. But after finalizing the game concept, our team offered to make a 3D game with some modifications. The project was developed quickly, and we constantly contacted the DIIA team and got immediate feedback.
We developed a mobile game and a virtual fight against the military equipment of Russian invaders with the ability to control Bayrakatar, a symbol of modern warfare for many Ukrainians. Our team created its first volunteer project and contribution to the struggle, to help and raise our people’s morale. The development of the game took 4-5 nights, taking into account all the bug fixes.
Work processes during the war
After the first call, we immediately started the game-design document, choosing a visually beautiful but simple graphic style LowPoly with hard edges. Next, the logic of the project and all the game's functionality were prescribed - moving the enemy's sight, explosions, destruction, calculation of shells, etc.
We collected everything in a heap and created a UI for the game. The first big edit came very fast. It was necessary to make the UI similar to the real management console of 'Bayraktar.' The same concerned the environment, i.e., the whole map.
Much had to be edited quickly, as the Bayraktar has a black-and-white camera. We had to repaint all the textures, invent the new UI scheme and assemble it with maximum space savings because the build must be slight.
We put it to the test once this stage of work was completed. The first optimizations were insufficient, so we had to refine the shadows to make everything look good. The following day a new build was accepted, so we started working on its integration.
Nikolay Minaev added “We wanted users to have the experience of a Bayrakatar operator and a similar sense of control.”
Our specialists spent about the same amount of time to help the DIIA team integrate the game into their application. The development project team consisted of six specialists from iLogos Game Studios, and one external specialist from another company was brought in to help.
After one week in live, DIIA users highly appreciate this "digital sedative", which helps them to relax and maintain the fighting spirit. More than 1.7 million users played in E-Bayraktar in just 2 weeks. With this project, the iLogos team wants to inspire other studios to get creative and volunteer for the country. We have good feedback and numerous thank letters from the users.
Evgeniy Gorbachov noted: “Taking into account the game’s success, we will most likely consider adding more games to the DIIA. But as for eBayrakatar, perhaps we won’t have the need for it after the war: we will need to think about what benefits it will bring to Ukrainians at this point.”
The team that was working on the game
We also want to thank everyone who was participated in the game development process:
