Dear Community,
here you can find an extract of an interview with our CEO, Hendrik Klindworth, also talking about Grepolis.
Have a good read
________________
About you and InnoGames:
- What are (roughly) your responsibilities as the CEO of InnoGames?
As CEO I set the overall strategy for our games, am responsible for the goals of the different game teams and ensure that InnoGames continuous to grow in a profitable and sustainable way.
- If a young person is looking for a job today and can well imagine working in the games industry later, which course of studies would you recommend?
There are various entry-level opportunities, depending on the person’s interests and in which field or department he/she wants to work. For the more technically interested it would be for example computer science, business information or computer visualistics. For game design and game programming there are more and more specialized private schools which offer a degree program. Entering the games industry is also possible for career changers. A good start might be creating mods or developing smaller game projects for example. In the end, your own portfolio (with regard to graphics or projects) plays a crucial role when looking for a job in the games industry.
- Is the future only in mobile games or are browser-based games also still viable?
Mobile games have grown much faster in recent years, especially as those games are accessible at all times. Browser-based games will however continue to play an important role, because they can better present the full depth of a game. For InnoGames in particular browser-based games are very meaningful, because this is where we started and have built up a lot of expertise over the years. For almost all our browser games we have developed a mobile version, to allow our players to access their accounts at any time.
- In 2010, Fidelity (today Eight Roads Ventures) was brought on board with a minority stake. They have only been known as a venture capitalist, but this could not have been the question for you. Why would you bring in such a minority stake? Networking?
In 2010, we had just released Grepolis and wanted to continue to grow as a company. 8Roads helped InnoGames to become more professional in many different areas. Only with that, and the higher financial security, we were ready to significantly invest into the marketing of Grepolis and make the game an international success.
Relating to Grepolis:
- Do you, as the CEO, still take decisions specifically for Grepolis?
I don’t go into details any longer when it comes to Grepolis. It is more that I am setting the general direction and goals. One topic which is important to me is to improve the mobile version of the game and, above all, to implement features that are still missing.
- Do you currently play Grepolis yourself or have you done so in the recent past?
Not at the moment, no. The last time I actively played was in 2016, when I was conquered with about 10 cities.
- Is today’s Grepolis still the same game for you as it was when it was released back in 2009?
At its core, it definitely is still the same game. But with the new domination endgame, the heroes etc. it certainly has also changed quite a bit.
- Is Grepolis as a project still important to you personally? Do you familiarize yourself with what is going on in the game more than what would be required for your responsibilities as the CEO?
Since I have developed a pretty big part of Grepolis myself in the early days, it will always be important to me. This is why I regularly attend the Grepolis review meetings, to share and exchange information with the game team about any plans, updates or new developments.
- Do you actively read the Grepolis forums?
I pretty often read the German discussion forum, especially the feedback about new updates. Beyond that, I also take a look at the international Beta forum and the international version forums from time to time.
- Grepolis is labelled as a free-to-play online game. How much importance do you attach to the fact that paying players do not gain too big of an advantage in comparison to non-paying players? Do you think that the game is sufficiently balanced in this regard?
We try to achieve a healthy balance with Grepolis, where both paying as well as non-paying players enjoy to play the game. Based on player feedback, we often make adjustments in this regard. We have, for example, based on the feedback of the community in general and the Player Council in particular, made significant changes to the package sales, so that they have less of an impact on the competition among players.
- How does it feel to know that the elaborate and extensive battle system you came up with and programmed in 2009 still captivates players all over the world nine years after its creation and that no major changes have been made to it?
When we developed it, it was our primary concern to create a battle system which offers tactical depth, follows an inner logic and is transparent, at least to the more experienced players. At that time, we benefited from the experiences made with the development of our previous game, Tribal Wars, and we are really proud that the system was so well received by the players and has worked so well for so many years.
- Which direction would you personally prefer Grepolis to take in the future? More "casual" or more "hardcore"?
It is impossible to please everybody with just one direction. The idea behind our casual worlds was for instance to provide the less active players with a motivating gaming experience, while at the same time not to diminish or water down the game for our experienced players.
here you can find an extract of an interview with our CEO, Hendrik Klindworth, also talking about Grepolis.
Have a good read
________________
About you and InnoGames:
- What are (roughly) your responsibilities as the CEO of InnoGames?
As CEO I set the overall strategy for our games, am responsible for the goals of the different game teams and ensure that InnoGames continuous to grow in a profitable and sustainable way.
- If a young person is looking for a job today and can well imagine working in the games industry later, which course of studies would you recommend?
There are various entry-level opportunities, depending on the person’s interests and in which field or department he/she wants to work. For the more technically interested it would be for example computer science, business information or computer visualistics. For game design and game programming there are more and more specialized private schools which offer a degree program. Entering the games industry is also possible for career changers. A good start might be creating mods or developing smaller game projects for example. In the end, your own portfolio (with regard to graphics or projects) plays a crucial role when looking for a job in the games industry.
- Is the future only in mobile games or are browser-based games also still viable?
Mobile games have grown much faster in recent years, especially as those games are accessible at all times. Browser-based games will however continue to play an important role, because they can better present the full depth of a game. For InnoGames in particular browser-based games are very meaningful, because this is where we started and have built up a lot of expertise over the years. For almost all our browser games we have developed a mobile version, to allow our players to access their accounts at any time.
- In 2010, Fidelity (today Eight Roads Ventures) was brought on board with a minority stake. They have only been known as a venture capitalist, but this could not have been the question for you. Why would you bring in such a minority stake? Networking?
In 2010, we had just released Grepolis and wanted to continue to grow as a company. 8Roads helped InnoGames to become more professional in many different areas. Only with that, and the higher financial security, we were ready to significantly invest into the marketing of Grepolis and make the game an international success.
Relating to Grepolis:
- Do you, as the CEO, still take decisions specifically for Grepolis?
I don’t go into details any longer when it comes to Grepolis. It is more that I am setting the general direction and goals. One topic which is important to me is to improve the mobile version of the game and, above all, to implement features that are still missing.
- Do you currently play Grepolis yourself or have you done so in the recent past?
Not at the moment, no. The last time I actively played was in 2016, when I was conquered with about 10 cities.
- Is today’s Grepolis still the same game for you as it was when it was released back in 2009?
At its core, it definitely is still the same game. But with the new domination endgame, the heroes etc. it certainly has also changed quite a bit.
- Is Grepolis as a project still important to you personally? Do you familiarize yourself with what is going on in the game more than what would be required for your responsibilities as the CEO?
Since I have developed a pretty big part of Grepolis myself in the early days, it will always be important to me. This is why I regularly attend the Grepolis review meetings, to share and exchange information with the game team about any plans, updates or new developments.
- Do you actively read the Grepolis forums?
I pretty often read the German discussion forum, especially the feedback about new updates. Beyond that, I also take a look at the international Beta forum and the international version forums from time to time.
- Grepolis is labelled as a free-to-play online game. How much importance do you attach to the fact that paying players do not gain too big of an advantage in comparison to non-paying players? Do you think that the game is sufficiently balanced in this regard?
We try to achieve a healthy balance with Grepolis, where both paying as well as non-paying players enjoy to play the game. Based on player feedback, we often make adjustments in this regard. We have, for example, based on the feedback of the community in general and the Player Council in particular, made significant changes to the package sales, so that they have less of an impact on the competition among players.
- How does it feel to know that the elaborate and extensive battle system you came up with and programmed in 2009 still captivates players all over the world nine years after its creation and that no major changes have been made to it?
When we developed it, it was our primary concern to create a battle system which offers tactical depth, follows an inner logic and is transparent, at least to the more experienced players. At that time, we benefited from the experiences made with the development of our previous game, Tribal Wars, and we are really proud that the system was so well received by the players and has worked so well for so many years.
- Which direction would you personally prefer Grepolis to take in the future? More "casual" or more "hardcore"?
It is impossible to please everybody with just one direction. The idea behind our casual worlds was for instance to provide the less active players with a motivating gaming experience, while at the same time not to diminish or water down the game for our experienced players.