Written by Anna Stark
The story of how a small game development firm turned into an extraordinary gaming studio, HitBerry Games, is an interesting one. Know the excerpts of the GoodFirms interview of Julia Zolotarenko - the CEO and Co-Founder of HitBerry Games.
A Portugal-based mobile games development studio with Ukrainian roots - HitBerry Games, was established in 2020 to create casual, hyper-casual, and arcade games. It was the brainchild of a group of talented and experienced professionals who have a strong desire to create something unique. This dream team of dedicated professionals including the company's CEO have ample years of experience in the field of software development, game development & design, art, animation, and trend analysis.
In an interview with GoodFirms, HitBerry Games’ CEO and Co-Founder - Julia Zolotarenko discussed how the company was formed and what her responsibilities are, as a CEO.
Julia initiates the interview, sharing that HitBerry Games has created a wide range of genres of games for years. Earlier, they were totally focused on developing mobile games only, but now the company has grown and improved the quality of its services by creating VR games, NFT games, and PC games as well. Julia proudly shares that she spent 12 years serving in different managerial positions in various software and game development companies.
As the CEO of HitBerry Games, she brought a good team of professionals together and organized the working processes to apply her skills and knowledge efficiently. She said entering the gaming industry was the perfect solution for her. Today, the working strategies and results adopted by the company helped HitBerry Games to overtake the market and boost profits. Julia affirms that she desires to create her own team and deliver unique and high-quality products to its customers therefore, she believes that “loving what you do is the true key to success”.
When asked about the business model of the company, Julia regarded themselves as a young company, and their development strategy implied outsourcing in the initial four years to raise enough money for the development and publishing of their own game. Julia and the team preferred self-funding their business at that time instead of generating money from investors. Julia shared their future plan enthusiastically believing that the company is doing quite well now, and this is definitely going to help them in launching their own unique game in four years.
Miss CEO gives all credit to their immense experience in product management and work process organization beyond the gaming industry. Every step taken by the company is carefully estimated, analyzed, and performed after considering every single detail. She herself became the Product Manager for many of her teams which enabled her products to become profitable. Some of the customers of the company pay separately for providing management consulting services. She confidently says that the well-organized and cohesive work of their development team led HitBerry Games to achieve great results.
Julia reaffirmed that they cater to different customers and always look for a long-term partnership with mutual benefit. The company works with individual clients as well as large corporations. They have participated in many successful projects jointly in the global game development industry. Usually, the company covers the entire development cycle from initial planning to final release.
According to HitBerry Games CEO, a wide range of services is provided by the company to its global clientele. It covers the full development cycle, assets and tokens development, and smart contract development. The steps the company professionals follow for developing relevant software and solutions include Products and TA Research, Concepting, Prototyping, Production, Submission, and Post-production.
The domains in which the company works include Hyper Casual Games, Idle Games, NFT Games, Promo Games, VR/AR Solutions, MMP Strategy, RPG, PvP Card Game, Farming Simulator, Adventure/Simulator, and Shooter. The company is highly recognized and appreciated by all leading review and rating service providers and is ranked as a top game development company in Portugal on GoodFirms ranking list.
According to the CEO, HitBerry Games proudly possesses an exceptional customer satisfaction rate. The best thing the company enjoys is the customers returning and recommending company services to others. 85% of the new customers of the company turn towards it because of the recommendations of those who have worked with the company. As Julia asserts, the main objective of the company is to provide them with the best service. The company values the time and money spent by its customers and takes into consideration their all needs, wishes, and requirements. The transparent system of monitoring processes and the ability to hear at every iteration make the company different from others in the competition. As per tier client contracts, the company professionals fix all the bugs after the game is released. Hence, the company takes all the responsibility for the final result and always ensures that it comes the best.
Regarding the payment structure of the company, the HitBerry Games follow either Fixed Cost or Pay Per Milestone payment structure and the clients are free to choose whatever method suits them. As Julia reveals, the company also promises a transparent and clear payment cycle visualization. The payment is based on the number of tasks completed by each specialist along with the occurrence of general activity within the project.
Julia clearly confirms that the company professionals think about all the pros and cons before saying a ‘yes’ to a project. She agrees that they of course get engaged in profitable and promising projects. Still, they appreciate receiving strong motivation, unique ideas, and a great desire to develop something that the users enjoy and always aim to deliver the highest quality results.
When asked about the minimum and maximum price range of the projects that HitBerry Games catered for in 2021, the CEO said that the project price varies depending upon various factors. On average, the project price for a Hypercasual project starts at $7,000 and goes up to $4,50,000 for a mid-core game. Moreover, the company has also expanded the range of its AR/VR services along with creating a powerful and quality-promising pipeline.
Julia concludes the interview optimistically by sharing about the progress of the company in the coming future. She says, “We are proud of our achievements to date, and our long-term goals are quite ambitious. We aim to advance and improve our services. For us, each next client is a new ambitious task and we put our heart and soul into the development process. When I think about the studio’s progress and development, expanding the customer base and taking in more complicated projects are what come to my mind all the time. As for our plans for 2022, we are going to develop 20% more mid-core games, add 2 more successful NFT projects to our portfolio, and of course, keep on delivering HC game hits.”
The client reviews displayed below show perfectly how HitBerry Games treats its clients.
These are the excerpts of the interview of HitBerry Games CEO - Julia Zolotarenko taken by GoodFirms. The detailed interview can be found on the company’s profile available on the GoodFirms website.
About GoodFirms
Washington, D.C.-based GoodFirms is a maverick B2B research and reviews firm that aligns its efforts in finding web development and web design service agencies delivering unparalleled services to its clients. GoodFirms’ extensive research process ranks the companies, boosts their online reputation, and helps service seekers pick the right technology partner that meets their business needs.
About the Author
Prepared by Anna Stark, a Content Writer at GoodFirms, who bridges the gap between service seekers and service providers. Anna’s dominant role lingers to form every company’s achievement and critical attributes into words. She strongly believes in the charm of words and equips new approaches that work, always with concepts.