K-D LAB was established in 1995 to develop games for the PC platform. In fall 1996 a publishing agreement for VANGERS title was signed with Buka Entertainment, a national game publisher, where they stood as licensor, selling the rights to an international publisher. Buka also funded the development. In parallel with long-term projects, we also created some small-scale logic games in order to test our game ideas. In late 1996 our game called Brainy Ball got Second Prize ($10'000) at ENIX Internet Entertainment Contest, a worldwide contest of entertainment software held in Japan by Enix Corporation, the famous console game developer.
In early 1997 we released a game called BIPROLEX+ as a freeware product, worldwide. In this game we combined two classic concepts, which made a new dynamic game based on well-known rules. The game held Internet Top Download 40 for seven months and we received favorable feedback from gamers from all over the world. We ourselves were addicted to it for a long time, so exciting it was. Biprolex+ can be found on many gaming sites and many people consider this piece of clean gameplay as a classic of dynamic logic games.
In the beginning of 1998 our MOBL project was awarded Grand Prix at the ENIX Game Software Contest II (the money prize of $200'000), a worldwide contest of most original computer games held in Japan, for being the most interesting game presented amongst hundreds of other projects from a great number of countries, including America, European countries and Japan. This game is an abstract implementation of a gameplay concept of Indirect Management invented by Andrey Kouzmine. It was coded in five days specially for the contest. We ported MOBL into Java and in the end of 1998 we released it as an online game.
In September 1997 we presented a demo of our first big game VANGERS at ECTS'97 in London. A few months later a publishing agreement was signed with an international publisher, Interactive Magic, for distributing our product worldwide. In spring 1998 a public demo version was released, which got on cover disks of all major game magazines. This demo has been holding Internet Download Top 40 for more than half a year, and has reached the third place.
In July 1998 VANGERS: One For The Road was released in USA and UK after receiving positive reviews at E3 that was held a short time earlier. In fall 1998 this surrealistic action/adventure/racing game with some RPG elements was translated into German and published in Germany and Austria. The product received rather diverse comments in the media and gaming web-publications. Vangers was called one of the most extraordinary and interesting games on the market in 1998 and received the highest appraisal for the quality and concept. By an estimation of Gamepen.com, Vangers was one of the hottest themes in the world gaming newsgroups in summer 1998. Here are some ratings from the press: PC Format: 80%, Power Play: 82%, PC eXtreme: 9/10, CGW: 3.5/5, Game Over: 90%. Also Vangers got an award in Next Generation for one of the year's most original games. Vangers received "Our Choice" award from a major national computer game magazine Game.EXE and the game got the titles Action'98 and Twister'98. For the first time a Russian project had such a privilege of being recognized by both professionals and the game community. In Russia, Vangers got the biggest publicity compared to other released titles, gathered a remarkable collection of various awards and became a "cultic" title for many gamers. For three years now we have been receiving letters from players, where they express their highest appreciation of our work and ask us to continue developing our game universe.
In 1999 we have started our new project codenamed Mechosoma built on turn-based racing, that later received title Spanking Runners. It's a cute game, where you control crazy vehicles with amusing animated drivers around funny obstacle courses using a lot of magic spells. This game has really unique features and based on our own 3D technology of creation and visualizing small round worlds with highly intensive and interactive 3D environment. Spanking Runners has already drawn attention of game industry professionals. The game was one of nine winners of Independent Games Festival and was shown in March 2000 at GDC'2000 in San Jose. Spanking Runners has received high marks for its quality and innovative concept. The project is being closely followed and previewed by all Russian computer magazines. Game.EXE, one of the most prestigious Russian magazines representing Russia at ECTS Awards contest, has already devoted two(!) front covers to Spanking Runners.
In July 2000 K-D LAB had became a long-term business partner of the biggest Russian software publisher and distributor, 1C Company. A publishing agreement to develop a full-scale unique RTS game PERIMETER for the world-wide market was signed between K-D LAB and 1C.
The game Perimeter was published by the 1C Company in CIS and Baltic region, and the company Codemasters became the strategy's world publisher. On the first international Russian Computer Game Developers Conference KRI 2003 project Perimeter won the Best technology award. On the KRI 2004, that took place in Moskow on 20-22th Februar 2004, the game got two prestigious awards. Perimeter became the Best PC Game from dozens of game projects, developed in Russia and CIS for PC, and also got the award in the nomination Best Game Design. After release the game also received some awards from Russian and western computer game magazines and sites.
In May 2004 a publishing agreement to develop a sequel of our RTS project Perimeter between K-D LAB and 1C.
Another unique product by Š-D LAB company - QD Engine technology. It is a professional tool for creation of adventure/quest games, which allows the only one setting-up person to carry out all setting-up stages: from content preparation and logic projecting to final realization and master-disc creation. Following games were set-up on the QD Engine technology - Little Longnose (based on a successful cartoon movie), Pilot Brothers. The Reverse Side Of The Earth , nd two small-scale projects: Ball-Frame and Nu pogodi! Edition 3. Hare Song.
Right now the company is also working on the Quest\\Adventure series “Pilot Brothers 3D”. The first part of the series “Pilot Brothers 3D. The Kitchen garden Wrecker case” was released in GUS by the 1C Company in October 2004. Now the team is working on the next part of the series.
In October 2004 the K-D LAB’s team announced the establishing of a new trademark – KDV Games. The KDV Games's team is using their many years of experience to introduce their own production & development methods to a range of consumers worldwide. First and foremost, KDV Games is working on the development of a toolset for the effective creation of quality entertainment software. A new unique technology Vista Engine - a professional tool for the creation of RTS\\RPG series is in development now! All the details about the team and our projects are available at the official KDV Games site.
Currently we have more than 20 full-time employees in the K-D LAB team, whose skill sets include almost everything necessary for game development. The company owns an office in a nice and cozy premise located near the center of Kaliningrad, the most western city of Russian Federation on the Baltic seaside. The company has solid management with its own development strategy and financial policy. Today the team includes project managers and producers, skilled technology and content programmers, smart gamedesigners and able scriptwriters, talented 2D/3D artists and animators, who bring their inimitable style into our products, as well as music composers, contributing with their original music themes. The company has formulated and implemented an original approach to real-time visualization technologies, which we continue to develop. Our proprietary hybrid voxel-polygonal technology Surmap has received favorable estimations from the press. This technology enables us to add absolutely original graphics to our games, which have no analogs on the market.
Most of our employees have several years of experience in the entertainment industry and received their degrees at higher education institutions of Kaliningrad. The company is a constant participant of annual electronic entertainment exhibitions in London, Los Angeles, San Jose, where we present our projects to the world's leading publishers, establish new contacts and acquire information about current trends in the entertainment industry. The company has a definite view regarding positioning ourselves on the world's market as a developer of unique and quality computer games designed for a wide range of consumers. We are aiming at establishing our own brands and creating series of games based on our own original ideas.
