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We are about to enter the PPM Office. I am curious myself, how it will go. So, let's
get in.
Hello.
Hi, come in.
Now we are going to take a look at the office where the game is being developed.
Come in.
This is one of our crucial offices, this is where our programmers work.
You can see that there are quite a few people here, although this is not our full
lineup.
This is our main programmer Vrato. He is talking with maxo about SMS payments.
Here are our theoretical developers.
Head of development vlady,
and Lukáš from marketing department.
And this is the last office.
It is a sort of a "half-office". This is where Andrej works. He is not here right now,
but he is responsible for the Tennis Duel project and this room also serves as the
kitchen.
Welcome to the PowerPlay Manager office. Alongside me I have tuttle...
Hi.
Could you please introduce yourself so that everyone knows who you are?
My real name is Ivan and I am one of the founders of PowerPlay Manager, which
has been working since 2007. My task is to take care of the project as a whole.
Can you tell us how did the nickname "tuttle" come into being?
It is a secret, but many people have already persuaded me to tell them...
I'll just say that it is based on one a character from a popular TV series, who
is a doctor that never existed and I am former doctor myself. So my nickname is
after Captain Tuttle.
Let's talk about PPM now. Some time ago you have launched the fan shop where
managers can order T-shirts or caps, but there hasn't been any news about this
since, so how is it going?
As far as shop is concerned, we are preparing a big and special promotion
that managers can look forward to. Apart from lower prices, we are also preparing a
special collection of T-shirts on the occasion of 1000 days of PPM. They will
have a fair price and they will also be very interesting and we will definitely let the
managers know...
Now let's talk about the mode of work here. What are the "office hours", or are
there any office hours?
We start work at 8am as is the standard elsewhere and we finish at about 4:30pm
or 5pm depending on how work goes. Now we are team of 15 members, some of
them are working from home and some of them are working here so the project has
to be coordinated. It's quite a large team of that we have now and it's not easy to
keep everything going smoothly.
When you were starting back in 2007, how many people were there?
In the beginning there were only us, the three founders. We were working on thing
during the nights, with tea at home. It was a very tough period, financially as well
because the project is financially demanding, we have invested an awful lot
into it. Not only money, but also time and we already had kids and it was hard
because our families didn't like the fact that we were working on something that
didn't bring any profit at that time. It was hours upon hours for weeks and months
when we were working together always in someone else's place.
So the beginning was very hard...
Yes, today I wouldn't go into this type of a project.
I guess we can't even imagine it?
Imagine going to work and then to second work and next day again the same thing
and imagine you don't earn anything from your night job.
Now when the project is on a very good level, what does your family say, did their
opinion change?
Yes, now our families take it as our living, because I no longer work anywhere else,
which wasn't the case before. Actually everyone, with the exception of a few
people who work externally, work only for PPM and it's their living. So yes, not the
families view it differently.
Has it ever happened that someone from PPM world visited your office like we did?
It isn't so rare anymore. Some people came from abroad, we had visitors from
England, Sweden, Norway even for several days. We often have visitors from
the Czech Republic. People come visit us here at the office or they come to see us
at the Bratislava meetings and have a small holiday here. It's not rare, but a big
interview like this is a first.
Managers are using meetings to get to know each other. Can you tell us what
meeting is coming up soon?
May is usually a good month for meetings. I am sure there will be a
meeting in Brno, also in Prague and near Prešov, all in this month. So, that's quite
enough.
Will you be visiting all these meetings?
Yes, we have a sort of an agreement that every time some members from our team
visits a meeting so that people can talk to us. We divide it between ourselves. I go to
Prague, others go to Brno and others go to the east of Slovakia.
Was there a meeting that stood out as the best, one that you cannot forget?
It is a very hard question because all of the organizers are trying very hard. I
would just like to mention the meetings in Brno which take place twice a year and
meetings in Prostejov are very good. Those would be the top ones. But nice
meetings were also in Croatia's Zagreb, Poland's Krakow, Hungary's Budapest.
Some people travel 1500 km just to get to the meeting, it is amazing.
Have you been on a meeting outside of Europe?
No, we haven't been outside Europe because it that would be quite expensive,
but within Europe we were in quite a few places.
Does it happen sometimes that some manager from PPM recognizes you and
greets you on the street?
Yes, to me it happened many times because I have got my photo in profile.
One of the most curious meetings is the one that I wrote about in a small article
about the polo-shirt in fan shop when a customs officer in Greece asked me if it is
really me when he saw my shirt. It was quite a coincidence because we don't
have many Greek managers.
Are you happy with the direction of the project now? Are you getting back what
you invested or you wanted more?
We are doing it a little differently, we always try to invest the money back into
the game. We have a lot more people working here because there's much more
work now. I am happy with that the company is the way it is. This is a difficult
time, but we are still here and we are trying to make the project better. We can't
say that the money is coming back fast, but like I said, we invest the money back
into the project and I hope that the people realize this and that they can see it,
although when I read some posts on the forums I have mixed feelings, but that's
the reality of it. I am happy with the project and the company...
So the money what you get you invest into the project all the time...
Yes, by hiring all these extra people, now we have three graphic artists, more
programmers, we have department for development and marketing so their
wages are also investments into the project. I didn't buy a yacht or a car ,but
the money stays here.
Finally, do you have some message for the community?
I would like to ask them to remain loyal to us and thank them for playing the game. I
would also like to thank all the team members, former or present, who have
helped us in any way. Also to people who aren't in the team who helped us just by
putting in a good word for us. Without these people, this project couldn't exist,
So thanks for the interview.
so thank you very much.
Thank you...
The end of the first part...