1 garage, 1 old computer, 3 friends, and a crazy dream of making the next big breakthrough in the gaming industry was all LAST LEVEL had at its start. We didn’t look like a real contender on the market at all. Normally, a new business has some sort of experience, a marketing strategy, initial capital, and an office with a coffee machine. But we had nothing of the sort… other than a goal! Plus a pipe dream, confidence in our success, and a ton of inspiration. The basis of our first game, the Black Bird flight simulator, came from nothing other than pure enthusiasm.
Our debut game found its audience fast and took flight, along with our spirits. Also, it gave us enough capital to rent a miniscule office in an industrial zone and increase our “staff” to 5. When we got our first order to build the horror game CASE: Animatronics, we brought on another 2 staff members. Then we got to work on developing the Projectwar browser shooter.
2016 was marked by a new office, doubled staff, and lots of plans for the future. We were juggling several different projects, but most importantly, we debuted our first mobile shooter: Modern Strike: Online. Its reception was like the shot heard round the world! After its release in April, by June it already had 1 million downloads. Then when it hit the global market in August, downloads reached 5 million. The game stayed steady at the top of Playmarket and popped up at industry events everywhere, including White Nights 2016. At the end of the year, we also launched the beta of our new project: Next Day.
In 2017, we had 20 team members working simultaneously on 4 projects. To make sure everyone was comfortable, we relocated to a new 300 sq.m. office. Modern Strike: Online continued to set new records, including breaking 10 million downloads in February. In June, we debuted our new mobile shooter, World War Heroes, which incorporated the biggest battles of WWII with a large weapon/equipment selection. The game’s graphics and attention to historical detail helped launch it to success; we carefully studied the geography where battles actually took place. Our players were ecstatic in their feedback, and WWH downloads started taking off. At the end of the year, we started early access to our newest shooter: Infinity Ops.
In 2018, all our projects grew to new heights, with WWH topping 10 million downloads, and MSO rounding 30 million. To keep them supported and find inspiration for new titles, we needed more hands on deck, so we brought our staff up to 40. This also meant another relocation, this time to a fancy new 750 sq.m. office. We were busy with the test launch of our new computer game Steamcraft, and integrating an expansion into Infinity Ops typical for the genre, where players control giant robots. This might have seemed like a good place to take a well-deserved break and rest up, but not for us. We’ve got big plans and bright ideas going into 2019.