Jurassic Spirit: the game hit "Russ vs Lizards 2" was created in a year

A computer game "Russ vs Lizards 2" is being released in Russia and the CIS, the sequel to the 2023 hit. Izvestia learned that it took only a year to create a technological project, which is a very short time by the standards of the gaming industry. However, some experts believe that the second part can surpass the original. Among the reasons for this: the low price, the performance of the game on old computers and the appearance of dinosaurs in the plot.

What is the Russ vs Lizards 2 game about?

The first part of Rusa vs Lizards has become one of the most popular Russian games over the past five years, with total sales exceeding 730,000 copies as of March 2025. The creators of the series from theBratans company provided Izvestia with early access to their project based on the advanced Unity 5.0 technology engine.

— The sequel was made in just a year and with our own, rather small money, without attracting third—party investments, - said Daniel Kosachev, head of theBratans studio.

In February, the studio received the status of an IT company and even entered the register of the National Technology Initiative platform - it became an active participant in the Gamnet NTI market. The NTI press service confirmed that five core studio members and more than 20 external specialists participated in the creation of the sequel.

— If you played the first part, we recommend that you turn it on again and compare it with the sequel. The difference in performance is enormous, literally all aspects have been improved," added Daniil Kosachev.

According to the author, the team has set itself the goal of making not only a playable, but also a high-quality product in a short time. The safest way, according to the developer, to pay off is to create a sequel based on the popular first part. And first of all, we decided to add the opportunity to ride dinosaurs to the project.

— Dinosaurs are an important part of the mythology of the Rus and Lizard universe, it was impossible to do without them. They are the main allies of the Russians and loyal friends," he said.

The sequel to "Rus" is dedicated to the struggle of four Slavic heroes against the invaders of Russia. Perun's grandson and Sergei's son, the prince's son Vseslav the Magician, the hermit magician Viktor Korneplod and the fist fighter Mstislav Dubolyub participate in the battle with lizards and reptilians. The four of them will have to destroy hundreds of enemies, liberating territories such as Hyperborea, Baikal and Kvasovarsk. You can complete the game in four hours, it has nine story tasks and a separate survival mode in which lizards attack in groups, the number of which grows from wave to wave.

Pros and cons of continuing

Maxim Zalilov, senior lecturer at the Department of Esports at the Synergy Faculty of Gaming and Esports, believes that in order to repeat the success of the first part, successful experiences should be copied and scaled up, expanding and complementing the entourage, but without radically changing the successfully found balance between seriousness and ease. He recalled that in the first part, the authors found a middle ground between seriousness and pleasantness, since the primary function of the game is to entertain and give pleasure.

IT expert Sergey Pomortsev believes that a lot of humorous elements and references to national culture will make the game popular for Russians, but in other countries they will not understand such local things as numerous quotes from Shaman songs.

— At the same time, the game also has advantages: it works on weak computers and costs less than a bowl of soup in a cafe. Perhaps the low price factor will allow it to repeat the success of the previous part, since on average a modern game from independent authors does not cost less than 500 rubles," he said.

According to Alexander Gorbachenko, director of the Intercontinental Esports League and a leading Russian expert in the field of computer sports, it is critically important that developers maintain a sense of proportion and balance, not allowing subtle meta-irony to turn into glumness and kitsch. This is a rather non-trivial task, given the rather high expectations of gamers.

— In order to repeat the success of the first part in the familiar genre canvas about ferocious and treacherous green-skinned invaders and noble knights, familiar to us from Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994, the developers promised to add a lot of gags, including characters with comical names like Dubolub and the like, as well as "lizard math" and others. anachronistic reptilian technologies, including firearms and bombs," said Alexander Gorbachenko.

Unfortunately, developers of satirical games do not always manage to successfully enter the same river twice. Therefore, a joke repeated twice does not always become twice as funny, the expert concluded.

The game is released on Steam and VK Play platforms on March 27. The developers do not plan to expand the list of supported operating systems yet, despite the fact that Unity 5th generation games are adapted for porting to the domestic Aurora OS, but will instead focus on eliminating technical errors, bugs and crashes — there were a lot of them in the press version.

Of course, dinosaur rides will find their connoisseurs, but theBratans studio needs to think about how jokes are distributed over time and how they interact with the gaming experience, says Asya Chaschinskaya, an expert in the field of synthetic arts. The credit of trust given for the first part raises the bar of expectations and thus complicates the task of developers. The expert believes that the player will wait for the development, complexity and more thoughtful gameplay.