IzHard

Our history begins in November 2014 when three college students who had never developed games and even didn't know each other decided to participate in their first hackathon. During the hackathon the idea of a black and white game was born and we named the project OVIVO.

After winning the hackathon we were invited to participate in the international student competition from Microsoft Imagine Cup. There were several stages of selection in each of which we had to present the game to professionals in the gaming industry, media, and television. Among the judges were such people as Jens Bergensten, Thomas Middleditch and Alexey Pajitnov.

Our project passed all the selection stages and our team was invited to the international finals in Seattle. We had to compete with teams from other countries and prove the viability of our project. Judges were really impressed with our game and we managed to win the finals becoming the best game of Imagine Cup 2015 and receiving a financial grant to help us with future development

As of today, we no longer have a formal studio, and we try to make games in our free time outside of work. The team members of IzHard are from around the world: Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. Nowadays, not all of us are working on our next game, but our friendship has grown beyond just working together. 

All of us are against the war in Ukraine, and we hope that our small example of an international team with a mix of different cultures will inspire people toward world peace and collaboration.