During his Casual Connect Tel Aviv lecture, Mirko Topalski spoke about Eipix’s growth through hidden object puzzle adventure games and the company’s efforts to expand into free-to-play offerings. “You can’t understand how big of a challenge (free-to-play game development) is until you actually start,” Mirko said. “It’s hard, hard, hard, hard, harder than you think.”
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Mirko Topalski is CEO of Eipix Entertainment, a games development company he co-founded in 2005. Eipix was his first business venture, so the past 10 years have been an enormous learning experience as the company has grown to over 300 employees. As he says, “Everything we did in that time — both good and bad — has helped us raise the company to where we are at the moment, and, hopefully, it will lead us to even greater things in the future.”
A Restless Mind
Mirko is also a musician and has used his ability to write the music for many of the Eipix titles. Although he is now too busy to do as much composing these days, every now and then he will “put on my ‘music man’ hat and try to compose something that won’t make people contemplate suicide.” A modest man, indeed!
In addition to his interest in music, he is also fascinated by “anything that helps me grow and evolve”; these include science fiction, science as a whole, fast cars and motorbikes. He describes himself as having a restless mind and a need to be reaching for seemingly unattainable goals, both personally and professionally. And he admits to a weakness for beautiful women.
Enthralled with Games
Video games have enthralled him since childhood, “almost to the point of obsession” he admits, and game development was always his dream. Possibly his parents suspected he would make this his career, but he suggests they may have seen only a wasteful little boy. But he went for his dream, and not only has he fulfilled his ambition, he believes there are even greater things ahead for Eipix.
If he could create a game without restrictions on time or resources it would be “something grand in scope and vision, a complete world with its intricate inner workings, a captivating storyline and a whole lot of strategy and fighting.” The games that come closest to his ideas are Starcraft and Final Fantasy 7.
Surrounded by Incredibly Talented People
Mirko loves everything about his work, but especially being surrounded by incredibly talented people. He takes pride in having given them a way to do what they do best and to continue developing as artists. As CEO, he likes to be involved in everything but is determined to avoid being someone who “stands in the way.” Rather, he cares that the games they make are up to his standards and ensuring that all who are involved with them are treated fairly, including the employees, the clients and the players.
When Mirko considers what his staff might think about him, he believes the best case would have them believing him to be “an industrious captain who always looks for new seas to explore and puts the interest of his ship and its crew above everything else.” And he hopes their opinions at least lean in this direction.
For his team members, he looks for those who are hungry — for knowledge, for improvement, for challenges, and hungry to prove themselves and realize their fullest potential.
Mirko has discovered that the most difficult, painful experiences always involve people. For example, in the past, Eipix had co-founder who left the company and established other companies which became competitors. By communicating openly and “trying to be good people” they moved past this situation, but he admits it was one of the most difficult moments of his professional career as well as one of the hardest times in his life.
Keep Striving for More
But his career has also included times and experiences that brought him great satisfaction. He considers the proudest moment was at EipixCon, when he stood to address more than 300 intelligent, talented young people and saw their smiling faces looking back at him. It was the culmination of 10 years of hard work and trying to maintain a healthy, productive working environment. He emphasizes, “Each year it is a reminder of how far we’ve come and an inspiration to keep striving for more.”
Mirko expects that the games industry will see tremendous possibilities with virtual reality technology having the potential to transform the industry. He believes player immersion is the key quality of every game, and virtual reality can enhance that. Eipix has already taken significant steps to explore the VR gaming landscape and is confident it will be part of their gaming future.
Practice Beats Theory
To anyone interested in a similar career, Mirko says, “Just do it! I’ve always been a big proponent of doing instead of considering. Practice beats theory nine times out of 10, and I believe simply throwing yourself into the thick of it instead of waiting for the perfect circumstances is the single biggest step toward realizing your dreams. Of course, it won’t amount to much if you don’t have a strong foundation of knowledge and skills and if you don’t do the legwork with research and preparation, but if you are passionate about it, you probably already have that covered.”
