10 Things You Never Knew About Persha Studia

When people think about the developer of World of Warplanes, they think: Wargaming! While technically that’s true, nowadays Wargaming is a worldwide corporation, consisting of dozens of studios all across the world. The studio in charge of World of Warplanes is Persha Studia in Kiev, Ukraine. Here are ten facts that you probably never knew about our entrusted World of Warplanes developer.

 1. In 2010 Persha Studia was the largest video game outsourcing studio in Eastern Europe, with 200 people working there. That same year, Wargaming asked them to work on a branch of French tanks for World of Tanks. They liked the result so much that they entrusted Persha with creating the next game in the Wargaming universe: World of Warplanes. This cooperation continued, until September 2011, when Persha Studia became a permanent strategic partner of Wargaming.

The Kiev-based team of Persha Studia. Can you spot our gamescom guest, Oleg?

2. The developers at Persha Studia work on several projects at the same time. While the biggest project is World of Warplanes, there are also four other departments based there:

• World of Tanks Generals: This is our upcoming World of Tanks-themed online card game.
• Web: This is the team responsible for the infrastructure that allows players to get to know our game community and to take part in contests and social events.
• Central Art: This department works on art content for all our tanks games.
• Social and Mobile: Persha also has a department that works on social applications such as the World of Tanks Assistant and the World of Warplanes Assistant.

3. Persha Studia employs over 500 employees in their offices in Kiev, Vinnytsia and Kharkiv (all in Ukraine).

4. Because of the increased number of employees, Persha Studia recently moved to a bigger office in Kiev that spreads over four floors!

The new World of Warplanes development building is called “Domino” – for obvious reasons.

5. The World of Warplanes development team has a fish called “Manager Bob” that’s been watching over the developers for a while now. Manager Bob is a Betta splendens – a Siamese fighting fish.

6. Persha Studia has two young female employees, Masha and Anya, who are known as “Jet Squirrels” for their hair colour and love of jet aircraft. When they’re not busy doing their regular job in the QA department, they provide cool videos for Russia’s recurring World of Warplanes news show. You can also find them on their Instagram page where they document their fun adventures around the office.

The “Jet Squirrel” girls with (left) and without their “work outfit” (right).

7. Solitary ground targets that stand somewhat isolated from larger bases are known as “breadcrumbs” to the level designers, because they are supposed to “lead” the players toward a specific route that will influence their approach to the target area.

8. The developers have a way of fondly naming certain player types with matching animal names when talking about their needs/performance in the game.

• Crayfish: A clumsy, often new player, who does everything backwards with claws for hands.
• Deer: This is originally a World of Tanks term which World of Warplanes designers started using for somewhat indecisive players who tend to act like a “deer in the headlights”.
• Crabs: Players, who prefer the slower gameplay of Attack Aircraft or other slower airplanes that allow them to better concentrate on taking out ground targets. Also, the shape of crabs reminds the developers of Pac-Man – who eats dots just like an Attack Aircraft “eats” ground targets.

“Virpil” is what the developers call players who excel at manoeuvring their aircraft (often also using a joystick). That’s a Russian abbreviation for virtuoso pilot!

9. Besides aircraft, the Persha Studia developers also handle the art assets vehicles for our other Wargaming titles. A total of 271 ships and 254 tanks were created here that are placed on the various maps of World of Warplanes.

10. The first plane that was ever designed for World of Warplanes was the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 G. It is also the plane that has undergone the biggest number of tests, changes and redesigns throughout the development of the game.

Manager Bob is watching you, pilots!