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We met Victor at the last VentureConnect session in May. I remember perfectly the confident way he walked in for the first day of training: Public speaking with Lucian Mindruta, Marketing Manager Mediafax Group. Although he was very quiet at first, when asked to describe his value proposition, Victor nailed it completely. And it showed at the event: Victor’s presentation was one of the best — informative, entertaining, interactive. We loved it, the audience loved it – it was a success.

Victor is the CEO of Emotion Concept, company that developed BugTopia, a game described as a “miniature MMO with miniature characters”. And since we believe in the power that only great and interactive platforms are here for the long run, we wanted to know a little more about Victor, BugTopia and his team. As always, enjoy!

VC: What is your definition of a successful entrepreneur and what made you decide you wanted to enter the entrepreneurial world?

In a nutshell: passion for technology and a self-thought attitude. To be successful with anything in life you have to learn, plan and execute each aspect of the tasks required. So, into the business world, developing a product requires you to have direct experience and understand each and every aspect of it. This has always been my personal philosophy and, for the past eight years, I have been running my team with this in mind.

I’ve encouraged them to experiment with new technologies and concepts, to make mistakes, learn from them and deliver the best possible results. It is not easy to always push people forward, including yourself, but the results are always rewarding.

I’ve entered the entrepreneurial world at 18. I became a freelancer back then (a PFA by Romanian law) and one year later I founded eMotion Concept, company which I am running today. Over this time we have developed web applications, going into experimental areas such as building hardware and creating real-time market research call-center software.

VC: Could you tell us more about the concept behind BugTopia?

The concept of Bugtopia is „a miniature MMO with miniature characters”. In Bugtopia, the player is  meant to enjoy the full range of activities found in desktop MMO’s, but completely browser-based and installation-free. It is a based around general RPG (role playing game) conventions and emphasizes social online interaction and competitive and cooperative task completion. As you assume the role of an insect avatar, you also assume the dangers, goals and activities of your character.

BugTopia is a massively multiplayer online browser game, based in the tiny world of Harendar, a world of sentient insects. Playing as one of many insect avatars, the player goes on adventures exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, completing quests, fighting battles and interacting with Non Player Characters (NPCs), as well as with other players. The avatar becomes more powerful by progressing through the game – more specifically, be leveling up – and acquiring new abilities, skills and weapons and armor. As characters become more developed, the player also has the opportunity to define the gameplay of his character via customization of these skills and items.

The game is also defined by ongoing gameplay. Tasks and activities in the game are repeatable at each step of the gaming experience and the acquisition of the most rewarding items and and skills is only achievable through repeated, continuous gameplay. Thus, reaching certain goals and levels does not „end” the game, rather it gives the player the ability to consume any part of the content according to his own schedule and gameplay style.

Being a massively multiplayer online game, Bugtopia focuses on multiplayer and encourages player interaction, and many of the game’s activties (such as battlegrounds) can only be played cooperatively in groups of players. Characters can interact with one another, fight, talk, use emotes and form groups to tackle more difficult challenges, earning greater rewards.

VC: What made you choose a HTML5 experience?

We chose HTML due to many factors. The most obvious would be our experience with building web applications for just about anything, from ERP to real-time VoIP callcenter solutions. We have spent most of our time using HTML in other ways than probably intended and having experience with mixing standards and programming languages together, a game seemed like a challenging project from a concept standpoint rather than a technological point of view.

However, the most important reason is that HTML 5 is truly advanced. It provides the tools to create content as you see fit and move further away from its initial paradigm of static content generated by a server-side script. We found version 5 to provide the tech we needed to create a real-time, graphics accelerated platform, enabling us to deliver quality sound, graphics and multiplayer experience to the end-user.

But for HTML 5, this game could not have been possible and not nearly as entertaining.

VC: Do I need to have any gaming skills to play BugTopia?

The game addresses the player who wants to have quick and easy fun straight from his browser, without the hassle of downloading a game or paying a subscription, and who also wants to enjoy content with friends.

However, the wide variety of activities and the design of major game content allows for a broad cross-section of players. Casual players can enjoy short and rewarding game sessions, whereas more achievement-oriented players can pursue goals and rewards at their own, more „hardcore” pace.  There are activities for the exploring/questing audience, for the PvP minded players, for the comforting „grinders” and for the achievement hunters.

VC: The gaming industry is widely developed nowadays. Why is playing Bugtopia any different?

Bugtopia is different essentially through it’s broad and ambitious goal: to bring the quality and breadth of desktop online gaming to the browser world.  As developed as the browser gaming industry is today, it’s sill lacking the depth, variety and complexity one finds in desktop gaming (online and offline). Flash games and free browser MMO’s offer very basic and repetitive gameplay experiences, whereas BugTopia aims to bring a much broader experience, focusing on real-time, player-driven entertainment with content, progression and gameplay that is much more similar to large-scale desktop MMO’s such as World of Warcraft .

VC: Just to keep it fun & interactive: pros and cons for being a Romanian entrepreneur.

Pros: Many companies wish to work with Romanian software developers due to our reputation in IT and reasonable prices compared to western companies. In other words, a good value for money. Cons: specifically to our field of activity: lack of a formal IT R&D community on experimental or emerging standards.

VC: You started at 18, but is there any business you look up? Why is that?

There are quite a few but probably the most highly regarded, both from a culture and results point of view are Apple and Blizzard. These companies occupy different sectors of the IT industry, but they deliver outstanding results by working with their community, having almost an obsession with delivering the best experience for the end user and keeping things simple at the same time. It is amazing how both of them have a very limited products portfolio and they try to just build upon the good things these products deliver. Probably the most important things we’ve learned from them are: simplicity is king and a good product will take time to develop and attention to detail.

VC: And last but not least, you were part of the start-ups present in the VentureConnect edition that took place on the 31st of May 2012. Could you tell us more about the experience?

As a speaker, I didn’t have any expectations besides having an audience interested in new ideas and investing in them. VentureConnect certainly delivered and it was a bit of a confirmation of the value our product has. We have been developing BugTopia for two years now and having the people excited about our technology and game universe was exactly what we were looking for. What took me by surprise personally was receiving the 1^st prize for our pitch. At that moment I didn’t even know there was a prize to receive. It certainly put a smile on my face and all the BugTopia team.