Alawar

Lore & Background

Alawar Entertainment was founded in 1999 by Novosibirsk State University students Alexander Lyskovsky and Sergey Zanin. The company's first department was game development, and it released its first game, Magic Ball (2002), a 3D arkanoid-style game developed by Alawar's own team (or a contracted studio, not Dream Dale), which was later ported to PlayStation consoles and iOS. In 2006, Alawar became one of the first companies in Russia to support SMS payments for its products. In 2008, the first games in the Farm Frenzy and The Treasures of Montezuma franchises were released. In August 2009, Alawar signed a cooperation agreement with Oleg Kuvaev, granting exclusive rights to use the Masyanya brand in games until 2014. In 2010, Alawar released around 15 projects for iPhone and iPad, including Treasures of Montezuma on iOS. In 2019, Alawar published the free-to-play battle royale shooter Watchers (developed by a different studio; servers shut down in August 2021) and Space Robinson, an action game with rogue-like elements. In 2021, Alawar published the 2D narrative detective game Song of Farca and the 2D action platformer They Always Run. In 2022, the company released the third chapter of the Beholder saga. In April 2022, Alawar announced the development of Necrosmith, a rogue-like Necromancer simulator released on 13 July 2022, which sold over 200,000 copies on Steam. On 6 March 2023, Alawar announced Necrosmith 2. On 5 April 2023, Wall World, a mining and tower defense game, was released on Steam and sold 200,000 copies in two months.

Reader's Guide

Alawar Entertainment has been a significant player in the casual and free-to-play game market since its founding in 1999. The company's early adoption of SMS payments in Russia in 2006 helped expand its reach, and its franchises like Farm Frenzy and The Treasures of Montezuma achieved widespread popularity, contributing to over 200 million copies sold. Alawar's portfolio includes award-winning titles such as Beholder, which won Excellence in Game Design and Best Indie Game at the 2016 DevGamm Conference, and Do Not Feed The Monkeys, which received multiple awards and was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival in 2019. The company's later ventures into rogue-like and battle royale genres, such as Necrosmith and Watchers, demonstrate its adaptability. Alawar's legacy is marked by its consistent output of commercially successful games and its recognition at industry events, including winning the Runet Prize in 2008 and being named best publisher at the Game Developers Conference in 2012.

Did You Know?

• The game Necrosmith, released on 13 July 2022, sold over 200,000 copies on Steam.
• Alawar's game storefronts remained operational as of late 2023.

From a University Dorm to a Global Studio

Alawar Entertainment traces its roots to the campus of Novosibirsk State University, where two students—Alexander Lyskovsky and Sergey Zanin—founded the company in 1999. What began as a small operation in Siberia would eventually plant its corporate headquarters in Lewes, Delaware, giving the studio a distinctly transcontinental identity. Game development was the very first department the young company established, and its earliest titles, Puzzle Rally and Bubble Bobble Nostalgie, set the tone for a catalog that would grow enormously over the decades. In 2001, Alawar expanded its reach by releasing Magic Ball, a three-dimensional arkanoid-style game created by the Irkutsk-based studio Dream Dale; the title later found audiences on PlayStation consoles and iOS devices. A notable early business milestone came in 2006, when Alawar became one of the first companies in Russia to accept SMS-based payments for its digital products, a move that helped it tap into a market still transitioning toward online commerce. These formative years established the groundwork for what would become a publisher whose games eventually crossed the 200-million-copy threshold worldwide.

Building a Casual Empire

By the late 2000s, Alawar had shifted its focus toward the free-to-play and casual gaming segments, and the results were transformative. In 2008, the studio launched two franchises that would become cornerstones of its catalog: Farm Frenzy and The Treasures of Montezuma. The same year, Farm Frenzy was named the best casual game at the Game Developers Conference, and Alawar itself collected the Runet Prize, a significant recognition in the Russian internet community. The momentum carried into 2009, when the company signed a cooperation agreement with Oleg Kuvaev that granted it exclusive rights to use the beloved Masyanya brand in games through 2014. Mobile gaming became a major growth vector in 2010, as Alawar shipped roughly fifteen projects for the iPhone and iPad, including an iOS port of The Treasures of Montezuma. This period cemented Alawar's identity as a prolific publisher of accessible, family-friendly titles, a strategy that ultimately contributed to the company's cumulative sales surpassing 200 million copies across its entire library.

The Indie and Serious Turn

Starting in 2019, Alawar began exploring more ambitious and genre-diverse territory beyond its casual roots. That year saw the release of Watchers, a free-to-play battle royale shooter that the company both developed and published, though its servers were ultimately shut down in August 2021. Also in 2019 came Space Robinson, an action game blending rogue-like mechanics. The following year brought Song of Farca, a two-dimensional narrative detective game, and They Always Run, a 2D action platformer produced in-house. 2022 marked a particularly eventful stretch: Alawar released the third chapter of the Beholder saga and, in July, launched Necrosmith, a rogue-like necromancer simulator that sold over 200,000 copies on Steam. By March 2023, the studio had already announced Necrosmith 2, and in April that year, Wall World—a mining and tower-defense hybrid—hit Steam and moved 200,000 copies within just two months. This era demonstrated Alawar's willingness to take creative risks in the indie and mid-core spaces.

Recognition, Scale, and the Storefront Shutdown

Alawar's career has been punctuated by a remarkable string of industry honors spanning nearly two decades. Beyond the 2008 GDC casual-game win and the Runet Prize, the company was named best publisher at the Game Developers Conference in 2012. Its title Beholder took home Excellence in Game Design and Best Indie Game at the 2016 DevGamm Independent Games Conference, while Do Not Feed The Monkeys swept multiple awards in 2017, including Best Narrative at DevGamm in Minsk, Most Innovative at 3DWire in Segovia, Best Indie Game at FEFFS in Strasbourg, and Media Choice at Indiecade Europe in Paris. In 2019, Do Not Feed The Monkeys was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival in several categories, including Grand Prix. Most recently, Beholder 3 claimed the Best Serious Game title at the 2023 German Computer Games Awards. On the business side, Alawar maintained a distribution network through its own website and an affiliate program, but on June 1, 2023, the company closed its game storefronts, signaling a notable shift in how it reaches players.

Gallery