VIDO opens a Hall of Fame for the legendary people and games of the Russian video game industry

The Video Game Industry Development Organization (VIDO) has launched the Hall of Fame — a project about the very best of Russian game development since its earliest days, and about the people who shaped the industry and its culture.

Public online voting on who joins the Hall of Fame opened on 6 October 2023 and runs for a month. It takes place in a VKontakte mini app at https://vk.com/app51742934. Since the Hall opened the organisers have been collecting suggestions for further candidates, and members of VIDO drew up a shortlist of 36 people and 37 games — this year it is for the public to pick the best among them.

From now on, voting for new members will be held every year. A nomination for next year can already be submitted at https://legends.forgamedev.ru/ if a person or a game did not make this shortlist.

The Hall of Fame currently holds those whose standing is beyond dispute — seven remarkable figures who shaped the industry enormously. Sadly, not all of them are still with us.
- Alexey Pajitnov, programmer and creator of Tetris
- Victor Savyuk, who brought the Dendy console to Russia
- Sergey Orlovsky, founder of Nival and developer of Rage of Mages
- Sergey Suponev, the legendary host of the television programme Dendy — New Reality
- Andrey Kuzmin, founder of K-D LAB and creator of Vangers
- Boris Repetur and Anton Zaitsev, hosts of Ot Vinta, the first and most popular video game show of the nineties

The Hall of Fame lives at legends.forgamedev.ru, but the organisation intends to bring it into the real world as well, with themed art objects in parks and public spaces across Russian cities and regions. Would you like to take part? Become a partner or a patron, or offer help in bringing a memorial place of your own to your city. VIDO can be reached by email or through the Telegram bot — all contacts are listed at legends.forgamedev.ru and on the official VIDO site forgamedev.ru.

About the organisation: 
VIDO brings together industry professionals — developers, designers, producers, company heads, owners, investors and others — around mutual support, protection and growth of Russian game development and of the video game industry as a whole.
Its aim is to develop the video game industry by backing significant projects and worthwhile initiatives, promoting them and opening them to discussion. VIDO works to build a positive image of game development and game culture in society, and to coordinate the work of investors, publishers, academic communities and corporations.

Press contact: Elena Tsoy kuksilover@forgamedev.ru, +7 (968) 504-24-27

Earlier releases:

A Hall of Fame of the video game industry will appear in Russia, 13 June 2023
https://forgamedev.notion.site/afef7c6af875498db46bdccd48ea273e?pvs=4

VIDO opens a Hall of Fame for the legendary people and games of the Russian video game industry, 22 August 2023
https://forgamedev.notion.site/7f2919c6412e40f688aed2be2dcecfc4?pvs=4

VIDO announces the start of public voting on expanding the Hall of Fame of the legendary people and games of the Russian video game industry, 6 October 2023
https://forgamedev.notion.site/de8ca2741aa6490a9532ee8bd1001102