Company History

K-D LAB was officially established in 1995 by a group of students from the Kaliningrad State University (now known as Immanuel Kant Baltic State University). The team had begun working together around 1992 and was engaged in real-time visualization of virtual spaces, interface development and realization of in-house playable concepts. Since then the company and its management has consisted mainly of specialists with University Degrees in Mathematics or Physics.

The graphics engine developed by K-D LAB aroused interest right away. The company was awarded a prize at the festival of computer graphics and animation Anigraph in Moscow.

The studio began development of the game Vangers, based on the award-winning engine. A publishing agreement for the title was signed with Buka Entertainment, a national publisher. Buka also funded the development.

During the development of Vangers, the company grew considerably and achieved success in various fields.

One of the parallel projects, a small-scale logic game, Brainy Ball won the Second Prize at ENIX Internet Entertainment Contest, a worldwide contest for entertainment software held in Japan by Enix Corporation, the famous console game developer.

Another small project, Biprolex+ was released as a worldwide freeware product. The game combined two popular game play mechanics: “Tetris” and “Arkanoid” on a single gaming field. The game was an Internet Top 40 Download for seven months and received favorable feedback from gamers all over the world. The game is still available for download on most gaming websites and many gamers consider it a classic of the logical\arcade genre.

Another project by K-D LAB, an abstract artificial life simulation MOBL was awarded Grand Prix at the ENIX Game Software Contest II.

Finally the game “Vangers” was released in Summer 1998. Its release became a major event in the Russian games industry. Interactive Magic became the international publisher of the title, releasing it in Europe, USA and UK.

The studio launched development of its next title – an arcade racing game, Spanking Runners in early 1999. The game became one of nine winners of the Independent Games Festival and was shown in March 2000 at GDC 2000 in San Jose.

In 2000 the studio launched production of its most ambitious project yet – the innovative RTS Perimeter. The game was published by 1C Company in the CIS and Baltic region, and the British company Codemasters became the strategy title's international publisher. At the first international Russian Computer Game Developers Conference, KRI 2003, the project won Best Technology award. The following year the game received two prestigious awards: Best PC Game and Best Game Design.

During the development of Perimeter the company released several other titles, including the educational puzzle game Ball-Frame and the adventure series Pilot Brothers 3D, based on a popular Russian cartoon.

After Perimeter hit the shelves in 2004, the company launched a rebranding campaign and chose a new course of development. The KD VISION company was officially established, with the primary goal to create a universal game development tool. The studio has successfully developed QD Engine - a tool for creation of quest\adventure titles – and Vista Engine - an integrated system for creation of RTS\RPG titles. All of the studio’s subsequent games have been developed using these technologies. Furthermore, our engines have been successfully licensed to third party developers.

This approach allowed the team to develop its most ambitious project – the RTS Maelstrom, created in collaboration with British game publisher Codemasters. The game featured realistic force fields, water, wind and tectonic activity. The development of the project was based on the concept of visual content assembling.

During development of Maelstrom, the company released a stand-alone expansion pack Perimeter: Emperor’s Testament and two educational titles.

Following the worldwide release of Maelstrom in 2007, the studio launched production of the long-awaited “Perimeter” sequel. The latest technological developments and accumulated experience have pushed our creativity to a whole new level.

Since the release of Perimeter 2 in 2008, the studio has been expanding its field of activity by exploring the latest advancements in video game development for Nintendo and Microsoft consoles. The company has also been involved in the creation of social games for various social networks.