FRVR’s new partnership with Penguin Jam has brought the adorable Merge-3 game to players via Facebook Gaming. In the casual-friendly mobile and browser game, you’ll have to match adorable chunky penguins together to solve puzzles all while building up islands with daily login bonuses.
To discuss this new partnership, FRVR has sat down with Penguin Jam creator Ivan Smirnov to discuss the challenges of making an exciting new Merge-3 game, why the team ditched their original idea of aliens for penguins, and why FRVR was the right partner for this release.
For more FRVR developer interviews, read our recent discussion with Article 19 founder Robert Gordon about the creation of Daily Room Escape.
FRVR: How did you come up with Penguin Jam? What other games were you considering to make at the time?
Ivan: We’ve been Merge-3 fans since the days when the genre was just gaining momentum. We looked closely at Block Jam—it played a huge role in making the format truly mainstream. From there, we looked for our own angle so it wouldn’t be “just another Jam”: we wanted a character and a vibe. That’s how the penguin won, and Penguin Jam became the logical name: simple, catchy, and paints a picture immediately.
Initially, we launched under the name UFO Puzzle because the concept included aliens flying in to save the superior race on planet Earth—penguins, obviously (cats, as we know from Love, Death & Robots, do just fine on their own). But during the process, the penguins turned out so cool that we decided: nah, screw the aliens. Remember in Despicable Me how the minions went from side characters to the main stars? That’s basically what happened with us—just with penguins.
FRVR: What’s your favourite game and why? Has this impacted or influenced the games that you make?
Ivan: Actually, if we’re talking about true love, most of the team and I are more into midcore/hardcore titles. Off the top of my head: Civilization V/VI (let’s pretend the monstrous catastrophe numbered VII in this series never happened), the Age of Empires series, Blizzard classics, Paradox titles (with caveats), Dawn of War 1, Chivalry 2, Drodo Auto Chess, Balatro. And maybe another hundred games or so, but let’s stop there for now.
But loving games is one thing, and making them is another. For us, the casual genre is an opportunity to earn money with a relatively small team and reasonable budgets/timelines. And Merge-3 specifically has really hooked us lately—so we dove into it headfirst.
FRVR: What’s the most challenging part of game development, that would take those new to it by surprise?
Ivan: We wanted the project to be fast: load in a couple of seconds, with everything flying, sparkling, and spinning. And for it to work on all platforms that have at least a megabyte of RAM (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the point). We ended up writing our own engine in TypeScript, carefully assembling every atlas, constantly optimizing… Basically, we tinkered around a lot, to put it mildly, but we’re very happy with the result: building a project like this from scratch in 5 months is a hell of a challenge. We are incredibly proud of our engineers here—the guys are top-tier.
We’d advise beginners to focus on architecture and tech from the very start so they don’t get bogged down in the live-ops swamp after a quick launch. Clean code, regular optimization, strict resource control—this is critical if you’re making anything more complex than solitaire. Although… solitaires vary too, so maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
“During the process, the penguins turned out so cool that we decided: nah, screw the aliens. Remember in Despicable Me how the minions went from side characters to the main stars? That’s basically what happened with us—just with penguins.”
Ivan Smirnov
FRVR: What makes FRVR the right partner for you as you look to target Facebook?
Ivan: In our view, FRVR is one of the few truly serious HTML5 publishers: they have powerful expertise and a good set of platforms. Launching on competing platforms like Poki or CrazyGames is generally not that hard, but our experience shows that the chances of significant success there are, let’s say, slim. Maybe someone got lucky—surely such cases exist—but we are speaking strictly for ourselves based on our own practice. But partnering with FRVR has been awesome: we are very happy with the approach, the attention, and—most importantly—the real returns. Taking this opportunity to give a shout-out for the marketing grant with Facebook—that is really cool, guys.
FRVR: What’s the best piece of advice you could give someone looking to create a game?
Ivan: As I mentioned above: there is no “little secret” or “trick” that—whoosh!—shoots you to the top of a money mountain. The only thing that really works is dialectics. On one hand, only make games you enjoy playing yourself: that way, you’ll enjoy the process regardless and stay charged with enthusiasm.
On the other hand, remove all emotion and calculate, plan, and study carefully: pour over market analytics, plan the budget, criticize your every choice, and deconstruct your competitors’ success. These two sides must coexist within you simultaneously. Don’t ask me how.
FRVR: How important is imagery / visuals and graphics when it comes to creating lasting appeal
Ivan: Setting and visual style are crucial parts of a game’s long-term appeal. If the picture doesn’t hook them, the player simply won’t reach the point where the mechanics start to unfold. That’s why it’s important for us that the visuals have soul—not sterile and not “cookie-cutter,” but with their own character. Hence the penguin-pharaohs, for example.
That is exactly why we consciously minimized the use of AI in this project: the main graphics were made by hand, with love and attention to detail. Yes, it takes longer—but you get that distinct feeling that the game was made by humans, not an assembly line.In our view, FRVR is one of the few truly serious HTML5 publishers: they have powerful expertise and a good set of platforms. Launching on competing platforms like Poki or CrazyGames is generally not that hard, but our experience shows that the chances of significant success there are, let’s say, slim. Maybe someone got lucky—surely such cases exist—but we are speaking strictly for ourselves based on our own practice.
FRVR: Finally, what’s the best piece of advice you could give someone looking to create a game
Ivan: As I mentioned above: there is no “little secret” or “trick” that—whoosh!—shoots you to the top of a money mountain. The only thing that really works is dialectics. On one hand, only make games you enjoy playing yourself: that way, you’ll enjoy the process regardless and stay charged with enthusiasm. On the other hand, remove all emotion and calculate, plan, and study carefully: pour over market analytics, plan the budget, criticize your every choice, and deconstruct your competitors’ success. These two sides must coexist within you simultaneously. Don’t ask me how.
