IzHard

IzHard isn’t an active studio anymore — now it’s just me, a true solo developer, working on the game after my real job.

Our story began in November 2014 at a Microsoft student hackathon. Three college students with zero game‑dev experience who didn’t even know each other teamed up, picked the tongue‑twister name “TheyTakingTheHobbitsToIsengard,” and hacked together a tiny black‑and‑white gravity‑flipping prototype overnight. That build not only won the event — and a single Lumia 930 phone we had to share — but also kickstarted our journey.

We kept polishing the prototype, now called OVIVO, and entered the Microsoft Imagine Cup. During the competition, we pitched to judges including Jens Bergensten, Thomas Middleditch, and Alexey Pajitnov — every presentation felt as surreal as the game itself. In July 2015, we represented Russia at the world finals in Seattle, won 1st place in the Games category, and received a $50,000 grant to finish OVIVO. After that victory, two more people joined our team, and we began developing the full game.

Two years later, OVIVO finally launched on Steam (May 12, 2017) and later hit mobile and consoles. Eventually, we all drifted onto different paths, but we’re still friends and hop on calls just to catch up.

Today, our members live in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. IzHard itself might be gone, but we’re still around — occasionally making games and regularly joking about how long it takes us to finish anything.

All of us are against the war in Ukraine, and we hope that our small example of an international team with a mix of different cultures will inspire people toward world peace and collaboration.