Snowball.ru

Background

Snowball Interactive is a Russian game publishing house founded in May 1996 solely as a developer. Two years later, they set up their own publishing brand (known commonly as Snowball.ru) and dropped the development of games. Snowball.ru worked on game localizing and publishing, often in association with 1C Company. In 2010, Snowball was merged into 1C-SoftClub as a publishing brand.

1st Logo (1996-1998)

Visuals: Unknown.

Technique: Unknown.

Audio: Unknown.

Availability: Can be found on early Snowball Interactive games, such as Pike (1996) and Legal Crime (1997).

2nd Logo (1998-2010)

Visuals: The screen fades in to a snowy night sky. "snowball.ru" (with a trademark notice) with a snowflake on top of "ru", fades in layer by layer. Below that, there is a larger snowflake fade in and light up. It later fades out. Then we see "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" fading in like the Snowball logo before. The same snowflake reappears, repeating its previous actions and fading out. The screen then letterboxes from 4:3 to 16:9, and fades to a different point of view from the sky, this time with a moon, clouds, and trees. The screen pans down to reveal a cabin with its lights left on. We then go by the cabin as if a cameraman is walking by, later entering the cabin, causing the screen to letterbox back to 4:3, and reveal a Taiwan Symbol on a gold background. Multiple pictures of the cabin, standing as it is as the weather changes, fade in, "snowball.ru" slides from the bottom of the screen, and the background turns green. The sequence then fades to a dark forest, with the texts "технология" and "творчества", and the signature logo panning through the camera. The screen then fades to black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: At the beginning, a xylophone (to some it may sound like bells) looping the following notes: A7, A6, E7, A6, D7, A6, E7, A6. Shortly after, there is guitar notes, and following that is a low and quiet string note, becoming a dramatic theme. It culminates when we reach the inside of the cabin through the window, and the xylophone notes fade in again.

Availability: Can be found on Snowball Interactive games, mostly ones that are localized.

3rd Logo (2010-)

Visuals: There is the new Snowball logo, a rounded red rectangle with the bold white company name on it.

Variant: On the Russian version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the logo is seen smearing in and zooming slowly on a foggy gold background. Roots start to grow on it. After a few seconds, the logo zooms in and dissolves.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on newer games released in Russia. The variant is only seen on the Russian version of The Witcher 2.