Draft: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)

Logo: TBA.

Technique: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Rare. Can be found on early Snowball Interactive games, such as Pike (1996).

2nd Logo (1998-2010)

Nicknames: "A Cabin on One Snowy Night", "The Taiwan Symbol"

Logo: We fade 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, we see 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. We pan 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. We then fade 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: Nice CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: 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, we hear 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: Uncommon. Can be found on Snowball Interactive games, mostly ones that are localized.

Legacy: This logo gives off strong christmas-y vibes, paired with amazing graphics that still hold up today. The dramatic soundtrack might unsettle some, however.

3rd Logo (2010-)

Logo: We see 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: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

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

Legacy: For the variant, its animation and dramatic music is the most unsettling part, but The Witcher fans may make this (along with the other logos in the game) a favorite for them.