“NEW! From the creator of Tetris!”: Alexey Pajitnov, auteur games, and marketing

Let me leave it here: if we ever try to look into the idea of “auteur games” as a marketing hook, we could start with how Alexey Pajitnov was turned into an icon after the success in the West of Tetris, and how his persona was used to sell every new game he made.

From the back cover of the NES version of Hatris: “Because this is the latest game from Alexey Pajitnov, the designer of Tetris, and his partner Vladimir Pokhilko. And anyone who could turn geometry into a contact sport is a force to be reckoned with.”

Hatris would indeed be a good starting point, especially with its personalised (and signed!) message from Pajitnov himself shown in the attract mode of the arcade version.

He was also heavily featured in the Japanese promotional materials:

Are these little Pajitnovs in the NES version?

That’s him in the title screen, no doubt:

My favourite, though, would be Welltris, where Mr. Pajitnov is looking at us with a friendly face and a computer showing the screen in a dizzying mise en abyme:

So, there’s an idea for future research, and something I would like to see studied in depth. I haven’t been able to find any paper or conference presentation about that —if you have, I’d be happy to hear about it!

Until then: Play Hatris! Good luck!