We'd previously linked to casual game producer Vinny Carrella's fun column at Gamezebo, and his latest one discusses a trip to Russia for the recent Game Developers Conference, and what he learned about the biz (and himself) over there.

On the casual front, he notes: "The Russian development community has released some impressive knock-offs. Snowy Lunch Rush, Pantheon and Birds on a Wire are solid games that have differentiated themselves from their inspirations, but they're not all that innovative (in terms of gameplay) and the Russians have yet to produce something ground-breaking all their own."

I especially like this part of the conclusion: "Going to Russia taught this game designer a lot more than I think I taught them... There is no formula for a casual game, and I have nothing to teach anybody, especially the Russians... Because when it comes to game design and game development, we are all Russians. We are all foreigners." (Although, judging by this weekend's boxoffice, a lot of us would like to be Kazakhstani, apparently.)