sunnuntai 10. maaliskuuta 2019

The secret to success!


What is the secret to success?

This is the question people always ask and wonder about. Well there is no one answer for this question, but don't worry. You will find your way eventually.

The most important thing is passion and motivation, a drive that takes you forward no matter what! Your mindset is the most important thing, it is more important than skill, talent or whatever you wanna call it. You become what you say, what you think, how you speak to your self inside your head.

A statement closes the mind: I can't do this! I don't have the skills!

A question opens the mind: How can I do this? How can I get the skills?

If you have a problem, you run into a wall? Just ask the question, "how can I solve this issue?" Not "I can't do this". The moment you state your self you can't do it you will never be able to do it.

Never be happy about your work, but be proud of what you've done. You should never settle for "good". Always iterate, always improve.

This is how Hero Siege looked like when it came out in 2013

  

This is how Hero Siege looks today in 2019


You see? I am NEVER happy with the result, over the years I've improved my pixel art, my design, my polish and all that.

I've failed more times than I can count, and from every single failior I've learned one more valuable skill and piece of knowledge. I've failed financially, I've lost a shit ton of money doing stupid decisions but guess what? The knowledge that came out of that loss made me a skill set to generate more revenue than I lost!

Through the fire of struggle, gems blossom!

Also always think of your self as the best, the one on top of the game even if you are not and you probably will never be. But see, if you don't think you are awesome you won't have the self confidence to push through all the struggle and hard times!

I went from eating cheap ramen and living in a shitty apartment struggling to pay for my internet connection and rent to having a successful company with a huge office and top tier hardware! Anyone can do this, it's all about your mind set.



Now go out there and chase your dreams!

How did I become a successful indiedev?




Who am I?

I'm Elias Viglione and I am the CEO & founder of Panic Art Studios Ltd. I've made the game Hero Siege with my friend Jussi Kukkonen back in 2013. Hero Siege has sold almost 5 million packages on steam (including base game and dlc). I am 29-years-old, I live in a 160sq 2 story house and drive a brand new Audi A5 model 2019. Our main office is 100sq and we have 5 employees working on Hero Siege (including me and jussi). We dont have loans, investors, partners or publishers. We are 100% independent.

Panic Art Studios, how did we get here?

I've loved games since as long as I can remember. My first touch with games was Super Mario Bros on NES and a black/white TV at my relatives when I was 2 years old. From that moment on my obsession for games started. I would draw all sorts of game levels and ideas all the time into every piece or paper or sketchbook I could get my hands on, drawing and videogames were and still are my passion. My granpa used to take me to videogame arcades every day when we were visiting Naples, Italy every summer and christmas. I was introduced to sweet games like Metal Slug, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Shock Troopers, Snow Bros and many more titles while draining coins into these machines. I played every moment I could and when we went to dinner at some of my parents friends place I'd always find their SEGA or SNES, or even a PC to fire up that Keen game.

My years growing up were filled of all this, and at the age of 10 I picked up Game Maker and started playing around with it, learning coding and doing pixel art. At the age of 16 I went to this gamedev school for 2 years and gratuated solely with my portfolio that was full of hobby game projects and assets etc. My grade was 2.66 out of 3 which was alright. I took a summer job at Digital Chocolate in 2009 which was my first touch with the industry. I was very happy at the start but quickly understood how horrible working on postproduction was. My adhd always drove me to do things my way which came up as a conflict between me and the studio so I decided to leave. Leaving was my best decision as the work there just killed my motivation and passion to make games. After a short hiatus from games, I started again on my hobby projects. Being unemployed for a few years doing short term regular jobs and jumping from place to place I got bored of trying to find a job I would enjoy so I decided to start up my own company.

I went to do the paperwork and Panic Arts was born. So I was alone and made a few mobile games that made me a few hundred bucks a month in Ad revenue, I got by doing Freelance art for other devs. In 2013 I got into College for BBA specializing in games, Jussi Kukkonen a former Game Maker Finland guy moved to Tampere for the same school. We immediately started making games together and decided to have a gamejam (48 hours of nonstop development streamed online). We did a pre-gallup for the people watching so they could decide the genre for the game we were going to make, Medieval & Fantasy was the one that won. So we started working on Hero Siege, a medieval fantasy hack n slash. We got the prototype done in the time of the gamejam and I decided to continue on the project. I was so inspired that I dropped out of school to work on the game full time. I tried to get Jussi to do the same, but he refused. Working all my wake time for a few months, I put the game up for greenlight on Steam. We worked on the game for some months and released it on iOS and Android which helped us push the greenlight. The game got greenlit eventually and we released it on Steam on January 2014.



Watch Indie, our small documentary before the success: https://youtu.be/yomqdEMdJ1s

This was the breaking point for our lives, the game made us over 10K on the first day, and the same pace continued for the coming days. Me and Jussi having no money, ever this felt crazy. So due to the success Jussi also dropped out of school and we started working on the game even harder than ever. I've never been satisfied about what we put out, always iterate and improve. We have worked on the game since 2013 and are still going, with a huge 3.0 update which will be also released on Nintendo Switch and PS4. We have been caring for the game for 6 years and keeping it on the ranks. The game does steady income even this day and is ranked really high in the indie cathegory. The community in Discord has grown to a ton of people and we are not yet even touching the games full potential. This game in my books will never be ready, and that need to iterate and improve is what keeps me going.

Our dedicated players are keeping the game going!









I've worked crazy days taken almost no time off for 6 years! Success really requires sacrifices, motivation, dedication and passion. We are currently working on Hero Siege and Eastfound, a new game which is an action adventure game inspired by Zelda and Alundra games.

So here is our story, if you have any questions please ask away and I will answer the best I can!

You can get Hero Siege on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269210/Hero_Siege/

Hero Siege 3.0 in Action! We have added jumping as a new mechanic