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

Week 12 Update

Hello again from Panic Art Studios, updating our progress from this week.

I (Jussi) have mostly been working on online multiplayer as usual. I've made great progress on syncing relics, and probably one of the most requested features, player minions!

Player minions in online multiplayer

We've also been working close with Esko, our server programmer, on security and new in-house features to make our work progress even smoother.

The new boss death screens that Aapeli has been working on are missing just one final boss. The sketches will then be finalized by Elias and added to the game, rewarding the player for beating the act!

Boss death screens by Aapeli

Elias has drawn and implemented a LOT of new relics for the DLC. The amount of randomized madness will be mind blowing once it's all done and ready.

New relics coming in The Depths of Hell

Long overdue update

It's been a looooooong while. Lots of stuff has happened, and you probably already know most of it. Hero Siege was launched February 2014 and that's what has been keeping us busy for the last year.

Although you might know the latest highlights, we have something new coming up every day. This is why me (Jussi) and Aapeli decided to revive this blog and let you guys know exactly what we're working on.

Aapeli might be a new face to most you, but I've been working with him for some time now on a game called Factory Escape. Elias has been talking about hiring some help with the burden of drawing ALL the graphics for Hero Siege, and I directed him to Aapeli. After a quick phone call and a conversation with Aapeli (who had just woken up), he was hired.

Jussi's thoughts:

So, I've been working on Hero Siege online multiplayer pretty much for the last year, but today I made a major breakthrough. I finally fixed the "players spawning dead" and "players mixing up" bugs, which have been bugging me (and others) for a long time. I couldn't be happier and the final release of the multiplayer for all users has never been this close. I also programmed a chat server and an in-game lobby for the players to enjoy, see here:

Hero Siege chat lobby

Currently it supports 100 simultaneous clients but we're hoping to extend the capacity in the future.

Aapeli's thoughts:

So there I was, spending a few weeks thinking what the heck should I do next when one morning the phone wakes me up and Jussi is telling me to come by the office and suddenly I have a pencil in my hand and I'm drawing things for Hero Siege. It's been a pretty cool week! Everyone's been working hard to make sure the players get the game they deserve. I've been observing the development of this game from up close since the very beginning and I gotta say, it's been quite an interesting ride and it's fun to be a part of it now.

I've spent the past few days drawing cutscenes for the game and will be helping Elias out with a variety of pixel art and animation tasks later on. From what I've seen so far the new content in the game looks awesome and it just keeps getting better.

Gurag death scene

Things to come:

Elias has been busy working with the DLC stuff, and by far it's gonna be epic! The Fallen Paladin is fully functional and Elias has been emphasizing that the collector's edition will be worth it.

The Depths of Hell collector's exclusive skin

Long days, lots of work, satisfaction!!!

Wow.. It's been a while i last visited my blog. The reason is Hero Siege. What I've done for the past month, I've been just watching the screen and programming/drawing like a crazy person.

But now after hard work and lots of Energy Drinks, the game is finally DONE! We are spending the last remaining days before the deadline just  adding new conten like; Items, Enemies, Achievements etc.

This has been a long and bumpy ride, and I'm so happy that the result is so awesome!



We actually got some media coverage from:


SuperGameDroid: http://www.supergamedroid.com/2013/11/19/crazy-awesome-rogue-like-hero-siege-coming-soon/

PocketGamer: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Hero+Siege/news.asp?c=55345&srch=hero+siege

AppSpy: http://www.appspy.com/news/7939/see-a-giant-floating-skull-bleed-in-the-first-trailer-for-hero-siege

Also we put up a Trailer if you haven't seen it yet, then please go watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrW32k-fTE8

Aaaaand here is a list of screenshots from the game :)

 

We also have a nice treat coming up! We will host a private game jam on the 6th of December 2013. Me (Elias), Jussi and Aleksi will make a game in 48 hours! Check out more info here: http://www.autoseries.net/teamjam2/

Keep your eyes open in the stream, because we are handing out free copies of the Hero Siege Retail box!!!

And last but not least, if you want the Retail for PC you can buy it here: http://panicartstudios.com/shop.php

I will be keeping you guys up to date as we go! Have a really nice day everyone!!!

-Elias

Making games should make you happy

Making games is art. You should always keep this in mind, the less you have to be involved with business, the more art your game is. Try and make games that make you happy and feel good, make it as your own reflection, make it bring up all the things you love about games!

This quote from Tommy would be the best one I've ever heard!

"The game comes out and people dont like it and people just trash it and it has a metacritic score of like 20.. and everyone thinks just its awful.. and its like, it really doesnt make a difference because, even tho its a game people are supposed to buy.. Its not a game that i made for people, i made it for myself. I made it as a reflection of myself. If people wanna buy modernwarfare or hero, its fine because i think those games are shit. If its those games they want, they prolly wont like my games cause i dont make shit games"

I agree 100%. I dont think games like Halo or Modernwarfare are any good, but hey thats just my opinion not an absolute fact. Everyone is free to think how they want! For me good games are the ones that come close to the artstyle and gameplay of my childhood games in video-game arcades :)

Peace out! :)

Phew time is ticking tick tock tick tock

Today has been a hectic and fast day. I've been programming and spriting for like 12 hours. Hero Siege is really progressing well!

Today i've managed to add:

- All the items from the list and setup the variables, even implemented about 60% of them to actually work now.
- Moved the player health bar to the top left hud, was a really good idea.
- Added charging ability for the skeleton rares (still need some sound to spice them up ^^)
- A lots of small optimization and smoothing on the engine and drawing functions etc...

So yeah today has been sick productive! Aleksi Kujala also made an AWESOME little jingle for the item pickup which reminds me of binding of isaac in a good way ^_^!!!

Anyway here is a picture for you guys to check out (picking up items):



So till tomorrow guys! More blog text n material.. I'm so tired now.. got to go sleep :D (maybe play a bit of binding of isaac in bed and try to beat the devil this time! :))