Well to get started, please introduce yourself?
My name is Elias Viglione. I am the CEO of Panic Art Studios. I’m 24-years-old and I have a degree in game development from Vocational School. I live in Tampere, Finland with my wife and 2 dogs and work at my home office which consists of 2 computers and 2 laptops so my crew can gather up and we can do what we do. My biggest inspiration and idol is Edmund McMillen. I pretty much put all my time in making games, and also do some freelancing on the side to pay my rent n stuff.
What made you want to get into the gaming industry? Is it always something you’ve wanted to do because of a game you played growing up, or do you just like working with computers?
Since I first touched a NES controller when I was about 3-years-old, there was no looking back! Ever since I’ve drawn game assets and levels and designed my own games into every paper and school notebook I got in my hands. I always wondered how it would feel to play the levels I drew and designed. Every time I drew a scenario I would just imagine it in my head how it would feel to play it!
At the age of 12 I was introduced to Game Maker, which I instantly started using. After this I started doing pixel art as I’ve always been a talented artist. At the age of 18 I started to do freelancing, and on the side I would program my own games. I also entered the Vocational School for game development and graduated from there in 2010. I have never had any second guesses about working in the game industry. I’ve always known this is what I live for on this planet, and that there is nothing else I would do.
Now tell us a little bit about Panic Art Studios for our viewers who may not know who you are, what was the motivation behind setting up the company, what sort of games do you focus on making.
Panic Art Studios was founded in 2012 by me alone. I would program my own games till I found my friend Jussi Kukkonen who I’m currently working with on Hero Siege and also all the future projects we will plan from this day forward.
On first hand we create games our 10-year-old selves would go nuts for. We express ourselves through making these games. The games we make really define who we are and what we love. Anyway mostly our games are about killing and destroying stuff.
So what’s a typical day in the office like when working for Panic Art Studios?
Haha this is something that I think no other company or office would really tolerate :D. We play random music and constantly tell really lame jokes and laugh at stupid things. Also we don’t really take things so seriously when it
comes to these kinds of things. We mess around a lot and stuff 😀
But we are still very productive after all. We get things done, and we enjoy every bit of it. But yeah what I love about this is the fact that we can express who we are and there is no need to behave like adults.
Tell us a little bit about the game, were there any difficulties you faced during the development and what’s different about this game compared to similar titles?
Well this game was originally planned for a 48 hour game jam we hosted on our office in early September. The game turned out so good that we decided to take it to the next level and designed a lot of stuff into it.
We take a lot of inspiration from games such as Diablo Series (environment, art-style etc) and Binding of Isaac (Roguelike elements, item drops, monster rarities etc). We have faced standard coding issues which we have fought in the process and successfully beat.
Atleast I don’t know any game that really comes even close to what this game is about. We mixed so many of our ideas and good things from various games and put them together in a way we love. Hero Siege truly is an original concept on its style.
So in one sentence sum up why the visitors on our site should go out and buy Hero Siege
I think there is nothing more fun than opening an endless mode brainless hack n slash game on a rainy day or boring evening and just start playing! The game gives you the satisfaction of destroying and slaughtering stuff. It also gives you the satisfaction of leveling up and acquiring talent and attribute points. Without forgetting the most important feature, it’s endless and every game is different because of the roguelike elements!
You can also play this co-op with your friend. And probably in the future if the game gets Greenlit its very possible that we will also make an online multiplayer version of the game! Could be even up to 4 players!
What are the biggest achievements and challenges you’ve had to face as an Indie Game Studio?
Well obviously the first big challenge is money. There is never enough moolah. I have to do a lot of freelancing in order to pay the rent and bills which are very expensive in Finland. The biggest achievement would be that one of our games got 150,000 downloads on Android and is selling many IAP purchases every day.
So what’s next for Panic Art Studios, Are you looking to start work on the next title to add to your collection, or will you be taking a break for a while?
There is no taking breaks. We don’t take this as a job. For us It’s a lifestyle and we would just die in boredom if we don’t work! Our next game will be “NES-Retku”. NES-Retku is a 16-bit beat-em-up featuring a finnish youtube critique (you can look up for the teaser in youtube on our channel). On the side we will be updating Hero Siege and our other titles on a regular basis.
Now as Invision Game Community is powered by students and as they’re our target audience, what advice would you give to budding young students wanting to get into the industry?
I would say: If you got the eternal flame burning inside you, and you feel like you really want it. Then go GET IT! Make a portfolio, work hard and get into the industry! It’s possible!
And one last random question; hey what’s that?
Oh this? its my detached arm… sec just gonna plug it in.
Check out there game
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This game was made in 48 hours in Panic Art Studios + Autoseries TeamJam event.
http://facebook.com/panicartstudios
http://facebook.com/autoseriesgames
PC Download: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/hero-siege-beta/17474/
Android: Incoming
iOS: Incoming
WP8: Incoming
Hero Siege
- – Endless mode Hack N Slash!!!
- – Roguelike elements!!! (Random item drops, random enemy rarities, random waves!)
- – 5 classes with their unique talents, attributes, exp and level!
- – over 60 item drops!
- – Top 100 online ranking
- – 2 Player co-op
- – many arenas to unlock and play in!
Survive as long as you can in this bloody Hack N Slash arena game with strong roguelike elements! Choose from 5 different classes! Fight against vary monsters and evil demons and challenge your self in many different boss fights!
FEATURES
- – up to 150 unique waves and 10 different bosses with their own unique mechanics! Challenge your self in the harder difficulty settings and rank your self in the global online highscores!
- – Passive item drops from bosses such as ankh of reincarnation and different orb effects, movements peed, damage and much more!
- – Many different arenas to unlock and play in (Winter, Dungeon, Underground, Underwater, Hell etc)
- – Earn Crystals by playing. Unlock orbitting pets, turrets, weapon enhancements etc from the shop with Crystals!
- – Buy temporary attributes ingame with the earned gold to boost your Damage, Attack Speed, Movement Speed and Stamina!
- – Every enemy including bosses have a possibility to spawn as a normal, rare or elite monster. the bigger, the badder!
With updates we will bring MORE classes, bosses and enemies into the game! We also love to hear the players and develop the game into the direction of what they want!
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