![]() We’re huge geeks, so naturally we love our Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Aliens, etc. We decided to go with a top-down shooter, and at the time, I was obsessed with global politics and wanted to make a commentary on geo-political warfare. We wanted to create something that held the essence of what we look for in games. What’s the inspiration behind Helldivers?ĭuring the development of Magicka, we were playing a game called I Made a Game with Zombies in It and we joked that we could probably make something similar to that. ![]() We made a trailer and spent some time marketing the game to the best of our abilities, pushing it out to all the big sites like IGN and Gamespot… and it worked! We were signed soon after. We actually ran out of money a third of the way into development! We initially wanted to avoid publishers in order to maintain control but since the project was bigger than we anticipated, we rethought our strategy and put ourselves out there. We learned about the importance of planning everything from development to finances. We basically had to make it commercially viable. We remade the game visually, changed the gameplay mechanics, all the while keeping what was fun about the game. We also had to rethink our game: it initially had a steep learning curve and was for a select crowd who seeks an intensely challenging game experience. ![]() At this point, we learned that rewriting a game crushes morale. We switched to a 3D engine and rewrote the entire game from scratch. What kind of obstacles did you encounter in developing your first game?Īfter 2 months, we realized that we made too many mistakes and needed to change it around. We then began researching what it takes to run a company and got into an incubator program, where we shared a very small office and continued to develop Magicka. After a few months back at school, we consulted our school’s dean and guidance counselor who both recommended that we pursue our goal to start a company. ![]() Initially we were devastated when we didn’t win the “Best Innovation” award, but we were then pleasantly shocked when we were announced winners of the “Game of the Year” award.ĭevelopers and other industry folk would tell us that whatever we do, we couldn’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers: either we develop games or we finish our education. Fast track to the competition – we had developed a prototype for the game that would later become Magicka. I contacted a few students that were in other programs of study and we got together to create our entry. Our attitude going in was: “We’ll win that easily and we’ll also make the best game.” While this was going on, I felt that a lot of the courses I was taking in school were slow-paced and not practical – I just wanted to get right down to making games. In 2008, we decided to take part in a game development competition called the Swedish Game Awards at the Royal Institute of Technology. Tell us about how the studio got started. Johan Pilestedt, CEO and Game Director, and Anton Stenmark, CTO and programmer, from Arrowhead Game Studios discuss the challenges of starting up a studio and the importance of getting a game engine that works for you. ![]() “If it seems impossible, we’ll do it anyways.” That’s the motto at Arrowhead Game Studios in Stockholm, makers of Helldivers, Gauntlet and Magicka. Autodesk joins our partner count-down to NG16, which will run until Friday 13 May: ![]()
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