Johan-Pilestedt
Latest
What's in a Name: Arrowhead Game Studios
Johan Pilestedt is CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios, the Swedish developer responsible for Magicka. He recently revealed to us the origin of the studio's name and the meaning behind its seemingly dim-witted mascot. Originally, when the studio was just a "student project," the group called themselves Team Arrowhead. "Arrowhead" was a play on Pilestedt's name, which, in English, means "arrow stead." "But wait, there's more to this story!" says Pilestedt.
Magicka Vietnam to launch 'in about a month,' Arrowhead CEO says
If there's one thing that Arrowhead Game Studios has proven with its accident-prone wizardfest Magicka, it's that they can make me laugh. But is that an appropriate reaction in Magicka Vietnam? Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt suggested that we'll find out "in about a month."%Gallery-115067%
Magicka to get PvP in the future, Arrowhead CEO explains
Magicka has been a surprise hit on the PC scene, selling over 200K copies in its first month of release. But, the initial launch was hampered by some notable bugs, some of which continue to plague the game. "We were surprised at all the bugs we had at release, and frankly, somewhat ashamed," Johan Pilestedt, CEO of Arrowhead told us. "But the community loved our game, and we worked around the clock for the first weeks after release to iron out as many bugs as possible as fast as possible." Although the game is currently in the state "as it was intended," Pilestedt discussed what must still be fixed. At the top of the list is falling through collision, something the team plans to work on "until it is no longer an issue." Arrowhead is also attempting to improve progression saving and will eventually implement official support for PvP. "The community is already arranging PvP tournaments and we are learning a lot about balance by watching you play," Pilestedt said. "In the meantime, I suggest you sign up for the unofficial tournaments and keep PvPing." There are some issues that simply cannot be fixed, Pilestedt admits. The most disappointing is the inability to support integrated graphics cards. Laptop owners may be unable to play the game, but Pilestedt notes that "it was an early design decision to use shader model 3.0, and we can't change that without rewriting large parts of the game engine." The team doesn't plan on adding support for modding, simply because they "do not have the bandwidth to develop [the] tools." In lieu of official support, the team is focused on making Magicka "more mod friendly," by allowing modders to disable VAC in the game. In addition to the aforementioned tweaks, Pilestedt re-confirmed plans to release both free and paid DLC content for the game. "Since Magicka released, the game and our team has received so much support and encouragement from all over the world and we want everyone to know how much we appreciate that."
