Peter & Sons are building some of the most strikingly original casino games on the planet, and it’s all thanks to the twisted genius of artistic director Evgeny Viitman, audio director Dario Bellera and their army of artistic collaborators. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Peter & Sons.
Hi, Evgeny and Dario. Tell us where your artistic influences come from.
Evgeny: From books, from films, from comics. One of the biggest inspirations for me is Monty Python – the humour there, especially with the old lady who’s beating the cat in almost every scene in the Holy Grail. It’s such a nice detail. I love to put things like that in my games. Also, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, things like that.
Dario: Anything can be inspiration. My background is cinema, and cinematic scores really enhance a game, especially slots where we’re perhaps more used to theoretical mainstream formulas. Music should add depth to the image.
Tell us a bit about the process of building a game. At what point do you, as art director and musician, respectively, become involved in the process?
Evgeny: We have one artist per project – one visual keeper, always. We do all the projects in different styles, and these are the native visual languages of the artists. That’s why our games are full of soul because the artist is investing themself into the project fully.
So, usually we start by generating ideas, choosing the theme, the setting. And then, if everybody is alright with those ideas, the artist starts scribbling a few different mockups of the game, presenting the characters, what the symbols will look like.
Then we go into the rendering phase, which involves preparing everything for implementation and animation.
Here, we’re cutting the assets, rigging them, creating some effects, and implementing them into the game. This is where the artists’ work very closely with the programmers. And so, the game starts to form, little by little.
Dario: The musician starts a little bit later in the process because it’s helpful to see how the
mechanics develop and observe all the visual changes within the game. In the end, for me it’s like making a suit that fits the game.
Evgeny: At this stage, the timing plays a huge role. The music and sound can be fantastic, but it needs to be implemented properly and in time with the game, otherwise it won’t work. That’s why communication is so important here between artist and programmer and musician and programmer.
How important is animated storytelling in a modern slot?
Evgeny: I think it’s very important. The game with many farts and whistles is a good game – when everything is exploding, and everything is moving. But it should also be settled, because it shouldn’t irritate the player. That’s why we have testers throughout the process.
Most of our artists don’t have previous experience working for gambling companies. They come from Triple A games, from cartoons, from cinematography, like Dario. So they don’t have this stencil of what a casino game should be.
You mentioned storytelling. Some games you see on the market don’t have any storytelling.
There are symbols and maybe a leprechaun, but what’s the story behind it? First, we create a story, then we start the project.
Is there a difficult balance between avoiding mainstream cliché and appealing to the market?
We have a list of themes that are super popular, and we know we probably need to do a game in this kind of style, but we make sure we do it with a weird twist. So if it’s a game about – I don’t know – Ancient Egypt, we want to make it more fun.
How does music influence player actions within the game?
Dario: It influences how comfortable a player feels within the game. And also, where there’s a narrative within the game, maybe two or three scenes, music will help to fill that out. I try to be open to feeling what the player will experience in the game.
Evgeny: Sometimes when we have the composition of the game and the assets implemented already, but not the music, we’re like ‘Yeah, it’s alright.’ And then we add the soundtrack and some sound effects and it’s like ‘Whoaaa!’ It happened with Dungeon Tower. An old-school-looking game.
And then all of a sudden there is a hip-hop soundtrack, and you’re like ‘This is something new, this is fantastic!’
Which Peter & Sons project that you’ve worked on are you proudest of?
Dario: My favorites would be Xibalba and Wild 1. I think these two are just great combinations of visuals and music. I also love Voodoo Hex. And Barbarossa Revenge, which is coming soon. I think it looks better than the original. I don’t know how much I can talk about it because it’s not released yet. But it’s an example of how good narrative can create a powerful game. The music is creepy – not aggressive, but it’s a big sound.
Evgeny: What I will say is that Dario almost lost his mind because of all the explosions (laughs).
For me, Xibalba was one of our most interesting experimental games, and I implemented some new visual language there. The world feels alive and the story behind it is really cool. The shamans are praying to their gods and, all of a sudden, the UFOs come over and try to drag them up to the spaceship. That was my interpretation anyway (laughs).
Can a soundtrack make or break a game?
Dario: If it is a bad one, yes (laughs).
Evgeny: Oh yes!
Dario: Hopefully, it turns a game into great art.
Evgeny: The thing is, it’s very easy to switch the soundtrack off, but you can’t switch the graphics off.
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