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Author: Paolo

Wolves in a Fairy Tale

Published by Paolo on 09/10/2025

The CEO of Supercell, Ilkka Paananen, released a message yesterday asking European legislators to consider European free-to-play game developers before approving new player safety measures.

I currently work mostly in free-to-play (F2P), and I’ve worked in gambling games in the past. I must admit that I see many common practices between these two sectors of the gaming industry. The F2P high-spending players are called whales, a term that actually comes from casinos. And these players are fundamental to the profitability of a game you give away for free.

Certain practices, often called dark patterns, surely influence people’s decision-making. Vulnerable people, like children, can be induced to spend too much. That’s why the regulator often comes in with an axe and suddenly cuts off everything. The same thing happened with the web; nowadays, the experience is completely ruined, and I have to close endless pop-ups for policies I will never read.

I don’t like to be treated like a child. My daughter will never have access to a connected smartphone as a child, full stop. It’s about responsibility. I am aware that many parents don’t have that responsibility, or aren’t capable of facing their children, though. That’s why we need regulations, but to me, it’s important to include everybody in the discussion and not treat developers like wolves in a fairy tale.

Beyond Productivity

Published by Paolo on 08/10/2025

When I think about the future of games and look at the trends, I can’t help but notice that it’s getting easier and easier to make games. The real struggle in the industry is distributing and selling them, simply because there are too many games out there. Since it’s so easy to publish them, even a student can put a small, silly project online. This inevitably complicates the search algorithms.

Still, the act of game making is a great mental effort. To me, it’s like playing music or, as I mentioned a few days ago, practicing a sport.

Today, you can take a picture and post it online; you can also make a game and publish it. I feel we are missing an opportunity here: to encourage people to think not just about making money or productivity, but to play with the concept of creation the way they play with their smartphone camera.

We have Roblox and Fortnite, among many examples of games where certain cohorts can create experiences. Yet, there is often money involved, and I’m not sure about that focus. I feel like the modding community, which creates for the pure sake of fun, can teach us a lot and help us find new ways to express our creativity.

Before Gameplay

Published by Paolo on 07/10/2025

Before players decide to step into your magic circle and start having a good time, they have feelings. They might watch a video on YouTube, read an article about your game, or simply land on your store page and look at the trailers, screenshots, and descriptions.

All of this evokes emotions and feelings. Emotions are the first step of perception. That’s why when you start designing levels for a narrative-driven game (RPG, adventure, platformer, and so on), you need to think first about the emotional intensity curve over time. This way, you can properly estimate the moment-to-moment experience.

I recently used this approach for a personal exercise: creating a hypothetical level for The Last of Us.

You can see each step is associated with a specific dynamic I want the Player to experience during the level. This curve was the final one, but I worked on many iterations. You plan a curve, and then you iterate over time.

I still code

Published by Paolo on 06/10/2025

I started my journey in games as a programmer. More specifically, I began using LUA scripting on a Linux-based engine designed for a coin-operated venture in a small village in Southern Italy.

Then I moved to Barcelona and got my first job in gambling games. I was a C/C++ programmer at Zitro, working on video bingos. I owe them a lot; I learned Spanish there, and today, I design games because of gambling games. It’s true that there are ethical issues with them, but I believe that their simplicity and clear motivational framework make them a great way to start in game design. I began buying books on game design because of gambling games, trying to understand why they were so boring to me yet so profitable.

Life and my career moved on, and I kept programming on the side. Today, I’m more on the strategic/executive side of things, thankfully because I gained more experience and managed to stay in the industry. Still, I love the sensations that programming gives, and I particularly enjoy Python and C++. I bought a course to learn a bit of Unreal Engine this week. My goal is to start it and perhaps create a prototype for my Capoeira ARPG game.

Stay tuned and have a great week, everybody.

Rock Band vs. Sports Team

Published by Paolo on 05/10/2025

There’s a fundamental difference between teams working on new game conceptualization and teams focused on production and updates. The first kind works more like a rock band; the latter, like a sports team.

To conceptualize new games, you need people capable of genuinely wrestling with an idea for a sufficient amount of time. You need people who help each other and cover each other’s limitations. These are people willing to find new formulas and to create art.

Once you have it—once you have the formula—you need the resilience and technique to produce it. This is where you need top talent; you can’t afford to lose time and compromise the whole team.

Both types of talent are hard to find, but selection processes only spot (and often badly) the latter group: the sports team. That’s why people like me, the rockers, are sometimes needed.

Heroes of Gaming

Published by Paolo on 04/10/2025

I want to invite you today to reflect on the power of outsourcing. I’ve been thinking about this all week, especially since I’m picking up an old project to work on while I don’t have another gig.

All top games rely on the contribution of outsourcers, yet we don’t celebrate them enough. Maybe I’m saying this because I’m a freelancer and part of the outsourcing world myself. Sorry for this ego moment.

Salvador Dalí once said something along the lines of, “No one will talk well about you, so you have to do it yourself.” I’m not sure I completely agree, but today I feel this urge to celebrate outsourcers.

Without us, there would be no games industry—at least not at this level. You can be more ambitious and go further thanks to outsourcing companies. It is a fundamental and irreplaceable part of the business.

Saudi deal doesn’t add up

Published by Paolo on 03/10/2025

I was writing notes for an upcoming podcast on Saudi Arabia’s rumored operation to purchase EA. I’m a little worried, because I believe there are mostly geopolitical reasons behind all of this. The math is crazy, and even with 2,000 layoffs, the move just doesn’t make financial sense.

What’s at stake for me is creative freedom. Too many games from EA contain messages that would be hardly accepted by that regime. They may ignore them, of course, if they adopt a purely practical mentality, but I’m skeptical. I mean, soft power is clearly the goal here.

In my view, EA needs to better focus on sports games, and perhaps a conversion to more scalable business models—like free-to-play—would benefit them. But from a creative perspective, they are in danger.

Bring the Plug

Published by Paolo on 01/10/2025

When we’re working on a new game, it’s very common to spot a lot of problems and point them out when we’re talking with our team. Having an analytical mindset is normal, especially if you’re in a role like a game designer or gameplay developer. You are, by default, forced to analyze everything very specifically, and this can lead to your analysis being extremely detailed.

The impulse can be to immediately flag these issues, especially nowadays on a Slack channel for instance. They are designed to make you talk. You see that a feature doesn’t work and you mention it because you want to make it known. The issue with this is that, especially when you are in a more senior position, it can lead to confusion.

Imagine you are on a boat with others, and you are all rowing towards a specific direction. Suddenly you notice a leak in the boat, and you stop rowing and shout, “Hey guys! The boat is leaking!” Everybody will stop, right? And someone will fix the leak before continuing.

What if, instead, you continue to work and offer a solution? For example, “Joe, you can fix the leak while we all continue to work,” or “Guys, continue to row! I need to fix this using this plug!”

This shows a different problem-solving skill, one that I had to learn the hard way. Don’t just point at a problem without proposing some solution. Be a problem solver, and your team will appreciate that.

Cost of Duty

Published by Paolo on 30/09/2025

I was working on my game, Pawtners Case, when suddenly I experienced a surge in my workload. I was looking for funding, in fact, I was paying an outsourcing company mainly for the art and some blueprint implementation in Unreal Engine. I needed money to pay them, and extra help from external funds would have helped a lot.

The game was abandoned, but I still have the code in my repository and on my PC. Now I have more time, and I have to make a choice. I could leave it where it is, forever. Or I can pick it back up and continue its development.

I am writing a book on game design, thanks to Jettelly, and I am using Pawtners Case as a case study for my book. The book will focus on ideation of new games, one of the most overlooked stages in game development—and probably one of the most important, too.

Using my game as a study, I am tempted to seriously resume its development. However, another peak of work for others may come up, in which case I would have to abandon it again. Other opportunities would then be sacrificed in the name of duty.

Everything contributes to my growth as a person and as a professional, so in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter after all. I continue to design games every single day; that’s all that counts. Still, every choice has a trade-off and a weight on my shoulders somehow. And time passes, and I know this won’t be forever.

To land down a vision

Published by Paolo on 29/09/2025

More often than not, a game designer’s job is to translate someone else’s vision, be it from a creative director, a product manager, or a client, into a concrete plan.

This means you have to create detailed proposals and present them to the team as if they were your own.

It’s common for a feature that has been proposed, discussed, and approved to be changed by a developer or even your boss just a few weeks later. The original plan is often sacrificed for faster execution.

When this happens, you meet again and discuss what changed, and someone in a senior position makes an executive call. That’s just how it works.

It’s said that Michelangelo used to make fake ‘final touches’ to his works so that his patrons could feel a sense of authorship. I don’t know if the story is true, but it makes perfect sense.

While game design is central to development, it’s an activity that involves the entire team. We, as game designers, are there to facilitate this process. Patience is key.