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Author: Paolo

AI Slop vs. Creative Power: A Love-Hate Relationship

Published by Paolo on 15/05/2026

I have mixed feelings about the integration of artificial intelligence into our digital spaces. On one hand, public platforms are deteriorating. From YouTube recommendations to mobile game ads, our feeds are flooded with low-quality “AI slop”—clickbait thumbnails and content engineered purely around anger and hyperbole. The internet has become a frantic, exhausting battle for our attention.

Yet, as a creator, generative AI has completely revolutionized my workflow by automating the tedious parts of development:

  • Game Design Documents (GDD): I can instantly generate a robust structural base for 15 GDDs a month without redoing the groundwork every time.
  • Workflow Automation: Converting a massive document into actionable JIRA tasks used to take days; now, it takes an hour of high-level planning and bulk creation.

Beyond productivity, experimenting with these tools has brought back a sense of community. Sharing new AI discoveries in private chats feels exactly like the early days of the internet—reminiscent of finding an old IRC channel or a niche forum.

While the public internet grows increasingly dull due to algorithmic noise, the backend world of AI innovation has unlocked a frontier that is just as exciting as the internet itself once was.

Leveling up in Claude

Published by Paolo on 28/04/2026

Yesterday I was speaking with a design director about how I use Claude AI, and he made me discover a new method of using it, I was totally ignoring. In fact, all this AI hype makes me resistant to novelties, and I have to admit that I often lose opportunities because of that.

I think that it’s a very powerful tool, and my feelings are that I will save up lots of time from repetitive tasks such as creating subtasks in JIRA, setting up pages, summarize information that is already there, and so on. It’s definitely a level up in my career.

Freshness is safer in ideation stage

Published by Paolo on 27/04/2026

When two medics decided to make Baldur’s Gate, they didn’t have experience with CRPGs. When Mr. Myiamoto directed FZero on SNES he wasn’t a veteran in racing games. When a marketing guy from Ubisoft decided to make a realistic-style JRPG together with a programmer, he didn’t have previous experience in the genre.

Still, many companies publish job offers for specific positions requiring previous experience in the specific genre they are developing. It’s because of the belief that higher skill means faster results, and more important, less risks. This happens a lot on high-quality games and mobile F2P, because these business models became managed in a McKinsian way. And that, kids, is why they are in trouble.

Still, games like PRAGMATA are showing that there are audiences eager to new experiences, with unique blends of mechanics. I don’t know their stories, but I am playing the game and I wouldn’t be surprised if among their team there are designers with no previous experience with 3D action-adventure games. Video games like PRAGMATA are only possible when you are open to a completely different perspective, and when you let people work. I believe it’s hard to find this fit if your job offer filters opportunities out.

Experience within a genre is very important, don’t get me wrong. But the more I work, the more I realize I am full of biases. The more experience I get, the more I push for research and playtesting. New audiences are playing in ways often ignored by a big portion of developers, a sort of tunnel vision you have when you make always the same thing over and over.

read more: https://gamedesignskills.com/game-development/stages-of-game-development-process/

This is one of the reasons that led me to be a freelancer, also if it comes with a price as everything good in our life. Probably the worst one is when a client wants me to tell them the hour using their own clock. They close to proposal, because they don’t really understand (and they actively ignore) the opportunities of ideation stage.

A potential use case for Microsoft

Published by Paolo on 24/04/2026

I read the last email that the new CEO of XBox sent to her employees. It is honestly an inspiring take on what’s next for XBOX, I am positive about this person. Maybe the fact she is not a games veteran is good for her actual position. Or maybe I am just a dreamer, I don’t know.

There is one use case that I believe they can tackle pretty “easily”, and position themselves like the platform for everyone they want to become. There are successful f2p midcore titles that occupy too much space on the smartphone. Often they require the latest models to run at the higher quality. I believe that the f2p player doesn’t care of having a copy of what he is playing.

If XBOX manages to become the platform from which you can play the “Genshin Impacts” of the future in cloud on streaming, and maybe engage with mods and UGC for your fav games, there is the chance from them to become THE platform of the future. A sort of Roblox for Mobile f2p games. Of course, there are lots of limitation that may come from Apple and Google. Still, if they manage to do this right, they can really disrupt the market in my opinion.

There is a reading crisis

Published by Paolo on 23/04/2026

Lately I had the opportunity to review a couple of junior profiles, tests and interviews. The main issue I see is that many of them are becoming good at posing but they are also losing reading skills. I am worried, reading is so important to our profession.

During my day I review documents, chat with teammates, receive emails… all those activities involve reading. If I send to a potential candidate concrete instructions in plain English, I can admit interpretation of course. But, if I notice that you simply are ignoring instructions, I deduce that you didn’t read them.

I believe that one of my advantages as a professional are the 5 languages I speak fluently. That open to me lots of doors, because I can show reliability. I can prove with my messages that I am reading you. This is very basic and critical, you shouldn’t (as a designer) improve your technical skills with engines and tools; writing skills are also not more important than listening and reading. If you fail at that, I cannot approve your test.

If you are reading this, congrats, you are a reader. So maybe you are not part of the problem, but you can become part of the solution.

Three loops of Expedition 33

Published by Paolo on 22/04/2026

These days I am playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 pretty intensively (when other 40y-old-man-duties permit) these days. And I am also completing my bootcamp on videogames design and conceptualization. A class I gave was based on the 3 main loops of a game, and today I want to apply this knowledge to the 2025 GOTY.

Moment-to-moment (second-to-second)

This first loop is the central one, and it describes what the player does the most. You can say it describes the core dynamic, somehow. In case of Expedition33:

  • Action: Reactive turn-base combat
  • Challenge: groups of nevrons (enemies)
  • Reward: skill points, loot

WHY to repeat this loot: the game is divided in zones within an open world, the Player wants to complete the zone to unlock the next.

Core loop

The core loop is what the Player does the most during the game and gives meaning to the moment-to-moment loop. We can say that it considers the game session as a whole.

  • Action: Improve team stats
  • Challenge: complete zone sections
  • Reward: Advance with the story

WHY to repeat this loot: as any good JRPG it’s about the map! You want to play to unlock new venues and discover new places into the map.

Metagame loop

This loop describes what keeps the Players engaged, what makes them think “I need to return back into the game because I want to…”. Describes the features and mechanics that make me think into the game when I am not playing it. In the case of Expedition33:

  • Action: defeat bosses
  • Challenge: what will happen in the story?
  • Reward: plot twists and secrets discoveries

WHY to repeat this loot: the game is one great adventure story!

Design docs are about builds

Published by Paolo on 21/04/2026

A good way of thinking in GDD is to write down more details of what’s already in a build of some sort. With this I mean that if you design pages and pages of documentation regarding something not concrete, you are at risk of delivering something disconnected from reality.

Frame the problem, develop prototypes, align, and only after write down specs. That’s the way. You need less talk and more rock.

A simple idea for AI in games

Published by Paolo on 17/04/2026

Of the many applications of AI in games, I am more interested in those that can unlock new form of experiences. First thing that comes to mind is narrative, of course, but since as a developer you are paying for hosting a server with an LLM I think you need to focus more on the return of the investment on that infrastructure.

One idea is to have new forms of special offers related with the fact that you can or cannot engage with certain systems within a game. Maybe you played heavily during the last event, but you have no time this week. You can say it, and the system can find special solutions for you. Just one example.

Good old days

Published by Paolo on 16/04/2026

This week I watched a couple of videos on PRAGMATA, a game coming out tomorrow on major high-quality platforms. Reviewers seem to agree that it’s a game made with courage, that reminds of the good side of PS3 era.

I just watched Street Fighter Movie trailer, and honestly: just the music (What’s Going On?) unlocks so many memories. A movie to watch, definitely.

The trend of this year is clear, companies and Hollywood invested the last year in legacy IP and CAPCOM is heading this in the games industry. Whether if they are creating new IPs, or making art with the strong IPs they have, they are clearly playing on nostalgia for their positioning.

Weapons, Pictos, Luminas

Published by Paolo on 15/04/2026

I am playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I cannot avoid to notice that there are flaws mainly under the gameplay/UX perspective. Also the GOTY is not immune to imperfections, and that’s actually one of the main reason why Players play games. We love imperfect things!

From this screen you can set up everything for selected character(s)

There is a system which is very interesting, it permits you to create different builds for your team. It opens when you decide to see the detail of one of the members of your team.

Weapons

This is how the weapon screen at the start of a game

Each character has a set of weapons available. You can find weapons mainly by beating specific monsters (in the game they are called: Nevrons) like bosses or mini-bosses. These weapons are related with damage, but also with 1-2 stats each.

Weapons may offer extra benefits, and they can be leveled up at the camp. They are readable, and also different: you can see the weapon currently equipped in battle.

This creepy guy lets you upgrade your weapons at the camp

The struggle with weapons is that you cannot predict where they can arrive, how powerful they can become. So it’s hard to decide to invest in a specific one, especially sooner in the game.

This weapon looks cool, should I upgrade it or keep resources for later?

Pictos

During the game, you collect Pictos, which are things you can put in 3 slots per character to get extra benefits on stats and effects in battle. In theory, you can study the advantages you have in certain stats and decide accordingly which Picto to equip to your character.

your slots are the ones in the middle. On the left, all the pictos you collected

In practice, you are overwhelmed by them, and it’s hard to make a choice of which to equip, in my opinion. Also because the stats they influence are not directly the main ones, but secondary/calculated. So you should be very knowledgeable about the game systems to understand properly this one. Also, when a Picto is equipped on one of your member, you cannot use it with another.

Luminas and Lumina Points

In order to solve the Picto issues and to encourage you to swap them continuously, Sanfall Interactive designed Luminas: using Pictos more than 3 times (in more than 3 battles) unlocks the possibility to use their special effect only using another resource, called Lumina Points.

This system is complex and hidden in the menus, I am sure that most players will ignore them completely and focus on mastering the dodge/parry mechanics in combat. I believe that the UX doesn’t serve well the system, which is already very complex to be fully understandable. Maybe in the future, with the integration of more systems to provide real-time guidance to the Players, these things will be easier to grasp.

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