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Author: Paolo

Lessons from Black Myth Wukong

Everyone is talking about the monkey, a breath of fresh air during those challenging times. I am watching the game intro over and over, it is probably one of the best I have ever seen.

  • Character: he’s brave, he’s not humble, he is imperfect. He is relatable with Goku also for non-Asian audiences. That cloud flight scene is pure genius.
  • Combat: it starts from the best thing of the game, fighting bosses. You cannot lose here, and you have everything unlocked it’s on you to discover.
  • System: it shows you a possible evolution of your character
  • Promise: the theme is well set at the end of the prologue. It’s about rising again.

But wait, why did the semi-god fall off? It’s not clear and I am not the only one that wants to know why…

Regarding the development, the team had experience in live service games and they decided to steer off completely learning Unreal Engine from scratch.

Great things happen when you have motivation and true experience but in lateral sectors! Black Myth Wukong is another proof of this.

LLMs and critical thinking

One of my duties as a game designer working in a team is to give feedback. Usually, I give it to other designers, artists, and writers. Giving feedback is hard, because when we’re asked for it we tend to look for the defects. Or, at least, I do.

The same is true when I am on the other side. I ask for feedback and I already know that 80% or more of that will be some critical opinion. I accept it, because I know how it is when I am on the other side of the table.

I have developed this interrogation to LLMs that helps me a lot with my designs. I provide the machine with my design goals and elements and ask it to do my job. The result is wrong, and average. I criticize it and find solutions.

The dialogue with a dummy entity helps with my critical thinking.

Pawtners Case

Today I have completed a set of new mechanics which will be useful for the very first prototype of my game. You can watch here:

I have also changed the name of the game, after listening to the first feedback on a Discord server. The game will be called Pawtners Case, I am studying also layouts for a possible capsule. This is what I got so far:

I am impressed by Unreal Engine. I don’t know why I didn’t use it until now. It has a whole gameplay framework already implemented, you can set things up very easily. And placing object in the level is fairly simple. It doesn’t have the huge community that Unity has, but it’s a powerful tool.

Now I need to focus on the level for the first prototype, and double check which mechanics I am missing.

Snifferson & Solvito: Paws on the case

I discovered that AEVI, a local association that helps game developers in Spain, activated a help plan for independent developers. They help you financially with the development of a prototype.

My first solo dev game in Unreal Engine is taking shape! I am excited, and I am willing to keep things very small and doable. I want to make a complete game in 6 months, and I can add 2 more for QA and debugging but that’s it.

My intention is to keep things fairly simple:

  • You control a police dog and your goal is to help your human companion solve a case
  • No dialogues, just emojis to express emotions. I want to avoid too many terms to translate. You can develop a relationship with your human colleague which will help you during levels
  • As a dog, you can find valuable items (+$) but also damage the environments (-$) and this will influence the economy of the central station
  • Everytime you perform some action you will learn more abilities during the level which can be useful to solve the case, so you decide
  • No violence, PEGI 12, E10+ game. Explosions and shots will be funny using ragdolls and silly animations

Dog game

When I was younger I was addicted to TV shows with a policeman and a dog. The most famous one was called Tequila & Bonetti. I still remember that piano music that Bonetti played at night, recalling his dark past.

I am studying Unreal Engine and I had an idea: an action game with a story where you are the dog and have to solve situations to move forward with the story.

For now it’s called simply “Dog game”, I am implementing the first mechanics.

Follow here the development of this game

Podcasts and analysis paralysis

I am an avid podcast consumer. I love them, they are a bridge to knowledge that is hard to get otherwise. Through podcasts, I can listen the words of true experts. And for FREE.

As with everything in life, it comes with a cost. When I work on a project, I have clear references to consider. Often, those are words from experts that I got through a podcast. And, most of the time, those are words that stop some creative impulse.

It’s because podcasts are about things that already exist. Often, things that failed and why they failed. Sometimes, experts are not actual doers, but just analysts.

Discernment is a great quality to have for your creativity.

Reasons to go F2P

I am following a couple of projects lately that are tackling F2P that in my humble opinion is completely wrong. I won’t name the projects, because it’s not meaningful for this short conversation.

The first project makes the mistake of designing the game for addiction. They seem to be designing a shop, not a game. Well, while some early metrics could show promising that will be not the case for the long term. A F2P game is a game and the Player wants to get out something. It’s not a gambling game, but a true game. Some Player may experience addiction, but you shouldn’t design for that. I mean it’s also bad for the business.

The second project makes the mistake of designing the game F2P because its competitors are doing so. “Why should the Players want our game if it has a price and the other one is free?”. Well, in that case, I am sorry, but you are not really believe in your game. Players may choose to play your game instead of that other because they love it! Having a premium game against a service based one can be also an advantage according to the kind of audience.

When to go F2P?

You should think in F2P like a luxury service. You give your game for free to a mass of people because you create another layer for the wealthier part of your audience. You need to think in red carpets, VIP treatment.

If your service permit EVERYONE to have fun and a small part to be treated like Kings (including by winning), you can create a good F2P service. Otherwise it will be simply a race to the bottom.

On posting and social media

What’s up readers? I hope you are good. As you can see, I am still recovering from vacation catching up with everything and I am not able to post daily for now. I will get there, just the time of closing a couple of deals…

I am studying intensively Unreal Engine because I noticed there is a growth in need for tech designers and I find it a great excuse to get better at that engine.

Today I wanna talk about my conception of social media use. I don’t have a proper strategy, I use it because I find it fun. And when I don’t find them fun anymore, I leave them. That’s it.

Someone may suggest you to write at least 3 times per week on LinkedIn to boost your engagement, bla bla. It’s all bullshit, believe me.

The main way of creating leads on social media is not by posting daily but interacting to other people’s content. Write them publicly and privately. You will get to know much more people like that, compared with sharing the little you know.

I post on LinkedIn and here because I freakin’ love life and my job. I have passion for game design and I love to speak about it loudly, that’s all. No strategy, no technique. Just pure fun. And when I don’t have fun anymore, I quit!

The courage of logging out

I was watching this fantastic video, a little clip from an interview to one of my favorite singers.

Apart from the fact that I love when someone I consider a true talent shows humility and thanks his high school teachers, I think lots of things are transferable to my professional life.

The main one is that you have to truly dedicate yourself to something to become good at it. And this is not anything new, but in my life I have:

  • my family
  • my clients
  • my hobbies
  • this blog to maintain
  • a Substack where I teach game design in Italian
  • my LinkedIn account
  • a Reddit account

that means lots of distractions for becoming a true expert in something. That’s why the time in high school is so valuable now to me.

I wish myself the courage to log off and pursue my dreams, today.

Always keep making games!

I have just read a terrible article appeared on the website TheGamer.com. It’s terrible because it uses some of the issues we have in the games industry to create victims and entitlement among its readers.

I do not agree with this kind of messages because they use problems as an excuse to do nothing. It’s true that greed oftentimes invades the corporations, it’s the older story in the World. But this doesn’t invalidate our ambitions to work in an industry and build great games for the people.

I believe that nowadays we live in a big crisis. Plus the hyper connection in which we are installed make the bad news spread faster. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything is bad, that executives are bad people and we should not work to be their slaves. It’s simply not the truth, though.

The truth is that we are struggling with different challenges that inevitably influence also the games industry. And for that reason we should never complain and work hard. Always be creating. Someone will work for someone else. Others will work for themselves. Others will offer job to people. That’s how it goes.

Always be creating great games!