I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy 2026. I scheduled a couple of posts for key dates, but I will spend some day with my family in Italy so I will not post over here during two weeks.
See you next year, I hope you will find your “Zelda’s Lullaby”, your key for multiple solutions.
One of the things I like the most about the games industry are the success stories. I like when people, for a reason or another, join together and achieve great success, higher than they expected. This possibility is one of the elements that keeps me within the games industry.
I am aware of the “survivorship bias” here, and I know that I cannot reproduce the success of others. I have been in enough projects to understand that every successful game is a little miracle. A combination of multiple factors. You cannot just follow guides and tips and be successful. And that’s exactly what I find attractive of this business.
When I celebrate concrete case studies over here is not to give false hopes to people. It’s not a “hey, look at them! they did that with few resources, you should do the same, it’s easy!”. Not at all.
It’s just that my LinkedIn feed in the last 2 years is filled with empty messages, sexy selfies, and bad news. And I just genuinely like to spread good news, and say “hey, everything is freaking hard, but I am a gamer and believe me: an epic win is always possible.”
According to the popular marketing insight service Circana, on November this year the 3rd most sold console has been NEX Playground. In case you don’t know what it is, here’s the console.
The console is small and cubic, and has no controller. You play videogames like you did on XBOX Kinect years ago. The target audience is clear, the same as WII, families. The business model is subscription. You buy the console for around $250 and then you pay a monthly fee to get access to all games. The power, according to a recent interview of its company founder, is similar to a PS3. No next gen, no controller, simplicity at its best.
Will this console beat next gen consoles like PS6? No, of course not. But to me, the fact that has oversold XBOX for instance is a sign that:
Europe needs something like this, for me. Especially now that we are researching more on making our own chips to not be dependent on China, it would be great making our own console, as an excuse and for the chance of building our own Nintendo. I would probably target 10-13 preteens in full “obsession age” and make cool games. I would probably also add a simple 2 buttons controller for having better kinesthetics for whoever who doesn’t want to move.
The main feature, to me, should be that the console should work like old consoles: you turn ON and the game appears. No connections, no loadings, no system checks before it’s truly needed. It would be so cool to participate in a project like that!
My feeling is that 2026 will be the year of people with the courage of creating new worlds and putting them out. We have not only tutorials, but plenty or resources to visualize and realize our dreams. To make them playable from people from all over the world. My feeling is that independent creators will benefit the most from recent technological advancements.
Of course, there are many factors that can influence the course of events so don’t take it as a prediction. I loved The Game Awards, I watched it with emotion, including some tears of joy and nostalgia. And the desire of helping build something memorable.
The fifth edition of the Steam Sale Games in Italy is underway, the initiative dedicated to Made in Italy video games powered by IIDEA!
From today until Tuesday, December 9th at 7:00 PM, discover over 400 Italian titles, including video games, DLC, and additional content: a vast selection that celebrates the creativity of our studios and offers numerous special offers on productions of all genres.
I have to say that’s pretty accurate. If you want to take your test and discover your archetype go here.
I work in games not as an individual creator, but to do it with others. Game design is a way to get in touch with others, teammates and potentially players. I am not a solodev, I struggle really hard when I do projects completely alone also if at times is necessary to push my boundaries.
That’s another reason why I do teach and I join online courses, as well. As a freelancer, I don’t always have clients. There are periods in which I dedicate to personal project, such as the book I am writing, and I feel very alone professionally speaking. Having the excuse to meet other people to teach them or to study with them fixes partially that problem. I am also on Discord channels, but I feel hard to follow discussions there because of the way Discord is designed.
I have met plenty of professionals who don’t actually love working in games, including game designers. I’m sure this is not news to you, and I also believe that everyone has a right to work in an industry as big as gaming, even if only for a while.
Yesterday, I met one of these people, who told me, “Videogames are your beach!” (using a Brazilian, Rio de Janeiro slang phrase). And I agree; I genuinely love my profession.
I have proof of that because I often put myself in a vulnerable financial position just for the sake of engaging in game design. A client might offer me shares as part of my compensation. If I like the client or the project, I accept, even if I know I may never see any money from it. I know that my task will end, the client will close the collaboration, and I will lose all shares.
I know this, and I consciously make that choice because I love what I do.
But I deeply respect the professionals who don’t care too much—the ones who pass through the industry like tourists, earn some money, and move on. They will have the opportunity to explore different things, and their minds probably won’t be 110% focused on games all the time, unlike mine. I respect that attitude very much as well.
I believe the single most important quality for indie developers is honesty. This is their secret weapon. It is nearly impossible for a Top 10 company to achieve full honesty because of their size and stakeholder structure. Honesty, however, allows you to consistently put out your authentic voice.
Recently, while consuming content in the indie space (podcasts and video), I’ve noticed a significant increase in marketing awareness. This often translates into the typical marketing discourse: “how to make trending things faster and avoid struggling too much.”
But that, in my humble opinion, misses the entire point of being an indie. Independence requires you to embrace the struggle and invest genuine effort—not just hours, but intense thought and creative energy. If you end up simply chasing trends, you risk falling into the trap of industrialization, product managerization, and creating derivative work.
I am not arguing against trend awareness or chasing money; of course, we work for money. But I am asserting that if you want to truly succeed in the indie space, you must prioritize honest self-expression. Put your authentic voice out there for real—even if your true call is to make a niche friends-to-lovers sim or a niche horror game.
Previous post I talked about being part of a high performance team and how we’re able to become so effective in term of our output. This post is about a personal observation in how I’m able to work in such an environment and keep up with the team.
I’ve noticed that my contribution is not consistent. It is fast one day and slow the other day. Ow how I used to hate the fact that I’m slow on certain days, or sometimes even extended periods of time, while seeing the fast periods as normal. But I’ve come to understand that these slower days have a purpose.
Sometimes, being slow means that you need to recover and reenergize from a previous high performance day.
At other times the slower days means that for that particular moment I should spend my time working on something else. When it comes to new ideas and design solutions they sometimes it just require me to be in a particular mood, a particular zone in order for ideas and solutions to come naturally and fast.
Sometimes, being slow means I do not have enough input, or just not spend enough time on finding the solution. Sometimes, it means that I just need to stare longer at the particular problem I want to solve.
In the end, I came to realize that being able to be fast and productive I have to accept that being slow at other times is just part of the process and one does not exist without the other. I’m becoming more mindful of my energy, my own flow, my own limitations and my own process. I’m more accepting of myself.