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Tag: insight

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.

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.

You want to believe

Published by Paolo on 27/06/2025

There are companies that make games and do not believe in game designers. It may be hard to understand what a game designer is capable to do. Also, not all game designers are able to stand out for the craft. I’ve met people like that who transitioned into other roles.

Every game starts with assumptions. They can be interpretations of market insight or straight fingers pointed at the sky to feel the wind. Assumptions are good to start conversations and show security and vision in early stage, but dangerous for the success of a game. There are successful companies that have in their cultural deck “do not believe any assumption”.

Having people specialized in taking those assumptions and supporting the vision holders to land them down and face reality has a value. These people are professional game designers. In fact, in companies the game designers rarely are the creators of a new product. They are facilitators of game design, that is a role shared among the team.

If you know how to code, that’s enough to make a videogame. If you don’t know it, but you have the money to hire a game developer, you can develop a full game. And if you are sure of your assumptions you can improvise the rest and make a game. There are successful cases that started like this, one I have in my mind right now is Vampire Survivors.

But then there is the reality of the market, of the players out there. And then also the nerdiest anti-social coder will need help on game design.

Same discourse is valid for startup that passed to the growth stage. You may have started making scrappy games filled with ads, and you may assume that you know. But you will need game designers to interpret your (shitty) assumptions and land them down. You need professionals if you want to pass to the growth stage or keep there.

Impossible true stories

Published by Paolo on 27/06/2025

I watched the splendid documentary on Sandfall and Clare Obscure: Expedition 33 made by the Australian YouTube channel SkillUp.

Apart from the obvious learnings on commitment, passion, vision, and so on, I have found 3 important insight:

1. it’s super important to share what you do also as a side hustle out there. You may never know, maybe posting a couple of fan themes on a lost music forum may lead to meet special people to make special things.

2. a possible strategy for disruptive indie/AA games is to include people who never made a game in their entire life. Especially if you employ them in the parts more near of the final client, the player. Art, music, writing.

3. the best indicator that you are making a hit is in your internal playtests. It is something you feel while you play your build everyday, also one that is bad looking. We make games for others to play, but how can you sell people things you don’t actually like and be successful? If you see that everyone in your team is playing the game for fun, you have it.

Adding new to classics

Published by Paolo on 27/06/2025

I watched the new Netflix show produced by SONY Pictures Animation called “KPop Demon Hunters”. I am not in their target audience, also if I love the animation on 2s (a new pose each 2 photograms, instead than 1) launched by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse” and I recognize the rest of visuals. Not surprising, but well made.

What I liked was the lore, also if I am too adult (not old :P) to understand the nuances of K-pop. I like its silliness and the irreverence of the protagonists, reminds me a lot of what I notice in teenagers: struggle to have followers, always be perfect, but also lots of stress and anxiety because of the dark present and no light on the long term.

I love the mixture between classic mythology with modern K-pop, also if I felt something missing on the demon side. Still, a great show to watch. I also liked that the characters (at least the female ones) are not too hypersexualized. I would like to say the same for the boys, but that’s not the case 😛

And, maybe it’s for the 3d, probably for the combat too, I think that from that proof of concept new lores may spark more fresh, for the action adventure games of the future! Recommended.

New Strands

Published by Paolo on 27/06/2025

Last week I have started playing Death Stranding (the first chapter, on PS Plus), and yesterday I have also read an interesting interview to the CEO of Supercell on the need for new type of games. I very much agree with that, so I started connecting the dots.

What console and indie games have that mobile still hasn’t get yet is the “useless beauty”. Things that are not designed or implemented for a specific KPI or data goal. Useless beauty is not that useless to me on the long term, also if you cannot see the immediate benefit. It shows our humanity, and prepares the terrain for cultural and trend settings.

Death Stranding is one of the most impactful experiences I am having in the last 10 year, on gaming side. And it contains a lot of things that make me thing “man, that’s weird, why did you put that?”. Actually, one after another. It’s overwhelming, and beautiful, and it doesn’t explain everything.

Also the last experiments from Supercell, which from a numbers perspective still haven’t found the formula, have something like that. They are much less authorial, the result of a team effort, different purpose, but still. I am sure that Kojima too is willing to make something to be remembered forever, but not played maybe. Different goals, but similar philosophies to me.

I don’t know if they will ever manage to create new genres, but to me the road is correct: not everything must have a direct impact on measures, useless beauty is human and players need wonder, not just mechanics.

What I learned in the Playable Stories Workshop

Published by Paolo on 03/03/2025

Yesterday, I participated in a workshop on how to write for playable stories. It was a workshop oriented to professional game writers, and I am not. Still, I found it very useful in improving my skills in narrative design.

It was divided into 3 sessions, with pauses in the middle. Session one was about how games change stories. Session two was about how to make stories playable. The last one was about how to use the storytelling toolbox. The tools all writers have and also the tools that belong only to game writers.

The workshop was packed with practical insight and exercises to train for the next days. In Fall 2022, a company I worked for paid for my fee at the narrative department workshop. This gave me access to a series of interesting workshops at a special price. I am thankful for that.

The main challenge of a professional game designer

Published by Paolo on 24/02/2025

It’s one thing to design a game (or a feature of a game) and another to sell it. This is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn during the career of a game designer.

It’s not just about thinking about systems, mechanics, development context. It’s also about convincing someone to go ahead.

  • If you have the funds, this someone can be a potential player. You have to convince them to play.
  • If you don’t have the funds, but you have a great idea, this someone can be a publisher or an investor.
  • If you work for someone, you have to convince them!

The key point is always in the expectations that one has about something.

  • “I will buy this game for 30 euros because I think I will have a fun time”
  • “I have to invest in this project because I see great possibilities of return”
  • “I approve this design because I think it is the right one for our game”

The biggest challenge is that creatives think on a different level than others.

I’ll give a concrete example with my game Pawtners Case. Lately I’ve been proposing it to try to finance it. It is perceived as a game that is too cheap, and so with little potential. It doesn’t matter that I propose something workable and scalable. Publishers prefer to focus more on something unachievable rather than go step-by-step.