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Tag: inspiration

New Year Wishes 2022 #4 – Relaxation of measures in China

Published by Paolo on 29/12/2021

This year we saw limitations and laws being issued by the government of China against video games and companies that make those.

I think that from a European perspective is pretty hard to really understand what is happening there. I read and listened to lot of people trying to explain, but few of them were convincing to me. We all have an image of China that is probably very biased.

My hope for 2022 is to see some opening. The games industry needs China, not just as market. We need the people, as we need all the World to really grow in a sustainable way. My fourth wish for 2022 is this.

New Year Wishes 2022 #2 – Wider Heterogenity

Published by Paolo on 27/12/2021

For the next year I dream of an industry always more diverse and fresh. 

I hope that all communities and also minorities will feel more included in it.

I hope to see also people from other sectors joining the industry bringing some fresh air.

I hope to see more junior professionals with an opportunity to really show off their talent.

I really hope to see this thing expanding as it deserves!

Xmas reveal

Published by Paolo on 25/12/2021

If you are reading this post it means that probably you are following my blog. This post is just to say you that I wish you a merry Christmas, thank you for reading every day!

I want to really contribute to the games industry in a meaningful way. I don’t know if I will ever work on a game changing video game, but I know that I can inspire others in doing that. I believe that the industry is going better and better but that we are in the desperate need of new bold ideas.

That is why we are seeing all this excitement around new concepts and technology, such as the metaverse and/or the crypto. Love them or hate them, but the subtle concept to me is that the World is looking for something different than AAA, indie and free-to-play. Something to push the industry forward.

My intention, really, is to help this something to came out from the nowhere. Maybe in a dark cave, with a bull and a donkey! That’s the true spirit of Christmas to me: respect the humble things because from there a true revolution can start.

Merry Christmas!

Definition of mechanics and features

Published by Paolo on 22/12/2021

How do you define mechanics and features? This is very important for the success of the development. Many times, we think that just talking about something makes that clear for anyone. This is the most common mistake of inexperienced game designers.

“It’s simple, the character moves with the stick and shoots with the right trigger!”

With this sentence I have a gameplay in my mind and you have another.

You should really make the effort of empathizing with the people you are speaking with. Be as visual as possible. 60% visuals, 30% multimedia and only 10% written content is what I try to follow. It is better to speak on something visual and then find and solve all the related problems. 

Often, the things we define will require some further set up. Maybe you will have to decide the speed of something. Maybe the odds for some reward. The best way to communicate this is to show clearly how you would like to set up the things, in the engine you are using or in some spreadsheet! 

Do them a favor: speak about your needs!

How to build a Metaverse in 4 simple steps

Published by Paolo on 21/12/2021

Simple is not easy, of course. I am writing this post because of the continuous DMs on all channels from small ad agencies who would like to have the help of some cheap designer in southern Europe to build what Mark Zuckerberg is building.

Instead of just adding their contact to the spam filter, I would like to give them a guide to build their Metaverse themselves. Let’s go!

Simple Step 1 – Have a team

Games are made with a complete team of people working hard together to serve some audience with a game product or service. If you don’t have a team already, it is very simple: you have to build one! You don’t want to pay a third party to build your core business, don’t you?

Simple Step 2 – Have a team that completes projects

You have to know that the vast majority of video games that are being produced right now will never be released.  The reasons are multiple: no money, no people, no idea of the business are the main ones. Once you have a team, be simple: research small games and let your team make them. Let them prove they can complete a project from start to finish. Don’t be complex, don’t think in the CRYPTOMETACHAIN yet, think in just complete games.

Simple Step 3 – Have a team that completes projects and sells them

The next thing is to be able to market and sell your video games. That is not an easy task, statistics out there speak clearly: more than 90% of video games never get their investment back. Before conquering the World with your fantastic metaverse on the crypto whatever you may want to assure that you know how to sell your games.

Simple Step 4 – Have a team that completes projects and sells so many copies of them that creates an intellectual property

Apart from passing fashions, one thing is clear regarding metaverses: they are virtual places where real people value virtual things equal or greater than real objects. For a metaverse to be really successful in terms of revenues you may want your Players to receive and create great stories on your platform. If you have a strong IP such as Super Mario or Sonic, you will more probably attract the interests toward your platform more than the other metaverse done by one of the richest men in the World. Which is clearly not your case, because otherwise you were not reading these words.

Remember: simple is not easy. In fact, those are very hard steps. Making video games is not like playing video games, but it can be very simple: is just a matter of controlling your ambition according to the resources and the people you have to realize them.

Napoli, my place!

Published by Paolo on 20/12/2021

I am writing this post from my hometown Naples, in Italy. This is the city where the Pizza was born when the queen of Italy, Margherita di Savoia, was going to the south of the country to visit the people here. That is why the first, and maybe most famous, pizza in the World has the color of the Italian flag and is named Margherita.

Dude look: the perfection!

This city has two active volcanoes, Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei. As you can imagine it is not the safest place in the World. Still it is my mother, here I grew until 28 and here is where I had my basic education. 

With the Pandemic, my job literally exploded. I now work for a company but I offer my services to a client here in Naples. They offer me their office space also when I am here. The client is AppIdeas, they are a strong team doing hypercasual games for publishers. 

This year we had also a success, the hit Level Up Runner reached more than 1 million people. You may want to check it out!

Revenue on SensorTower doesn’t take ads in account for estimations

I really hope this is the start of a new sector here in Italy. Right now there is not so much, especially in the South. Someone has to start helping, I think. I will definitely try it!

Have you created your framework yet?

Published by Paolo on 19/12/2021

I have been observing the profiles of the most renowned game designers for some time. They all have one thing in common: they have developed frameworks and shared them with the world.

What are the tools and methodologies you use the most to tackle problems? Group everything, create a mind map, and share your thoughts every now and then. Your framework is interesting to the world, believe me!

Don’t waste any more time, start building your frameworks. It helps to think about everything in the form of a system. Excellent tool for optimizing times!

How to self-educate in designing games

Published by Paolo on 16/12/2021

Improve your design abilities adapting this writing method by Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin was born poor and he stopped being educated when he was 10 years old. He developed a method of self-education and became great at writing informative texts. Here there is his method:

“I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them.”

Can this be adapted to game design?

Try this:

  1. Find good videogames and make hints of every interesting part you see. Start from the brickfile.
  2. Wait for a few days and then come back to the hints. Who is the target of this game?
  3. Try to reconstruct the features and mechanics that you can reconstruct. Focus on the simple things, don’t overcomplicate it.
  4. Wait again for a few days and then come back. Does that make sense? Is the audience the same again or you are looking for other kind of Players?
  5. Repeat 3 and 4 until you are happy with your result
  6. Prototype just the things you improved!

An honest and personal post about how I became a professional game designer

Published by Paolo on 07/12/2021

If you want to get a job as a game designer do the job, don’t look for it. You have to be already working as a game designer if you want to hope to being paid for that.

I remember when I was compulsively looking for a job sending resumes. Poor me.

“I sent 5 resumes today, I have done my job.”. That was my comfort zone.

Some job offer put “having participated in at least 5 projects from start to end”. Some other was more intrepid: “having participated in the complete development of a TOP250 grossing game”. The good old days of 2013!

Do the job everyday

I started, every single morning, waking up early. Having my shower and breakfast. Dressing up with my best clothes, putting my shoes and my clock on. Working all the day at my desk, at least 8 hour per day. Imagining I was going to my office. I discovered the superpowers that “faking it” enable. I started studying seriously from books at night before of going to bed.

I maintained a document with all the job offers and companies here in Barcelona. I studied their games and imagined to work on those. In fact, those games had already their players and their competitors.

Deconstruct games

Deconstructing games is a process mostly mechanic at start. Start from the simple screen flow, make a brickfile. Spot their competitors and do the same. You find a feature that some competitor has and the game you are studying doesn’t? You have your design task! Use what you learnt from books and step by step build your own design framework. This is your secret, in your method there is your value.

Probably those companies you are monitoring will never hire you. They are still looking for the “best talent”. A game designer who worked on successful games. The dream, the rockstar. Nevermind, it’s YOU that want to work as game designer. They are too busy in filtering out people like you. So don’t wait for a company to let you in. Just do it.

Find your people

Try to create and maintain meaningful connections in the industry. I created a meetup, the Barcelona Game Design Meetup. My intention was to join game designers also from other companies. I ignored their strict policies most of those company had, instead. I also ignored that often people working for those companies are NOT the most motivated persons. They just do their job. They work as game designers, but often they are not intimately designers. I met a lot of wannabies and a few professionals. Making connections is still very useful. I just enjoyed any opportunity to talk about game design. Any opportunity!

Why do you design games?

Published by Paolo on 06/12/2021

The other day I was listening to a YouTube video (yeah, listening) with 2 people that I consider industry experts talking about leadership in videogames.

One of the two quoted this sentence from Orson Welles:

“…in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

His point was that, as a leader, you shouldn’t try to create a peaceful environment. In fact, great things come out from hard times.

This post is not to enter in the center of the question. In fact, those persons are people with at least five years more experience than me. And in companies with great products where I dream working someday. So that for the sake of this post they are right.

But I ask myself: what do I want to do with my job?

Do I want to become a name like Leonardo or Michelangelo? Or do I want to create something that brings fun in every place it is placed, like a cuckoo clock?