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Category: Opinions

More creative less product

Published by Paolo on 03/07/2023

Product managers are a type of profile centered above all in business. It is true that many have design knowledge, but their role requires identifying and mitigating risks. When a new project is led by product managers, it is much better to dedicate oneself to making a +1 game, that is, a game that improves a few things on some other successful game. In this way we will avoid all the frustrations that come from the personal anxieties of those at the top.

A creative director, on the other hand, is naturally inclined to be open to exploring all the ways to arrive at a certain type of experience. When a game is run by a creative director who does his job well, the initial part is fun. In that case it is good not to forget the Pareto principle. Take 80% from something that already exists and create a new 20%. It’s not a norm, there are so many creative directors who have amazing ways of handling a project and inspiring the fantasies that need to be recreated. Some take from other sectors, such as cinema, theater, but also martial arts and so on.

I would like to see more new titles in mobile managed by creative directors and not by product managers. I miss the weirdness, the silliness and all the surprises that games that come from more creative minds give me. I’m sure features like shops, daily bonuses, achievements and special offers could come out of the pop-up hell they’re relegated to. Creativity should not be underestimated.

Physical versions of F2P

Published by Paolo on 28/06/2023

Free-to-play is a business model that helped create entire ecosystems of video games.

Often the monetization plans rely on a few people being able to spend very large amounts of money. Still, the model offers free fun to a lot of people.

[Anyone who spends a thousand, two thousand (or more) euros a month on a video game has a problem they should check. But I’m not an expert in psychiatry, so it’s a personal opinion based on my way of life.]

As a creator, yet, there is one thing that I really don’t like. When a company decides to stop a free-to-play service, the game disappears from circulation.

I would like the companies to release a playable offline version of their games. Just as a reminder, so as not to lose a part of the video game’s history.

New Apple Vision PRO

Published by Paolo on 06/06/2023

Apple has shown that they understand that MR devices compete with traditional screens in the physical space.

They haven’t made the same mistake as Meta, of promising virtual worlds where we can meet our friends. The promise is easy to make, very difficult to execute. Also because reality always has more weight than virtual worlds, who cares? They didn’t speak about the metaverse or anything like that. They forged the new term “spatial computing”.

Apple in its typical way of communicating things offers us a simple message. Buy Apple Vision PRO and you will have how, where, and when you want all the screens you want. No more arguing with your wife about where to put the television. You can wash the dishes and have the news of the day ahead of you. You can join a business meeting without having to switch tabs to check your social media.

  • The current price is for early adopters and companies that want to explore the potential of this device, not for the mainstream.
  • I’m not sure if this device can overcome the natural instinct of the human being not to want his face covered.
  • The battery promises a duration of two hours, which seems few to me for use cases.
  • I expect a change of direction in Meta communication for the new Quest 3, now.
  • “Spatial Computing” is still a hard wording for the mass market.

The unpolished trend

Published by Paolo on 02/06/2023

In the last couple of years, my LinkedIn is filled with claims regarding community-driven / community-led games. The search for new business models to give more fresh air to one of the most fresh businesses in the World and attract investments often leads to something unusual.

It seems at first sight like an interesting path to take, because everything is fast. If you are lucky, you may get millions of downloads. This without having to face all the challenges that people that make real games struggle to deal with every day.

Yesterday I was watching a video with the new Supercell game, Floodrush.

I believe that Supercell is trying out the new features from Google. Their new beta program provides lots of tools for building up a community early. Please, look at the game.

Floodrush is an unpolished game, it’s too early to launch it. The goals aren’t exciting, the camera has issues, the controls aren’t intuitive and the portrait doesn’t feel like the right layout for a game based on curiosity and discovery. Supercell has probably fallen into the trap of launching something too early and seeing how it goes. To me, it is not the right strategy.

If something goes more or less well, your competitors will surely catch up with better solutions early. You are revealing the result of your research. If I look at the last Supercell releases it is clear that discovery and exploration are the next thing for them.

Game design is also a form of art

And as artists, we cannot put the audience first. The audience is the most important part of our job, and for that, they deserve something great, something final, something polished. If you try to do what they want you end up doing something average and mediocre.

@glo.io

Rick Rubin shares why artists should put their audience last. #rickrubin #creativity #ideas #creators #creativeinspiration #creativeprocess #interview #motivation #musicproducer #art

♬ original sound – Glo

As game designers, we have lots of tools to spot the weakest parts of our craft and improve them. But we need a clear vision and we need to deliver it in the best quality in order to find success.

Is the next trend just throwing things at people? I have seen this in hyper-casual gaming, I see this in hybrid-casual. I didn’t expect to see this from the masters of free-to-play.

Let’s be honest about talent

Published by Paolo on 23/05/2023

Talent in a certain specialty is something difficult to measure. It depends on a person’s natural aptitudes, but also and above all on the context in which they can be expressed.

Very often I read job offers to find “talent”. I am convinced that in most of them there is something empty behind them. Each of us has its own characteristics and abilities. As we face new challenges in new environments, these characteristics are sought and we learn new skills. If we are in the right place and have enough maturity, we could shine. Contribute a great deal to the task, project or mission that has been entrusted to us.

This does not mean that transported to a new context we will have the same performance. I have seen countless times people considered champions of a sports team fail to achieve the same results on a new team.

Is it perhaps that that person has no talent? Is it possible to forget the talent?

Certainly some characteristics can be compromised over time. Elite players will hardly be able to surprise fans beyond a certain age. In a new context, however, they will be able to offer other qualities.

It would be more intellectually honest to announce that we are looking for the person who knows how to move in contexts like ours. Making the effort of defining well that context, first. That way, no one can feel like they’re not talented, which is generally never the case.

On experience

Published by Paolo on 15/02/2023

A few days ago I posted an ode to determination and willpower that triggered a number of interesting reactions. Best of all, I had interesting discussions around the topic of professional experience. Two things happened:

  • A claim made by me that says “Willpower eats experience for breakfast” gave rise to bad interpretations.
  • A reading from a skeptical perspective by some dear friends in the industry distorted a bit the message.

Someone interpreted that I underestimate experience. Someone read that I said that willpower is everything and that you don’t need the experience to make great games. That is not the case. What I wanted to say was that we should never underestimate willpower, because willpower is a strong force that often led to creating great franchises. Of course, professional experience is key. But if you have the experience and no willpower, you will probably create a clone, a repetition of something you don’t like. I made a concrete example from the city where I live, Barcelona. A lot of big companies landed here and I know they tried to create new games. And nothing happened. They have the best talent in the World, but probably not enough willpower to make great things. That was my point.

Experience is the real quality needed for a better industry. Our industry will be better if we’ll include more people in it and make more games out of the true experience.

Professional experience is something that:

  • You wish you had when you look for your first job.
  • You are building, when you practice your job
  • You possess, when you have invested a lot of time doing your work.

The discussion will be geared toward game designers, but perhaps some concepts can be extended to other profiles.

When you want to have experience

A lot of people get to finish their studies and find themselves faced with a mountain to climb. We wish we had a job, but we find ourselves rejected for lack of experience. We seem to be in a vicious circle: I don’t have a job because I don’t have experience because I don’t have a job because…

How to get out of the circle? Well for me there are a few points to consider:

Do you have enough willpower to want to be a game designer?

In this case, you simply have to be a game designer. Sleep at least 8 hours a day, wake up rested, and think about what to do. Every single day work on a project, it can also be a personal project. When you have something finished, you have to make ordinary people try it. You will never learn real game design from game jams. Because in game jams there is the most important part missing: the player. You must be present at the session and record everything. Jot down what you have learned and iterate at least once. After iterating, publish everything on itch.io, for example. Put your work out!

Do you need a job for economic reasons?

Look for a job even if it is not in game design. The richest people I know started out doing jobs they didn’t like! Maybe you discover something else, what do you know?

When you’re getting experience

When you are getting the experience you will be junior, mid, or senior. Depending on your level of experience, you will have different challenges ahead of you.

When you are a junior your goal is to bring out that special something that made the miracle of getting a job to happen. Remember that you are not there solely because of your talent. You are there because of a number of issues that you do not control. The best way to repay this grace is to truly express yourself.

Recognize that you have been fortunate and start giving support to more experienced people. Learn from them by helping them. If you have an opinion, express it. If you have a contradiction, keep it to yourself. If your superior seems to know less than you do, that’s okay-it’s normal. It may depend on your inexperience or it may be true. Sacrifice yourself and do your job.

When you are mid, your challenge is to learn to be disciplined. In fact, very often being a mid means feeling like a senior who hasn’t made it yet. You are not a senior, you are mid! Fall in line, young man! Do your homework, participate in interesting discussions respectfully, and above all: study!

When you get home, don’t stand in front of the PlayStation streaming with friends who want followers. You are not a gamer, you are a game designer. You need to devour any book, podcast or YouTube video you can find. You need to start structuring your own method, your own special sauce! Don’t worry about Internet coaches talking about “work-life balance.” Your work is part of your life, and in your life there is work. Become the best you can be, instead. The balance will come later, after the right effort. You are here to build something great.

When you are a senior, you don’t need to be told what to do. If you have done well on your path, you will have your own more or less formalized method. You need to understand the business behind the project and give up your prejudices in the name of growth. Your manager will help you grow. You have to learn from this person. If you feel you have nothing to learn, dedicate yourself to the project. And if the project is going nowhere, move on: you are not a tree!

Don’t forget to expand your network of people a lot. I know you work long hours, so use your free time to get out and meet as many people as possible. If you can join a local community all the better. If you can teach somewhere I assure you it is a wonderful experience.

When you have experience

When you have a lot of experience you might even find yourself unemployed. We’re seeing that these days across the whole technology sector.

Many people will be looking for work, and your time will come to find it. Don’t lose sight of your mental and physical health and keep pressing on. You have always made it, and you will make it!

If, on the other hand, you are considering going it alone, I am an advisor and I suggest you give it a try. Unless you have a big business vision, don’t become an entrepreneur: become a freelancer. Remember the big difference:

  • Freelancers are like employees: they earn when they work.
  • Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, earn when they sleep! They earn from what they have built. And it’s hard to be on that side if you have never been.

And that’s it! đź™‚

Design and marketing chats

Published by Paolo on 10/02/2023

Yesterday I was at a conference dedicated to digital marketing for video games and apps. I met old friends and met new people.

I have noticed a specific trend at these events. When I talk to someone who works in marketing, the conversation usually veers a lot toward game design. Marketers in general want to know more.

When I meet a fellow designer, instead, the conversation turns more to the market and the challenges it faces.

Singular, but that’s how it is. It’s often easier to talk about your profession to someone who does something else.

Review of the book “The Secret Science of Games”

Published by Paolo on 09/02/2023

I finished reading the book “The Secret Science of Games” written by John Hopson. There are very few books written by people with extensive experience and for me, they are a real treasure. The book focuses on Games Research, a discipline that deals with connecting game designers with players.

the book is live here

What I liked

John has worked on hugely successful titles such as Destiny, Halo, Fable, etc. You can feel his experience in his thought which have a clear point of view. Reading the book you understand the importance of seeing real people play your games.

Particularly interesting reflections on the importance of being quick and frugal at times to be effective. It is not always necessary to wait for a complete report. Game research is perceived as something slow and precise, but John points out that it is not science. That game design still has a creative and artistic side that depends on personal sensibilities that go beyond numbers and hypotheses.

The length of the chapters is perfect. With a coffee, you can read yourself a complete chapter. This means that in breaks from work, I read everything. The length of the book, at around 200 pages, also makes it a booklet that you want to have on your desk.

Finally, the final section on case studies is very passionate and candid. We realize the challenges of our profession and how we must never underestimate that silent part of our players. Very often we refer to online reviews and opinions, but those who communicate there are usually a specific type of player who does not represent the entire community. All are very well specified in the book.

What I’ve missed

I am quite a visual person. People in such a demanding profession as John usually don’t have all the time in the world to write a book. The result is that the book is made up of many words and no images. I missed images and diagrams in certain passages, to better understand the decisions made following discoveries in the laboratory. I would have also liked to see organizational charts to understand how to structure a team.

Another thing I would have liked to see is tips on how to do game research when you’re not Bungie or Microsoft. When you’re part of a small, independent team. When you are trying to create something well done to attract investors. I’m sure game research can be done at that stage, and you must. Game research and quality assurance are very often sacrificed, and this affects the final quality of the product.

Three quotes that I loved

“Games research lives somewhere in between scientific rigor and creative disorder”

pag. 37

“If I can’t find a quote or a snippet of video to support a statistic, I’m probably looking at the wrong statistic.”

pag- 104

“A good tutorial or hint system is one that guides the player as completely as they need, while offering them the opportunity to turn away from the path”

pag- 187

Plans for 2023: Simple and well made games

Published by Paolo on 01/02/2023

I had time to think about my future. And yet I have not come to any conclusion!

Being a consultant is great but very stressful. Being employed is less stressful, but also less beautiful. My career has been oriented towards free-to-play mobile. New frontiers of video games are being opened. AAA game companies are taking an interest in data oriented game designers. AAA are the games that interest me the most as a player.

Many experts are pointing out the challenges of free-to-play to find new players. Free-to-play is based on the frantic pursuit of whale players. People capable of spending large amounts of money in order to have more power in the game. These people however join games that are very successful among free players. That would be the players who play without spending a cent and that consist of more than 90% of Players. Quick math, you need a LOT of people playing your game. And those people is not cheap to get.

The result is that there are a number of best practices that make free-to-play mobile games all the same, by genre. Open any puzzle game and it will probably have the same characteristics as the others. People are tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.

The hyper-casual trend is dying because its business model is no longer sustainable. Apple took countermeasures against Facebook and destroyed the UA strategies of those games. However, the development process that requires a quality video game has become redundant.

While on the one hand they offered original ideas, on the other they didn’t devote the necessary efforts to create unique experiences. The important thing was to fit into the equations on CPI and D1 retention and that’s it. The vision, the underlying fantasy, the actions, the objectives and the economies were literally sketched out. For me, that was the real reason why the system didn’t work. It’s obvious that people like to see new games that are fun and easy to use. But it’s also obvious that people want to have well-made games!

I hope this 2023 to contribute to this point: create simple but well made games!

My feels and fears

Published by Paolo on 12/12/2022

I lost a professional contact the other day due to a personal point of view expressed online. My point of view is not yet formed, but we know the medium well. We often say things that aren’t reasoned enough, that’s how it is nowadays.

This person said that AI art violates the rights and people working in digital art. As far as I know, AI art algorithms try to mimic the learning process of a human artist. A huge amount of human work feeds the machine. Then the algorithm generates art based on the interpretation of a prompt.

It is possible to write prompts quoting famous artists’ names to achieve a very similar style.

This makes me think a lot. I’m impressed by the ability that a tool like Midjourney of inspiration offers me. I’m concerned about the use made of the results of these technologies.

It is abuse, in fact, even for me. I lost contact due to a misunderstanding and it doesn’t matter. Friendship remains, as we say in Italy. Yet, I agree that inspiration is one thing and copying is quite another.

Throughout my career, I’ve always watched artists take inspiration from Pinterest and ArtStation. Someone copied at least some parts. But the result is achieved with effort, which is being torn down today.

I feel these new technologies are like the advent of 3D. I feel that they are something really revolutionary and wonderful.

But I’m afraid that these technologies are abusive in so many ways. Our creativity must be preserved because it is what distinguishes us from animals. We cannot allow something created by us to hurt the souls of people in the name of higher productivity.

It is necessary to regulate.