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Tag: howto

Find a way to talk

Published by Paolo on 25/11/2024

Years ago a politician spoke from a pulpit and people listened to him. Today there is a dialogue, real or virtual, with people. Otherwise, the politician has difficulty winning.

Years ago television told stories and people watched dancers and presenters from home. Today we see more dialogues and artists who train to become professionals.

Years ago the blog trend exploded on the Internet. People wrote and whoever wanted to read and commented. Today, various types of social media are used to connect with readers and dialogue. Substack works very well.

Years ago a company created a video game and put it on the shelves. People bought it and finished it. Today a company makes a video game and establishes a dialogue with the players. The video game is constantly updated.

The key to the intricate problem of distribution is to ease communication. Even while the game is being developed. Test the product with performance marketing, but open opportunities for dialogue, too.

Distribution is challenging

Published by Paolo on 20/11/2024

Consumption habits have changed a lot in the last few years. Nowadays that is a significant number of people that buy a console to play a single game. Usually, that game is Fortnite.

Games are not underground like before, now they are mainstream. This brings a lot of challenges to distribution. They are cool, they are the normal thing one does. Before it wasn’t like that.

How to face this challenge? Phil Spencer said “less Excel” yesterday, and maybe he is right. It’s not about using a budget to push the thing out, but more about trying to have a conversation with the right crowd.

Embracing creative

Published by Paolo on 18/11/2024
  • creative: a person whose job involves producing original ideas or doing artistic work (Definition of creative from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus)
  • creative director: a person in a company or advertising agency who is in charge of the work involving original ideas about how to design, advertise and sell products (Definition of creative director from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary)

I don’t know if Cambridge University is to blame, but there is a substantial difference between business and design/art in the concept of “creative“.

Concretely, in business, it is important to think about how to sell a creative product with original ideas. However, we often ignore this nuance when we focus on the more artistic part of our work.

It took me a while to understand that a game designer works for someone, not for players in general. In the sense that we have no control over what will come out at the end of the production process. What we have is the responsibility to facilitate this process, which is very different.

When you understand this and accept it, you live much better!

What do you do the first day?

Published by Paolo on 11/11/2024

You are a game designer and for the first day you are on a new project. The game is not your idea, it belongs to a company that wants to improve its business. What do you do?

You play, that’s what you do. You play a lot, and you take notes. And you ping your colleagues and try to understand their point of view.

The rest will come, avoid jumping directly to solutions. Good game design is about connecting elements and removing superfluous. In the first stages, the risk is adding too much. A simple technique is to write down a story of a player playing your game from a first-person perspective.

Indie, AA, and AAA fundamental questions

Published by Paolo on 30/10/2024

The 3 main markets on PC and Console are indie, AA, and AAA. The discussion around them focuses on things like budget, scope, and quality.

I would like to propose two questions to address each of these three challenges. The first will be around our ambition (why), while in the second one, we will use the lens of the art (what).

Indie

Indie games for me are a message to the world. The message can be important on a personal level and an exercise of talent. You can want to change the world or show that we are here. So let’s ask ourselves:

1. Ambition: why do I want to say this to the world?

2. Art: what does the world should have the courage to listen to?

AA

These games come from companies who want a commercial product, doing a few things well. Let’s ask ourselves.

1. Ambition: why are we focusing on these 1-2 mechanics?

2. Art: according to current and past trends, what will be trending in 2 years?

AAA

These are spectacular games and full of things to do. We can consider these games like monuments, and the mental effort of the team is enormous. Let’s ask ourselves:

1. Ambition: why do we want to build a monument that big?

2. Art: what will make this work a masterpiece?

The important moves

Published by Paolo on 22/10/2024

It always makes me smile when a team member says in a meeting “I don’t know what to do right now…”

I think about the luxury that underlies this expression. A farmer or a factory worker could never say something like that!

One thing I communicate is the importance of being professional. Game design is about identifying the systems and timing to make certain moves.

Systems, timing, moves.

The moves can go well or badly, it doesn’t matter. I mean, of course, it does, but even if they go badly, it is important to do them on the one hand and learn on the other. A client last year told me: “Look, I accept bad news. What I don’t like are surprises”.

Examples of moves we can make when we don’t know what to do:

  • plan
  • look for player insights
  • try to understand the why of certain systems and define the problem
  • understand and outline business goals
  • measure what has already been released
  • share insights with the team
  • plan experiments and playtests

It’s up to you to identify the systems and the timing, and now I hope you have something to do!

Improve your communication

Published by Paolo on 15/10/2024

A programmer introduces bugs into the code. An artist creates assets that perhaps go a little outside the visual style of the game. A game designer explains himself poorly.

Communication is where we make the most mistakes in our work as designers.

So don’t say:

  1. this is not my job
  2. it’s in the GDD
  3. No, you don’t understand
  4. Players don’t want this

Even when you’re asked for something that is outside your duties. You’re sure you wrote it in the GDD. Even when your colleague doesn’t seem to understand. You’ve been in contact with players and you know for sure that they don’t want it.

Communication, unlike bugs and visuals, can create friendships and enmities. Every misunderstanding is an opportunity to strengthen a creative vision.

Do this:

  • Open paint/gimp/… and use simple shapes to explain live how things work (recording a video and sending it counts)
  • Record yourself miming certain situations, even if it seems ridiculous
  • create one-page briefs where necessary.

Blue and red

Published by Paolo on 10/09/2024

Every business owner I engaged with in the last 5 years wanted to find a blue ocean. If you manage to find a blue ocean, they said, you can eventually make it. If you work in a red ocean, instead, is too risky.

But then I look at the history of every successful game out there, and also every successful product. I see that they didn’t find any ocean. They found a niche. And they found them also in red oceans.

An ocean is a deep, dark liquid full of mysteries. A niche is a calm, safe place made out with people. Isn’t that easier?

They should give the game for free

Published by Paolo on 04/09/2024

Wicked problems have nuances. How to get people’s attention and understand their motivation to play a certain game.

“The market is oversaturated“, yet I don’t have new games that I am hyped for right now… So the market is saturated for who, specifically?

Creating good free-to-play games means having a game with the biggest spend depth possible. Or that the game is so massive that sustains itself on (truly) micro-transactions. You either make a Witheout Survival or a Candy Crush Saga.

The latter is complicated nowadays because people learn and the market evolves. What had value before is not the same as today. People discovering casual games on a Facebook invitation are not the same as people who decide to install a game after watching a YouTube interstitial today.

That is why modern casual games (that work) rely a lot on ads. Their business is with ad networks, more than players’ wallets. And that is a complicated and also shady business, are you sure that your team is ready for that?

As I said, on the other end we have games with a big spend depth. These games are much more deep and complicated. They manage to create a gamified society, by pushing for regulars: players that play every single day. That’s the single most important KPI of all, if you ask me. In that case, and only in that case, the wealthier cohorts decide to spend high. And that makes your business grow for real.

Making free-to-play games is like making luxury goods. You should aim to the rich, if you want to have more chances. And to do that, you need a strong service.

When we give something for free, time becomes the currency with which people decide. It’s not just “give them for free, otherwise, they will not come“. If you are already thinking like that, you are on the wrong track: you are not believing in your own game.

You need to build something that makes you think “This is an incredibly amazing game, people will play this every day!“. And then, if you’re lucky, you will have a TOP Grossing game with high concurrency.

Pawtners Case first blockout

Published by Paolo on 29/08/2024

This week I have worked intensively on my indie game, Pawtners Case. You are a police dog and you have to help your colleagues to solve cases.

The first level I am prototyping is a medium one. The goal is straightforward, you need to reunite with your colleague, Agent Quinn, and escape a warehouse. There is a bomb to dismantle, too.

This week I have implemented a lot of features, and a blockout. You can see the result here:

For the blockout, I started by looking for references and setting up a moodboard:

Then, I proceeded to create a notepad where I defined my goals, the sequence, and so on. Later I created a map:

Then, in Unreal Engine I set up the level, iterating on the concept. I have to say that I find Unreal Engine versatile for a game designer. It has integrated a gameplay framework that makes things easier. I am happy with my choice!