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Tag: ideas

They earned my silence

Published by Paolo on 12/11/2024

Maybe it’s because I started on a new project. Maybe it’s because a company that canceled the position when I was the last candidate republished the position again. Maybe it’s because I am tired of influencers. Or maybe it’s because they use content to train shitty algorithms to produce empty content faster.

Maybe it’s because I don’t want to constantly check out likes and notifications there. Or maybe it’s just because I got bored.

I decided to commit to (at least) a period of silence on LinkedIn. I will continue to write here and on my Substack, though.

I am going indie!

Published by Paolo on 08/11/2024

Yesterday a client of mine hired me as lead game designer on a new game. I cannot say much about it, but it will be a Steam game, 3D, premium. The game will feature emerging narratives and I will care about the gameplay systems to support that.

Plus I will manage a team of game designers, which is something that I love. I am happy because I am trying to switch sector since quite a while.

Mobile F2P is broken, for now. A total race to the bottom with unrealistic expectations. Plus, the survivors are not looking at the future. They look at the past. They want people ex-<PutFamousCompanyNameHere> to repeat formulas. They hope the dramatic situation with distribution will change someday. It will not. They should look at the future instead.

I was happy to collaborate on f2p projects, but a little frustrated with this way of running businesses. Do you start a race following other runners? That’s wrong in so many ways.

That’s why I am happy to finally work on something truly creative. The expectations are not surreal. I am happy, thank you!

Nexflix will close the games department in 3 years maximum

Published by Paolo on 05/11/2024

At long last, I am ready to talk about what I’m doing next: I am working on driving a “once in a generation” inflection point for game development and player experiences using C++. This transformational technology will accelerate the velocity of development and unlock truly novel game experiences that will surprise, delight, and inspire players.  

I am focused on a creator-first vision for C++, one that puts creative talent at the center, with C++ being a catalyst and an accelerant. C++ will enable big game teams to move much faster, and will also put an almost unimaginable collection of new capabilities in the hands of developers in smaller game teams.

Sounds like weird, right? Well, someone wrote the same stuff, but instead of C++, he spoke about genAI. That guy earns more money than me, you, and everyone who will read this post altogether.

The difference is that in my version of the statement I named a technology that actually helped lots of people make fantastic games. This is not the case with genAI, which is a theft created to destroy jobs.

Game making is a creative activity, which means that there are a lot of micro-decisions that we have to make every day. It involves conscience. And conscience is not the result of a set of electric signals, it’s something higher that comes from above. The most powerful processor, or GPU, can create many signals and solve complex operations faster than our brain, but it can never have conscience.

Netflix will shut down its games operations in a maximum of 3 years. If you want to have a more secure/safe job do not work for a company that will fail.

Creativity and productivity

Published by Paolo on 31/10/2024

A common misconception in this age is that creativity means productivity. But creativity doesn’t mean completing things and shipping them.

I am very creative, but I am unproductive with most of my own projects. You know, those books I want to write and indie games I want to make. The intention to change that is always there, but it is what it is.

If you want to increase your chances of financial success you need to be productive, or “lucky”. But you can always choose creativity, it’s free.

Blue and red Oceans

Published by Paolo on 29/10/2024

For me, game genres are not markets. For example, there is no “merge games market”. There are “merge games” in the “mobile market”.

Every time I see a team created like this:

  • someone believes that a genre has formed a market (on the last sad news you can find a lot of “hero shooters”)
  • hires talents who already work in that “market”, also if they would enjoy better another kind of game, in some case
  • the offer is attractive and the project is new, easy to convince the bored employee

in 3-5-7 years everything gets shut down without results. Surprise, there was no market at all.

When do I see that things work?

  • a group of enthusiasts of a genre get together to explore it
  • the team (including marketers) engages for real with the players
  • concrete and measurable experiments are done to define a vision well
  • after years of effort, they publish the game.

In this case, the probability of success increases. Even if the timing is somewhat unpredictable (never seen a success in less than 7-10 years, in mobile f2p).

Games please our entertainment needs uniquely.

  • People play Royal Match to relax, brain train, tournaments, curiosity… Not because they want to “play a match-3 game”.
  • millions are playing Metaphor: ReFantazio because of the story, map revealing, and challenge with combat… not because it’s a modern JRPG.

The fact that a specific game gets massive doesn’t mean we have a new market around its genre.

This means it has found its audience in the market, which is different!

A console concept for Netflix

Published by Paolo on 25/10/2024

After the shutdown of a Netflix studio, I read the opinions of many experts. One of the most common ideas is that Netflix needs its hardware to create a healthy games business.

To sketch up this idea, I also used LLM platforms. I will not publish any images, because they are based on stolen copyrights, but still, I want to admit that I used them for inspiration.

Netflix can reinvent the concept of the console, as they reinvented the business of VHS renting years ago.

Audience

The core audience is, of course, people (like myself) who have a Netflix subscription and who love video games. People that probably have kids, and work using technology.

We love to jump from series to series, we are nostalgic about the old days when games were simpler and gamepads had fewer buttons!

Features

The new console should:

  • Use common smartphones both as screens and controllers
  • Load games from fast support with no extra connections required
  • It will work as a “radio”, with knobs and everything, but for podcasts!
  • Once you own it, you are part of an ecosystem where you can also stream to others and create your program

Games

The games allowed on the platform should follow these rules:

  • The Player will be able to play opting out completely from micro-transactions
  • Every game must have a single-player experience and the content length will be public
  • Games can come with physical support that should contain the whole game and that will be played forever
  • Games are owned by the players forever and can be played on that console forever

Mood

The console can have a retro look but its colors and curved lines will attract new audiences.

The gamepads will have fewer buttons than new consoles. Every game should be simpler than competitors. Also, they can “wrap” a smartphone inside.

Playing with my Dreamcast

Published by Paolo on 12/10/2024

Sometimes I dust off my old Dreamcast, connect it, and replay Crazy Taxi, Soulcalibur, Frame Gride, and Chu-chu Rocket. I feel like they are gifts that I sent to myself from the past.

Before, the support contained the entire game, not just a license. You bought it and they lasted “forever”.

The market has evolved, and commercial expectations have changed. In the last generations, you can play a game you bought until it is removed. There are many reasons for this, but in the channels I follow to get information I often read the frustration of many people. Games are perceived as something expensive (it is not true, they are not) and uncertain. You buy the license, but you do not know if it will last.

Game-as-a-service has added limitations on top of that for this specific audience: they are always connected games, potentially infinite.

In summary:
– it is not clear whether the game belongs to you or not
– it is not clear how long you will have access when you buy it
– it is not clear why you have to wait for connections to servers and login to external services
– it is not clear who’s this guy on the other side playing with me and what are his real intentions
– it is not clear if and when you can beat the game
– it is not clear what will happen if you miss some event

In this, frankly, I prefer the old style, where the only thing that was not clear was how the game itself worked. Onboarding to games has improved a lot, but before you just had to press a button and you were in a few seconds.

Not anymore. Today, pressing a button makes us feel a bit spied on by systems that want to figure out how to get more money out of us.
It is very true that the industry has matured, that it employs many more people, and that these are increasingly sophisticated games. However, the player experience for this specific audience (which is a big audience) has worsened in many ways.

And I see a business opportunity there.

Every game for itself

Published by Paolo on 09/10/2024

Reading the terrible news about a company that is praised in the industry, I think we are approaching one of the worst moments in the industry. I am talking about Roblox, of course.

The feeling I have is the domino effect, which will spread especially in businesses that are supported by attention.

We have all played that game that makes us think “but how can this game be so successful?“

Well, often it is because the numbers are rigged and the players are not real people, but machines. New technologies only make this situation worse. I am afraid that many CEOs are playing the wrong game here. Faking the numbers, looking for the short term, that is the result.

It’s sad, but it’s good for the future of the industry in my opinion. We need some people out.

3%

Published by Paolo on 13/09/2024

To understand the situation in which we are in the video game industry, I propose to make a parallel with the downfall of rock music.

  • In the late 90s, in the USA, a legislative change allowed large corporations to decide on radio programming.
  • After years of glory and the climax of Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, music production became homogeneous because a few influential producers controlled the sound.
  • Managers began to exploit budgets to their advantage, driving costs skyrocketing and leaving very little to the artists.
  • Napster arrived and music consumption changed radically. The greatest impact was on record sales.
  • The collective experience of enjoying music diminished, given the little appeal of the bands in circulation. Everyone wanted to produce predictable and already-heard sounds, like those of Nickelback.

Consolidation led to a loss of diversity and originality in rock music. Barriers were created for capable artists by producers interested in the short term. The arrival of Napster led to fewer record sales and also to more isolation in listening to music. Before you went to the store to chat, now you were alone casually looking for something to listen. The experience of listening to rock became fleeting and fragmented.

Today new platforms allow rock artists to find and cultivate their audience. This suggests the potential for a new era of creativity, which will probably not reach the ancient glories.

I want to leave every parallelism open to your interpretation today.

Mine is certainly too biased.

Have a great weekend!