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Tag: ideas

The games industry does not exist

Published by Paolo on 03/01/2022

It is what I think. In fact, any software industry is a concept. An idea, an adaptation of something physical that does not have a concrete form in our context.

People does exist. I mean, people making software. People making games. So why do we care so much about the industry? People matters, not abstract concepts.

Life is a great adventure, and as every great adventure you need people to live it fully. Good characters for your plot. Good writers. We should care more and more about the well being of the people of the industry.

Game design predictions for 2022

Published by Paolo on 01/01/2022

It is really hard to spot the future and make predictions. Hard and funny at the same time. Funny because if they work, you told it. If they do not realize, you just stay in silence and nobody cares.

For 2022 I don’t know what will happen, of course. The market is growing but its growth is slower. The Pandemic probably is coming to an end and people will enjoy different forms of entertainment.

What I can say is what I see right now. I see that the interest toward campfires is growing. For campfire I mean a virtual and small virtual place where people share a common interest. The community around a game like Clash Royale, compared with Facebook for instance, can be considered a campfire.

Looking at new trends of Web3 and Decentralized Finance, I think that this interest for virtual campfires will join with the need of community creation. So that probably the next big thing in videogames will pass from there. Let’s take a successful genre: shooters. Those are successful on AAA, indie and free-to-play. I would probably look for shooters which permit to the Players create their own campfires (look at club features in mobile games) and create meaningful content for their campfire mates. I could apply the same reasoning to different genres too.

New Year Wishes 2022 #5 – See the early fruits of the sudden expansion

Published by Paolo on 30/12/2021

This year (and the past one, too) has been very fruitful on the M&A side of things. We saw a whole lot of companies being acquired or merged with others.

For the next year I hope to see the early fruits of all that movement. I would like to really see how big corporate can improve their portfolio giving always better experiences to the people.

Also, I hope to see more deals made with small realities. I am noticing that investors are always more betting on teams without a single game published. I suppose they bet on their own experience bias, because the founding teams are always composed by industry veterans.

Young talent has a lot to say, and also if I am aware that investors are not willing to trust newbies, I believe that corporates should. They were young and junior at some point. They know how hard is getting. And maybe they can delegate to young startups some quick prototyping or more in general activities which are not core to the business but still really important.

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.

People enjoy challenging fate

Published by Paolo on 18/12/2021

This truth is the basis of many of the first games that humans have played. I believe many have seen artifacts of ancient dice at some exhibit in the city.

Many people today condemn games that include gambling in their experience. “It’s just gambling, it’s not a game!”

And who are you to decide what a game is? To me it’s very simple: if there is a form of fun we can consider it a game. If people can learn something new without dying in the test, we can consider this test a game.

Gambling games, play-to-earn games, they are all games. They all offer their own form of entertainment.

Can a game ruin people? No. People ruin themselves. Accept it. People are a lot smarter than you think. Those who fall into addictions do so for a series of personal problems. It is impossible for a game, or any product, to be able to manipulate any human being.

We need better words

Published by Paolo on 14/12/2021

Yesterday I was reading an interview to a games industry leader in Barcelona. He was speaking about the play-to-earn games and predicting how companies will behave in 2022. He said “it will be a blood bath”.

The other day I was listening to the video channel of a famous industry expert. He was talking about leadership and defended openly the need of “being cruel” in manage people and projects. Not hold the hand, for instance, when someone doesn’t work. Just fire them.

If we really want to have a better industry, we should double check the word we spread to the World. Our words are an important medium of influence of other people. We are all responsible for that.

When we say words, people listening us interpret our speech with their own perception. Perception almost never is equal reality. Perception imposes over our own realities. We are responsible, then, for everything we say and for how we say it.

When you say blood bath, I propose high competition. High competition is safe, is normal in our system and blood baths sadly happen every day in our World. When you say “lead with cruelty” I propose you to lead with patience. The same patience that built the great companies that today publish the greatest game we play.

Do you keep a gameplay journal?

Published by Paolo on 13/12/2021

Do you keep a handwritten journal for your gameplays? I think it is a fundamental part of my routine as a game designer.

We use everyday a lot of different tools, each one with its subscription models and stuff. But nothing can substitute a journal. On a journal you are alone with your inner self. In a journal you can identify clearly your personality. If you don’t keep a journal is super hard to not become a follower of trends and methods you don’t fully understand.

Do it now! Start a Gameplay Journal.

For every game you play and every time you play it, write a new entry down. What should you write? Well, it’s your journal. I can say you what I write down. This work in my own case.

First of all, I describe in detail everything that I remember. I describe without giving any opinion. “I like this, I don’t like that” is not really important. The important thing is what did I felt in any occasion.

When I am speaking about a new mechanic that I can identify, I sketch also a flow of its rules and how that works. I do it quickly, I don’t have to double check it and pass it to a developer. So that it’s just a way to train my quickness, somehow. I felt that I complete tasks at my day job way faster since I do that.

Finally, I try to reason on design choices and its audience. I also try to stress my assumptions imagining possible risks for the design approaches I find.

When you write down with your bare hands the brain makes connections that are not possible to make with a computer monitor writing with a keyboard. Keep use pen and paper, you will never regret it!

Decentralized finance is not here to destroy the gaming industry

Published by Paolo on 11/12/2021

Play-to-earn, the metaverse, NFTs, cryptocurrencies are not here to destroy the gaming industry. I agree that there is a lot of unjustified hype around those new technologies. Early adoption is always like this. 

The main discourse is too centered on two points: technology and money. And this is NOT where there is the real value of all this. Investors are joining in with crazy numbers. Millions invested in companies without a single game published. It’s weird, but believe me: it’s not the end of the gaming industry.

Historically, video games (together with military techs and porn) have always been pioneers for new techs. It is normal, since they offer a pretty safe testing field to try out things. So that it is completely normal to have continuous hypes and fashions.

But I learnt working in free-to-play for years that players generally put their attention and money in something they really enjoy. So don’t worry. The gaming industry is not about to end soon. 

If you are thinking that all those novelties are a disaster for our beloved industry, I kindly suggest you to go deep studying the new trends! Those judgements and fears always come from ignorance.

Two ideas for video games of the future

Published by Paolo on 23/11/2021

The approach I see when people talk about NFT and decentralized technologies is about two sides: money and technology.


Money is useful for starting a project and is the result of the value that the game gives to people. 

Technology is the medium that allows us to develop our games.

If we really want to find value though, we have to talk about the base of game design: the experience that we desire to give to our Players. Their emotions and their feelings.

I don’t like the expression “play-to-earn”, I have never liked it. It sounds like work, not like a game. I don’t think the play-to-earn model is the ultimate model that will blow everything else out. I don’t think it will be the dominant model of the next few years in games. Probably I am wrong, I have been wrong many times anyways.


I believe, however, that there is a chance that these technologies will be a very important part of the gaming experiences of the future.


The first idea I believe in is in the strength of assets that can be sold by developers and that represent collective achievements. Imagine finishing an epic mission in a virtual world with a thousand other Players. A mission that changes the history of that virtual world forever. A virtual painting that represents the result of that collective mission could be of great value to the players who participated in it. Being a painting, it could be hung in any room of any other game that accepts it.


The second idea I believe in is the possibility of trading NFTs for other NFTs. Many players collect NFTs and don’t want to sell them. Some of them would trade them for others. Imagine connecting your wallet to a swap service. Imagine being able to list the NFTs you want to trade. So imagine seeing other people’s NFTs and proposing exchanges. You can swap one NFT for another, multiple NFTs for one or maybe add some cryptocurrency to reinforce the proposition.