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Tag: myself

Are prizes good for young game designers?

Published by Paolo on 03/02/2022

My social networks are filled with celebrations and local prizes given to people at their first experience. Then I look for the game itself and sometimes I find a demo on itch.io. Some other a bad rated game on Steam.

I lived that. You feel like the new Hideo Kojima for a minute or two and then? Then the reality returns back and you have nothing really. Wouldn’t be better to work for a company learning from people better than you?

Some reality is hard, videogames are hard to make. But you should focus on making games and avoid feeding your ego the best you can if you want a bright future. A prize is a cake for the ego.

Local communities want to foster their local talent, I get it. But is give a small statue the right way of doing that? Should they expect for some kind of return in terms of visibility or actual game revenue first?

Often happens that there are people getting prizes and other making a good career and eventually earning money.

Is it really worth to get a prize?

I sell you this cloud!

Published by Paolo on 01/02/2022

I am selling you this cloud. Do you want it? 100 euros, please.

Your for 100 euros

What can you do with it? You can look at it, you can photograph it and maybe use photography to create an image. You could use this image as a desktop background. Or you could choose to use it as a profile picture on your favorite social network.

Fast, now! The opportunity is passing by. Do you want it?

What is it for? Well, obviously a cloud is for the nature to keep working as it should. A cloud could generate water for the world. A cloud is good for the World. And this cloud can be yours.

Then does it disappear? Well, sure, but in the meantime it’s yours and yours alone. You can also sell it to other people. I will only take 5% commission as the issuer of the cloud ownership contract.

Don’t you understand? Come on, but it’s the future! Are you really not able to understand the future? Ok, come on there. But buy it, it’s 100 euros. Then you will understand what it is for. A Filipino lady earned $ 1 million on a cloud last week. What are you doing, are you missing it? You would be the only fool, I can assure you.

Me? I have many. And with that lady I earned 50,000 euros. The lady helped improve the world, that cloud of hers probably generated good drinking water. The lady can now be rich with her family.

And then the cloud disappeared.

(This NFT business story reminds me a lot of the casino business. I remember the words of an old boss I had: The best way to win at the casino? Open a casino!)

Look mama: I’m in the metaverse!

Published by Paolo on 26/01/2022

I am looking to move the first step on the concept of metaverse. So that I:

  • Created an avatar on Ready Player Me. It is a new standard proposal for open avatars. Pretty cool!
  • Downloaded on Steam the application Animaze
  • Imported the Ready Player Me avatar into Animaze
  • Used OBS Studio to put the Animaze avatar with green screen on the final video
  • Recorded a 4 minutes video with my early exploration in CYBR

Here it is the result:

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.

My resolution for this year

Published by Paolo on 02/01/2022

My main professional resolution for the next year is to try to build a new reality. A new metaverse, where millions of people will use their cryptocurrencies to buy NFTs and trade them… no, I am joking.

I feel the need of build something, so that this new year I will try an experiment: invest in young talents to make simple games. We will start from mobile, but I do not exclude to try other platforms, too.

Barcelona is a city full of high-level games studies centers. A lot of people every year comes out from universities and private schools. Many of them are real talents, but they struggle in finding their job in the industry. The industry asks to be a “ninja”, to become a “unicorn”, to have “talent”, without defining anything of this. Then they ask for 5 years of experience, which is almost impossible for a junior professional. Only the best joins directly the industry.

What about the others? The others, I believe, have their talent too. Maybe we should stop asking for a lot of references and just believe in the people. Leave them grow, make their mistakes. Support them.

That is my resolution for the next year. I want to build the talents of tomorrow. I want to create a team capable of completing very simple games. And of course, I want to dedicate part of my time in find funds for it.

LasWish for 2022

Published by Paolo on 31/12/2021

My final wish for this year is to see all the realities I help really grow as they deserve.

I am a lucky guy. I have a great employer, which really cares about my progress as professional and lets me work also in other projects. And I have clients which always pay on time and respect my time.

They both value me a lot, this year I felt really an expert. This is not because I know everything, but because they made me feel like this.

I wish you all to feel the same, have a great year people!

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.

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!

Subscriptions and more subscriptions

Published by Paolo on 24/12/2021

Are you tired of subscriptions? I am tired of having so many subscriptions.

I am subscribed to newsletters because of my curiosity and need of understanding better the business of making games. 

I am subscribed to Google Suite, because I need to have my documents and researches and everything always available and updated.

I am subscribed to GitHub, because of my studies and experiments.

I am subscribed to fundamental things, things that I use everyday. No bullcrap. Still, I feel very tired of small subscriptions.

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!