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Tag: myself

On posting and social media

Published by Paolo on 08/08/2024

What’s up readers? I hope you are good. As you can see, I am still recovering from vacation catching up with everything and I am not able to post daily for now. I will get there, just the time of closing a couple of deals…

I am studying intensively Unreal Engine because I noticed there is a growth in need for tech designers and I find it a great excuse to get better at that engine.

Today I wanna talk about my conception of social media use. I don’t have a proper strategy, I use it because I find it fun. And when I don’t find them fun anymore, I leave them. That’s it.

Someone may suggest you to write at least 3 times per week on LinkedIn to boost your engagement, bla bla. It’s all bullshit, believe me.

The main way of creating leads on social media is not by posting daily but interacting to other people’s content. Write them publicly and privately. You will get to know much more people like that, compared with sharing the little you know.

I post on LinkedIn and here because I freakin’ love life and my job. I have passion for game design and I love to speak about it loudly, that’s all. No strategy, no technique. Just pure fun. And when I don’t have fun anymore, I quit!

The courage of logging out

Published by Paolo on 05/08/2024

I was watching this fantastic video, a little clip from an interview to one of my favorite singers.

Apart from the fact that I love when someone I consider a true talent shows humility and thanks his high school teachers, I think lots of things are transferable to my professional life.

The main one is that you have to truly dedicate yourself to something to become good at it. And this is not anything new, but in my life I have:

  • my family
  • my clients
  • my hobbies
  • this blog to maintain
  • a Substack where I teach game design in Italian
  • my LinkedIn account
  • a Reddit account

that means lots of distractions for becoming a true expert in something. That’s why the time in high school is so valuable now to me.

I wish myself the courage to log off and pursue my dreams, today.

Always keep making games!

Published by Paolo on 02/08/2024

I have just read a terrible article appeared on the website TheGamer.com. It’s terrible because it uses some of the issues we have in the games industry to create victims and entitlement among its readers.

I do not agree with this kind of messages because they use problems as an excuse to do nothing. It’s true that greed oftentimes invades the corporations, it’s the older story in the World. But this doesn’t invalidate our ambitions to work in an industry and build great games for the people.

I believe that nowadays we live in a big crisis. Plus the hyper connection in which we are installed make the bad news spread faster. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that everything is bad, that executives are bad people and we should not work to be their slaves. It’s simply not the truth, though.

The truth is that we are struggling with different challenges that inevitably influence also the games industry. And for that reason we should never complain and work hard. Always be creating. Someone will work for someone else. Others will work for themselves. Others will offer job to people. That’s how it goes.

Always be creating great games!

Off vacation

Published by Paolo on 31/07/2024

I am back from a relaxing vacation with my family. I have probably lost a possible client because I wasn’t available to have a meeting during my rest. I had an interesting interview with a big company that then decided that they prefer a Russian speaker (!!!).

I am back at my desk, ready to start a new working year. I have private challenges ahead, but I am sure I will figure everything out. I think I will use less LinkedIn, lately the trend is losing too much time on it and the return is low. I would prefer, this year, to engage more with Reddit and its communities. I would like to find a community to serve with small games, and show up regularly. I am on it!

I am also tired of many of the podcasts I used to listen to. They are a good resource to start, but they can also bring to analysis paralysis. So I will dedicate that time to more interesting activities.

Good to be back!

On vacations

Published by Paolo on 24/06/2024

Hello and thank you for reading my blog. As you may have noticed, I wasn’t posting every day in the last 2 weeks. That is because I am closing my year and going off to vacations with my family.

I will return to post regularly on August, approximately. I need to enjoy a full disconnection and stay 100% with people I love. I need to read books and stay away from screens. My year was intense, full of work so I deserve that.

Have a great July and see you soon!

Are you holding or are you hosting?

Published by Paolo on 05/06/2024

Game design uses technology to create entertainment. Entertainment is one of the words that have been corrupted in certain contexts.

In the dopamine culture, the dream of many is to attract the attention of the “users” and trap them forever. Entertainment is read as a synonym of “holding”, which is semantically correct.

Entertainment to me has much more in common with hospitality, instead. The act of being friendly and welcoming to guests and visitors.

Also in the Bible, we can read different translations (Hebrews 13:2):

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

King James Version

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

English Standard Version

It’s your call: entertainment as trapping the people’s attention versus entertainment as showing hospitality.

Are you holding or are you hosting?

Mine is always the latter, I create entertainment for human beings (and maybe angels, who know?), not monkeys.

First sparks

Published by Paolo on 17/05/2024

There is some magic in the very first idea that comes to your mind when you start any creative endeavor.

When you start working on something new, it can be a project but also simply a task, you have that first intuition. In my experience, that first spark is often the most important one.

Some of the best songs in music history have been written in a few hours, too. And with creativity in general, it often happens the same.

But of course, this is just my sensation, I have no metrics, no data, no information to back it up. I don’t know if there is a general rule, a thesis, behind this.

I like to appreciate the beauty of things and not everything has to be estimated, measured, controlled, or predicted.

Long live the first sparks. They come out of nowhere, but more often than not they are the best choice.

On sacrifice and duty

Published by Paolo on 10/05/2024

When you are an employee you are there because you can do the job. Also because you can make THAT specific job, you master certain pipelines according to your level of experience. Finally, you are there because you can work in a team.

When you build your own company, you are working on creating an environment that permits your employees to build a business.

When you are a freelancer, you have a 1-person business that helps clients (usually companies) solve specific problems.

The social media era, the dopamine times in which we live suggests us “not to work for other people’s dreams”. That’s a weird lens to use to see the World. We forget the importance of sacrifice and duty for our societies to prosper.

There are different sets of skills that you need according to what you want to do. It’s not easy for me to suggest “Hey, did you lose your job? You are an expert, why don’t you build your own company?”. The responsibilities you have to tackle are completely others, and your experience will probably give you also a lot of biases. And most importantly, you should focus on the business, not on the pipelines.

The odds for a specialist to be successful in a completely different field are higher than in building a business in the same sector. The games business is full of doctors who built successful companies.

Some game designers out there can help solve wicked problems, outside of games. At this moment we have quite a few of them. That’s my wish, honestly.

I completed my deck

Published by Paolo on 02/05/2024

Thanks to the help of two friends I have completed my deck to send as introduction to companies.

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are ‘costs’.”

(P. Drucker)

This is valid, to me, for every business, also small like mine. Over the last couple of years that I have dedicated to helping gaming companies with innovation, I had to learn a lot about marketing and innovate my business myself.

I could have gone easier with my proposal: “I make levels for your game”, “I write narratives for your game”, “I will fix your tutorials”, or “I will create FPS maps for your game”. But I am not a specialist! I have worked on so many projects that I consider myself skilled in starting them.

Do you need to lay down your vision for a new project? I am your man. My specialization is in innovation. As many game designers out there, the vast majority of games I have worked on were never published. This is the reality of our business.

I can predict lots of issues and tackle them before it’s too late. My analogy capacity make me create new things with few elements. And I touch everything: systems, gameplay, levels and narrative. I also build in engine.

Project Silinha: first concept

Published by Paolo on 30/04/2024

I have an idea for a videogame buzzing in my head since many months. It should be an adventure game in a solar punk setting where the Player moves on a skate and fights capoeira.

The name of the project is Silinha for now. Silinha is the family nickname of my wife and I want to dedicate the project to her. In fact, also the main character should be similar to her.

The story is inspired by 3%, a Netflix Brazilian series. But I want it to be solar punk, utopic, not post-apocalyptic.

I have started sketching out ideas and engaging with the Solar punk community on Reddit. This is my very first concept:

It’s ugly, I know, but I can see a lot of things in it. It’s not a good concept to share with a team, but it works for a solo project. I didn’t use AI to generate it, I looked actively for images (skaters, capoeira, solar punk) and made a collage in GIMP. I sketched on top to get the layout and then used plain colors to fill the shapes.

It’s bad, it’s ugly, but it’s mine and it’s my first attempt. So I am happy with it!