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Tag: professional

How to use a resume and portfolio

Published by Paolo on 20/03/2024

Reviewing the resume of a senior takes time. That’s because we all lie, especially when we need the job. So it takes time to spot the truths within a resume. The same is valid for a portfolio of juniors. It takes time to build them, and it takes time to review them.

That’s why relationships with seniors are very important. A portfolio can be discovered or sent to a company, but they will probably have little time to check it in detail. Instead, if you use the portfolio as a tool to communicate with people you have a relationship with, everything is easy.

Oftentimes when a company needs juniors, seniors already know who to call. Many seniors, like me, are in constant touch with junior talents. And that’s also why you don’t see many offers for juniors out there. Because it is not necessary.

Think of your resume or portfolio as another tool for communication. Don’t send them only to job applications. Job applications are worthless, I have personally never seen a job application go well in my entire life. Use your resume and portfolio as a vehicle to find your voice and spread it out there. Create meaningful relationships.

Starting Free Flow Fridays

Published by Paolo on 15/03/2024

Today I want to start a new appointment on my blog: Free Flow Fridays (FFF). I want to just leave my mind for one day without thinking about being insightful, or worrying about the SEO and things like that.

This week I was reading and listening to the news and the whole World is in crisis. Everything is suffering a crisis now, from religious institutions to the climate. The industry where I work is in crisis too, and my country is in a crisis too. What can I do as a game designer? The challenge is pretty hard, but one thing I know: I have to bring fun and good things to the World. This starts by selecting also the tools I use. For instance, GenAI tools available are trained on datasets that steal intellectual properties. I will not use them.

Speaking of which, I am not scared by the advent of generative AI, I am pretty sure it is a bubble about to burst. Still, I have to be prepared for the worst as always. I believe that nothing can beat good storytelling in games. And I am sure that good stories will always be uniquely from humans, never from bots. So I intend to insist on that side of game design: game writing and more in general narrative design.

In the last few months I have been suffering fewer clients too, that’s why I am taking a couple of courses to improve my tools and workflows and get more productive in the future. I don’t believe honestly that with 60 years companies will look out for people like me, so I want to prepare my future. There are 3 possibilities I foresee:

  1. Build a profitable company and sell it. Unless something changes, I don’t see myself doing that.
  2. Invest my game design skills into other fields more stable. Honestly, I don’t see myself working for a bank using my incredible spreadsheet skills.
  3. Teach. That’s my thing. I love to explain things, I love the idea of helping create a better future.

I see myself teaching and making my small games before retiring, so yes that’s what I want to work on in the next months. Maybe by starting an Italian book on game design, who knows?

T34 – The Dark Zone (Good Old FRAG)

Published by Paolo on 07/03/2024

I installed UEFN and tried out some Fortnite maps created by others. I was conflicted regarding how shooters have evolved these days. On one side, there are tons of mechanics and dynamics in Fortnite. On the other, the thing is getting very complicated! Too many things altogether, games back in the day were simpler.

So I decided to start a new project, codename “TH3FR4GGERZ” where for the moment I am rebuilding classic deathmatch maps for the kids to play what I played (ok, boomer).

I started from The Dark Zone from Quake, which I played tons of hours back in the days at LAN parties (ok, boomer x2). Do you remember it?

  • UEFN is an incredible tool, it’s Unreal Engine but it permits you to set up rules playtest, and publish very quickly without having to worry about code and other things.
  • Fortnite is a game where new and old audiences meet together. This is great as a designer because there are many things I have to understand about these new audiences that are not immediate. For instance, unlike games from my time, the Players receive EVERYTHING right from the start in the most successful experiences.
  • I can revisit classics and finally have an excuse to understand all the steps that led us, the FPS players, here today. Nostalgia level: 9.999.999
  • If you are a Fortnite player, please join: 4321-3870-5686
  • FFA
  • No build
  • No stamina, run forever

The future of mobile games

Published by Paolo on 04/03/2024

Mobile phones are nowadays in everyone’s hands. Kids are playing mostly from mobile devices (tablets are a big player, they are used also in many schools). Still, when I listen to people talking about the future of mobile games, the discussion is always going around two things:

  1. effective way of stealing ideas (playbooks)
  2. how to hack the marketing machine and get people to install your game more cheaply (performance marketing).

Well, this can be a tactic for the short term, sure. But for the long one, we need to look at things with a critical perspective: mobile games are always the freaking same. We don’t see nowadays the kind of innovation we saw when Supercell, Rovio, and King arrived on the scene. We are still repeating (and improving) formulas, that’s all. And it’s very boring. The most interesting novelties are coming from UGC experiences inside of Roblox, from one side. From the other, we see an exasperation of FOMO, dark patterns, and grinding for the addicts. We are not going too far like this.

We need more game design, more research, and more risk betting on something novel. Of course, the discourse around distribution is very important, but we are distributing always the same and listening to people who are not building interesting games. That’s a huge problem for our industry.

Generative AI will never improve profit margins for companies, AI design and art are just scams. We need to return to the basics, at the drawing board, thinking really in finding interesting formulas for people looking for fun.

Unprofessionalism

Published by Paolo on 29/02/2024

The recent news in the games industry comes with a bunch of social actions that are unprofessional. In this post, I would like to point those out (without saying names, of course).

The first thing is using bad words and cursing while posting about something. It doesn’t make you feel smarter, also if your content can be more viral. Believe me.

The second behavior is to speak regarding something you don’t know. “Company X laid off YYYY people, shame on you!”. Why are you doing that? Do you really know why it happened? No, you don’t.

The third issue is with people sharing WIP projects on social. Finish things, and show what you are proud of. It’s OK to share that you are working on something if you are looking for help, but it’s not OK to show something incomplete hoping that someone will hire you.

Last thing, we all like humor and cynicism but if you are constantly posting just that you are not putting yourself in a good light. You can look smart and experienced at the start, but then it’s tiring.

Do this instead

  • Try to evolve your communication style and channels
  • Analyze what you post and the results you have
  • Speak always politely, be always gentle

(I wish I could follow these things myself. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible because of the context and design of certain platforms)

Is the games industry even a thing?

Published by Paolo on 28/02/2024

Over the past six months or so, the very concept of “making a career in the video game industry” has completely evaporated from my mind.

There is no industry, because there are no guarantees or responsibilities. Whoever breaks it (for example by bargaining much more than you should) doesn’t pay. Indeed, the annual bonus is guaranteed by adjusting numbers on an Excel. Most often, numbers represent people.

The famous “industry” is nothing more than a mass of people who don’t even play video games and who create companies essentially to sell them. In the renowned “industry”, video games are almost an accident, they are not the important thing.

People who dream of video games, who study, who work their asses off, are tossed left and right like cattle. In the illusion of being able to create experiences that make other people dream. I understood this many years ago, thank God.

But it’s just an illusion, it doesn’t exist. The best thing is to do it in your small way and create your opportunities. Much safer, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first glance.

How to define USP?

Published by Paolo on 27/02/2024

I have watched today probably the best video on game design I have ever seen in the last few months. The speaker makes a definition for USP, unique selling points:

USP = (appeal + fantasy) * readability

  • The appeal is the level of beauty, polish, etcetera your game can have. It is what makes the game appealing from looking at screenshots/videos
  • The fantasy is the opportunity the Players will seek inside of the game. It can be something very real, but also something they couldn’t do in real life.
  • Everything is multiplied for the readability of the gameplay. Which is the capacity of your game to be understood from a simple quick view.

I love this definition and this formula, also if I am aware that creativity doesn’t work with formulas. But it’s a way of starting from a base. Test the art side (appeal x readability) separately from the gameplay (fantasy x readability).

What I want to say is that according to the properties of multiplication, we can say that the readability is a responsibility shared among art and design. Art takes care more about the appeal, while design more about the fantasy. These are my 2 cents on the general reasoning of the video. Watch it here:

Mobile f2p 4x starter

Published by Paolo on 16/02/2024

One of the most beloved genres of mobile games is 4X. In case you don’t know, the genre was born on PC. 4X means eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. 

I watched this beautiful deconstruction of a popular title these days. Deconstructor of Fun is deconstructing the fun again, I have to say!

It is an expensive genre to develop especially if you are giving it for free, for example using the free-to-play business model, it is better to think well in designing each part scalable and monetizable.

The game loop

In the following diagram, I resume the typical game loop for mobile f2p 4X games and detail the three typical metagame loops associated with:

The economy of these games is generally based on:

  • Resources: usually represented with raw materials such as wood, iron, and so on. The basic building block for everything.
  • Buildings: you need to build to grow your empire, useful to eXploit the land
  • Crafts: the technology you can use to craft
    • Craft rate: the speed of crafting using buildings
    • Craft options: the kind of things you can craft
  • Troops: a consumable used to eXplore and eXpand
  • Heroes: characters that lead the troops, useful to eXplore and eXterminate
    • Hero XP: often represented with shards, useful to level up the heroes
    • Hero gear: useful to power up the heroes
    • Hero Level: the level of the hero

Monetization

“Monetize or die”, says someone. And I cannot agree more with that statement. Remember you are giving a sophisticated piece of software for free. You need to think that a very small part of the audience will pay for that. To do that, you should have a very deep spend depth in your game. Here are some classic methods:

  • Build: the build loop uses resources to build new structures after waiting time
    • Resources can be monetized
    • Time (speed up) can be monetized
    • Builders (building slots) can be monetized. They are often part of the starter pack, the succulent first euro you are supposed to spend into the game. Very valuable.
  • Upgrade: to upgrade your building you use the same things as for building.
    • You can add a layer of ADs for freemium players to watch and speed things up, especially when they have little time remaining.
  • Train: you need troops to attack others, and those are created using time and slots
    • You can monetize the time to speed up
    • You can make the players purchase extra slots. This can be also part of some high-conversion item
  • Level-up Heroes: heroes are key for certain missions and special features, like social features or battle modes
    • You can monetize heroes directly (not recommended), but you can offer them in loot boxes/gachas
    • You can add them in a season pass, some subscription service that unlocks heroes with progress
    • You can sell special gear from them
    • You can have specific shards for hero level-up or get special shards
  • 4X: this is the real goal of the game and permits to have more opportunities to monetize all the rest
    • How many buildings do you have?
      • How many levels can you upgrade them?
    • How many heroes do you have?
      • What are the chances to get those heroes?
    • How many troops do you need to attack?
      • What is the cost in time to get them?
    • And so on…

Conclusion

I hope you liked this brief introduction, my intention is to communicate that you should stay aware of these concepts:

  • The Game Loop: the sequence of features that the Players should engage with over and over in order to progress through the game
  • The Meta Loops: the things that make your players think about your game where they are not playing.
  • The spend depth: every member of the game loop has to be monetized! 

Monetization is not a bad thing, it is what keeps your Players engaged!

The adjacency of marketing

Published by Paolo on 12/02/2024

There are designers and marketers, creative and tricky/boring stuff to do. One thing is always there: both are absolutely necessary for the success of a game. And so, for the success of a company.

A game company is run by business people, but games are made by developers and creative. Sometimes business people are very creative, sometimes developers are very aware of the business of making games.

In 2024, having marketing knowledge will be a boost for professional game designers. If you want to create your games like an artist, you have the opportunity to create your IPs and eventually get rich. But if you, like me, are here to serve other people and businesses you should aim to learn marketing.

Marketing, just like writing and art, is an adjacent space to explore and study. Very important to be aware of it and very few people are. It’s boring as heck, but it’s part of the craft to me.

Time for the underdogs

Published by Paolo on 08/02/2024

I am at Gamesforum, a conference on the marketing of games. Organizers gave me a free ticket and I have to say that is worth every single (and inexistent) penny.

The times are challenging for employees. We are seeing many layoffs, changes imposed by platform holders, and global insecurity. I met colleagues and I noticed that those who work as independent are younger than those who are working as employees. It’s crazy, right?

  • If you are on a successful project, it’s very hard to grow more and more. So the day job is gritty and the pressure is very high.
  • If you are on an unsuccessful project chances that you will be fired are high
  • If you are an underdog, there are lots of opportunities to grow! Many skilled professionals are available. Many known tactics for zero-to-one growth and you can probably create realistic plans.

What does it mean to be an underdog?

There are many acceptations to the term underdog, but to me it means:

  • small scopes, budget, team
  • ideas more focused on USP, both for product and for marketing
  • zero-to-one, still few partners/peers/providers
  • focus on the build, money will be a consequence

Why is it time for the underdogs?

Big players in the market are lost in the age of efficiency. After chasing impossible growth, they are now all-in for profit. They are reviving legacy products, and creating copycats, and they are not building anything new. Being an underdog now means being forced to think of alternatives to production and distribution strategies. It means to dream more and probably better. Who knows, maybe you will be the leader of the future!