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Paolo's Blog Posts

Beyond Nostalgia and Speed

Published by Paolo on 12/10/2025

I was exploring the stands of BCN Games Fest ’25 here in Barcelona and trying out a couple of indie games. Then I asked “WHY?” to almost all of their creators. The answers generally landed between:

“I think that the visuals are good, nostalgic, bla bla,”

and

“It’s something simple I can do in a small amount of time.”

Well, to me, neither answer is a good one, and I’m sorry to say it. For me, visuals are very important, but they cannot be the hook for a game. You need a fantasy to fulfill as the very first thing, in my opinion. That fantasy can be taken from the real world, from other forms of entertainment, or even from other games, but only if you genuinely think you can improve something.

Regarding the second answer, you need to be very ambitious if you want to make games. It’s good and necessary to put a time limit on your craft. But to me, that shouldn’t be the driver of your creative choices. As an indie developer, you should aim to deliver something meaningful out there.

Regulatory missteps

Published by Paolo on 11/10/2025

I recently read the New European Consumer Protection Guidelines for Virtual Currencies in Video Games after days of discussion on the topic. On one hand, I feel proud to live on a continent that prioritizes consumer protection, but on the other, I’m worried that regulators fundamentally misunderstand our industry.

I’ve worked mostly in casual mobile free-to-play (F2P). Development usually involves at least six months for the first version, followed by a ‘soft launch’ period of 5 to 15 months, where we figure out metrics, tune the performance marketing strategy, and tweak the economy—often without making any profit.

Successful F2P games operate somewhat like luxury goods. The business is primarily sustained by superfans (call them whales or big spenders). Crucially, even in games where the typical player might be a parent or older adult, these superfans are generally heavy gamers who also buy and play many console and PC titles. For example, the biggest spender in Royal Kingdom is likely an Elden Ring player, not a grandmother saving money for her grandkids.

Regarding the new regulations, three points are particularly worrisome:

  1. Clear and Transparent Price Indication: The price of in-game content or services must be shown in both in-game currency and real-world money, ensuring players can make informed decisions about their purchases.
  2. Avoiding Practices That Obscure Pricing: Game developers should not engage in tactics that obscure the true cost of digital content. This includes practices like mixing different in-game currencies or requiring multiple exchanges to make purchases.
  3. No Forced Purchases: Developers should not design games that force consumers to spend more money on in-game currencies than necessary. Players should be able to choose the exact amount of currency they wish to purchase.

I understand the underlying goal, but these rules reveal a fundamental ignorance of game design and development:

  1. Inflation and Value: Virtual items and currencies constantly change their actual value during a game’s live operations due to in-game inflation and economic adjustments. Forcing us to show the real-money equivalent at all times will quickly become nonsensical.
  2. Multiple Currencies: F2P game systems rely on multiple gameplay loops to be effective. To support these loops and give players meaningful choices, multiple currencies are essential. Without them, balancing becomes hellish, and the player experience suffers—a genuine lose-lose scenario.
  3. Purchase Flexibility: When a game is published, you set specific, pre-defined prices for all in-app purchases on stores like Google Play. Implementing the option to purchase something like “23 gems” would either require rounding that purchase to the nearest predefined value (which violates the rule) or registering a huge number of specific values. That is frankly crazy.

I am genuinely worried that these measures will negatively impact Europe as a total addressable market for F2P games. Knowing the spending habits of superfans, they will simply go elsewhere. And regarding the promised protection for children, let’s be serious: social media is far more dangerous for kids. F2P games require interaction and can develop useful life skills. Infinite-scrolling video feeds are pure fentanyl. The problem isn’t games.

Your time is now

Published by Paolo on 10/10/2025

Today is the first day of BCN Games Fest, probably the best gaming fair in Barcelona. I’ll be there to meet people, talk with young developers, catch up with ex-students, and maybe offer some advice, as always.

Speaking of which, for me, success in this industry boils down to two main pieces of advice.

The first is that having fear is losing time. Staying home, sending out CVs, and waiting for an answer (while maybe complaining on social media) means you are being ruled by fear. You’re losing your time to make games, which is NOW.

The second piece of advice I always give is that failure is unimportant if the journey is worth some small prize. There is no failure in doing things, and frankly, there is no real success either. I mean, you can make loads of money, and your face might appear in YouTube videos and things like that, but if you talk to the very few people who reached that level, they’ll tell you that’s not the most beautiful part.

So, enjoy the trip and don’t be afraid. Ask WHY you’re doing that—that’s what’s truly important. I will be asking this a lot these days.

Wolves in a Fairy Tale

Published by Paolo on 09/10/2025

The CEO of Supercell, Ilkka Paananen, released a message yesterday asking European legislators to consider European free-to-play game developers before approving new player safety measures.

I currently work mostly in free-to-play (F2P), and I’ve worked in gambling games in the past. I must admit that I see many common practices between these two sectors of the gaming industry. The F2P high-spending players are called whales, a term that actually comes from casinos. And these players are fundamental to the profitability of a game you give away for free.

Certain practices, often called dark patterns, surely influence people’s decision-making. Vulnerable people, like children, can be induced to spend too much. That’s why the regulator often comes in with an axe and suddenly cuts off everything. The same thing happened with the web; nowadays, the experience is completely ruined, and I have to close endless pop-ups for policies I will never read.

I don’t like to be treated like a child. My daughter will never have access to a connected smartphone as a child, full stop. It’s about responsibility. I am aware that many parents don’t have that responsibility, or aren’t capable of facing their children, though. That’s why we need regulations, but to me, it’s important to include everybody in the discussion and not treat developers like wolves in a fairy tale.

Beyond Productivity

Published by Paolo on 08/10/2025

When I think about the future of games and look at the trends, I can’t help but notice that it’s getting easier and easier to make games. The real struggle in the industry is distributing and selling them, simply because there are too many games out there. Since it’s so easy to publish them, even a student can put a small, silly project online. This inevitably complicates the search algorithms.

Still, the act of game making is a great mental effort. To me, it’s like playing music or, as I mentioned a few days ago, practicing a sport.

Today, you can take a picture and post it online; you can also make a game and publish it. I feel we are missing an opportunity here: to encourage people to think not just about making money or productivity, but to play with the concept of creation the way they play with their smartphone camera.

We have Roblox and Fortnite, among many examples of games where certain cohorts can create experiences. Yet, there is often money involved, and I’m not sure about that focus. I feel like the modding community, which creates for the pure sake of fun, can teach us a lot and help us find new ways to express our creativity.

Before Gameplay

Published by Paolo on 07/10/2025

Before players decide to step into your magic circle and start having a good time, they have feelings. They might watch a video on YouTube, read an article about your game, or simply land on your store page and look at the trailers, screenshots, and descriptions.

All of this evokes emotions and feelings. Emotions are the first step of perception. That’s why when you start designing levels for a narrative-driven game (RPG, adventure, platformer, and so on), you need to think first about the emotional intensity curve over time. This way, you can properly estimate the moment-to-moment experience.

I recently used this approach for a personal exercise: creating a hypothetical level for The Last of Us.

You can see each step is associated with a specific dynamic I want the Player to experience during the level. This curve was the final one, but I worked on many iterations. You plan a curve, and then you iterate over time.

I still code

Published by Paolo on 06/10/2025

I started my journey in games as a programmer. More specifically, I began using LUA scripting on a Linux-based engine designed for a coin-operated venture in a small village in Southern Italy.

Then I moved to Barcelona and got my first job in gambling games. I was a C/C++ programmer at Zitro, working on video bingos. I owe them a lot; I learned Spanish there, and today, I design games because of gambling games. It’s true that there are ethical issues with them, but I believe that their simplicity and clear motivational framework make them a great way to start in game design. I began buying books on game design because of gambling games, trying to understand why they were so boring to me yet so profitable.

Life and my career moved on, and I kept programming on the side. Today, I’m more on the strategic/executive side of things, thankfully because I gained more experience and managed to stay in the industry. Still, I love the sensations that programming gives, and I particularly enjoy Python and C++. I bought a course to learn a bit of Unreal Engine this week. My goal is to start it and perhaps create a prototype for my Capoeira ARPG game.

Stay tuned and have a great week, everybody.

Rock Band vs. Sports Team

Published by Paolo on 05/10/2025

There’s a fundamental difference between teams working on new game conceptualization and teams focused on production and updates. The first kind works more like a rock band; the latter, like a sports team.

To conceptualize new games, you need people capable of genuinely wrestling with an idea for a sufficient amount of time. You need people who help each other and cover each other’s limitations. These are people willing to find new formulas and to create art.

Once you have it—once you have the formula—you need the resilience and technique to produce it. This is where you need top talent; you can’t afford to lose time and compromise the whole team.

Both types of talent are hard to find, but selection processes only spot (and often badly) the latter group: the sports team. That’s why people like me, the rockers, are sometimes needed.

Heroes of Gaming

Published by Paolo on 04/10/2025

I want to invite you today to reflect on the power of outsourcing. I’ve been thinking about this all week, especially since I’m picking up an old project to work on while I don’t have another gig.

All top games rely on the contribution of outsourcers, yet we don’t celebrate them enough. Maybe I’m saying this because I’m a freelancer and part of the outsourcing world myself. Sorry for this ego moment.

Salvador Dalí once said something along the lines of, “No one will talk well about you, so you have to do it yourself.” I’m not sure I completely agree, but today I feel this urge to celebrate outsourcers.

Without us, there would be no games industry—at least not at this level. You can be more ambitious and go further thanks to outsourcing companies. It is a fundamental and irreplaceable part of the business.

Saudi deal doesn’t add up

Published by Paolo on 03/10/2025

I was writing notes for an upcoming podcast on Saudi Arabia’s rumored operation to purchase EA. I’m a little worried, because I believe there are mostly geopolitical reasons behind all of this. The math is crazy, and even with 2,000 layoffs, the move just doesn’t make financial sense.

What’s at stake for me is creative freedom. Too many games from EA contain messages that would be hardly accepted by that regime. They may ignore them, of course, if they adopt a purely practical mentality, but I’m skeptical. I mean, soft power is clearly the goal here.

In my view, EA needs to better focus on sports games, and perhaps a conversion to more scalable business models—like free-to-play—would benefit them. But from a creative perspective, they are in danger.