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Paolo's Blog Posts

My path for the next future

Published by Paolo on 17/11/2022

In recent months I’ve been deciding about my professional path. On the one hand, I like working as an advisor for companies. In fact, you learn a lot more this way.

When you work for an important corporation you learn to work in that context. When you work like a warrior-mage level 20, instead, you learn the hard way.

But, it’s a very stressful lifestyle. Sometimes hard times add up with 2-3 clients and it’s not always easy to manage.

So when I get a tempting offer I choose to try to enter the selection process. These are long and tedious, made up of expectations and many uncertainties. Doubts and insecurities come out and block part of the rest too.

This is my rant for today.

Hiring good leaders

Published by Paolo on 16/11/2022

A good leader will have worked with others and can involve these people in other adventures. This is one of the keys to success when a company wants to find a new leader for a department.

I have met various leaders in my career, and I would not work again with all of them. In the selection processes for leaders in which I take part, I do not see enough insistence on this point. A good leader makes the company hire the best talent.

If there’s one thing that’s important to a good leader, it’s the ability to help manage the hiring process.

  • What is this person’s reputation in the local sector?
  • How will they create a meaningful hiring strategy?
  • Are they capable of bring the best people with them?
  • Do companies check these things when they hire a new leader?

Often, some inefficient people get for some reason to be “head of…” at some company. Another company reads their resume and sees they’ve had that position before. The company doesn’t inquire who they have worked with and “cancer” expands into another reality.

A good leader may have held non-leadership positions, but be respected by current and former colleagues. Important is the capability of making an impact in hiring the best talent.

Don’t just look at the resume, you need to consult the people that worked with them!

Mobile cloud as a feature

Published by Paolo on 15/11/2022

The classic way to start a new mobile game is:

  1. For some reason, I arrive at the virtual store
  2. I choose the game to install and tap the Install button
  3. I wait for it to install. Some games are huge.
  4. I start and there is a stage where the screen is dark
  5. I wait while looking at a splash screen for a few seconds, less than 15
  6. In case there are updates this time increases
  7. I am introduced to the game.

The games of the future should be like this:

  • For some reason, I arrive at the virtual store
  • I choose the game and PLAY
  • I wait less than 2 seconds
  • I am introduced to the game

It seems like an impossible feature, but that’s what will make the difference for me.

15 years in the Games Industry!

Published by Paolo on 14/11/2022

I realized that I am turning 15 in the video game industry this year. Not bad, considering that the average time is 7 years. I have doubled the average, and I am satisfied.

There have been times when I haven’t found a job in my industry and I’ve dedicated myself to something else. I have been a QA tester in a cybersecurity company. I was a data scientist at a robotic automation startup. All these experiences have enriched me.

I am very happy that I was able to stay in the industry. Despite the various blows received, I always got up. Thank God I wasn’t too impressed, although I bear the consequences.

Nowadays my job is part of my identity as a person, and I’m not sure that’s always a good thing. Many people work as game designers, I AM a game designer. People appreciate my designs, they always reveal a passion for the projects I am involved in. I have serious difficulties relating to the lack of professionalism, though.

Personal challenges

When I see a roadmap based on “best practices” without reflecting on “whys” and with no connection with the Players of the game, my blood boils.

I can’t accept the use of KPIs as targets, a huge mistake that is very common in the industry. Direct efforts to improve indicators and your game become a means of justifying investments. Not a means to deliver a great playful experience to people. I understand that we talk about KPIs with investors, it is a way of selling. But transferring these discussions to those who have their hands in development is deleterious.

I always think of all references and edge cases and it is an activity that engages my mind a lot even when I am in front of a book in the evening. And if I see the solution being replaced for no reason, I already know that I will spend a sleepless night out of anger.

My love for game design

I love to define everything in detail. In a self-respecting team, some more visionary people manage everything and make decisions. I like to help these people land ideas down. I like to support them in their decisions.

Someone has to do the dirty work! Prepare documents, wireframes, and flows. Square all the numbers in a spreadsheet. They are long and difficult activities. For some, they are also boring. I love doing them! I’m a game designer, it’s not that they pay me to do it. I do it for love!

My goal for the next 5 years is to improve my relationship with the profession. And my next full-time gig should start me in the World of leadership. I have seen a lot of things, now it’s time to take part in the strategy too!

In the meantime, happy anniversary to me!

Reviews are your best friend

Published by Paolo on 10/11/2022

Whenever you are starting a new game project or if you are working on LiveOps for an old one, you have a free asset that is very useful: reviews.

Only a small part of Players are willing to leave reviews for your games, especially in free-to-play. Videogames can ask directly in-game to leave a review, but not everyone does so. They do not represent in any case the dominant opinions, but they are useful to spot opportunities for your game.

  • If you read critical reviews and you notice something that repeats a lot, that something can be converted into a unique selling point for your game.
  • If you read positive reviews and you notice something that repeats a lot, that something should be a must-have for your game.

Use Steam or Data.ai to filter out positive and negative reviews. Remember Pareto’s principle. Use always 80% of other games and innovate on the 20%.

  • 80% you should take can be read in positive reviews that repeat
  • 20% of novelty can be read in critical reviews that repeat

Analyze the reviews of the main game you are taking as a competitor, but also of its clones and competitors!

What? There are NO clones of that game? You are probably choosing the wrong competitor and you will hardly manage to have success in its field.

I broke it!

Published by Paolo on 09/11/2022

One of the trends I see in mobile game design comes from the hyper-casual wave of games: games that you can break.

Link to original Tweet

It helps the game get viral, players feel smart and it’s clever. Especially in multiplayer games, it works great!

One may feel that designers made bad work, but it’s not always the case. Often there are surprising discoveries in the process!

Can your game be broken by the Players? If not, can you make some mechanics less controlled to open up to that possibility?

Existence and storytelling

Published by Paolo on 07/11/2022

Yesterday I have finished watching a great Netflix show called “From Scratch”. Very suggested to anyone reading.

One of the topic of the series is death, still a romantic/casual audience may appreciate this kind of series.

Think in casual snackable games. What about creating some narrative to make the people reflect on existential topics?

Will that work?

Those topics are not comfy, but something very powerful may please our love for great stories.

The value in silence and resilience

Published by Paolo on 03/11/2022

Every so often I ask myself: what am I doing and why? It’s something that comes in handy, makes me put things into perspective and sometimes leads me to swerve on the path of my life.

I went to an event last week where I met a lot of friends and also alumni. It is amazing the amount of talented people that exists in the video game industry. Every time I go to these events I am surprised. Since the fashion of the home office began, unfortunately I am less in contact with so many people. There are very few people who, like me, decide to share the little they know online.

On the other hand, there are many people with exceptional talent who do their work in silence. They will not be known, they work for big companies very often diluting themselves in the mass but making millions to the corporations that are so lucky to have them in their ranks. Or they’ve been working on their own independent game, maybe for years. I really admire this resilience, even though I can’t help but notice the enormous risk of doing so.

However, life is one, and therefore I always ask myself: what am I doing? Probably the answer is: the right things to find my way.

How to use Twine for Player Experience Narrative

Published by Paolo on 28/10/2022
Play Lilys Choices in your browser here.

Game writers use Twine to write stories. It’s a great tool and pretty easy to learn. I have learnt during my certification course at The Narrative Department. This week I am prototyping a new feature for Lily’s Garden, so that I decided to use this new tool to test its effectiveness also in terms of feature prototyping.

You can play the Twine prototype here: we have the feature, Lilys Choices.

Final thoughts

  • Twine is a great tool to create a proper Player experience narrative for a new feature.
  • The idea of having an extra resource to start extra Dramas is not new, but it is very important that the dramas end up with a surprise for the Players. Also in terms of concrete rewards!
  • It is important for this kind of games not giving to the Players choices that exclude specific branches. First of all, produce all this content has a cost. Second, some Player may feel frustrated and may want to try the other way around. This thing is not possible in those games.
  • The narrative should be focused on a true fan of the game. At this stage other profiles in the team will probably find risks and flaws to the designs, so be prepared! It is very important to push things forward boldly.

Devlog

From the idea to the prototype

Published by Paolo on 27/10/2022

This week I am prototyping a new narrative system for a puzzle-renovation game like Lily’s Garden. I generated lots of ideas and then I selected the best ones. Now it’s time to translate those ideas to a prototype.

Goals and features

Before of starting sketching a flowchart for our Twine prototype, it’s important to understand why to prepare a prototype in first place. A prototype is not something ready to go out. It is not a product. A prototype is useful to:

  • Persuade the stakeholders that this step is necessary and invite them to think in its ROI
  • Align the vision of all the team members that will work on the feature
  • State all the assumptions, useful to prove with data and analytics the feature’s success
  • Inspire roadmap updates to fix the feature’s development in the pipeline.

I have very few time to do a proper prototype, I am doing this exercise for “ikigai” (= to do something I enjoy for the sake of it). I need to put some limitations, so that my prototype will feature:

  1. Only 1 event to show how the Player’s journey changes meaningfully thanks to the feature
  2. Player’s development across the journey
  3. Maximum 3 valuable binary choices, in order to avoid too many outcomes. In fact with 3 choices we will get 2^3=8 endings.
  4. The prototype should not be minimum. I am against minimum viable things. The prototype should show all that’s necessary to truly unleash potential, instead! That is why I will use the main idea and the two secondary ones described previously.

Prototype definition

Important for this kind of games is to keep things very linear and straight. Those are not RPG games full of options. The only options that the Player has at every moment is either to start a new task or play a new level.

Glossary

  • Lilys: the new feature will be called Lilys. Lilys are a resource that the Player accumulates based on creating special tiles (combining 4+ tiles) and/or getting and using power-ups, which are special tiles at the end of the day.
  • Lily Branches: every Day has a set of choices. Some choice are cosmetic, those are already present in the game. Some other choice can be meaningful story branches. In order to take some of the options, the Player should use Lilys.
  • Choice Points: Every time the Player makes a choice gets Choice Points which are useful to unlock extra rewards at the end of the day.
  • Variable Rewards: every time the Player completes one Lilys branch, there is the chance of getting a power-up. Variable rewards are useful to foster engagement. The Players in this way will have reasons to make Lilys Choices.
  • The Player can choose to Play a level or start a Task
  • During the Level, the Player will get and use power-ups
  • At the end of the Level the power-ups and special tiles will be counted and converted in Lilys
  • During a task, the Player will have to make a meaningful choice
  • One of the branches will involve the use of Lilys
  • All the branches will give choice points, useful for the end of the Day to get extra rewards
  • if the Player uses Lilys, a random reward will pop-out: 30 minutes infinite lives. It is important that the Player feel that there is a random factor there.

Now I can proceed in developing the proper prototype!