Believe me, playing videogames on this thing is really a fulfilling experience.
I totally ♥ it.
Two thousand nine. It was for me a year of transition. Lots of stuff happened, not entirely positive; I closed some chapter of my life, then started to build new ones. I really can’t say if this was a positive or negative year: a lot of seeds were planted, and now there’s a hard work ahead to make them grow and see what happens. But I can at least point out what went right and what went wrong, just like in videogames postmortem.
What went right:
Late graduation. Ok, It was definitely too late. Six years ago, when I got back to university, I thought I will just take a bachelor degree. Then I was convinced to go on and complete the whole five years. The graduation was brilliant, and I even won an award for the best final thesis, which was about game design applied to website development.
A month in San Francisco. This was by far my best trip. I loved San Francisco, and I met a lot of interesting people, like Elan Lee and the Sf0 group. I even managed to test Cryptozoo with Jane McGonigal, which was not only fun, but really enlightening.
A new life. This was the big one of 2009. I started living with Marina, and that’s the best thing ever happening to me. Sometimes it could be difficult, but, luckily, we are managing to make things right. And we have this huge tv set with videogames. That’s just great.
Building Urustar. This is hard, mostly because I never have been an enterpreneur, and I’ve got lots to learn every single day. But this little project is slowly growing, and I really hope the new year could be the one where me and Marina consolidate this thing and become a good game company. We’ll see.
Invaders’ Den. I always dreamed to build a games magazine focused on critics and game studies rather than simple reviews. It’s surely a niche project, but through the FriendFeed group I found a lot of nice guys willing to help me. I hope this one will grow in the next year, because I really love it.
Ian Schrieber’s game design course. I’m definitely not one of those who think that game design is just practice and not theory at all. In this year I’ve read so much, and Ian’s online class was the thing helping me to summarize everything I’ve learned and put it to use. I would like to thank him, because in this job you should never stop learning.
What went wrong:
Money balance. Maybe it’s the crisis, maybe just the fact that I had to spread my time among some different activities, maybe I just haven’t done enough. Bottom line, this was a clearly forgettable year from the economic point of view. I guess it’s normal when you are starting something, but this is the point I need to improve the next year.
This blog. I started writing in english to get connected with game designers from all around the world. There is a strong community on Twitter I really would like to reach. But I wasn’t capable to keep this space updated and to hook up people I want to talk to. Probably this will require some more energy and work.
Urustar website. We started building it with the best intentions, but it’s still insufficient given what Urustar wants to be. It is still a start, I guess, but it clearly needs a deep and well thought redesign. Probably we should even switch to English as a main language, because of the next disappointing thing.
Italian response to games. This was really really tiny. Whereas in the northern Europe and in the States games are under a big spotlight, and there are a lot of projects and funding to develop meaningful interactive experiences, Italy seems still lost in finding the meaning of the web and possibly how to control it. The value of game design is still mostly unrecognized, and this make the domestic one the most difficult market for Urustar to operate in. That’s why I’m thinking to aim Urustar services to an international audience.
I guess that’s all. Now, let’s start working on 2009 part two: 2010.
Man, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is nasty!
No, seriously.
Are you thinking that super guide will destroy all the challenge in a game?
Think again.
This is one of the most difficult games I’ve ever played. It brings me to the Donkey Kong Era. And still, it’s tremendously entertaining and really, really funny. Especially in multiplayer. It’s really a remarkable job, it sounds like a statement about all the chatter around casual and hardcore gamers. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is intended to form a bridge between people who (almost) never played a game and hardcore gamers. But it surely will pose a hell of a challenge even for the most determined gamers.
I’m just loving it.
