Hello my peeps, how are y'all?! 👋
Welcome back to Nova's Diary, issue number 18!
Hey, do you happen to remember issue 16, May's devlog? That little rant I did about how hot it was around here at the time?
Oh, how clueless I was...
Our sound designer in Milan says that the city regularly reaches 40° Celsius, there are literally milder temperatures in the southern regions of Italy!!
Oh well, I've already done my rant about temperatures, how about we take a look at what adventures July brought us.
[ FIRST PLAYABLE ]
Aaaah yes, indubitably the best part of July.
For anyone wondering, The First Playable was an event organized by IIDEA (The Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association) and the Toscana Film Commission, along with a long list of partners, sponsor and supporters from the game industry and the italian government.
It took place in Pisa, the day after the Italian Video Game Awards (maybe we'll be there one day 👀), and it was the prime opportunity for us to meet developers, publishers and other important figures in the game industry, both italian and worldwide...
Like man, I MET RAMI ISMAIL!! (if you don't know who this person is, go follow him on Twitter; you won't regret it)
Jokes aside, it really was a great event. Our main mission there was to basically do some networking, chat with some of the devs and listen to a number of talks and panels (which were very interesting btw, more about them in a minute), but we couldn't expect what was about to unravel in the coming days...
Great, now that I've got you all on suspence, here's a summary of what happened during the event:
DAY 1
Day 1 was also the same day we arrived at Pisa. Francesco decided to precede us to listen on a panel we would have otherwise missed. After Fabiola arrived and we left our luggage at the hotel, we joined him...
Too bad there was a metaverse panel... And now they even got a photo of me 💀
After a good 20 minutes of time that I'll never have back, came the cream of the crop, the panels that we were looking forward to listen the most: a panel about funding and the approach to publishers and funds (with extremely useful info for us and our next projects) and one about accessibility and inclusivity (which was something that I really wanted to hear, also considering our main character).
A quick lunch and a couple of chit chats and we're back on with more panels: first of all, a surprise talk from Rami about game biz, who has probably the most straightforward strategy for game business.
After that shotgun panel we were feeling a little tired, so we decided to chill out a bit while half-listening to an Unreal Engine 5 presentation.
In the evening there was an aperitif in this super luxurious hotel, where we had a really nice time (also the catering served something like fried bread and no joke it was delicious). During that we also talked with a couple of people from well-established publishers and development studios, just to say hello and show them our neat little game :)
DAY 2
Honestly, what a turn of events this day was.
The second and third day were a mix of pitching sessions and coaching with even more publishers and other studios, organized thru this software called MeetToMatch.
Considering that our objective was to listen to the panels and do some networking, we initially saw little reason to go and pitch again to publishers that already knew us (also we didn't prepare anything in advance). But, surprisingly enough (/s), people like it when you talk to them, and right now we were in a building full of people with interests similar to ours and vastly different experiences, it'd be a shame to miss it all just because our first game's release is just around the corner.
And so we started talking with this incredible person from a studio that we already contacted months and months ago, and what a wonderful conversation it was. Sadly, our game didn't meet their criteria for publishing (which was something we already knew), but they were so so kind that they personally went and scheduled for us a couple of meeting with other publishers, as well as a talk with Rami!!
So we went from a clueless bunch with too much free time to a full day of pitching and coaching.
Thank you Hollie, you were the best! 💜
That evening I will forever remember it as the first of (possbily) many business dinners.
We were in this beautiful villa, two steps away from the Tower of Pisa (it really is leaning!), And we spent the evening talking to lots of people, from their projects to a close-knit discussion about cats and anime. I don't think I've ever socialized this much since the first quarantine started.
DAY 3
Day 3 was kinda slow. We tried to schedule some meetings but the people we wanted to hear from were extremely busy, so we spent most of the time chatting with other devs and talking between the three of us about the future of our studio: from projects to make to people to meet, as a way to kickstart whatever will come after Venice 2089.
And that's it; after that we said our goodbyes, exchanged business cards, Discord tags and all the rest, and we went to the stations and took our trains home.
As I said before, it was a damn good event. I can confidently say that our networking mission was an astounding success. It was a shame that only me, our 3D artist Fabiola and our Game Director Francesco attended the event, as initially 2 other team members were to join us too. But due to the still-present coronavirus they couldn't participate with us. If there's going to be a new edition next year, I really hope we all get to attend it.
Speaking of coronavirus, guess who turned out positive after the event?
A ) None of us
B ) Just one of us
C ) Two of us
D ) All of us
And the right answer is.... C! Unfortunately me and Francesco were tested positive for the virus a couple of days later our return, and had to stay home for a good week. Honestly tho, I kinda expected it. The event itself was well organized in terms of sanitization, but when you have a couple hundred people all in the same place, these things tend to happen. 😅
[ THE REST ]
Oh yeah, and we're still in post-production.
A lot of optimisation, a lot of screaming at Unity for not complying, and a lot of deadlines and milestones to meet.
And we're ever drawing closer to October...
And that's it for July. I know this was a very different devlog from the rest, but as I said last month, with the game in polishing phase I don't think there'll be much to show you, at least for the time being.
I hope that you liked my review of our 3-days trip in Pisa just as much as I liked being there.
See you next month!