Talking with game designers of the present and of the past
The Genesis Temple Podcast – Season 2 Since the first season of the podcast seemed to be appreciated by many people, I decided to soldier with The Genesis Temple Podcast season 2! I really did not expect to be able to talk to so many people that I had been following for a while. I…
Among several of the early Italian software houses from the 80s and 90s, Genias Software seems to be quite the exception. From day one, the company intended to actually cater to the audience’s tastes, not limiting their potential audience to national borders but, instead, keen on exporting games all over Europe and the United States.…
Everyone can identify that one definitive moment, the tiny magic second when a game managed to turn them from a casual part-timer into a full-time passionate gamer. Perhaps that passion, over the years, has been replaced by something else, but that hardly factors in this discussion. What matters is that mystical moment where everything else…
When I first ventured into the story of Trecision and found the name of Rick Gush mentioned by some of the developers, I did wonder. What was one of the writers of games like Dune II, Lands of Lore II and The Legend of Kyrandia doing in Italy, working for a relatively small and little known…
In my Interview with Larry Ahern Part 2, with the former Lucasarts graphic and designer we discuss the failed Full Throttle follow-up, his decision (and subsequent regret) to work with Microsoft, the indie experience with Insecticide and, finally, his time at Disney. Click here for the first part of the interview. Following up a success Hello…
In the 90s, Italian software houses struggled: from Simulmondo to Trecision, everyone was trying their hardest to stay afloat and Light Shock Software was no exception. The Italian market, despite the overall okay sales numbers, was always small, providing little funds and visibility to those that tried their hand at developing games. Also, even after…
For historical reasons this interview with John Holder is quite interesting, since he was the founder of the company Leader, in 1987, among the major publishers of video games in Italy. John would then leave the company in 2009, with Leader then closing down in 2012. For the sake of the interview, I was curious…
After its first steps in a difficult industry plagued by piracy, as observed in the second part of the retrospective, Trecision managed to release two titles internationally, Nightlong and The Watchmaker, but crisis seemed to strike the studio between 1999 and 2000. In the history of Trecision part III we will see how, with making a fully…
The Genesis Temple Podcast – Season 1 I did not really plan to start doing a podcast, the podcast planned to start doing me, apparently, this is what happened with the Genesis Temple Podcast season 1. There have always been so many people in the industry I wanted to have a chat with that, after…
In the first part of the retrospective for Trecision, the software house tested the water of the Italian gaming market of the early 90s by releasing two titles for Amiga, then moving on to PC. In the history of Trecision Part II we will see how the decision to branch out internationally was indeed the…