Talking with game designers of the present and of the past
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…
Liguria, on the western part of Italy and resting close to France, is home to several immensely popular culinary specialties, like pesto, and wordly-celebrated landmarks the likes of Cinque Terre and, naturally, Portofino. Along with being home to Dynabyte software and, years later, Artematica, the coastal region was also part of the history of Trecision,…
Interview with Larry Ahern – Part 1 of 2 – From The Dig to The Curse of Monkey Island In December of 2020 I had the opportunity to talk with Larry Ahern via Skype, we made time for a lengthy conversation on his overall career, from his first interview at Skywalker Ranch all the way…
From its humble beginnings in Francesco Carlà’s private home, seen in Part I, Simulmondo managed to merge talent and business into a successful company which grew almost bigger than the size of a developer like Electronic Arts at the time. From 1992 on, because of the CEO’s stubbornness in continuing to pursue the selling on…
Throughout 2000 years of human history, since mankind understood it was possible to package and sell a work of art, a single struggle has resisted, immortal, rearing its ugly head time and time again: the artist against the system. It’s a timeless tale, used in books and screenplays, that of the desperate toil of artists…
In the history of Italian videogame development, point’n’click adventure games could be considered, perhaps, the quintessential genre. The love for solving riddles and laughing at fourth wall breaking jokes might indeed be stronger than that for soccer and wine and this is where Dynabyte Software comes in. While Sierra Entertainment adventures struggled to find a…
Please allow me a quick comparison: Skitchin’ was to Road Rash what Beavis & Butthead were to The Simpsons. Where Road Rash was direct, brash and kind of rude, Skitchin was instead rad, in your face and never afraid to flip the bird. While Electronic Arts did release a few “different” games in the early…
I had the pleasure to talk with artist Craig Stitt, he worked on the art department with software houses like Sega Technical Institute and Insomniac Games and designed characters ranging from Sonic the Hedgehog to Spyro the Dragon. In this interview we went over several of the titles he worked on, from Sonic 2 to…
Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths is a 1999 2D adventure game, one of the few non-racing games developed in Italy that managed to find an audience even outside of its original homemarket. A point’n’click wearing its influences on its sleeves: Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and the classic Lucasarts titles. Set…