An Italian Geek in London - My Story
I've always been a geek. Like many geeks, I've spent my youth disassembling toys (especially my sister's) and watching Knight Rider.
My life changed when I received my first computer, an Olivetti PC 128s (basically a rebranded BBC Master). The 128s was sold with a great book on how to use it and program in Basic. This book became my sacred book and introduced me to the magic of programming. I loved it! Programming was practically written in my DNA and it felt natural to me.
My geek-self in 1988.
The BBC Master also introduced me to something else, something that will play a big role much later in my life: the British culture. At the time, many of the best videogames were developed in the UK and games such as Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror and Jet Set Willy are just two examples of the many British games I played for countless hours.
I still recall the day I went all the way to the shop to buy a new game and the sale guy told me that the Olivetti PC 128s had been discontinued. That was a sad day.
That computer wasn't just a machine for me, it was my home.
As stupid as it may sound, I thought no computer could replace it. Yet life went on.
Early in the 90s, a new computer became extremely popular in Italy, UK and other parts of the world: The Commodore Amiga.
Describing the Amiga is really hard. It was a truly revolutionary machine.
In a time when Personal Computers were mostly monochrome and pretty much audio-less, the Amiga boosted an impressive multitasking architecture, with dedicated chips for audio and graphics.
This was one of the best time of my life. The Amiga was so radical that its users started creating groups and arranging meetups to exchange the latest games and demos (it was an age without the Internet). This allowed me to meet many interesting people, a few of whom are still my friends.
Once again the UK was at the cutting edge of game development.
Team 17, Bullfrog Productions, Sensible Software and The Bitmap Brothers were amongst my favourite software houses.
I remember going to the newsstand every month to check whether or not the new issue of The Games Machine was out. If so, I would then go back home and lock myself somewhere to read it (and smell it!) end to end.
The Amiga also allowed me to play game gems such as Another World and Monkey Island, which have inspired me for years, and they still do.
When the Amiga went away, it left a hole in my heart. The departure of the Amiga and the 16-bits machines took away a lot of great teams and creativity from the game industry.
With time I started playing less videogames, I felt that poetry and inspiration were left out from modern titles, which are often driven by money and not passion.
For this reason, after I got my degree (Computer Science / Engineering), I decided to follow my heart and move to London to work as a mobile game developer.
When Apple launched the first iPhone and the App Store I knew that the game industry was about to change and I wanted to be part of it.
My geek-self in 2012 with my daughter Anna.
That's when I founded OutOfTheBit and went indie. After bringing a few classic games of the Italian tradition to the iPhone and iPad, I decided to work on new, inspired games.
I am currently working on a new original project. It's a very unique game.
The graphics are all vector based and everything is drawn directly on the iPad, using a vector tool I am developing specifically for this. I intend to use this blog to keep you posted on the project and on my life, in general.
Now you know about my geek-past and present, if you enjoyed my story a little bit and you'd like to know about my future, please follow me on twitter and bookmark this blog.
I don’t know them in person (and they don’t know me), but I want to thank Marco Arment, Dan Benjamin, John Gruber, John Siracusa and Stephen Hackett for having inspired me through their blogs and podcasts. Thanks guys!