“I had a past as a producer and DJ, from which I have received great satisfaction. But my vocation as an entrepreneur had the upper hand ”: that’s what speaks Giacomo Greco, CEO of Jyamma Games, a Milanese company engaged in a very ambitious project, the development of a Souls-like video game set in Italy. Greco has decided to invest in the gaming world because, in addition to being an enthusiast, he saw a great business opportunity in the sector: “In Italy we are still at the beginning, there is a lot of space”. Like this in 2018 he decided to enroll in the Game design course at the Digital Bros Game Academy and, once he finished his training, he founded Jyamma Games with 9 classmates.
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He told us that “today we are 46 with an average age of thirty and among collaborators 10 are women who cover key roles, from the marketing director to the concept artists, from the level designer to the 3D animator, fundamental pillars for the development of a video game “. Considering that the last census of Iidea, a trade association, counted 1600 people employed in the video game development sector and that of these professionals 3% of the total are collaborators of Jyamma Games, for Greco it is a great satisfaction, given that the studio has only been operating for two years.
Jyamma Games starts its business by producing hypercasual and casual games for mobile devices to then engage in the development of an AA + title, Greco explained to us: “At the beginning we were 10 developing mobile games, all fresh out of high school, after a few months some senior figures with more experience joined the team. We decided to start from this type of games because in 2018 51% of the entire gaming industry’s revenue came from mobile devices and because development times are reduced compared to those for computers and consoles ”.
After having given life to 4 titles and having reached over 600 thousand downloads, the team thought the time was ripe for the big step: “The development of a project as important as ours Galileo, an AA + video game for computers and consoles, required the structuring of a large group of collaborators with specific skills such as programmers, game designers and artists, and among these there are some Italian talents who have grown into international realities who have joined us to give life to our project “. The most significant increase in employment, Jyamma Games has recorded it in the last 10 months, because in the middle of the pandemic the studio has grown fourfold.
Souls-like is a highly coded genre of video games, produced by studios such as From Software whose series Dark Souls it is true object of cult by the fans. Jyamma Games delves into this treacherous territory with Project Galileo, Greco told us again: “We started with the development of a Souls-like because we are great fans of the genre and because in recent years it has seen strong growth. A Souls-like is the perfect synthesis between an action game and an RPG where the gamer discovers the story step by step and challenge various bosses, enemies that are usually difficult to defeat on the first try. The story of a Souls-like is never trivial, it turns out by playing and comparing with the community and the story of the game is cryptic ”.
The studio decided to develop an AA + level Souls-like, with high quality both in terms of graphics and content: “We are among the very few Italian independent software houses that are engaged in a project of this magnitude that may require investments between 2 and 20 million euros. The production of AA + is similar to that of a Hollywood colossal and requires significant processing times and budgets ”.
In Project Galileo the player will find himself immersed in the Italian cultural and landscape beauties and will live an experience dedicated to the celebration of the Bel Paese, Greco always told us: “The name Project Galileo it is a project Id, i.e. a working title. We chose it because it represents for us one of the symbols of Italianness in the world and he was a key figure in the scientific revolution. It is a way to create appeal also on an international level “.
Jyamma Games focuses a lot on quality: in 7 months of research and development they studied Italy, flora, fauna, folklore and what Italianness can represent, but free of any possible stereotype.
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As you understand, developing an AA + game is expensive for an independent studio, and in Italy it can be a huge undertaking, because it is necessary to recover the funds to finance the project: “From the beginning we have created a solid company with private investors who believe in us and in our business model – Greek still speaks – Project Galileo is certainly an ambitious project that we are developing with the best professionals that ensure high quality. This allows us to make a high-level business proposal, and with this in mind we will participate in the Tokyo Game Show in September to forge further relationships with publishers in the Asia-Pacific area ”.
Jyamma Games has a tight schedule, with well-identified milestones and it should be ready by the end of the year to present a demo for publishers.
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