Ferruccio Cinquemani
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cinquemani.it
Ferruccio Cinquemani
@cinquemani.it
340 followers 290 following 230 posts
Game designer.
Worked on Helldivers 2, Toca World and a bunch of other stuff.
Working on There's Nothing Underground: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3223370/
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cinquemani.it
Ferruccio Cinquemani @cinquemani.it · Jul 9
New trailer for the game I - and a small team of awesome people - have been working on. It's a roguelike puzzle game in which you can solve levels in any way you can think of, using random tools. It's a lot of fun.

store.steampowered.com/app/3223370/...
cinquemani.it
Our "mosa-like", rogue-like, open-ended-puzzles-where-you-create-your-own-solution-like, called There's Nothing Underground has a release date, Dec 12th, a new trailer and a new demo out now. Try it and let me know what you think, especially if you think it's great!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC3B...
There's Nothing Underground Launch Trailer
YouTube video by Palomar Games
www.youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
cinquemani.it
Finished Tactical Breach Wizards yesterday and I am a bit baffled people don't talk more about it. So elegant, challenging in the most exciting way and superbly written
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
naomialderman.bsky.social
I flew to Canada this week to go to a Paul McCartney concert and I wrote about it here:

open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
going through hell, keeping going
on art, grief, and the emotional heroism of just bloody keeping on making your work
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:23 AM
cinquemani.it
What is Gustav thinking about? Can it be that there will be news about There's Nothing Underground (wishlistnowonsteamthankyou) very, very soon?
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
andyrobinson.bsky.social
The developer of breakout hit Dispatch has called generative AI a creative solution for developers ‘who aren’t creative’.

vgc.news/news/develop...
Developer of breakout hit Dispatch calls AI a creative solution for developers ‘who aren’t creative’ | VGC
Dispatch’s developer has come out against the use of AI tools in the creative process…
vgc.news
November 19, 2025 at 9:48 AM
cinquemani.it
Our game is fully dynamic, systemic, based on emergent gameplay and open ended puzzles. Which in practice means you can make silly bridges and glue stuff.

It's called There's Nothing Underground and it's coming out sooner than you think.

#screenshotsaturday (though it's Sunday) #indiegames #games
November 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
falconeerdev.bsky.social
The winner takes all-instant hit-meme-flywheel mentality that has completely overtaken the games industry and even #indiedev is poison.

It deteriorates the space for risk and sustainable growth, until all that's left is to to either make slot-machines or slop-machines.
November 14, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
eyepatchwolf.bsky.social
“0% woke shit”

a black man with a physical disability leads an environmental terrorist cell trying to save the planet from mega-billionaires and you play as a cross dressing twink femdomed by two different women ending and the final boss against the gayest angel of all time
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
darylbaxter.com
Awful.
old.reddit.com/r/GamingLeak...
Rockstar Games Employee posts about recent union-busting efforts (verified by GTAForums Mod)
Link to comment: https://gtaforums.com/topic/1004182-rockstar-games-alleged-union-busting/?do=findComment&comment=1072605777 Text: > Hey...
old.reddit.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.”

Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability and quality of life.

Common sense.

Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.
Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:31 AM
cinquemani.it
You know what's funny? You never hear a AAA company say "we will innovate by scoping projects in smart ways, with small, lean teams, with minimal churn in order to build institutional knowledge". Nope, still horribly inefficient giants teams full of middle managers but with AI slop on top now.
October 24, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
seamus.bsky.social
Itagaki Tomonobu
Here was a guy who wore sunglasses at night— indoors— who wore at a minimum 87% black leather and always an obscure metal band t-shirt; a fit, razor-thin guy whose intense, brooding stare could cause brave men to flee and satellites to de-orbit. He looked like a dark anime character come to life, complete with a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his menacing grin, and it took no imagination at all to worry he had a diamond sharp katana ready at any time to separate the head and body of the poor programmer who missed a half millisecond of timing on a block controller. There was no detail of game design or mechanic that escaped him, no ambiguity in his vision of tightness and quality in the feel of a control or the animation of a character. He was the embodiment of the ideal of the hardest edge of combat design, utterly uncompromising and ruthless. Also, he was the quickest to break a smile, always ready to make a stupid joke, the first ask after your loved ones and to be sure you were well, the very best of friends, the very kindest of fathers, and a very great human being who I very much fear we will not see the like of again anytime soon. I will miss him gravely.
October 17, 2025 at 8:56 PM
cinquemani.it
I can do better: "Pivot: extraction shooter"
impavid.us 🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · Oct 9
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
October 12, 2025 at 8:33 PM
cinquemani.it
Hot take. Maybe Ireland could instead... I don't know... stop being a tax haven? That would do more good than giving UBI to 2000 artists.
mikeachim.bsky.social Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · Oct 6
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
October 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
cinquemani.it
Same day Avalanche, Funcom and Starbreeze announced layoffs.

The Stockholm game dev industry is being gutted.
October 2, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
thewaroncars.bsky.social
This machine fights fascists.
wutangforchildren.bsky.social WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · Sep 29
ICE Nazis in Chicago tried to kidnap a food delivery worker but my man was too fast for those slow bastards
September 29, 2025 at 1:46 PM
cinquemani.it
Death Stranding 2 (2025) - Written by Hideo Kojima, Directed by Hideo Kojima, Game Designed by Hideo Kojima
September 24, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
schillingc.bsky.social
An extremely important petition. #FreePoinpy www.change.org/p/free-poinpy
Signez la pétition
FREE POINPY
www.change.org
September 21, 2025 at 7:58 PM
cinquemani.it
In There's Nothing Underground any static element of a level can be made movable with the right tool.

#indiegame #indiedev #TNU
September 21, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
lukeplunkett.com
probably the realest thing ive ever seen posted on that website
Happy Friday everybody! I don't know why, but I feel like spilling the tea this morning, so here are some hard truths about the game industry. A lot of people who got into the industry early were terrible game developers. This shouldn't surprise people, but we used to look at numbers in the early 00's like half of all people rolling out of the game industry in the first three years as though all of those people were qualified. Hiring in this industry has almost always been untrained amateurs looking for people they like and who remind them of people they know. Most interviewers decide in the first five minutes whether they think you're worth hiring. Even the people who get training in how to interview almost never get coaching on how they do it, or real feedback on the success of their techniques. As a result, a lot of people walked in the door unqualified to do the job they were hired to do. Some of them survived for multiple cycles. Some of those were even promoted to leadership positions. There was a lot of nepotism involved - if you were friends with / had worked with the head of studio, department director, etc., then you were a known quantity and better than having to go out and find someone. Combine this with the prestige halo that comes from branding, and you have real problems. People tend to ascribe god-like powers to successful game studios - EA back in its heyday, Blizzard, BioWare. People who worked on hit games at big / known studios carried a ton of prestige - regardless of what they actually did. It's easy to say "I worked at Blizzard", and what that meant was not that you were part and parcel of the magic that made those games awesome, but simply that you were employed there; it takes hundreds, if not thousands, of people to make AAA games, and I promise you that inside every large, successful studio, there is a cadre of fuck-ups that no one has the heart, willpower, or political pull to get rid of. I've fired people with over a decade of expe…
September 20, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
migueldeicaza.bsky.social
A friend reminded me about this tweet, and I wanted to share it with you folks.

I should pick up this series.
Today in Illustrated Industry Lessons with Miguel: Data Driven Development. On the left, a Spanish Paella prepared by a traditional cook. On the right, a data-driven optimized version of the same Spanish Paella:
September 19, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
tapirfortuna.bsky.social
40 years ago, Nintendo released what they thought would be the final statement for Famicom-carts. What they really released was a game that influenced and changed its medium like only few others ever did. A visionary game, still most entertaining so much later. Happy Birthday, #SuperMarioBros.!
A collection of Super Mario Bros. games - NES, NES small box, Famicom Disk System, Gme Boy Advance and of course the Famicom original.
September 13, 2025 at 6:53 AM
cinquemani.it
As someone who worked on Helldivers 2 this whole ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️ thing is surreal. It's like some sort of postmodern Helter Skelter
September 12, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Ferruccio Cinquemani
rossignol.bsky.social
No amount of money is worth that CEO dinner table clip. Genuinely embarrassing to watch. Why be wealthy if you have to be so completely humiliated? Pathetic.
September 9, 2025 at 10:10 AM