“The constraints of the game force you to explore and be creative, and that’s good.”
I want someone who really, really loves and hates things, and gives you reasons why.
Its matched by a competitiveness that first emerged in Warhammer 40,000 tournaments as a teen.
I was kind of a little shit back then, he says.
And I actually really liked that.
Giovannettis parents vetoed Dungeons & Dragons on the grounds of leftover Satanic Panic nonsense.
And so a potential avenue of cooperative gaming was shut off in favour of further competition.
Giovannetti fell hard for Magic: The Gathering, and then Richard Garfields follow-up Cyberpunk card game, Netrunner.
Theres a lot more complexity and room for decisions to matter when youre playing Netrunner, he says.
Netrunner added a layer of bluffing and secret agendas, and so reading people became another skill to master.
Those discussions culminated in a strategy-focused fansite and forums,StimHack, which still runs today.
Giovannetti and Yano met at college, where they made an ambitiousIkaruga-alike in Adobe Flash that was hot trash.
Then, following a hiatus, came Slay The Spire.
Armed with a design document, the pair quit their jobs.
Joining an established game studio didnt appeal to two young men with strong opinions.
Despite the tournament background, Giovannetti and Yano decided not to court the world of competitivemultiplayer.
Picking a fight with life-swallowing hobbies like Magic or Hearthstone seemed like a fools game.
The next brainwave was to splice cards with the roguelite genre exemplified bySpelunky,Dead CellsandFTL.
My favourite thing in Magic was drafting, Giovannetti says.
You sit down, you dont have a deck already, and you draft cards to build your deck.
The roguelike framework gives you an excuse to always be drafting.
Its a good mechanical justification for why you dont always have the same deck.
Youre just playing the meta until the next patch or expansion, Giovannetti says.
And thats fine, thats fun.
But I dont think thats card games at their best, for me.
The constraints of the game force you to explore and be creative, and thats good, Giovannetti says.
You see some new players say, Why cant I just pick the cards I want?
And you would always do the same thing.
There would be no actual interest.
Youd play the game once and then youd be bored of it.
It made a lot of sense and tied everything together, Giovannetti says.
It gave the player perfect information, and expanded the strategy space a lot.
As a player, Giovannetti likes to be informed.
As these ideas began to coalesce, Mega Crit found that Slay The Spire wasintensely replayable.
But it was also a gruelling period, in which 80+ hour work weeks became the norm.
We were doing weekly updates, which is kind of insane, Giovannetti says.
Im glad we did it, but I dont know that I want to do that intensity again.
You kind of feel like you’re grinding up your soul to make something really amazing.
Its an intriguing choice of simile.
Baked into the game is the belief that great achievements come with terrible sacrifice.
Though Mega Crit had avoided going toe-to-toe with Hearthstone, it transpired theyd made a hobby game after all.
In Slay The Spire, we have no narrative, Giovannetti points out.
Probably that appeals to the kind of people who get into game design.
Its surreal, Giovannetti says.
Its nothing I could have expected.
Im happy about it, but it always hits kinda weird, I still havent gotten used to it.
I dont want it to go to my head and be insufferable.
Still, he cant help but have strong opinions.
I make a run at play most of them, he says.
And Im like, Why?
We showed you why this was best!
But its always interesting to see how things evolve.
I could see myself working on that, he says.
I think it would be a lot of fun, to be honest.
As Mega Crits staff gently grows into double figures, they’re still adjusting to new relationship dynamics.
Were good friends, we think alike, the communication is perfect.
And we have no problems telling each other that an idea sucks and we should throw it away.
Maybe thats something Ill do in my future, he says.
Im not opposed to something like that at all.
For now, the plan is to keep Mega Crit small for their next project.
Because as Giovannetti puts it, management is really hard.
I think Im good at game design, he says.
Im maybe an OK manager.
Its not my competitive advantage.
