
In this special episode, Itamar Rogel, Affogata's CPO & Co-founder was the host and he interviewed Rob Gallerani, Senior Principal Game Designer at Activision Blizzard.
Rob is an industry veteran of over 20 years. He has shipped a wide range of franchises including Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, and Skylanders. He was the design lead on the Warmind expansion of Destiny 2 and led the puzzle team on the Black Armory expansion. Rob is a Principal Designer at Vicarious Visions, the developers that just recently shipped the award-winning Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2. His last role was as Game Director on Diablo 2 Resurrected.
Outside of digital games, Rob designed Charmed and Dangerous, a crowd-funded card game. He also runs homebrew tabletop games and ARGs that he can’t tell you about. When he’s not designing games, he occupies his time with blacksmithing, running obstacle courses, and spending time with his amazing wife and two daughters.
A quick snapshot of what you'll listen to on this podcast:
1. Minute 4:00 - Rob shares with us how he got into the games industry, his design background and his experience of 15+ at Activision Blizzard.
2. Minute 14:43 - We asked Rob how he collects player feedback even before launching a game and how to make a game fun according to your audience.
3. Minute 23:02 - The impact of adding or removing mechanics to a game on the player experience and a special emphasis on Diablo 2 Resurrected.
4. Minute 27:47 - We asked Rob how's the process of listening to players, respecting the feedback, respecting the community, but also, figuring out how to create something new out of it without disappointing the fans and he shared his insights.
5. Minute 41:11 - Rob shares his input on how perception is everything in a game and how Game Studios can use this when analyzing player feedback.
6. Minute 47:57 - Rob and Itamar discuss the differences between single-player and multi-player games nowadays and why people feel so connected to multiplayer games and why they find these games fun.
7. Minute 51:01 - Rob shares with us amazing insights on his top 3 player insights that he remembers made the biggest impact on the games he was part of.
8. Minute 55:36 - you don't want to miss what Rob answered when we asked him what would be a dream insight he could get from players.