Developer Journal

Included below is an intimate look at one of the games key developers, and their account of making RIOT.

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A peculiar development journal

I’ve always been intrigued by the separation between gamers and programmers. Press releases are usually created by marketing and communication teams and not by the techies who usually have other things to think about (typically, finishing the game). This way, the truest stories regarding the development process often get lost. Stories that might leave an impression on those who will take the time to read them. Stories that go beyond the noise and promotion of a game.

Three years ago, I was offered the possibility of taking over the work started and abandoned by others on Riot. A game on uprisings, police against demonstrators, telling a crude reality that is not always shown to us in its entirety. A thorny subject with topics difficult to digest and delicate to handle. But moreover, an enormous project that three teams of programmers in two years had not been able to complete. What’s more, I was tasked to finish the project, more or less, by myself! Luckily, I was crazy enough to accept.

Three years ago, at the same time, the illness of my father began. Advanced stage pancreatic cancer, inoperable. An estimated life expectancy of one year, in the best of cases, with the best cures. I had to take a rapid decision, and not an easy one. would I be able to manage the most complicated project of my life in the most difficult moment of my life?

It is with this premise that my personal story with Riot begins. In this context that I decided to restart programming the project from zero, scrapping all the previous work done on the game, much of it incomplete and obsolete by time I joined the team. My predecessors, faced a number of technical difficulties far above any expectation.

Now, three years of development to finally come to the end - 1,221,330 lines of code later, RIOT – Civil Unrest has launched into Early Access. It has been a war fought against myself, against the urge to surrender in front of that enormous amount of work, rewriting the physics, the rendering, the animation system, audio managements, artificial intelligence and a lot more: everything in Riot has technically gone beyond the original capacities of the Engine, becoming something unique.

Is Riot a game? This, I don’t know. I do know that it’s something alive, organic, that some of you will love, others will find insignificant, others confused, or violent. The most cherished comments came from those who lived these events for real and, upon trying the game at fairs, told us the game was extremely realistic. The way I see it, if it succeeds in making gamers question what’s happening in certain areas of the world, if it stimulates them to get informed independently, it will be, for me, a complete victory. I developed the game with a clear idea in mind: both factions are made by people, people with their ideas, there for something they believe in. There are just a few brutes, on both sides- But during a riot even a little spark of violence can become uncontrollable. It is this sensation that I hope you will have all while playing: that sometimes violence seems like the only possible answer, but the more you use it, the more you will lose control of the situation. Until you regret having used it in the first place.

I have fought my own long and silent battle to reach this result, and have had the honour of assisting my father with a different battle every day upon returning home from work. A battle that he could not win, but that he fought until the very last day with strength and pride. His “estimated” year of life became almost two thanks to his sheer willpower, fighting inch by inch against a merciless disease. It is also thanks to his strength, which I had as an example before me, that today I can offer this experience to you. An experience that, though tough and a bit rough around the edges, you won’t find anywhere else. Give it a chance, and if you won’t like it I hope that Riot continues to grow and improve according to your suggestions.

I would like to take a chance to say thank you to all the colleagues that made the game possible:

• Leonard Menchiari, author of the game and of all the unthinkable amount of design produced to achieve it.

• Fabrizio Zagaglia, the best programmer in the world, who collaborated with me during the last year to conclude this titanic endeavour.

• Michele Postpischl, who on his own recreated the audio of the riots in a masterful way.

• Ivan Venturi, the producer who made possible an impossible project.

• The team at Merge Games (Luke, Nick, James and Ben), who believed in the game supporting its development well over the standard duties of a publisher.

And to all the people who believed in the project.

Thank you.

Trigghy