Future’s a game as Nicola’s incredible journey across Europe pays off

WHEN Nicola Valcasara faced nothing but dead-end jobs in his home-town of Verona, he went on an incredible journey which ended on the doorstep of one of the world’s biggest companies.

The ambitious Italian rode almost 2000 miles through Italy, France and the UK on his Honda motorbike to  seek his fortune.

Nicola , aged 26, of Lowerstoft Close, south east London,  said: “I was delivering pizzas in Italy and working in an amusement park, anything to get by really, but then I found myself out of work for a year …

“I’d always had the ambition to work in the games industry but there are no real opportunities anywhere in Italy. I’d spent months applying to companies but got no response.

“I couldn’t see any future at home and one day I just jumped on my motorbike and rode off into the night with my heart set on finding work.”

After five days of travelling across Europe Nicola finally arrived in London. “It wasn’t that I believed the streets were paved with gold but I knew it was a major centre for the games industry and that’s all I wanted to get in to.”

David Cameron has made the video games and apps industry one of his main focuses of the UK’s economic recovery offering major tax breaks to companies offering new jobs and opportunities to talented people and financial support to major organisations.

But Nicola’s arrival in the capital was a nightmare – within 24 hours a gang tried to steal his motorbike and a few days later he was conned out of £300 by a company which promised to get him into the games industry.

“It was terrible, I’d parked my bike in the street and five men tried to steal it – the police woke me up at 3am. The next blow was meeting up with a man who convinced me that his firm could teach me what I needed to know to realise my techy ambitions. They ripped me off. I was pretty despondent.”

“I didn’t know he was in the competition. When he told us he had won we were in shock. He’s a very quiet guy, then out of nowhere he told us he had won £10,000”, head chef Sandro Jaupi

But within ten days Nicola had found himself a job as a chef in one of London’s top restaurants.

“Things were looking up and I have always enjoyed cooking – but it still wasn’t what I was looking for. I knew Microsoft’s London offices weren’t far from where I was working and I’d always wanted the chance to prove my abilities to them in particular. It was like I was standing on the doorstep of a dream.”

Nicola started burning the midnight oil in a bid to break in to the games industry. “I used my wages to pay for aTrain2Game course, one of the biggest training colleges in the UK, and right away I began making games and apps.”

Nicola coaching Andrew Weber, Microsoft, at Le Mercury {deuxiéme}

It was then he entered the national Rapid2D development competition to find the best apps created for Microsoft’s Windows 8.  Nicola was amazed to hear he’d won the top prize of £10,000. Part of the prize was to see his work go up on line, a visit to Microsoft’s new centre in London and to receive mentoring from Gurus.

“I can’t believe it – it was worth that incredible journey through the nights on a motorbike from Italy.  Now I have money in the bank, I’m learning to build games which is my real ambition and I’ve got an introduction to Microsoft. I feel like I’m really on top of life.”

Dr. Jan Telensky senior JV of Train2Game where Nicola is learning said: “We think Nicola has done really well and what a journey he went on to get here. We wish him all the best. This really is an exciting time to get into the    industry, particularly with the Government tax breaks and the support of major organisations. Our students are becoming main players in games design.”

Sandro Jaupi, head chef (Nicola’s boss)

How do you feel about Nicola winning?

Absolutely amazing,

He has worked for us for around 5 months.

He really likes gaming; all he talks about is gaming in the kitchen.

He works in the kitchen for a job but his heart is set on making games, this is like a dream come true for him.

BioWare has explained the recent spate of Star Wars: The Old Republic bans – and promised to adjust areas players are exploiting.

Last week a number of players were banned from playing the sci-fi MMO for looting containers in planet Ilum at too low a level – a move that sparked outrage from the game’s community.

Read the full article here:

Source: Wesley Yin-Poole

Via Eurogamer

The long-running dispute between Bethesda Softworks and Interplay over the proposed MMOG Fallout Online has apparently come to an end after the parties reached a settlement.

Duck And Cover reports that a settlement was reached on the day of the trial itself; after lunch, the courtroom was locked to everyone but attorneys and clients because those inside were working towards a deal.

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Source: Nathan Brown

Via Edge

Modern Warfare 3 earned $1 billion in sales in 16 days, proving the series has become an influential force in American entertainment. It sold millions of copies in its first day of release, and the sales of content packs have only just begun; the game is going to have legs at retail. But it hasn’t been without a bit of controversy. The Atlantic recently ran a story claiming the game’s television commercial “sunk to new lows,” but the problem isn’t the fact the live-action commercial cheapens war, it’s that the commercial accurately depicts an immensely popular game.

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Source: Ben Kuchera

Via Ars Technica

The most pirated PC game of 2011 wasn’t Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 or Skyrim – it was Crysis 2.

Specialist site TorrentFreak estimated, using several sources of data, that Crysis 2 was downloaded illegally nearly 4 million times (3.92 million).

Modern Warfare 3 was the second most pirated PC game, having been downloaded 3.65 million times. Battlefield 3 was third, with an illegal download count of 3.51 million.

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Source: Robert Purchese

Via Eurogamer

For the first time in a single week, more than a billion apps have been downloaded, according to a study.

Analytics firm Flurry said 1.2 billion apps were downloaded in the last week of December.

Activity was buoyed by the facts that many users received new devices for Christmas and firms offered discounted apps over the holiday period.

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Via the BBC

EA’s ‘FIFA 12’ finishes first for the final week of the year fending off three threequels in the shape of Activision Blizzard’s ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ at No2, EA again with ‘Battlefield 3’ at No3 and Ubisoft’s ‘Just Dance 3’ at No4. This marks the second year in a row that FIFA has had the final week at the top and FIFA 12 has now scored 4 No1s so far, tying with FIFA 11 and FIFA 10.

The rest of the top ten are also at least the third iteration of a title’s series with Ubisoft’s fourth installment of the popular assassin adventure game ‘Assassin’s Creed: Revelations’ holding on to No5 ahead of another non-mover, THQ’s ‘Saints Row: The Third’, at No6.

The next two titles are also holding fast with EA’s third title in the top 10 ‘Need for Speed: The Run’ and Bethesda’s Christmas No1 ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ at No7 and No8 respectively.

Two very different racers have fought their way back into the top 10 with Nintendo’s ‘Mario Kart 7’ at No9 and Microsoft’s ‘Forza Motorsport 4’ at No10.

As it’s the last week in the year it comes as no surprise that there were no new releases in the Top 40 this week.

Top 20 Entertainment Software (All Prices), Week Ending 31 December 2011

1. FIFA 12 – ELECTRONIC ARTS
2. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 – ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
3. BATTLEFIELD 3 – ELECTRONIC ARTS
4. JUST DANCE 3 – UBISOFT
5. ASSASSIN’S CREED: REVELATIONS – UBISOFT
6. SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD – THQ
7. NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN – ELECTRONIC ARTS
8. THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM – BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
9. MARIO KART 7 – NINTENDO
10. FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 – MICROSOFT
11. MARIO & SONIC LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES – SEGA
12. RAGE – BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
13. WWE ’12 – THQ
14. SUPER MARIO 3D LAND – NINTENDO
15. SONIC GENERATIONS – SEGA
16. KINECT SPORTS: SEASON TWO – MICROSOFT
17. KINECT SPORTS – MICROSOFT
18. RAYMAN ORIGINS – UBISOFT
19. ZUMBA FITNESS – 505 GAMES
20. F1 2011 – CODEMASTERS

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Via UKIE

Anonymous, the notorious online anarchist group, has released a video stating its intention to attack Sony over its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act.

In the video, posted on YouTube on December 28, the group said that Sony had signed its own death warrant by supporting the controversial American act.

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Source: Rachel Weber

Via Games Industry

Atari has reportedly been applying legal pressure to developers which it believes are infringing on its intellectual property rights, despite the developers affected claiming that attempts had been made on their part to reach an agreement.

Black Powder Media, which created iPhone title Vector Tanks, has had the game removed from the App Store by Apple after complaints by Atari, claiming that the veteran publisher’s ‘special relationship’ with the platform holder meant that it received preferential treatment.

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Source: Dan Pearson

Via Games Industry

The early success of Bioware and EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is an indication of a healthy market for subscription based MMOs, according to analysts monitoring the high-profile release.

Electronic Arts said over the Christmas period that more than one million users had registered for the game, which officially went live on December 20, although it had steadily rolled out early access to the game beginning two weeks before that.

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Source: Matt Martin

Via Games Industry