Hi everyone. I'm Marco "Iz" Valtriani - Izraphael is an old nickname from an older musical project - and I am a game designer. I'm also an advertiser and graphic designer.
After a short experience as an amateur self-publisher, which left me really disappointed and unsatisfied, I designed a couple games "on demand": Fiume di Parole, made for some italian schools, and La Grande Opera, an eurogame made for the "Ideal Museum" a museum showing the works and the art of Leonardo da Vinci. In 2011, Scribabs published my first "gamer's game": 011.
From 2008 to 2011, I was the president and the "mind" behind Creatori di Divertimento (ital. "Fun Makers"), an association of game designers, illustrators, and workers of the "gaming world", focusing on "luding culture"; the association, that is well-known in italian gaming community, works to help luding operators, to organize events and fairs. In 2011 I left the head of the association to avoid any conflict of interests, focusing my activities on the creation of games.
At the moment, I'm working on the first 011 expansion, on a couple "on demand" projects, two boardgames (now and then, to be honest), and with my wife to a storytelling game (born as a forge-RPG, then changed to something different). Sometimes, I write articles (usually focusing on game design, terminology and taxonomy of board games) for gioconomicon.net, maybe the the italian most preeminent informative site about games. Yes, they are a lot of projects, but I try to organize time to manage everything... at least unless my wife and my child force me sleep :)
I have been lurking for a while, now I think it's time to get out from the mist...
Well, I think that's all for now... and sorry for my bad english!
Well, thanks, but I don't consider myself "so" experienced.
For sure I consider me a "technical" designer: I enjoy theory, I like to disassemble games to see how they work, and I approach game design in a professional way. But that is what many people do :)
Anyway, I'm here to read, write and discuss.
I found a lot of interesting points on this site (and I agree with a lot of them), I really like the kind of discussions you have here, the way you tackle them, and I hope to be able to give back some ideas to you all, and to contribute someway to the community.
PS: thanks also for the comment on 011. The gear system is just a Gerdts' Rondel on steroids :)
The plot of the game (the story I had to follow while designing it) was really weird and intricate, I had to put inside the game a lot of things, and so I was needing a mechanism able to give multiple responses (movement, action, avaiable machines) in a single hit. I know the game is a bit fiddly, but all in all I like the final result... and Paolo's artwork is great!
PS#2: there's a way to include a signature? my real name somewhere?