Hole in the Sleeve Game Studios

JFDP Labs / 49View

In parallel with my experience in the game industry I've bootstrapped a few companies which had one simple rule at the core:
            
"Make something technically so advanced (and beautiful) that's impossible to copy".
            
In 2010 we were the only company doing real-time camera effects on mobile phones, the following year we applied the same tech to video productions, note that at the time the iPhone didn't even have an option to record videos.

          
With that tech, we've created Paper Camera and Paper Artist apps, preinstalled on 100m Samsung devices from 2012 to 2015.
Paper Camera sold more than 5 million copies in paid downloads, a big feat at the time.
          
We've had deals with Samsung, Google, Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, and a plethora of telecom companies and app stores.
          
In 2012 we've received a buyout offer from Facebook, which we declined in order to keep our company and vision independent.

All coding, design and tech have been done in-house.
We develop 100% of our tech, we do not rely on 3rd party.
          
Since 2016 we have specialised in high-end front/back-end systems for architectural visualisation, using AR/VR proprietary tech, called 49view.

CEO, Founder

Criterion Games

Joined as Criterion Games were just acquired by EA, starting as Graphics Programmer on "Black", a technically impressive PS2 video game. Also helped with Burnout Revenge, the successor of the immensely popular Burnout 3: Takedown.
I've helped make the graphic engine run super fast and look beautiful, we've achieved 60fps throughout the game, which featured some very complex scenes and a huge poly-count.
          
          
The next game was "Burnout Paradise", for many considered the best and first open-world true racing game.
I've modelled the rendering and material system of the graphic engine, low-level C++/assembly and PS3/Xbox programming.
          
          
After Burnout Paradise I've taken the lead of the internal graphics team. We've been working on supporting the "year of paradise" updates, and kickstarting what it will become Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
          
          
For "Need for Speed" I've taken a slightly more managerial role, taking care of developing an internal game tracking system, HTML based with PHP, which at the time was a very popular choice for web applications. I left EA halfway through development to bootstrap my first company.

Senior/Lead Software Engineer

Kuju Entertainment

Contractor work for "Rail Simulator", a very popular train simulator game at the time.

I've worked on procedural track generation for the rail network.

Senior Software Engineer

Steel Monkeys

Graphics pipeline work for console port (PS2) of "Corvette" series. 
Prototype work on "2 Days to Vegas"

Psygnosis/ Sony Playstation Europe

My first real experience in the AAA video games world. Joined as a graphics programmer on "Wipeout Fusion", the first PS2 version of their legendary title: Wipeout.
I've looked after all the special effects and optimisation for the PS2 hardware, going very very deep down to the metal.
          
          
After Wipeout I helped the other studio team finish "F1 2002" game, the official Formula 1 game, a sport very popular in Europe.
Again, I was taking care of graphics and special effects, low-level coding and optimisations.
          
          
We then moved to a few years of cancelled titles doing mostly R&D, we've developed half a dozen game concepts that never achieved the green light, unfortunately.

Software Engineer, Graphics

Prograph research

Once one of the most promising startups in Italy, my first "real" paid job, worked as a programmer for "Tsunami 2265", we worked very early with Maya and Vicon8 mocap system, writing all the animation and graphics pipeline.

ImagineAction

Software Engineer

Mamoledia

Engineering Apprentice

Feltrinelli

Student

Started coding in 1982, 40 years later I'm still coding.
Mainly videogames, my passion.

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