JOIN USI enjoy simplicity in the games I create'
Roberta Saliani left her home town of Bari, in Puglia, Italy, when she was 17, having grown frustrated at the way women “who preferred to focus on a career rather than a marriage” were treated.
Seven days after she landed in London, Saliani joined Babel Media, a company that specialises in translating video games into and out of foreign languages.
“I’m a pragmatic person,” she says. “I don’t get excited or daydream or really give myself the time to think about what I’m doing too much: I just rapidly jump into action. So that’s what I did.”
The gamble paid off.
“I still remember my first day,” she says. “People were bubbly and seemed excited to be at work. There was brightly coloured hair, lots of smiles, tattoos, and there was art on the walls.
“Coming from Italy, where most professions required a suit, it was infatuating. The video game industry felt like a large family.”
Saliani taught herself to make games in Unity, one of the most popular game-making programmes available today.
“The first game I made was called Freq//, an experiment that I undertook to learn how to mix sound frequencies with visuals and game design.”
In the game, players assume the role of a cube, exploring the world by climbing and jumping over platforms that are moved by sound frequencies.
“I did make some games before that when I was much younger,” she says. “But they were all carbon copies of classic Amiga games from the 1990s. I’d take a game and add in my enemies.”
After a stint working at EA, one of the largest video game publishers in the world, Saliani co-founded Just A Pixel with her partner, Danny Goodayle, in February 2014. The digital agency and game studio, which is based in Brighton, won the TIGA games industry award for best new startup later that same year.
Just A Pixel’s games to date are crisp and minimalist. “I tend to enjoy pursuing simplicity in the games I create,” says Saliani. “I obsess over small details.
For Saliani, the challenge of building a successful small business is just as compelling as the design challenges the studio encounters. “This may be boring to most people, but I love learning about how people solve problems in their businesses as they grow,” she says.