n 2002, a group of five Italians made the local news: they were going to be the first company in the country to develop a game for Nintendo’s popular portable, the Game Boy Advance. The cadre pulled together a few hundred euros and some computers to prepare for the project. They had no experience making games. They didn’t even have a programmer. All they had was a love for video games, a shared hatred of working for bosses, and endless optimism.
The game begins by asking the player to choose between its two protagonists – a warrior and a priestess. The warrior can use a sword to kill his enemies, and there are a lot of them. I died repeatedly in that first level. Armour-clad skulls abound, and they revive after a short while. You can’t let your guard down in Kien, which may be why Belsanti likens it to a primordial Dark Souls.
As Kien languished in development limbo, the company Belsanti founded, AgeOfGames, had to find a way to survive. “The capitalist system is a ruthless meat grinder,” he says, “to which I have adapted out of necessity, but I do not like it.” The company found a niche in educational games. One of their biggest successes so far has been ScacciaRischi, a platforming game developed for Italy’s INAIL, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping people prevent injury and disease at work.