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- Israeli Indie #8 - Space Cats Tactics
Israeli Indie #8 - Space Cats Tactics
From a one-man dream to a full Steam release—Alex Nicola (Mitzi Games) tells the tail of how he turned Space Cats Tactics from a purr-sonal passion project into reality, and shares the lessons he learned along the way.
Alex NicolaDuring the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in June 2020, Alex Nicola - an Israeli game developer living in Amsterdam and working in the AAA industry - launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for a passion project he’d been building for over four years: Space Cats Tactics. He set out to raise €10,000 and surpassed that goal within a month. Three years later, on July 24, 2023, the game was officially released. |  |
Originally from the Krayot near Haifa, Alex has already fulfilled more than a few dreams: graduating from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, working in the AAA industry and specifically working on his favorite childhood games at Blizzard Entertainment, and ultimately releasing his own indie game to the world.
Over the years, he worked on some of the world’s biggest game franchises, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Horizon: Forbidden West. Recently, he made the decision to return home, to Israel. We sat down with Alex for an insightful talk about his incredible journey where he shared a lot of advice for other game developers from his experience. |  Alex next to the orc statue at Blizzard's office campus in Irvine, California |
How did your game development journey start?
“I was passionate about games since the DOS days where I would play Dangerous Dave. When I was a kid, I loved playing StarCraft and I played around in the map editor. I got to know it and saw that you can make your own levels and scenarios. I was thrilled and that was my introduction to programming in general. I then learned to code through a book I bought, and continued studying it in highschool and university. But it definitely started with games releasing their level editor was the thing that got me hooked on that great feeling.”