Farewell Stefano. We’ll See You In Heaven

Six years on this blog, over 200 articles published and I will have never wanted to write this one … Stefano passed away yesterday, at the age of 45. For those a you that didn’t have the luck to meet him (in person or over the Net), Stefano was a Teacher and an Artist. As an old Amiga fan, he always had a dream: to publish a game inspired by those old point ‘n click adventures he loved so much.

I was introduced to Stefano at the beginning of 2014 when he was looking for a programmer able to turn his dream into reality. That dream was called “The Secret of Middle City” and many had failed him before, making promises that they never kept. I decided this was not the case anymore. And so, in a matter of days, we went well beyond the classic “employer-employee” relationship and we became good friends. Making that dream alive was not an easy task: I spent over 2.000 hours of coding, survived a couple of hardware crashes and almost lost the entire work (thank God for back-ups), but Stefano was always a true inspirator and an excellent motivator. He pushed me well beyond my limits as a programmer and, after almost a year and a half, we finally published the game.

In a world where the only motivations are often fame and greed, we did what we did out of love and passion for our work. Stefano was an Artist, and working on his art for so many months turned me into a better person. I looked at those graphics assets so closely and for such a long time that I know them by heart. Yet, every time I go back to them, they keep surprising me for their beauty. Where now everything is just digitally generated, he provided a work that was completely hand-drawn. Working with him was a privilege and an honor, also because we actually joined together developing new assets for the game that were originally not present.

Now, 5 years later, Stefano is gone. In a way, it’s like I lost a brother. For sure, the world lost a true Artist, one of the few that did things because he loved them. I don’t know how things will turn out from now on, but one thing I know for sure: I will do everything I can to keep his dream alive.

So long my Friend. I will miss you forever.