Celso Riva (born c. 1974) is an Italian
independent video game designer of several critically acclaimed games, including ''The Goalkeeper'', ''Universal Boxing Manager'', ''
Magic Stones
{{Notability, Products, date=March 2011
''Magic Stones'' is a video game based on Celtic mythology and is a mix between a role-playing video game and a card game. It was developed by Winter Wolves and was released as shareware for the Macintosh a ...
'', the ''
Heileen
''Heileen'' is a visual novel video game series developed and published by the Italian studio Tycoon Games for the Android, Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows platforms. The first game ''Heileen: Sail Away'' (also known as ''Heileen: Sail to the ...
'' and ''
Vera Blanc
''Vera Blanc'' is an Italian mystery visual novel video game series for the Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows platforms, with art in the comic style. The games were developed and published by Winter Wolves. The first game ''Vera B ...
'' series, ''
Bionic Heart'', and the ''
Loren the Amazon Princess''.
Life and game design career
At the age of twenty, Riva began his career, designing small-scale games for the Italian market. He took a seven-year sabbatical until 2003, when he discovered the
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
distribution model and created the
sports management video game ''Universal Soccer Manager'' using
BlitzBasic
Blitz BASIC is the programming language dialect of the first Blitz compilers, devised by New Zealand-based developer Mark Sibly. Being derived from BASIC, Blitz syntax was designed to be easy to pick up for beginners first learning to program. Th ...
.
He moved to C/C++ language and published 10 more games under the Winter Wolves label, then opened a new company, Tycoon Games, on which he has published 6 games: the space war game ''Supernova 2: Spacewar'', the
dating sim
Dating sims, or , are video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements.
Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and maintain a relationship with one or more ...
game ''Summer Session'', the
visual novels ''Heileen'' and ''
Bionic Heart'', ''College Romance: Rise Of The Little Brother'', and ''Spirited Heart''. For the games ''Summer Session'' and ''Heileen'', he moved away from C/C++ to embrace
Python programming language and in particular the tool
Ren'Py.
The stories of
The Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook and
The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook were written by
Ayu Sakata from
sakevisual
Sakevisual (stylized as sakevisual) is a developer and publisher of interactive story games such as visual novels and otome games, well known for their otome game ''RE: Alistair++''. Their games are for Windows, macOS and Linux. ''Sakevisual'' ...
. Starting from 2020, some of his games were ported and published to consoles by Ratalaika Games.
Awards
In 2004, both his games ''The Goalkeeper'' and ''Universal Boxing Manager'' were nominated among the 5 top Sports Games of the Year
2004 Sports Games of the Year Awards
by the online magazine Gametunnel. In the 2011 Best Ofs from VNs Now!, ''Winter Wolves'' was named "Studio/EVN Circle of the Year".
Games
References
Interviews
In The Company of Wolves: Celso Riva Interview
from rockpapershotgun.com
Interview
from gamesetwatch.com
Interview
from pig-min
Interview
from Indie Superstar
External links
Winter Wolves computer games sitegames forumhis personal blogthe games videos on YouTube
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riva, Celso
Video game programmers
Living people
1974 births