Vincenzo Striano talks about plastic misuse and how he aims to reduce its impact on the world through his game

Vincenzo Striano is the founder of Legacy Studio. He strongly believes that we need to act on a war footing to make sure that our planet is saved from the menace of plastic misuse and overuse. In order to raise awareness about the impact of plastic on our planet, he created a game Octopus which not only gives a pleasant gaming experience but at the same time helps in raising awareness about the impact of plastic on our oceans and thereby our planet. We got a chance to interact with him.

Vincenzo, thank you for talking with us. Designing a game can be considered as art work. Do you consider yourself an artist or an Entrepreneur?

I consider myself an artist realizing something people can appreciate, like painters or musicians. In my case, I create work you can live in the first person.
This is not my job yet, but my greatest passion and my dream since childhood and I hope to make it come true soon.

What were the initial challenges that you faced in launching Legacy Studio?

The challenges were incessant. Your creations are always part of you, maybe a little part, but significant. And you hope as many people as possible can appreciate them.
Perhaps, the hardest challenge is to get noticed by people. Each of my videogames, actually, is like a part of me screaming: “Hey, I’m here too!”

Why and when did you decide to launch Legacy Studio?

Legacy studio was born after years of attempts and defeats. Once upon a time, there was a community of gamers who appreciated the simple games I created.
Over time, my experience grew along with the quality of my works. Then I decided to gather my attempts, experiences, and failures in one name: Legacy Studio.

It is generally believed that games have nothing positive to offer in our society. However, we know that you have actively used games as a medium to bring positive changes in the way we use plastic, which by the way is causing great harm to our planet. Please tell us more about your initiative.

I think that, when people feel guilty about something bad occurring in the world, many just look away and hope things will get better on their own. Others believe to have their hands tied and not to be able to change anything, so they give up.
But the situation is changing. Every day we can see thousands of images demonstrating what is the problem, and more and more people are caring about that and crave to act. With Octopus I wish to give hope to these people.
I want to narrate the problem of plastic in a new way, artistic, fun, but at the same time hard and true.
Octopus is just the first root, there are many campaigns we want to grow to eliminate as much plastic as possible in every sector.
Our hope is that Octopus will be used with an eye on the education of children, to communicate them how much the safeguard of our planet can be funny and satisfying.

What are some of the biggest challenges that we are facing in this world and how can individuals with limited resources make a difference?

Make yourself heard, that is the most important thing!
If everyone remains silent, each one thinks to be alone and powerless in the face of the problem. But if we speak, we can meet others with our same hope and will! We can act, and make the difference. This is the reason why we have to stick together and engage young people too.
Because, of course, the challenge seems impossible, pollution seems to have come to a tipping point but if we start now, we can do it.
Octopus wants to reach everyone with this belief. That’s why you can play it for free from any device.
And we have in mind some nice surprises for the time we have enough funds: we are going to send action figures of Octopus to thank our fans, to create a cartoon which can move young people with the adventure of our little hero, and – most of all – we want to collaborate with some association and organize beach clean up events!

Any suggestions you would like to give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

For your career, for your future, always choose what you believe is the right thing to do, and not what others tell you.
Always have respect for others.
And always, whatever your dream maybe – be a singer, a cook, a videogame creator, an entrepreneur… – never give up.
Believe me. Because everyone else wants you to give your dream up. But your dream deserves that you fight for it to become your truth.

When do you plan to have Octopus 100% completed?

Currently, there are 3 levels.
They look simple, but it was hard to realize and optimize them for each device.
With Octopus, I want to give people a new gaming experience, something that makes you relax and in the meantime think about what’s going on worldwide.
There is still lots of work to do, but the intention is to complete 20 levels which tell the story of our little hero Octopus living adventures to save the ocean.
If we manage to have active fans who love the game, I can consider the idea of creating Octopus 2 in the future, with a new gaming experience and even more #plasticfree campaigns.