Alessandro Romanella, Author at Caracal Games Studio

Lola’s Familiars: Prison of Argnoh – Wishlist now!

After more than a year of work we are proud to announce that
the Steam page for our new game Lola’s Familiars: Prison of Argnoh is now live!

In this anime-inspired lite-vania adventure, you’ll guide Lola through a demonic underworld prison, explore mysterious magical realms, forge pacts with powerful Familiar bosses, and uncover the dark secrets hidden beneath a haunting fantasy world.

We’ve poured our experience, creativity, and a few years off our life expectancy into making Lola’s Familiars the best game we possibly can.

We’re incredibly grateful for the overwhelming response; the announcement received almost half million views on other social media platforms and we couldn’t be happier.

If you’re a fan of emotional adventures and charming yet mysterious characters will find themselves completely immersed in this unforgettable journey worth taking.

WISHLIST NOW!

June 8, 2026

Our Diego, a Digital Dragon

If you’re hanging out at Digital Dragons Conference (May 17-19), you may find our Game Director, Diego Ricchiuti!

With more than 17 years of experience across indie and AAA, Diego has worked on titles like Ghost Recon Wildlands, Dying Light 2 and A Quiet Place, and most recently Star Overdrive as Design Director, his most important role we would say (jkjk).

During the conference, Diego will present his talk: “Praxeology: The Framework to Comprehend Player Motivation.”

The talk explores how players make decisions and, more importantly, why they do the things they do. By analysing goals, incentives, constraints, and perceived value, Diego will break down how player behaviour can lead to clearer and more effective design choices.

Or, in simpler terms: trying to understand why players ignore the main quest and spend 40 minutes jumping on random crates instead.

So if you’re in the area, come visit us!

May 11, 2026

2021: Moon Escape is now available in the Handheld Heritage Bundle

Our beloved 2021: Moon Escape is now part of the Handheld Heritage Bundle on itch.io!

We love the retro scene, and we’re always happy to support it in any way we can. The Handheld Heritage Bundle is a lovingly curated collection of 30 neo-retro indie games inspired by the golden age of handheld gaming, the Game Boy era, and we’re proud to be part of it!

Game boy developers united in one bundle!

The bundle brings together 26 developers celebrating everything we grew up with: chunky pixels, stubborn cartridges, and games that didn’t need a day-one patch to be memorable. It features a wide variety of pixel-driven experiences, all playable on original hardware. So maybe it’s finally time to find those batteries, power up your old friend, or your shiny new retro console, and give them a try.

This is a great way to support fellow indie devs and the entire GB development scene, helping to keep the retro handheld spirit alive.

April 22, 2026

Our Tommaso has been awarded as the best italian game designer of 2026

Big news from the Caracal spaceship, our Tommaso has officially been nominated Best Italian Game Designer of 2026 at the Dstars Awards!

What makes this win special? The votes comes from other developers, the kind of people who know what are the difficulties behind making a game and how much dedication does it take.

What's Dstars awards?

For those who don’t know the initiative, the DStars Awards it’s a project born in 2019 to put the spotlight where it usually isn’t too much: on the humans behind the games.

And it’s them that we want to thank, because we couldn’t have done this without everyone who voted.
So a huge thank you to all our fellow colleagues!

Let us cook, we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

April 3, 2026

We joined the Global Game Jam 2026!

After all these years, we can’t renounce the same independent spirit Caracal was founded on: the genuine love of making games and having fun while doing it!

We took part in the latest edition of the Global Game Jam 2026, which is a unique international event where participants from all over the world start creating a game simultaneously.

48 Hours of Creativity and Collaboration

So, we chose to have fun with a concept that could reflect both sides of our identity, blending innovation (VR) with nostalgia (Retro).

For us the GGJ experience is always an opportunity to step outside of structured production cycles and embrace a more spontaneous approach.
That’s exactly how we like to develop in our free time.

Mad Zeppelin: Retro meets VR

During the jam we developed Mad Zeppelin, a VR experience built around a playful and unexpected concept: players find themselves aboard a zeppelin, only to realize they are playing on a 3D Game Boy emulator within the game itself. We believe that Mad Zeppelin captures the spirit of the jam: creative, surprising, and a little unconventional.

Our slogan was something like: “You thought you were about to play next gen, but it was retro gaming all along.”

This project reflects exactly our ongoing interest in exploring new ideas and pushing creative boundaries, even within a limited timeframe.
If you want to try the game, you can download it from here!

March 23, 2026

Caracal Games receives employees platinum certification

We’re incredibly happy to share that Caracal Games has been awarded the Employees Platinum certification by ChooseMyCompany, a recognition given to companies that achieve the highest levels of employee satisfaction and engagement.

Caracal Games seems to be a great place to work

This certification is based on anonymous, direct feedback from employees, which makes it especially meaningful to us. It reflects not only the quality of the workplace, but also the culture we’ve been building together over the years.

When we started Caracal Games in 2015 as a small independent studio, we could never have imagined how far this journey would take us. The road to get here has been long, challenging, and full of hard work, but we’ve always kept moving forward with the same passion: making games we truly believe in.

Receiving this recognition means a lot to us because it comes straight from the people who are part of this journey every day: our team.

We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but we also know there’s always more to learn, improve, and build. We’ll keep working hard to grow in the right way, putting people, care, and the quality of our projects at the heart of everything we do.

As we look to the future, we remain committed to our creative path with the same enthusiasm and humility that brought us here. We’re excited for what’s ahead, and we can’t wait to share the next steps of our journey with you.

March 13, 2026

2021: Moon Escape - Nintendo Switch version

GB Archive is now available!

We invest in indie culture.

We’ve always believed in the strength of indie culture and have always looked for a way to support it, we have finally found it, in our own way.

So we’re happy to announce that our GB Archive service, is now available!

The GB Archive service is focused on bringing Game Boy homebrew games on modern gaming platforms.

Why GB Archive?

Too often, outstanding projects remain limited to a niche audience. The quality is undeniable. What’s missing is a bridge to broader visibility.

That reflection is what led us to create GB Archive.
The project was born to promote a cultural movement we believe in.

Through years of industry experience, we recognized that the true obstacle for indie developers isn’t creating great games but navigating modern distribution barriers. So, by removing those without compromising creative integrity, we understood that we can unlock greater ambition among devs and community growth.

A real opportunity

GB Archive is built on a simple belief:
when developers are given an opportunity for visibility, the quality of what they create rises.

We offer free porting because our first goal is to empower indie developers, expand the reach of the Game Boy scene, and foster an ecosystem where ambition grows naturally.

What matters most to us is that with GB Archive we aim not only to bring more 8-bit games to modern systems, but also to support the evolution of the entire community.

Contact Us

A lot of devs already joined us and numbers are growing, share with us your idea!

Also tell us how we can support you and the other devs, your thoughts and feedback are really precious.
Last, but not least, you can follow us here on the blog and on our social accounts so, STAY TUNED!

March 5, 2026