Our Italian food expert in the spotlight

Meet Marco Bancale, our lead iOS developer. A pilot, gamer and a man of great taste in food, it’s his turn in the Employee Spotlight.

Last time, Egill Arnarsson wanted to know why you hate Subway so much?
This one is easy. I’m from Italy, the country with one of the best “cuisine” in the world (pizza, pasta… anyone?) People’s expectations about food in my country are so high that most of the American fast-food chains didn’t manage to penetrate the market. There’s no Subway in Italy, no Pizza Hut, no Domino’s, no Pizza 67, no KFC, no TGI Friday.
So, the equation “Subway = Healthy Food” makes me laugh!
Egill will learn one day… he will learn.

What was the first game you played and on what platform?
Probably Space Invaders on my Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16K. Yes, 16 KILOBYTES of RAM. It was 1983 I think.

Your favourite game of all time and why?
I’m mostly fascinated by innovation and originality when talking about games. I can’t pinpoint the most innovative game ever. I think that every few years we get one. Ok, short list: Monkey Island, Dune 2, Duke Nukem (the first one!), StarCraft, Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed… Since innovation and originality are mostly found in the indie scene nowadays, I’ll add: Minecraft, Terraria, Project Zomboid, Sword & Sorcery, Tiny Wings and many many others!
Go Indie Scene, go!

What do you like to do in your free time?
My other big passion: flying! I’m a private pilot and when the merciless Icelandic weather permits, you can find me flying around in my little Cessna!
I also love to play guitar and drums, even though my neighbors are not too happy about that.
Going to the cinema or simply watching movies is something I can’t give up, either.
Last but not least, I love traveling!

Any kids?
Not yet. Italians are scared of having kids, didn’t you know?

Where have you worked in the past? Any notable projects?
In Italy I owned two web companies with some friends. It was fun, I learned a lot and I was very young.
The most interesting job I had (before working in the game industry, of course!) was as a software architect and programmer in a company specialized in air traffic control systems. Cool stuff! But a bit too serious…

Which Gogogic project are you especially proud of?
The only one I’ve been working on, our next Secret Project™ to be unveiled in August.

What software do you use in your daily work?
XCode.

Anything you want to add?
Who’s asking all these questions? Is it you, Jóhannes?

Who should be the next one in the employee spotlight and do you have a question for that person?
You, Jóhannes!
Question: why don’t you like ANY type of vegetables?