After studying biology at Turin University, Alessio Cavatore moved to the UK at age 25 to work as a translator for Games Workshop Ltd. One year later he became a games developer, and has continued to do that job for the last fifteen years. For Games Workshop he has worked on several game systems and supplements, like Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000 and the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

He is now the managing director of the company he co-founded, River Horse (Europe) Ltd., in order to publish games of his own making, often brought to market with crowdfunding campaigns. River Horse also provides design and crowdfunding consultancy for other games companies.

In the last few years, after Alessio became a father, River Horse has shifted the customer base of its products to a much younger audience. First came the fun family board game based on Jim Henson’s classic movie Labyrinth – Alessio designed the game so that he could play it and enjoy it together with his six-year-old daughter. Labyrinth is a cooperative game, where the players work together to defeat the Goblin King.

And then, Tails of Equestria – a story-telling game based on the wholesome My Little Pony. The players (young children and adults alike) play the role of the pony characters in an adventure. The Game Master tells their story and the players interact with each other and with the story in order to resolve the challenges presented to them and achieve a collective victory.

Like all modern parents, Alessio is faced with the challenge of addictive technology (particularly games), and his position could be summarised as: “Kids are captured by online gaming because games are more fun than reality – so make reality more fun – play with them!”

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