Hi, my name is Natalino Carlo, 26 years old, an immigrant from Ethiopia and I’m the CEO and founder of Infernozilla. My journey started in 2016 when I came to the US as a 19 year old with nothing but $2000 to my name and no immediate family. It was during high school that I already saw a gap in the independent video game industry which I already had a passion for.

It was through skills and experience that I picked up working with the popular game Escape from Tarkov from its beginning days, that I went from an army of one in social and community management and marketing, to turning Infernozilla into what it is today.

Now with over 40 employees and having over 80 phenomenal games/studios under our portfolio with games such as Black Mesa, Ready or Not as well as Google and AMC owned studios being some of the clients we work with.

In school, I have always wanted to be a doctor and later on, decided to study computer science but my passion was in the creative realm and I was spending a lot of my free time doing marketing work for several online communities and video games. At this time I had no idea people actually got paid for such a skillset and coming from a place like Ethiopia, the only path to success was being a doctor or software engineer.

One thing after another, I started to see the massive potential of bringing my skillset to many studios around the world and the growing need in the industry. This lead me into dropping out of my computer science program and becoming a creative individual.

Infernozilla is a Video Game Marketing Agency that specializes in Social Media and Community Management as well as Grassroot Marketing services. We’ve served large studios with over 100 employees to even singular indie developers and now we have over 80 amazing games/studios in our portfolio.

To this end we are known for working with highly prolific games such as Escape from Tarkov, Ready or Not and Black Mesa to name a few. In starting up Infernozilla I used to wear many different hats but since we’ve grown, I, of course operate as CEO and growing our agency among managing and consolidating relationships with our current clientele and expanding our portfolio.

We’ve reached an age where we’ve optimized everything nearly to maximum efficiency, where resources on how to achieve this are always in arms reach. Creativity means breaking from this pattern and finding a new route which sometimes could mean embracing any imperfections as a means to stand out. Creativity is ultimately human, and humanity itself is imperfect.

To me, it usually tends to be an idea that takes considerable problem solving and execution skills to materialize. This goes hand in hand with it often being an idea that most won’t think of or attempt as it does require a level of innate creativity to bring it to life.

In the context of Infernozilla and what we do—this often involves us having certain objectives. We first identify what we would like to achieve, and then draft the most obvious direct path to reach this. With this in mind, we do research and then start iterating and pulling apart the draft in context to current trends, what’s worked before, and what we’ve yet to explore.

This also involves awareness of time constraints and adequately and strategically using our resources which adds a whole dimension of creativity to itself.

Definitely execution. I find it exciting as you’re able to give life to the ideas you’ve researched and planned. Sometimes it may need to pivot or change due to new insight you may have while you’re in the trenches. It honestly feels the most rewarding.

Pragmatic, confident, and daring. As I’ve unpacked before, sometimes a design or idea doesn’t necessarily need to be the most outrageous or redefined to meet specific goals or requirements. We like to hone in and focus our efforts on making sure that this is met. This doesn’t mean that we’re not willing to try new things or be bold in piloting new ideas or designs.

It probably has, much like many other cultures that I’ve experienced that have also impacted me creatively. Of course now with me having moved to the United States, this also brings on a whole other dimension of influences. For my heritage as half Italian and Ethiopian, small things from how our country is run with over 500 “woredas” or districts, which all run autonomously, to our extremely rich history.

Also if you didn’t know, the current year in Ethiopia is 2015 as it uses a different calendar. There’s too much to mention, but for anyone who has moved to a different country and experienced living in two different countries or even for those who are well-traveled—I think this unlocks another layer of thinking and understanding as you’ve had to operate and experience life in different ways which gives you patience, resilience and an edge with your creativity.

Thank you! Apart from all the amazing testimonials we have from some of our clients, this is the first public recognition and validation of the work that we’ve been doing. It’s a great milestone for us to showcase the value we can provide the industry in which we work. It also gives me great pride in the team members we have within Infernozilla and what they are capable of.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing creative studios we work with alongside Infernozilla Team Members who work hard every single day and face challenges that are unpredictable due to the low resources that the industry has.

While it would be too much to fit in describing all of our 16 winning works in this answer, the deciding process was relatively straightforward. Within our company culture at Infernozilla, we like to keep track of all of our internal “wins” just to highlight awesome moments and keep that communication flowing.

We simply filtered and chose the 7 projects that we thought had the best chance of winning, and lo and behold we won them all with 4 Platinum and 12 Gold Awards!

Each project had its own individual challenges, but this is essentially one of the points of pride we have in what we can accomplish as each client operates with completely different brands, voicing, and focal points of what they would like to achieve. This makes what we do very dynamic, as we have to not only manoeuvre and accommodate these differences but hit our mark effectively in these different contexts.

Since we have won the awards, it has been a great morale boost across the company for everyone involved. It has already served as another social and professional proof for our prospective clients that consider engaging with Infernozilla and the services that we offer.

How every day brings something new or a different challenge. Working creatively and especially in these times of increasingly fast technological advances unlocks different avenues to explore. Then thirdly how we get to help bring exposure to amazing and awesome games made by developers who have massive passion for their work and being able to do our passion as a career is a dream come true.

As a United States based-company, we’ve found that we have unprecedented access to almost anything you can remotely think of. Whether it’s the knowledge base or pool of talent you have access to or the networking potential of a well-developed country. This has helped us with productivity and execution due to less setback with bureaucracy.

I think there are some serious discussions to be had over the incredible new AI technologies that are arising. These will definitely be utilized in some form or another in a professional capacity in the industry and it may shake up everyone’s creative process. This isn’t even exclusive to AI but even to the ways that social media is evolving and advertising practices are changing.

All of this will most likely mean the increasing importance of the human touch and irreplaceable creativity that comes with it as most will tend to rely on these technologies instead of it using them as part of their toolbox. On the other hand, I believe that all creative people need to start being comfortable with AI technology and systems around them so their creative value continues to be irreplaceable.

There is no better way to grow and learn than by constant and consistent exposure. The best way to learn about any platform or industry is by spending time in it. You could even start by browsing a platform such as MUSE Creative Awards and looking at all the winning entries and companies that have made these submissions and trawling through their campaigns, projects, and more. Absorb, absorb and absorb!

Apart from studying your chosen path, look to social media and especially Linkedin in connecting with companies you aspire to. Often they will impart advice or even share their thought process behind what they do. Youtube is another obvious goto where there are a select few channels that offer prime tutorials and advice. Though there is no better way to improve your skills than working in the industry itself—even as a volunteer early on.

I’m not a fan of coffee. (I actually have told others, but it always drops jaws in an industry run on caffeine)

This would have to be Iman Gadzhi. I have been following Iman since he was 16 through his personal growth and how he's built his businesses from a young age. Being a fellow Capricorn and a similar age to him, I learned a lot from following his footsteps, his Youtube channel, and his education programs.

Especially during the early stages of my career, I had a lot of things I took away from his work that I was able to add my own twist amongst things I have learned from others.

It’s a balance of aspiration, discipline, and persistent hunger to learn, improve and grow. While these are very general seeds to success, I believe them to be the most vital in finding your strengths, wants, and capabilities.

As for any parting words; if you ever feel stuck in the creative process—oftentimes the best way forward is to just “do”! The mind will often follow the hand and just by action, will it help pull you into the flow and sprout better ideas.

Once again I want to extend a big thank you to MUSE for the recognition of the work that we do in Infernozilla. It’s been an extremely exciting time for us over the last 2 years in how we’ve grown quite rapidly while hitting great milestones and achievements. Accepting these awards validates all of the hard work we’ve put in and is yet another goalpost we’ve now met.

Finally congratulations to all of our amazing team members and the phenomenal work that they’ve been doing. I couldn’t be more proud of what we do and the direction that we’re heading in. Cheers to more!

If you are a videogame developer, studio, or publisher and want an awesome team behind you to take your project to the next level, reach out to us on our website at www.infernozilla.com. We would love to show you why we won 47 awards in the first 3 months of 2023 alone.