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Premio Archimede 2004 for unpublished games designed by non professional
authors.
It was an extraordinary experience, really a right way to remember
and honor Alex Randolph, the “Master” of all games designers,
to whom the Prize is now dedicated.
140 games in competition, coming not only from Italy¸ but
also from Germany, England, Holland, Spain, Argentina, France, Switzerland,
Austria, Sweden e Australia; and a very very high qualitative level.
In a breathtaking exhibition there was on show an incredible variety
of rules and mechanisms, of themes and backgrounds: really a triumph
of creativity.
And at the end prevailed TERRANOVA,
created by Gaetano Evola and Rosanna Leocata: an
easy concept, a perfectly working game which, with just a few new
touches to well known systems, is able to donate emotions even to
the expert players.
The authors are husband and wife and we can remember that they had
their honeymoon in 1999 in Cagli in occasion of the Italian Games
Festival: there they met Alex Randolph and it was an inspiration;
from that moment they actively created games, and quite successfully!
The price giving ceremony took place in the gorgeous Aula Magna
kindly accorded by the IUAV - Istituto Universitario di Architettura
di Venezia and it was really exciting.
At the beginning were declared the “Top40” games, and
this was the first target the authors tried to reach; the point
is that the jury said there were at least 70 good games which would
have deserved to be in the list, and so someone was certainly disappointed!
Then it was the time of the “Top10”, the best of the
best.
At this point the special mention:
• to the best sport simulation;
• to the best game present – out of competition –
by the students of the University;
• to the game that Sebastiano Izzo, an unforgotten friend,
would have liked best;
• to the “representative of the world”, Greg Babic
who came from Australia as a demonstration that playing games is
a sort of universal language;
• and at last a special mentions to the game “Criminal
Mouse”, designed by the prisoners of San Vittore jail in Milan,
for its high social value; the heartfelt speech of the president
and his hug to some of the convict-authors was a really touching
moment and in the Aula Magna many eyes moistened.
At last, with an increasing suspense, were declared the first 4
games.
And the 4 winners also received a concrete encouragement from the
Foundation J.P.Halvah, created from Alex Randolph (with the name
of his cat!) with the target to help new authors; the president
of the foundation, Herbert Feuerstein, was present at the ceremony
and with a fine humor he told some episodes of their very long friendship.
Furthermore, all the finalist games will become part of the collection
of the Swisse Games Museum of La Tour de Peliz (www.museedejeu.com);
the director of the museum, Ulrich Schaedler, was present as a member
of the jury.
Really extraordinary the work done by the highly respected international
jury, chaired by a brilliant Niek Neuwahl and composed by da Spartaco
Albertarelli, Giuseppe Baù, Leo Colovini, Dario De Toffoli,
Paolo Fasce, Michael Matchoss, Ennio Peres, Giorgio Salvadego, Ulrich
Schaedler and Dario Zaccariotto.
A particular thanks to the City of Venice, so beloved by Alex Randolph:
it recognize the greatness of its citizen by patronized the event,
through Mara Rumiz, President of the City Council. The intention
to keep in Venice the Premio Archimede in the next editions, was
also taken to emphasize the strong bond between Alex and his city.
We also thank the companies Clementoni, Dal Negro, Kidult, Mattel,
Plastwood, Ravensburger, Tilsit, Unicopli and Venice Connection,
which supported the event; and also a thank to Ingegneria del Sollazzo
for his giant wooden games which everybody enjoyed.
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