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Interviews
PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2021 – final cut (Eng. sub)
The final cut video of the Premio Archimede 2021 with voting and announcement of winners, is finally available!
OVERBOOKING by FILIPPO LANDINI WINS THE PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2021
FINAL PRESS RELEASE
The victory of Premio Archimede 2021, the prestigious international award for unpublished games organized by studiogiochi in Venice, has been decided at the last vote, as it happens in the best board games! The last vote of the international jury is the decisive one for the overtaking, with the final victory assigned to OverbooKing, by the Emilian Filippo Landini who also gets the Cartamundi award for the best card game.
In second place with another twist two games: Un Giorno al Museo by Francesco Frittelli from Lastra a Signa (FI) and Watch Out! by Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta and Carlo Rigon from San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
To complete the podium, Happy Fruits by Francesco Calvi from Chieti, only one point away from the honor placement in another exciting photo finish.
OverbooKing is a card game in which two to four chamberlain of the court will have to arrange, in the inns of the city, the greatest number of guests at the king’s party, managing their hand of guest cards, paying attention to the prestige points of each of them, but also to their nationalities. The aim of the game is to find accommodation for the greatest number of your Guest cards in the common inns, trying to get more Prestige points than the other players.
The author of the winning prototype is Filippo Landini, from Emilia, born in Carpi in 1970, obviously a great fan of games but in everyday life a degree in Architecture in Florence in 1999 and since 2013 owner of the Azero studio in his city.
“I absolutely did not expect victory”, says the author, “Because I consider it a simple card game, certainly successful but I didn’t think it had the complexity that would please the expert jury. Evidently they are actually more experienced than me and have seen that little bit more. I’ve been making games for fun for about three years. In my area there is an excellent group of players and authors to whom I owe a lot of my experience and skills, starting with those who live in my city, Carlo Rossi, who “anticipated” me in my career and in the Archimede award and the which I hope to follow in my footsteps as an author “.
“The winning game struck the jury”, explains Dario De Toffoli, “For a mechanic that is simple to understand but with many variations during the game that make it highly tactical. I think that, as often happened to the winners of the Archimedes prize and to almost fifty prototypes presented over the years, it will certainly have an international publication as well ”.
SPECIAL AWARDS
To underscore the international value of the prize, the Sebastiano Izzo Mention, assigned by Dario De Toffoli, president of studiogiochi, flies to Spain to Ekohouse by Maria Castellevi Barnes and Roger Brunet Espinosa, from Premia del Mar for the prototype which – in the judge’s opinion – more would have been liked by the old playmate Sebastiano Izzo.
Cartamundi Special Prize for the best card game to OverbooKing which therefore doubles the awards.
AiG Award for Most Original Game Mechanics to Watch Out!
Fotonica in Gioco Award to Cromoladro by the Liceo Artistico E. Lussu – Sant’Antioco (SU), an adventurous hunt for thieves and fake works inside the museum.
Second place to LeoGallery by Istituto Fermi Galilei – Ciriè (Torino), and third place to Alchicromia by Istituto Pellati – Nizza Monferrato (Asti).
Special Scienza in Gioco Trophy to:
2099, La sfida del secolo by Paolo Agrippino, for a game that leads us to reflect on the great challenges of development and energy.
Fotonica in Gioco award special mentions to:
Ecogame – Istituto Fedi Fermi, Pistoia (PT) – best game to reflect and to change
Il miglior gioco da tavola periodica – Liceo Scientifico Delfico, Teramo (TE) – the most interactive and dynamic game of the competition.
La scientifica commedia – Liceo scientifico Majorana, Latina (LT) – special mention for the originality and quality of the prototype.
236 prototypes from Italy, but also from many other countries, including Mexico and the United States, participated in the 17th edition of the Archimedes Prize. All the games were played and judged with extreme attention by the preliminary jury, led by Leo Colovini and composed of Giuseppe Baggio, Piero Modolo, Federico Colovini and Dario Zaccariotto.
At the same time as the online exhibition of the 110 prototypes were selected by the preliminary jury and admitted to the final stages, the 17 actual finalists were then chosen, all characterized by new and original ideas, of a level that increases dramatically with each edition.
The final jury saw the presence of representatives of the main national and international gaming companies.
The names gathered in Venice are those of:
Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany), Thomas Cauet (Asmodée, France), Stefano De Carolis (Giochi Uniti, Italy), Michele Garbuggio (CMON, Singapore), Thorsten Gimmler (Ravensburger, Germany), Simone Luciani (Cranio Creations, Italy), Umberto Rosin (Tana dei Goblin, Italy), Dieter Strehl (Piatnik, Austria), Hadi Barkat (Helvetiq, Switzerland), Klaus Ottmaier (Pegasus, Germany), Hermann Hutter (Huch! & friends, Germany), Holger Grimm and Miriam Donda (Amigo, Germany), Ulrich Fonrobert (Queen Games, Germany), Michael Bruinsma, Erik De Jong and Flo de Haan (999 games, Netherlands), to which must be added Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi and Veronica Emer (Thundergryph, Spain), Kevin Kichan Kim (Mandoo Games, Korea), Wolfgang Lüdtke (Kosmos, Germany), Jay Tummelson (Rio Grande Games, USA) and Bernd Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany).
The jury carried out its work helped and assisted by the staff of the Palazzo Barbarigo hotel, which was the prestigious venue of the selection for three days, overlooking the Grand Canal to “distract” the jurors and the comfort given by a unique location in a Venetian palace of the sixteenth century.
A special mention goes to Umberto Rosin who, as an expert rower as well as a player, together with Rossana Nardo made the jurors experience the thrill of a ride on the Grand Canal with a historic rowboat.
The work of the studiogiochi staff was very precious in organizing the site, the secretariat, the graphics, the video and the photos (Cristiana Giuriato, Rossana Nardo and Caterina Vettore), with the collaboration of Fabrizio Berger, Marco Mion and Benedetta Socal.
Premio Archimede 2021 – Ranking
Winner
OverbooKing by Filippo Landini
2nd place
Un giorno al Museo by Francesco Frittelli
and
Watch Out! by Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta, Carlo Rigon
4th place
Happy Fruits by Francesco Calvi
5th place
Your Majesty of Gabriele Bubola
6th place
Tankograd by Marcello Mugnai
7th place
EkoHouse by Maria Castellvi Barnes, Roger Brunet Espinosa
8th place
Leave and Let Dice by Mauro Vettori
9th place
Loyalty by Nicholas Paschalis
10th place
7 Guilds by Mario Quartana
11th place
Tlaloc Pyramid of Joel Escalante, Rafael Escalante
12th place
Dead Man’s Chests by Marco Guidara
13th place
Rhyolite by Alessandro Dentis
14th place
Hackers by Davide Sassoli
15th place
Memento Mori di Stefano Ancillai, Tiziano Palazzotti
16th place
Crazy Party by Banana C. Games
17th place
Planetary by Luca Frascatani
VOTING AND PRIZE GIVING CEREMONY
Sunday 3 October 2021 at 9:00 p.m.
The Premio Archimede 2020/21 is about to end. They have been two difficult years, and until the end we tried to keep open the possibility of having the awards ceremony with the participation of the public and the physical exhibition of the prototypes of the long list.
Unfortunately, for logistic and regulation issues this will not be possible.
However, the final jury will still meet, almost in full force, to play and vote for the finalists and on Sunday 3 October 2021 at 9:00 p.m. the Premio Archimede 2021 will finally come to an end with the announcement of the winners, which will take place with a video broadcast through a première on the YouTube channel of studiogiochi.
For this edition there will therefore be no ceremony open to the public or physical exhibition of the prototypes (you can however view all the prototypes of the long list through the online photo exhibition).
Here will also be published other content, interviews, presentation of the finalists, etc…
At the same time, various collateral prizes will also be awarded: Sebastiano Izzo Special Mention, Cartamundi Special Trophy, AiG Special Trophy, Special Science in Gioco Trophy.
Finally, the Fotonica in Gioco competition organized by IFN-CNR will also end, which will award the three best games on a given theme created by schools of the whole Italy.
We are ready to host the final jury in Venice, and we have no doubt that for all the jurors it will be an unforgettable experience!
And, to top it off, we can’t wait to discover the most popular titles and the winner!
THE TERMS OF PARTICIPATION TO THE 2020/21 EDITION OF THE PREMIO ARCHIMEDE ARE DEFINITELY CLOSED
THE PROTOTYPES ARE
236
a new unexpected record!
Soon we will share more details…
in the hope of being able to see each other in Venice on October 2nd.
PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2020/2021 is organized by studiogiochi and it concerns the creation of new, original boardgames.
The award is entitled to the incredible Alex Randolph, president of the first seven editions, and, so far, it has helped more than 40 authors in making the dream of having their game published come true. Participation is open to singles or groups, with no age or residence restrictions.
The award is organized in collaboration with the City of Venice within an ampler framework of initiatives aimed at spreading the game culture – also as a means of preventing the rampant gambling disorders – and it is recognized by SAZ (Spiele-Autoren-Zunft), the International Game Designers Association.
The Musée Suisse du Jeu will house a display of both the finalist games and the Special Trophies winners.
The Award is also recognized by PlayRes, by UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti), and by GioNa (Associazione Nazionale delle Città in Gioco) for its socio-cultural and inclusive values, and for its ability in bringing people together, as a recreational activity that promotes the right to play for everyone and at any age.
Thanks to the publishers’ support (so far have joined 999 Games, Amigo, Asmodee, Cartamundi, CMON, Cranio Creations, Giochi Uniti, Hans im Glück, Huch! & friends, Kosmos, Mandoo Games, Oliphante2, Pegasus Spiele, Piatnik, Queen Games, Ravensburger, Rio Grande Games, ThunderGryph Games, and other companies are in the process of finalizing their contribution) the winning authors will receive €3.500 in advance on the future royalties accrued through the publication of their games.
In addition to the Premio Archimede, the Jury will also assign several other awards, trophies and special prizes, such as:
• Special Mention Sebastiano Izzo to the game that would have been a favorite of Sebastiano Izzo, unforgotten “game buddy” that we like to honor in each edition.
• Special Trophy Cartamundi to the best card game. Thanks to Cartamundi support, €500 will be granted in advance on future royalties of the game.
• Special Trophy AIG (Autori In Gioco) to the game with the most innovative mechanics.
• Special Trophy Scienza in Gioco to the best science-themed game with educational and informative purposes, assigned by the Photonic and Nanotechnology Institute of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFN – CNR).
You can download the Premio Archimede 2020 Notice of Competition from the top left menu.
IFN – CNR will also organize the third edition of the FOTONICA IN GIOCO competition, open to all Italian high school students, aiming at realizing an original board game with educational or informative purposes (www.fotonicaingioco.it). The classes that will produce the three best projects will take part in the award ceremony, which will be held simultaneously with the Premio Archimede.
JURY
There will be two separate juries, working in different phases of the competition. During the first phase the only input will be from the Selection Jury, as of now composed by:
Born in Venice in 1964, Leo Colovini begins his ludic adventure at about 12 when he meets Alex Randolph, playing chess in a club of Venice. Passionate about games since ever, he is really struck by the “Master”, and becomes a goer of Randolph’s office. He takes part to the game tests with enthusiasm and never misses a single occasion to show Alex his naive and odd ideas. As time goes by, his ideas start to refine themselves and Leo finally presents to the severe judgement of his “Master” an interesting mechanism for a game, but, even if Randolph tries more than once to put his hands on it, the game doesn’t make it to be published. After one year they realize together Drachenfels, which is Leo’s first published game (Schmidt Spiele). Two years later (1988), again in collaboration with Randolph, it is the time of Inkognito, published by MB, a great success (part of the list of Spiel des Jahres, and winner of the Sonderpreis – the special prize of the critics). After several years Piatnik publishes Die Magische Sieben the first game signed by Colovini as a unique author. In 1993 he signs, together with Dario De Toffoli, Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, the Role Playing Game Lex Arcana (Dal Negro). In 1993 he definitely leaves his job in the bank and begins to work full time for games. In 1994 Die Oster Insel is published by Blatz Spiele: this game also enters in the list of Spiel des Jahres. In the following years, the works with Dario De Toffoli increase until together with Alex Randolph they found Venice Connection. After several years he gets a history degree with a game-thesis about Charlemagne, and many of his games are published: Carolus Magnus in 2000 and Clans in 2003 (Winning Moves) that almost win the Spiel del Jahres by getting one of the three nominations. With his game Leo muss zum Friseur he wins the Deutscher Kinderspiele Preis 2016, gets very close to the victory of the Kinderspiel des Jahres 2016 (being among the three nominated games) and wins the Spiele Hit für Kinder 2016.
One of the best Shogi italian players, he is really passionate about all games created by Alex Randolph. Giuseppe Baggio loves abstract boardgames, but he always enjoys playing any other kind of game.
Well, he loves to play and for this reason he became member of the Premio Archimede Jury.
With studiogiochi he contributed to the realization of the chapters about Shogi (japanese chess), the ones about heterodox chess for the book Il grande libro degli scacchi and he helped out in the proof-reading of many headwords of the Enciclopedia dei giochi by Giampaolo Dossena.
Son of Leo Colovini, never get tired playing games and trying to create new odd game systems that he regularly submit to his father’s severe judgement.
Wikinder, published by Clementoni, is based on Federico’s idea.
Despite the long beard, he still hasn’t decided what to do as a grown-up. Maybe an Egyptologist. Maybe a Brewer. Or maybe he will keep on playtesting and editing here in studiogiochi. And if he gets a headache while trying to conjugate his three passions… he goes away for some days and loosens up playing some LARP.
Piero Modolo was born in 1991. He is passionate about every type of games (from boardgames to videogames) but, particularly, of trading card games (before Yu-Gi-Oh!, now Gwent online has become his favourite game).
He graduated in philosophy in Venice, and after the positive experience with Premio Archimede 2016 he entered as a member of the preselection jury of the contest, with the responsability to connect the games (and their authors) with italian and international jurors.
He is on the front line when there is the need to test new games and works in many projects of the studio.
Born in Dolo (near Venice) in 1968, he has a playful childhood.
In the beginning of the 80’s he gets in touch with the association MultigiocoClub from Mestre, and immediately becomes their “mascot”, being the youngest of the group. He is called from everybody Darietto [little Dario], in order not to get mixed up with the other Dario, “Darione” [big Dario] De Toffoli. Since he has a daughter, many friends call him Zack, but some nostalic ones still call him with the first nickname.
Beeing in touch with De Toffoli becomes a lasting status, and gradually he starts to collaborate with studiogiochi: he runs tournaments, develops boardgames and produces puzzles and other games for the press.
The big jump happens during the editions of the Italian Game Festival: he is responsible for some entire sections. Starting from that moment “Darietto” really understands what he wants to do once he grows up and soon he gets the chance to cross the great sea that separates “saying” from “doing”.
All the rest is topicality: he writes books and collaborates in the creation of games, and especially has a great pleasure presenting new puzzles to people, especially logic and numeric ones.
Suddenly one day he surprises everybody that sees him as a cold calculator by winning an international poetry competition (www.centrostudivignola.it), with his first and last verses ever written.
This Jury will rank the games by the following features (in order of importance):
- Originality of the game’s mechanics
- Playability, balance and functionality of the mechanics
- Fun
- Publishing potential, i.e. the possibility that the game will be taken into consideration by a publisher
- Theme coherence
- Prototype’s functionality and understandability of the rules
The Jury will reveal the Grossa-lista roughly a month before the day of the final, i.e. the list of the worthiest titles (it usually includes 50% of the participants).
After this, the list will be further skimmed to get to the Fina-lista (which generally includes 15-20 titles) to submit to the Final Jury.
At the moment, the Final Jury is composed by:
Dario De Toffoli was born in Venice in 1953. He first entered in contact with the gaming world in the early Eighties, and his life has never been the same since.
Bit by bit he abandoned his career as a chemist and begun working on all aspects (competitive, technical and cultural) surrounding all kinds of games: Board games, card games, puzzles, brainteasers, mathematical games…
This newfound interest is what motivated him to found studiogiochi in 1987.
Dario De Toffoli is
- studiogiochi’s founder
- a freelance journalist, writer and game author
- the director of the Italian Games Archive in Udine
- decorated from the PLDA with a special Career Prize “Ludic personality” in 2007
- awarded with the Best of Show Career Prize, Lucca Comics and Games 2017
- Pentamind World Champion of 2002 and 2012
Hadi is the CEO & Founder of Helvetiq, an international publisher of games and books based in Switzerland. Game designer. Book author. Tennis geek. Roger Federer, Haruki Murakami and Boston Celtics Fan.
Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi is a passionate gamer and game designer that joined the gaming industry in 2007 working as a video game publisher. Gonzalo grow up back and forth from Italy to Peru and he moved back definitely to Rome in his adulthood to attend to La Sapienza university. Now he is living between Rome and Sevilla, a city he fell in love with.
Since 2014 he has been developing the business side of ThunderGryph with the aim to develop and publish board games.
With nearly one year from launch, ThunderGryph’s counts three published games and seven new titles coming in 2017-2018.
My name is Michael Bruinsma, and I was born in 1952 in The Netherlands to a Dutch father and an English mother. In my early life I lived in The Neteherlands, but also in New Guinea, Paris, Spain and Italy in the vicinity of La Spezia. From an early age I played games like Monopoly, Stratego, Risk and others, and later I discovered more elaborate games during my travels. In 1981 I started collecting Avalon Hill and other games, and by 1986 I became a member of Ducosim, a games club dedicated to imported war-, fantasy and other games. In 1990 I visited the Neurenberg Toy Fair and met Mr. Bernd Brunnhofer from Hans Im Glueck Verlag, whom I asked for a representation. I was particularly interested in his railwaygame “1835”, of which I bought 120 copies to sell in The Netherlands. I did not manage to sell it to retail in large quantities, and decided to operate as a mailorder company. I invested the few guilders I had in imported games, mostly from America, and started off. It worked! I went to many games conventions and acted as a market salesman. I even went to Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Antwerp regularly, and reinvested every penny I made so as to build up a wide selection of games and accessories. In 1992 I visited GenCon in Milwaukee, and bought a few roleplaying books from a small outfit called Wizards of the Coast. So, in 1993, I became their representative in Holland for the hugely successful Magic: the Gathering. In 1998 I started publishing boardgames and later cardgames. This was another breakthrough: I had found a huge gap in the market. In 1999 the Pokemon collectible cardgame hit the market and suddenly everything grew out of proportion. The fun was over but the business was great. Now, I lead a dedicated team of 30 specialists and we supply the BeNeLux with wonderful products.
Bernd Brunnhofer was born in 1946 near Graz in Austria. He came to Germany in the 60s, studied Sociology and was later a university lecturer. He founded Hans im Glück in 1983 together with Karl-Heinz Schmiel, when they published the small handcrafted game Dodge City. The first games were no big success until in 1991 the breakthrough came with Drunter und Drüber by Klaus Teuber. It was the first german game of the year from a small company and 1994 followed Manhattan by Andreas Seyfarth and 1996 El Grande by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich. At least since that time Hans im Glück was a well known in german households. 2001 another milestone came with the worldwide success of Carcassonne by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. Especially the finetuning of the game by Bernd Brunnhofer was part of that success and every player in world knows today the cute meeple, which was designed by Bernd Brunnhofer. With Thurn und Taxis by Andreas Seyfarth in 2006 and Dominion by Donald Vaccarino in 2009 Hans im Glück won two more games of the year in Germany. Bernd Brunnhofer also is a great game designer himself. His games Sankt Petersburg and Stone Age are well known and popular in the gamers scene. And perhaps he’s just working on the next big thing…
Born in 1977, Thomas leaves in Paris, France. He began his professional life as a software engineer while working part-time for Ystari Games. He is now working full time for Ystari Games, then Space Cowboys, developping games for the Asmodée group. He is co-author of one game (Nefertiti – Matagot) and several scenarios for the Unlock! series. He is also juror for the FLIP (Parthenay festival).
Stefano literally grew up in games, being his father one of the greatest game collectors in the world. He was destined for a career in games, and is now strategic planner for the international game publisher Giochi Uniti(Carcassone, Settlers of Catan). Playing together with Stefano you may experience his dialectics, he also studied international relations actually, a specialization that tourned out to be very useful in his job for Giochi Uniti. So if you ever happen to presuade him to publish one of your games remember this may not be so easy…
Ulrich Fonrobert is born in northern Germany in 1967. Games have been with him since he was a child, with his father teaching him the rules of classics like Chess, Skat and Doppelkopf.
He has been collecting games since at least 1979. He joined the German armed forces in 1986, where he used to play dice games with his comrades during otherwise boring evenings. Settlers of Catan and El Grande are two of his (many) favourite games.
In Kiel he found his first permanent gaming group with whom he got part in various board gaming tournaments and championships around Germany. So he met people like Christwart Conrad and Ralph Bruhn, and with their help he became part of Family Games in 2006 and additionally did work for Hall9000 as a reviewer for a short while.
In 2007 he entered in Queen Games, where he is now one of the company’s product managers, tasked with finding the most promising newcomers and novelties to the ever-changing market of board games. After attending GenCon twice and BGG.con five times he is now very much looking forward to whatever Premio Archimede might hold in store for him!
Michele Garbuggio is an Italian games developer. Specialized on role-playing games, he’s been working for the past 3 years alongside veteran authors Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, collaborating on the development of The One Ring 2nd edition and working as an editor, rules supervisor and author for Lex Arcana 2nd edition and Zombicide: Chronicles. Additional contributions include Brancalonia, The Spaghetti Fantasy RPG and the upcoming Trudvang Legends. He is currently working as a consultant and developer for CMON.
Thorsten Gimmler studied electrical engineering after school. During his studies, his passion for games, which he had already had in childhood, flared up again. He published game reviews in daily newspapers and then began to develop games himself, 13 were published by various publishers. After graduating, he developed lights before turning his hobby into a profession and working as a Product Manager at Schmidt Spiele for 15 years. Since 2020, he has been working as Inventor Relation Manager at Ravensburger, where he is responsible for contact with authors and the search for new games and further development of new game ideas.
Holger was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1975. After studying civil engineering, instead to work for Siemens developing nuclear plants, he decided to work for Amigo in the IT department for 15 years.
In 2016 Holger got the opportunity to join the game development team for Amigo.
Miriam rediscovered her passion for board games while studying ecology (biology). Therefore, she additionally worked in sales and consulted on board games of all kinds. But for her it wasn’t enough to sell great games, she wanted to take a deeper look into the development of games. To do so, she took a peek behind the scenes at Moses and Ravensburger.
Since 2019, she has now been allowed to do her mischief in the editorial department of Amigo.
Hermann Hutter has founded the distribution company Hutter Trade in 2004. Since then, the company has become established as an integral part of the game world. With its own brand HUCH! and innovative educational and leisure games, communication games with lifestyle character, and strategy games from foreign partner publishers, Hutter Trade has created its own distinctive profile.
Publishing games is a big passion for Hermann. Numerous awards – such as the “Toy Award 2008,” the “Children’s Game of the Year 2007,” and the “German Game Prize 2006” – provide evidence of the company’s success. Led by the joy of playing, creativity and design and an interest in new trends, HUCH! creates game innovations that provide long-lasting fun! Hermann Hutter is a very experienced retailer and is successfully managing numerous shops.
Kevin Kichan Kim was born 1976 in Seoul. During he was studying Robot eyes in graduated school, he was fascinating to playing boardgames. In 2002, he opened a Boardgame cafe in Seoul and the cafe expanded 16 places in Korea. Then he started to develop games by himself, he founded Korean Association of Boardgame Industry and Korea Boardgame Con. In 2010, he joined in Korea Boardgames as a head of product development. At KBG, he had led the localization of around 150 games, game publishing such as Coconuts, Abraca…What? and more. He quit KBG in 2015 and joined in Happy Baobab as a VP and helped Asian small publishers to develop their product and to find western distributors. From 2017 Fall, he has led publishing company Mandoo Games as a CEO to introduce nice game with beautiful artworks to the world.
Born in 1977, Simone Luciani begins as player and amateur game designer.
He has taken part many times in the Archimede contest, which he won two times, with Portobello Road (best card game in 2008 and his first creation to be published – by Piatnik as Frutti di mare – ) and Marco Polo, Premio Archimede 2012, then published by Hans in Glück and winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis.
In 2013 Simone began to work with the Italian publisher Cranio Creations where he has now the main role in selecting and developing games. In 2015 Simone left his teaching career (that lasted over 15 years) to be a full-time game designer.
Wolfgang became passionate about games as a reviewer and collector. But when Peter Neugebauer introduced him to the game designer Klaus Teuber and his wife Claudia (almost 30 years ago), the encounter turned into a special friendship, and from then on Wolfgang has been actively involved in the development of new games at an early stage.
Wolfgang’s career as an editor began when he joined the new company TM-Spiele GmbH, which soon enough began to focus on consultancy for other game publishers.
He has edited games published under the Goldsieber label and by KOSMOS until 2013.
Wolfgang regards his ability to recognize whether a prototype has the potential of becoming a good game as one of his strenghts. As an editor at KOSMOS, he continues to take care of part of the family and adult games, and he also continues to be actively involved in the development of games at an early stage.
Klaus Ottmaier was born 1977 in Vienna. Perhaps he played games before he was able to speak… After school he studied Genetics. 2000 he moved to Cologne where he became a bookseller and a happy father of two sons. This was the time when he started to work on games in a professional way – he became the editor of the small publisher Argentum Verlag. In 2012 he got the great opportunity to work for Pegasus Spiele what he does as the head of publishing till now.
President and co-founder of La Tana dei Goblin Venezia – the most important local gaming association – Umberto organizes gaming events, conventions and tournments attending the most important international kermesse in the field. With his Ph.D. he organized and took part to conferences with board games as a topic, in Lucca, Ferrara and Venice. He knows very well Euro-style board games but has a great expertise also in traditional and collectible card games, war games, role playing games, party games and the classics.
Great-grandson of the founder of Piatnik, he is working at the company since 1983. He is Chief Executive Officer since April 1995.
He graduated from the University of Illinois and began working in data processing at 19. At 50, he decided to follow his passion for games – which he had been playing since childhood – and left data processing to work for Mayfair Games. After two years there, he founded Rio Grande Games. With Rio Grande Games he started publishing games of his own (including working with other firms to publish localized games in their languages), and partnered with foreign publishers to produce their games in English. Since 1998, Rio Grande Games has realized over 750 games, some of whom have won awards, including Dominion, which won the Spiel des Jahres in 2009. In addition to Dominion and its many expansions, their most popular games are Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, Tikal, Bohnanza, Friday, Power Grid, Concordia, Puerto Rico, Torres, Coloretto, Ricochet Robots, Carcassonne and Lost Cities. In more recent years, he has endorsed new designers by participating in game design competitions, as Premio Archimede, and publishing their games.
In the weeks before the final voting, the jurors will test all the finalist games, recording their impressions in secret and choosing their favorite games. The final ranking will be entirely based upon the sum of the points received by each game.
Both juries will make use of the consultation and collaboration of F. Bortolato, G. Franceschini, C. Giuriato, C. Manfren, G. Marchesin, R. Nardo and selected playtesters.
Jurors 2018
PARTNERS
They also offered games as gifts for the finalists:
THE LONG-LIST
The magnificent 110… Magna cum laude!
After several months of meticulous hard work, the preliminar Jury has selected the 110 games that will move on to the next step of the Archimede Prize 2021. Here they are, strictly in alphabetical order!
Soon will be available the (virtual!) exhibition with all the selected games.
Many of the games that didn’t pass the selection were not without merit, but alas! since this is a contest, a selection needed to be made.
Authors of the games that didn’t make the Long-List – should they wish to – can ask for a feedback from the Jury at archimede@studiogiochi.com
| Games | Authors |
| 4 punti |  Sanzio Pedersoli |
| 7 Guilds | Mario Quartana |
| Alchicromia | Istituto Pellati, Nizza Monferrato (Asti) – Fotonica in gioco Finalist |
| Artistik |  Maria Castellvi Barnes, Roger Brunet Espinosa |
| Aster & Anguis | Isacco Frigerio, Fabio Sacchi |
| Astralis (cacciatori di stelle) | Tannhäuser Gatekepeers (Clint Bosi, Roberto Fadigati, Bruno Sparpaglione) |
| B’Asta! | Riccardo Sora |
| Back to the Moon | Francesco Frittelli |
| Bandit Guilds | Félix Bernat Julián |
| BeesBiz | Paula Haase, Elisa Dalmaso, Chiara Menotti, Moritz Haase, Frida Haase, Albrecht Haase |
| Black Ball | Nazareno Signoretto |
| Boogie Boogie | Diego Allegrini |
| Bust |  Jason Kieronski |
| Cardlabirinto |  Paolo Straet |
| Casinò Italia | Marcello Bertocchi |
| Castel Rock | Alessandro Saragosa, Eva Saragosa |
| Cercatori di Nuvole | Stefano Bonati |
| Che Pizza! 2 | Teodoro Mitidieri |
| Città del Rinascimento | Enrico Feresin |
| Cocoon | Alfonso Mastrantonio, Andrea Varone |
| Color Empire | Andrea Martinetti |
| Crazy Party | Banana C. Games |
| Cromoladro | Liceo Artistico Lussu, Sant’Antioco (Carbonia – Iglesias) – Fotonica in gioco Finalist |
| Dead Man’s Chests | Marco Guidara |
| Diggin’ Klondike | Michele Bortolotti, Andrea Lasta |
| Dragon Farm |  Joel Escalante, Rafael Escalante |
| EkoHouse | Maria Castellvi Barnes, Roger Brunet Espinosa |
| Esagon | Francesco Braga |
| Fabrica | Maurizio Turinetto |
| Flea & Co. | Peter Verhaeghe |
| Formularium | Fabrizio Tronchin |
| Gli Artisti del Rinascimento | Paolo Straet |
| Gli Eredi di Dragonia | Massimo Pallotti, Klara Pallotti, Marek Pallotti, Samuel Pallotti, Lenka Pallotti |
| Go Go Go | Teodoro Mitidieri |
| Granciporro |  Paulina Wioleta Miroslawska |
| Gutenberg: the Expansion of the Printing Press | Raúl Fernandez Aparicio, José Gallego Leal |
| Hackers | Davide Sassoli |
| Happy Fruits | Francesco Calvi |
| I Portali di Vega | Damiano Marzotto |
| Il Labirinto di Hermes | Domenico Cicellini |
| Il Mostro nel Cassetto | Renato Millioni |
| Il Sacrificio di Quetzalcoatl | Massimiliano Cuccia |
| In Jane’s world | Irene Fraschetti |
| Incantesimi e Draghi | Diego Allegrini |
| Iwoki Maths | Santiago Videgain Diaz |
| Kasparov Banlieue | Ivan Gariboldi |
| Kayak | Paolo Straet |
| L’Ultimo Sorso | Francesco Sciacqua |
| La Grande Roue | Massimo Borzì, Rosaria Battiato |
| La Granita | Paolo Straet |
| Le 4 dame | Agostino Recchia |
| Le 9 Lettere | Lorenzo Martinelli |
| Leave and Let Dice | Mauro Vettori |
| LeoGallery | Istituto Fermi Galilei, Ciriè (Torino) – Fotonica in gioco Finalist |
| Let’s Get Kraken |  Orin Bishop |
| Let’s GOndola | Kangi Periotto, Ana Hajdari |
| Lines | Cielo D’Oro |
| Live Rock | Francesco Gagliardi |
| Lo Schiacciamosche | Paolo Straet |
| Loop | Francesco Falleri, Filippo Falleri |
| Loyalty |  Nicholas Paschalis |
| Lupin | Alberto Colombo |
| LyN | Francesco Frittelli |
| Mare Nostrum | Gabriele Bubola |
| Memento Mori | Stefano Ancillai, Tiziano Palazzotti |
| Messy Robots | Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì |
| Modulo 10 | Agostino Recchia |
| Onagro | Gabriele Coraggio |
| Otto | Vincenzo Carlone |
| OverbooKing | Filippo Landini |
| Pegs | Alberto Poles, Sara Piovesan |
| Planetary | Luca Frascatani |
| Platomanzia | Alberto Menoncin |
| PlayFul | Raffaella Cucchi, Stefania Merlo, Federica Focaracci, Federica Miralli |
| Playscroll – Zombie Road | Manuele Giuliano |
| Quickolonies | Roberto Tibuzzi |
| Qumran | Massimiliana Varnier |
| Rainbow Jems | Mauro Vettori |
| Rhumoris: Family Game | Sandro Tubino |
| Rhyolite | Alessandro Dentis |
| Roll & Race | Francesco Frittelli |
| Scacco Pazzo | Francesco Braga |
| Scape Line |  Luís Miguel Dinis |
| Seven Kingdoms | Simone Ancillai, Stefano Ancillai |
| Single Milf e Nonnetti | Matteo Villani |
| Smart Shark | Alessia Luca, Tino Dessì, Andrea Piano, Andrea Sandu |
| Soldatini | Valerio Frau, Roberto Donati |
| Spellbound | Ilaria Capra |
| Stiiki World | Alessio Barilotti, Marco Arbau |
| Survival Island | Luca Morigi, Pier Damiano Bandini |
| Taiwan – 6000 A.C. | Eric Orel |
| Tankograd | Marcello Mugnai |
| The Grammar Nazi | Andrej Prassel |
| The Pirate’s Secret | Eleonora Chiari |
| The Treasure Chest | Eleonora Chiari |
| Tic-Tac-X | Matteo Sassi, Maurizio Giacometti |
| Tlaloc Pyramid | Joel Escalante, Rafael Escalante |
| Too Late for Sorrow | Mauro Vettori |
| Totems | Gabriele Bubola |
| Tre su Quattro | Paolo Roberto Maspero |
| Trenoto |  Stefan Mager |
| Trygoon | Stefano Cappello |
| Tutti a Bordo | Enrico Feresin |
| Un giorno al Museo | Francesco Frittelli |
| Uncharted Passage |  Bonghwan Ju |
| Watch Out! | Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta, Carlo Rigon |
| Wedding Planner | Francesca Giusti, Nestore Mangone |
| Wizard’s Cup | Lorenzo Tarabini Castellani |
| Yantra | Vincenzo Cianciullo |
| Your Majesty | Gabriele Bubola |
PHOTO EXHIBITION
Prototypes selected for the Long-list
Games’ descriptions – where provided – are written by the authors.
Set ups are for exhibition purpose and do not necessarily correspond to in-game situations. Photos by Piero Modolo.
by Sanzio Pedersoli
4 PUNTI is a game of strategy, bluffing and cold blood.
Players can wisely manage their resources through auctions, in order to win the lot that is most convenient for them.
But pay attention to the offers and counter offers of these auctions: an opponent may make us believe that he is interested in irrelevant lots to push us to buy them, or will try to buy at a ridiculous price a lot that is fundamental to him to close the game.
4 PUNTI combines classic and new game elements in a gameplay always different and exciting, leaving at the end of each game the desire to start another one right away!
by Mario Quartana
7 Guilds is a card game whose goal is to score the highest number of points, obtaining the consensus of the various guilds. The game takes place in 3 different rounds made up by different turns. During their turn, each player must choose (respecting certain constraints) certain character cards, among those available, gradually forming his own hand. These characters will belong to one of the 7 guilds and will be able to carry valuables or risks for their master. At the end of the round, only those who earn the most representatives of the various guilds will be able to take their benefits, earning victory points.
by Istituto Pellati, Nizza Monferrato (Asti) – Fotonica in gioco Finalist
by Maria Castellvi Barnes, Roger Brunet Espinosa
Take a word card, open symbols, and be the first to claim your turn! Now you are the artist! You have one minute to draw your word and hope that your team will guess it. But remember, you can only draw using the opened symbols, the pencil, and the colored pencils. Be prepared! Your opponents will try to make it difficult for you: can you draw with your eyes closed or with your non-dominant hand? Be the first team to complete the 4 levels and win the game!
In this game, creativity is the key!
by Isacco Frigerio, Fabio Sacchi
Aster & Anguis tells a tale about a princess, a dragon, a magic island and about 4 knights who will battle themselves to reach the center of the forest and victory. Challenge the dangers of the game, the dragon protecting the river and your opponents to reach the Tower before anyone else.
Players will have to reach the Special Tiles and collect the Objectives needed to win the game.
There are 3 different “Element Cards” types in the game: attack cards, defense cards and movement cards.
During the exploration it will be possible to collect “Ability Cards” and “Dragon Cards” which will allow the players to acquire skills useful to achieve victory.
by Tannhäuser Gatekepeers (Clint Bosi, Roberto Fadigati, Bruno Sparpaglione)
Like other chess-like board games, Astralis can be played with various skill levels. Broadly speaking, it can be said that:
– beginners are required only a good glance that allow them to know how to seize the opportunity to capture a piece anticipating the opponent;
– on the other hand, experts are also required to have the strategic ability to recognize moves, so that instead of fighting systematically on every single capture, they need to be able to secure an advantage over the majority of stars (whose actual capture is postponed to a later action, after the opponent’s initiative has been limited).
by Riccardo Sora
What about B’Asta!
An abstract game of tiles and auctions,
not at all hard as a game.
But what is it made of? Of various tiles, as we said,
there are also dice and markers, that’s all.
How does it work? You all bet
but keeping it well hidden;
then together you reveal it and then you sort it out.
The one who bet less is the first to start the game!
Remember that you have to bet from both sides,
one opposed to the other one!
Let’s pray it’s the right one so as to lose very little.
The one who spends more in the four prizes, is given points,
the one who gains more points will finally win!!
by Francesco Frittelli
In the year 2069, exactly one century after the first step on the Moon, an international competition is launched to build the first permanent base on our beloved satellite. The players are called to coordinate the assembly of the new base trying to organize the different modules sent from the Earth (greenhouses, lodgings, workshops, water reserves and infirmaries) in the most profitable way possible both horizontally and vertically, in the end who will prevail will have the honour of being the first to rule on the Moon.
For 2-4 players
Age: 10+
Duration: 45-60 minutes
by Paula Haase, Elisa Dalmaso, Chiara Menotti, Moritz Haase, Frida Haase, Albrecht Haase
The aim of the game is to manage a bee colony. This requires coordinating the various aspects of life in the hive. As in nature, once bees reach adulthood, they specialize in different roles: nursing the brood, producing wax and honey, guarding the hive and the queen and, of course, foraging for pollen and nectar. By carefully balancing these roles and the spaces in the hive, a player tries to keep his colony healthy and growing. This may be accompanied by setbacks such as parasite infestation and intrusion of hornets, or favourable unexpected events. A bit of luck is also required to find the richest food sources, the position of which is communicated among the forager bees through the waggle dance. The winner is the player who first produces the given amount of honey.
A game for 2 to 6 players aged 7 and up, lasting about 45 minutes.
by Diego Allegrini
Dog-themed party game in which players must collect 6 bones to win, or they must be able to send all opponents to the doghouse!
At the beginning of each round in which the game is divided, specific points in bones (the bowl points) are defined to be obtained with the player’s cards. At the end of the round, the player with the best point is awarded with bones. Instead, the player with the worst point will pay a bone. If a player runs out of bones, they go to the doghouse for one round.
In addition to 10 dog breeds, the deck of cards contains the Boogie puppy, cute kittens and mischievous bears and raccoons who, instead of increasing the bones, “steal” them!
by Jason Kieronski
Welcome to BUST, the cooperative card comparison. Players will work together by playing one card each, attempting to beat the RANDO dealer. Without communication yet with player power chips, players can adjust their plays to get as close to 32 as possible. One loss or one bust and the players lose. However, if you play your cards wisely, reading your teammates’ plays, you can beat the RANDO dealer in each of the 14 hands for a 4 player game. The RANDO stands at 24 and busts at 33. Good luck.
by Paolo Straet
An important mission calls from 1 to 4 players to enter a maze of 12 cards. The aim of the game is to complete the mission before the other adventurers. In the maze, avoiding getting lost and finding the right path are the actions that will allow the player to win.
Game for children aged 6 and up, with an average duration of 5 minutes and for a number of players from 1 to 4.
Each player has a 12-card maze inhabited by a dragon, a treasure and magical items.
by Marcello Bertocchi
Casinò Italia is a puzzle game for 1-5 players who roll the dice of the colors of the Italian flag and must collect from the piles of chips exactly that number and of those colors, taking each time only the top one. The players do not roll the dice for themselves but for the next player, of which they will share part of the score, so it is necessary to make the challenges difficult (to score many points) but not too much (to avoid losing them).
by Alessandro Saragosa, Eva Saragosa
A strategy game, simple to learn, but not trivial for the required thinking, forecasting and careful use of the resources it requires. Players must control a territory full of strategic and productive places, such as cities, roads and mines, by placing their control units around and within them, so as to exert a greater influence on them than that of the opponents and ultimately earn points depending on their value. But in order to do this, it is necessary to consider the changing structure of the territory, the characteristics of the units in play and the order they were put on the board. And, of course, beware of opposing wizards: in an instant they can make you lose the most precious loot you thought you managed to secure.
by Teodoro Mitidieri
It seems easy to get the right ingredients to be able to make pizzas for your customers, however you have to use excellent purchasing planning to get ready when the pizzas need to be baked. Don’t forget the special ingredients and markets that can help you out in the game. And like any good pizza chef, if you make good pizzas you earn lots of coins and whoever has the most wins.
by Enrico Feresin
Players are called upon to build a Renaissance city by competing with each other for the best building materials. In addition to the construction of the palace, the monument and the cathedral with bell tower, players will also need to make sure they have strong walls and an army ready to repel attacks from nearby cities. Finally, do not forget gardens and shops. The player who will build the most prestigious city will be the winner.
di Alfonso Mastrantonio, Andrea Varone
Cocoon is a 2-4 players card game, based on numbers and colors and set in the colourful world of butterflies. Inspired by the classic trick taking games, however, it has a very peculiar feature: the cards are actively playable on both sides and reveal information on the possible moves of the opponents. For this reason they are drawn from a case called Cocoon, only then revealing their colour. In the deck there are 4 types of caterpillars and 20 different species of moths, each accompanied by instructive naturalistic curiosities. Who will manage to get the best butterfly collection?
(Thanks to Elena Matossi for the graphics)
by Andrea Martinetti
“The laws of the colours are unutterably beautiful, just because they are not accidental”
Vincent van Gogh
Color Empire is an abstract game, where player (2 to 4) have to dominate others with their own colours. Doesn’t matter who put coloured pawns in final results: goals are discovered and reached during the game, step by step.
12 colours and their combinations are protagonists here. Will you score more points? Will you understand who has your same colour? Will you reach the most profitable goal? But pay attention from other players and bonus colours…
by Liceo Artistico Lussu, Sant’Antioco (Carbonia – Iglesias) – Fotonica in gioco Finalist
by Marco Guidara
Dead Man’s Chests is a family game with simple rules, suitable even for the little ones, in which players dress up as arrembanti buccaneers, intent on sharing out and betting the loot once they get off the ground, between one raid and another.
The goal is simple, to take home the largest part of the loot at the lowest possible cost, but what will be the most profitable chests on which to bet your doubloons?
A good bluff combined with your perceptive skills will certainly help you, but only a careful study of the opponents can guarantee you victory.
by Joel Escalante, Rafael Escalante
In the valley of dragons, the farmers grow dragons mixed with their farm animals. In this game the players will be farmers breeding baby animals and selecting actions from the town water wheel using common workers; the wheel will rotate each time the 7 workers have been used. There are 3 animal species cards (female & male) and all the cards have the baby side and adult side. The baby side of the cards adds a lot of cuteness and presence to the cards.
Players will try to get the most effective action spots in the water wheel, and try to win the most victory points from the truck cards. Players can also earn VP from the coins, so this adds strategy.
by Maria Castellvi Barnes, Roger Brunet Espinosa
Prove that you are the best architect in town by building the tallest, most spectacular and sustainable building complex of the city! In this game, your desktop becomes a sliding puzzle where you will need ability and speed to organize documents to get floors and bridges for your buildings. Be fast, you all compete for the same materials! Wrap your head around, change gears and keep fighting, no time to rest until the turn is over. Score more points than the other players to become the best architect in town!
by Francesco Braga
Esagon is a Risk with a new concept of territory: no more Kamchatka, Eastern Australia or Central America, only hexagons. There is no world map, no field limits: every game is always different. Always new islands and continents can be created.
The territories are moving! No one is ever safe!
Create a strategy: Use black card bonuses to change the boundaries of your territories and those of your opponents.
If you are unlucky with dice and have lost a lot of territories don’t worry: your black cards and your actions will always have a decisive effect on the game.
by Maurizio Turinetto
“Building the largest church in the world”, this was the aim of “La Fabbrica di San Pietro”, the organization created specifically for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. And so it was. In 120 years, starting from 1506, many of the greatest architects and artists of the time completed the work.
FABRICA assigns to each player the role of Architect involved in the realization of three Great Works, symbols of his mastery in architecture, painting and sculpture: the Basilica, the Transfiguration and the Pietà. The Architect obtains VPs, exploiting the special actions of Artists, Artisans, Master Builders, Treasurers, Curators, Accountants, managing his Workers, Costs and, a key resource, Time in the best possible way.
Simultaneous turns, advanced combos, prediction of future actions… that’s FABRICA!
by Peter Verhaeghe
5 Clans of fleas strategically compete for the majority in 5 beds. You are a clan leader. Each time your clan is in the majority at the start of your turn and also at the end of the game, you will receive coins. The player with the most coins wins the game.
You let fleas jump, move a super-flea or block locations with gambling tokens. Using a spray you can temporarily disable fleas. With gambling tokens, more fleas come into play at the end of the game and bets can be placed in each bed to indicate which clan you think is least represented.
All players are involved in every event. Every move requires the consent of all players. With flying fleas, the players prevent or support the movement other players execute.
When victory beckons, the end of the game can even be provoked. The gambling tokens keep the final count and the winner surprising.
by Fabrizio Tronchin
by Paolo Straet
Between 1400 and 1550 Tuscany was the cradle of talent and beauty. The players will be patrons from various Tuscan cities and will try to hire artists to create collections of works of art. The patron who will have the most important artistic heritage in 1550 will win.
The game has an average duration of one hour, for 2-5 players aged 10 and over.
The winner is whoever scores the most points, but also who has had fun, who has learned something more and who has traveled through time with the artists they care about most.
It is an auction and management game with party game elements.
by Massimo Pallotti, Klara Pallotti, Marek Pallotti, Samuel Pallotti, Lenka Pallotti
A long time ago, in another dimension, in the kingdom of Dragonia, there lived a mighty king. It was the realm of the Four Elements and the Four Dragons: air, water, earth and fire.
The king, who was certainly not good, had assigned each of his children a dragon.
One day he called all his children and said to them: “Dear children”, and here he gave a ferocious grin “One day I will die. Only the best of you can inherit the kingdom of Dragonia, the Four Elements and the Four Dragons. For me the best is the one that, without mercy, will be the first to achieve the goals I am giving to you. “
He paused and enjoyed the show: everyone wanted to win.
by Teodoro Mitidieri
Challenging and reckless car racing game based on the most competitive car set-up. This must be well equipped not only to whiz fast through the curves, but also to pull low blows to the opponents through appropriate disruptive weapons. Without careful petrol management it will be very difficult to win.
by Paulina Wioleta Miroslawska
The game aims to be a means to facilitate the learning of additions and subtractions in preschool and first grade children. The mechanism of the game consists in going back and forth until you recover the stolen pearl, facing the challenges of mathematical counting given by the cards and the spinner. In addition to the “trick” and “golden rules” cards, there are starfish ready to help in carrying out the counting. The rules written in capital letters are intended to facilitate reading by children, as well as the booklet, which can be the beginning of a story to be concluded using one’s imagination or to be interpreted before the game begins.
by Raúl Fernandez Aparicio, José Gallego Leal
Mainz, 1440: Johannes Gutenberg has just invented the movable type printing press, a new device for making multiple copies of books that will revolutionize cultural, social, political and religious life in Europe. His invention was made possible thanks to loans from the rich merchant Johann Fust, who ended his partnership with Gutenberg and went into business with Peter Schöffer. Now Gutenberg was not the only one to have a book-printing workshop in Mainz: the printing press had begun to spread. All of the city’s artisan printers fled to other cities in Germany and Europe, taking their materials and knowledge with them. This is where this dice management and area influence eurogame begins.
by Davide Sassoli
Cards and dice at will!
Find your Tools, get through the firewalls that protect your Goals and defend yourself from attacks of other hackers using Reward cards.
The first to conquer the highest number of Goals (the more players, the lower the threshold) wins the game, unless someone manages to compose the word H-A-C-K-E-R first, stealing the victory.
Minimum 3 – maximum 8 players. No bulky boards and low game time, especially if you are few. So much variety!
by Francesco Calvi
Time to go to the market and fill the basket with lots of fresh fruits!
Happy Fruits is a territory-building family game, with mechanics of: open drafting (to get tiles), tiles laying and open objectives.
There is an innovative management of the “weights” of the fruits, which adapts perfectly to the background of the game.
Only 2 actions in sequence to do (draw a tile from the market, place the tile in the fruit basket), which contain a lot of strategy to place the fruit in your basket, and complete the objectives.
The matches last 10-15 minutes and replay value is very high.
by Domenico Cicellini
Il Labirinto di Hermes is a game that includes a table with seven towers and the corresponding connecting bridges; each tower has a specific color combined with a symbol that gives a specific power. The winner is the first player who is able to get exactly in the central square with all seven symbols of Hermes, or manages to eliminate all the opponents or to trap them in a tower. In the game there are duels, kidnappings and bridge crossing. Agreements between two or more players are authorized and recommended. The players will use different strategies according to the moment and their temperament, they will be able with courage and luck to face many duels to eliminate the opponents or they will try to achieve the seven symbols of Hermes without too much mess to get to the center of the board.
by Renato Millioni
Little Timoty loves scary monsters. In this family game you are a dream maker and, in competition with your colleagues, you will have to create what will become for Timoty the monster in the drawer, the most terrifying of all!
Each monster has characteristics that, at the start of the game, are equally scary. A roll of the dice will establish where to place the monster in Timoty’s room and its characteristics will acquire different points if it is under the bed, inside the wardrobe, behind the window. Based on how the provisional points of the characteristics increase during the turns, each player chooses their monster to be nominated for victory. And be careful: if a feature becomes too common its score goes to zero!
by Massimiliano Cuccia
2-4 players, 10+ years, about 30 minutes
The Aztecs did not have a simple life. They relied on priests to receive the favours of the deities and fulfil their goals, sometimes a sacrifice allowed them to obtain more favours.
During each turn, only one action to choose between Move a priest to take a favour from the board, Sacrifice a favour to take more favours and Plan to take a goal to be achieved by collecting the combination of favours requested. At the end of the game the achieved goals will give points to the players and the player with the most points will be the winner. A draft of favour and objective cards with the twist of sacrifice that was typical in the life of the Aztecs.
by Irene Fraschetti
In Jane’s world is a competitive and asymmetrical game set in the worlds of the 6 novels by English author Jane Austen.
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion: choose a novel, take control of its protagonist and bring the story to completion. The final part of each goal? A high rank marriage, of course!
by Diego Allegrini
The Kingdom is in danger! A curse has awakened the dragons that now threaten the king’s castle!
The noble houses organize the defense of their domains against the attack of the dragons, relying on the spells of their powerful sorcerers.
But each house wants to take advantage of the situation and awaits the fall of the king to take over the others; to do so he must extend his domains and try to turn the destructive force of the dragons against the opposing castles.
That’s a difficult task, because the growth of your domain will attract more dragons: balance and wise use of the powers of the sorcerers will be needed to achieve the victory!
by Santiago Videgain Diaz
Iwoki Maths trains the numerical and spatial mental capacity.
Players fit together small and hexagonal tiles, endeavoring to match the result of simple addition or subtraction on the smaller tiles with the numbers on the hexagonal ones. As the game progresses, the options to choose the best strategy will increase. The game ends when any player runs out of small tiles, but the winner will be the one who gets the highest score after the final point tally. It is easy and fast to learn and it is enjoyable from the beginning of the play.
by Ivan Gariboldi
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov returns to the suburb of his hometown to finance a building redevelopment plan. The players (who take on the role of the architects of the neighbourhood) have a mini chess-board on which they select the actions, collect the necessary resources and increase the ELO level of their workers in order to build the required parks and buildings. During the quest, players can always count on the support of the generous Garry. The most skilled architect will be appointed mayor of the new banlieue.
by Paolo Straet
The board represents a circuit of streams where Kayak competitions are held. The speed of the water is variable and in the bottlenecks we sometimes push each other. There are 20 different routes.
The game has an average duration of 15 minutes for 1 to 6 players, ages 7 and up.
The goal of the game is to get to the finish first or be the first to win 2 races.
The players will have to carefully choose the moments to take risks and those of playing carefully, but also choose the right trajectories and manage the presence of the opponents.
by Massimo Borzì, Rosaria Battiato
Paris, 1900. The Universal Exposition houses the largest ferris wheel ever seen.
In this family plus game, players use tickets in their hand, to act on a booth, taking into account its height. The actions are: admiring the view, observing the details, collecting memories, meeting famous people.
Each player places in front of him the cards of the observed panorama, which he enriches with details tokens to earn the relative points. In addition, the “memory cards” collected help to enhance the actions, while famous people, inspired by historical characters, give points at the end of the game. Planning the moves is essential: the wheel turns and dizziness rises!
by Paolo Straet
We are on the beaches under the hot August sun. The slushes vendors compete to please the people of the free beaches, the traditional ones and the luxury ones.
The game has an average duration of 15 minutes, for 3-5 players aged 8 and over.
The aim of the game is to sell all the slushes before the opponents in the maximum time of 4 days. If a street vendor has no more slushes in his cart, he will win the game.
The player who manages to sell granite on beaches where other street vendors are not present in the same hand will win. A good understanding of the opponents’ intentions will make the difference.
by Agostino Recchia
Le 4 dame is a strategy board game. It is played in 2. Different strategies are used to move the pieces in turn on a board of 25 squares. You can move by taking a step forward, a step diagonally to the right or left, a step horizontally but only to the right; pieces do not eat or override their opponents.
The pieces are a cohesive team and are willing to sacrifice some of the companions to allow four of them to overcome all obstacles encountered along the way and become DAME. The aim of the game is in fact to place four pieces (the DAME) on the squares of the last row.
by Lorenzo Martinelli
Find the word, but respect the obligation or the prohibition!
Le 9 lettere is a card game consisting of a deck of “letter cards”, each with a different combination of 9 colored letters (the 9 colors are the same for all cards), a deck of “theme cards” and one of “bond cards”. Each player has 5 “letter cards”. The first player who, on one of his cards (using 2 or more letters, even repeating them), finds a word that respects the theme and the constraint (the obligation or prohibition to use a letter of a specific color) declares it and discards the card. The player who discards all his cards first wins. A fast paced word game suitable for all ages, for 2 or more players.
by Mauro Vettori
In ancient times, only wealth brought honor and prestige. Many traders competed for the title, but only one could claim the title of dice dealer. An abstract dice placement game for 2-5 players in which the first player who manages to hoard the resources in his warehouse in two different ways will win. Obviously, the less common resources are also the most expensive, and often you will need to spend dice specifically to take coins.
by Istituto Fermi Galilei, Ciriè (Torino) – Finalista di Fotonica in gioco
by Francesco Gagliardi
Live Rock is strategy game for 2-4 players set in the world of rock music, lasting approximately 60 minutes. Each player forms their own rock band trying to grab the best artists in the square! Each band will have the opportunity to participate in the most famous rock concerts in history, compose music and earn silver, gold and platinum records. The rock band with the most rock points wins the game. It’s time to get on stage and raise hell!!
by Paolo Straet
We are having breakfast with bread, butter and jam and an annoying fly finds us. This is where the flyswatter comes in handy.
The game lasts an average of 10 minutes, for 3-5 players aged 6 and over.
The flies will try to take food cards to get to 10 points or they will try to escape. One player with a fly swatter will try to prevent this.
It’s an asymmetrical game of guessing with just a bit of bluffing.
by Francesco Falleri, Filippo Falleri
Loop is an abstract game that tests ingenuity, intuition and requires adaptation to rapidly changing situations.
The game is made up of cubes that have lines on each face to be combined with each other.
The aim is to alternately overlap one’s own cubes and those of the opponent to form a wall, join the lines, trying to create the longest possible continuous path on your side, and with more loops (closed loops).
But be careful: each cube that will form the wall will add a line both on one side and on the other and perhaps that of your opponent could mess up your plans for victory! And watch out for the extra ground lines!
by Nicholas Paschalis
In Loyalty, you will control a rising family competing to reach the top. The measure of success is reputation and to achieve it, you must earn the trust of important figures in exchange for loyalty. To do so, you’ll use your family members to visit those figures and get their benefits, but keep an eye open, the other families might find a good idea to follow you.
Some of the mechanisms featured in the game are worker placement, follow and set collection.
Number of players: 2-4
Playing time: 35-55 minutes
by Alberto Colombo
Challenge your opponents, taking the role of the most famous thief, to open the largest number of vaults entering the right combination while being careful enough to not trigger the alarm.
Make the best use of the Jokers to get more points and avoid plays that can favor your opponents.
Easy to learn, hard to stop playing and finally with Lupin even math will be fun.
For 2 to 5 players, suitable for ages 8 to 90.
by Francesco Frittelli
Building the best series of numbered cards is LyN‘s goal, players have 72 cards divided into 6 colors stacked in 6 piles arranged in a circle. In order to take the cards, the players take turns rolling 6 dice also corresponding to the color of the cards, and place them by position based on the result and/or by color. On each position where there is at least one die it will be possible to take the corresponding card, however the greater the number of dice on a position the better the card you take. This way players will try to expand the series they build as much as possible while also trying to achieve the open objectives in the best possible way.
For 2-5 players
Age: 8+
Duration: about 30 minutes
by Gabriele Bubola
by Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì
In the laboratories of Professor Zurk, the great inventor and builder of robots, there is always a mess! In this dexterity game for the whole family, players must put the robot tiles of their Laboratory board in order to follow the instructions of the professor, as asked by the cards. With each new round, an Orders card is revealed and you compete in speed by sliding the tiles, within the allowed time. For each row or column in order that matches the criteria of the card, you earn new pieces to assemble your personal Robot, marking them on a common board.
The winner is the first to reach or cross the finish line in all three components.
by Agostino Recchia
Modulo 10 is a card game inspired by modular arithmetic.
You can play in 2, 3 or 4. If there are 4 players you can also play in teams.
The playing cards are 100, 40 are of a single color and 60 are double-colored.
The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible. Each player must declare at the beginning of the game which color he intends to play with because only the cards that contain that chosen color will contribute to his score.
During the game you have to implement different strategies by adding points and matching colors and sometimes relying on luck.
by Gabriele Coraggio
This game was born… for fun. I had to help a friend present his prototype and this stimulated my creativity. I am a chess player and initially the game was a variant of the millenary game, then with a circular board and catapults it took a completely autonomous path, even if the idea of a battle remains and the strategy is not alien to this game.
On the other hand, Onagro is a dynamic game, real (but harmless) bullets are thrown and everything is in motion: the tower, the catapults, the triangular platforms and of course the pieces (which are of four types).
To win, the player must use strategic skills, shooting accuracy and… have a little luck.
by Vincenzo Carlone
by Filippo Landini
OverbooKing is a card game in which two to four Court Chamberlain will have to arrange, in the inns of the city, the greatest number of guests invited at the King’s party, managing their hand of guest cards, paying attention to the prestige points of each of them but also to their nationalities.
The aim of the game is to find accommodation for the greatest number of your Guest cards in the common Inns, trying to get more Prestige Points than the other players.
by Alberto Poles, Sara Piovesan
Agile mind, keen sight and lucky hands are the ingredients of a cheerful, unpredictable and universal game: PEGS!
A few simple rules accompany the players in an attempt to recreate the patterns of 16 illustrated cards, dotting a large board with colored pieces to give life to a challenge that is anything but trivial. Each game offers a different gameplay every time. Skill and readiness are supported or opposed by fate with sudden changes of scenario.
The amount of cards awarded to the player’s ability to recreate the combinations, combined with a pinch of cunning and some favorable draw, decrees the winner.
by Luca Frascatani
Are you ready to join a race to colonize extra solar planets?
Using dice (colonists) and action cards, control the planets with the most resources trying not to be hindered by the opponent.
A strategy game for two players lasting approximately 20 minutes.
by Alberto Menoncin
The most powerful ancient wizards are competing to determine which of them is the most powerful: 108 cards for a game of majorities and spells.
The magic is based on the control of the Elements, well defined by Plato who identified the shape and color of the crystals that enclose their power: the red tetrahedrons fire, the violet octahedra the air, the blue icosahedra the water and the green cube the Earth… and finally the powerful yellow dodecahedra of the ether.
Each player can try to accumulate crystals to control their elements or exploit their magical effects to mess up the game… or be content with accumulating small splinters of power by collecting black orbs.
by Raffaella Cucchi, Stefania Merlo, Federica Focaracci, Federica Miralli
The Game of Sign Languages
The PlayFul game was born from the desire to make European sign languages usable in a playful way. The game, in the different marked languages, is accessible to a wide audience in terms of age and experience. It can be used with very young children as well as with people in their eighties. Playing is simple, you need focus and a bit of luck. It will not be enough to have on your card the sign corresponding to the one extracted, but it is important to correctly read the sign made by the Croupier. For those unfamiliar with sign languages, just do a short training by accessing the appropriate videos through the supplied QR Code, obviously in the sign language you prefer because remember… sign languages are natural languages that are different in each country.
by Manuele Giuliano
Zombie Road is a game for Playscroll.
The Playscroll is a scroll reader. A plastic structure that allows the insertion and roll of parchment. By changing parchment, you totally change the game: completely different styles, mechanics and settings.
Zombie Road is a sample game for Playscroll. By placing the pawns on the Playscroll and rotating the scroll, players will move their characters in a side-scrolling map similar to Super Mario. The possibility of splitting, different endings, management of the cards, will make this small game very interesting with a very classic setting, but with an extreme originality in the gameplay.
by Roberto Tibuzzi
2 to 4 players compete to colonize and civilize the lands of a new continent. At each turn, the players place a map tile and their colonists to try to gain dominion over territories and resources useful for the civilization of the cities. The task will be made difficult by the opponents, by mysterious creatures and by the natural calamities that hit the continent. The player who has the majority of territories and cities at the end of the game wins. Each game (duration 30/45 minutes) is different thanks to the modular map. Quickolonies offers excellent replay value, competition and interaction and can be played by both family and hard gamers in expert mode.
by Massimiliana Varnier
Qumran is a journey, in the beginning the biblical characters go along the ancient routes to conquer the keys placed in the towers of the cities. The keys allow access to the historic site of Qumran and open the jars containing the precious manuscripts. As in any journey, you have to make choices, decide the routes, manage the time and resources needed. Sometimes the apparently disadvantageous events may not be so and vice versa. The research will reward: the effort to reach one’s talents, the values of the recovered manuscripts, increased in the LOCUS EQUILIBRI, the ability to manage resources in a sustainable way, and the initiative to be the first to enter the Qumran quarries.
by Mauro Vettori
The spiteful Mauron; the lord of the dark clouds, broke 5 rainbow colors. All hell is breaking loose in heaven, but thank goodness you are here.
Through coins taken from the pot of gold and cards, in this filler game from 1 to 7 players will have to be able to recreate the rainbow behind your own hiding screen having at least 2 gems for each color and at the same time without having any cloud that would obscure it. Only the first to succeed will be the lord of the rainbow.
by Sandro Tubino
The title contains the three souls of the game:
- RhUMORIs-NOISES (“rumori” in Italian): those that during their turn each player emits with their mouth trying to make others guess an item, an action or an animal on three levels of difficulty without the aid of other parts of the body in order to advance their own token on a path;
- RHUMORis-HUMOR: irony that exposes the players to some funny fool in an attempt to reproduce noises and sounds that are sometimes impossible;
- RhumoRIS-LAUGHTERs (“risate” in Italian) that come from crippled noises or from unlikely answers and that contribute to create minutes of good fun with family or friends.
by Alessandro Dentis
A family game for 2-4 Gold Seekers
Players take the role of Gold Diggers in the old city of Rhyolite.
By managing the roll of the dice and taking advantage of those obtained by the opponents, they try to enrich their Loot of Nuggets by depopulating the city grid and taking the most profitable Building cards.
A simple linking system between the cards of the Loot deck leads to having to constantly make short or long-term choices;
but as you know, the risk of not being able to turn Buildings into useful Nuggets is always lurking because Rhyolite is destined to become a Ghost Town like many centers of the old Frontier…
Welcome to the Far West and may the search for your Fortune begin!
by Francesco Frittelli
It is a triathlon competition: swimming, cycling and running, along a randomly generated path. Players will compete with two different runners using a personal deck of action cards (3 different types of dice) and fatigue cards. When it is his turn the player rolls the dice and plays action cards from his hand to accumulate movement points corresponding to the result of the die used. Dice with a higher number of faces provide greater range of motion, however they tire the runners more. You need to know how to balance your strengths well to avoid getting too tired and wasting precious time.
For 2-4 players
Age: 8+
Duration: about 30-60 minutes
by Francesco Braga
Scacco Pazzo (Crazy Check), at first glance, may seem like a normal chessboard for a normal game of chess.
But is not! Scacco Pazzo is an explosive game.
The rules of the movement of the pieces are the same as in the original game, but the chessboard is made up of 64 mobile squares and this allows it to transform and break down, thus creating new situations and the possibility of extravagant moves.
In Scacco Pazzo, players can create a custom chessboard structure, not just the classic 8×8: at the start of their turn, each player can remove or add squares and start exciting games.
by Luís Miguel Dinis
Scape Line is an abstract game for 2 to 4 players played in a 9×9 square board with 48square-shaped pieces with 2 painted sides (brown and red). More than the pieces themselves, the most important thing in Scape Line are the spaces in the board that the movement of the pieces creates. To play, each player in his turn needs to do 2 mandatory actions: (1) move any 1 piece with the brown side visible to the 1st empty white space horizontally or vertically of the line or column in which the piece was located (not crossing red squares or pieces with the red side visible) and (2) turning any 1 piece to reveal the other side (but keeping it in the same square). To win the game, a player may have at the end of a turn an exclusive piece-free path in a horizontal and/or vertical line that connects the central red square with one of the 7 squares on the player’s side of the board.
by Matteo Villani
A Card game with unique powers. The Grandpa faction and their overwhelming lack of shame. But even the Milfs do not joke, with their invincible ability to metabolize alcohol. But be careful: the fact that you are engaged or single could determine the fate of the game!
by Alessia Luca, Tino Dessì, Andrea Piano, Andrea Sandu
by Valerio Frau, Roberto Donati
“General, we lost the medical unit” “Damn, move our artillery to the front line, we will break through their infantry” “Sniper in position!” “Help, the general has been hit!”
Soldatini is a simple and addicting military strategy game, set in the scenario of the Great War, in which it is possible to generate quick and never predictable challenges. Deploy your army, choose your strategy and face opposing units in a race against time to eliminate the enemy general. You will be able to rely on troops with multiple skills supported by the unique ability of your general. Dive into battle, the fate of your soldiers is in your hands!
by Ilaria Capra
A game to support caregivers of epileptic patients: an app, which with gamification transforms small routines into challenges, and a card game, for primary and lower secondary school students and teachers, with a simple mechanism to learn to ‘deal with’ a partner’s seizure when it occurs.
To make the game interesting for different age groups, it is set in a magical world: you have to match the cards with the correct sequence of actions to perform when there is a crisis (a spell that has ‘paralyzed’ the protagonist). The players will work together to save the hero through a role-play helped by the teacher or by a mate with the help of the app.
by Alessio Barilotti, Marco Arbau
Stiiki-World is a turn-based sandbox tactical, super easy to learn but difficult to master game. Basically Stiiki-World is an extremely competitive game with lots of characters to play with unique abilities, but it’s also much more! In fact, Stiiki-World will develop on two tracks, one “competitive” and the other “creative”. For the competitive, players will compete in the official modes and maps in the various leagues/tournaments with both national and international rankings. For the creative, however, the community is called to experiment and create new modes/maps/different rules without any limitation by adding, removing or changing the various components of the game. This sandbox nature makes Stiiki-World an ever-new game, regardless of the expansions that come out. The funniest and most loved creations will be produced and sent to the various authors for free. “You are playing Stiiki-World with your friends, together create a new map/game mode using other elements not in the box (such as dice, cards, etc.), share it and let the whole community try it, read the feedback, modify it if necessary and wait at home for the copy with your name written on it!” Stiiki-World wants to revolutionize the way of conceiving the “board game” in fact we want the user to free their imagination to involve the whole community in the development of the game! There will then be official expansions with new characters, maps, modes (competitive and non-competitive), scenario tokens, scenic elements and much more.
by Marcello Mugnai
Tankograd – the city of tanks – is a prototype of a worker placement, resource management, tile placement and majorities game. The players, managing their own factory, must increase the production of all sectors – steel, assembly line, engines, armaments and ammunition – taking care not to “flood” the production with malfunctions; all in order to assemble the armored vehicles, including the famous T-34 medium tank, and finally transport these vehicles to the military units at the front, who are waiting to launch their victorious offensive.
Tankograd is a big prototype. The first German where you build Soviet tanks! Khorosho poveselit’sya!
by Eleonora Chiari
An old painting with a double bottom, a letter and a treasure map! A pirate adventure!
It all starts with a gift from Granny… a painting of Queen Elizabeth I. However, once inspected, the painting has a double bottom that has hidden, for all these years, a letter and some envelopes containing mysterious objects and messages.
The letter was written by a pirate and it reveals the existence of a treasure buried on a remote island. The clues and enigmas in the
envelopes show to the player the instructions to reach it… maps, a whisky bottle, a Jolly Roger flag, some tracks and many other objects.
Follow the instruction on the map and get the treasure!
by Eleonora Chiari
Finally a puzzle board game for KIDS! Furthermore, the reward is a TRUE TREASURE!!!
This game is meant to be an introduction to the world of board games, enigmas and escape rooms for children. It targets primary school kids.
The surprise already begins from the unboxing. The player find a REAL TREASURE CHEST, but it is closed by a 4-digit padlock.
Fortunately, there is an envelope containing some sheets and a letter.
The player has to observe the sheets, understand and find the clues and then open the padlock. He will have to cut, fold and overwrite the clues sheets, to get a real and very beautiful treasure.
Imagine the kid’s face when he sees the treasure! Fun and surprise are guaranteed!
by Matteo Sassi, Maurizio Giacometti
Tic-Tac-X is an abstract family game where coloured marbles are pushed on a three-dimensional grid to make polyominoes and conquer as many objectives as possible. To win you need to be able to see the sequence of moves that allows you to create a figure, even learning to better manage the one-shot powers acquired by the cards conquered.
The game was born in the summer of 2020 on two distant beaches where two authors are forced by their children to play Tic-Tac-Toe on the sand. The challenge to overturn a classic of games has therefore begun! Will we have won the challenge?
by Joel Escalante, Rafael Escalante
Tlaloc was the Aztec God of the rain; in this game, the players will be Aztec constructors building a pyramid to honor him. Players will be selecting resources and actions from a unique system of “action selection tiles” and common workers; the action selection tile will change each time the 7 workers have been used; this adds a lot of interaction, variability and strategy.
There are 3 different resources and 4 actions, these are all combined in different ways to build 5 different types of tiles: Pyramid, Tlaloc, Characters, Temple and Stairs. The players will arrange these tiles into a beautiful pyramid that will keep VP in secret and gives a lot of table presence to the game.
by Mauro Vettori
A bomb is about to explode, you cannot escape and you… are people who does not have a hint about explosives. Therefore instinct vi will suggest you do the only thing you can think of… pass it on to your neighbor before this one does BOOM! A fast and frenetic filler that takes a couple of minutes each round in which from 2 to 13 players will have to pass cards from their hand before the time expires, and at the end everyone will get points based on specific combinations. Those who have more than 3 cards will be considered the closest to the bomb and will be able to choose which card to discard. Small game made only by a timer and 45 cards.
by Gabriele Bubola
by Paolo Roberto Maspero
The game takes place on a small chessboard and consists in making a three in a row with one player’s “boxes” that have colored spheres into them. The game is no more complicated than a checkers but it is not as trivial as a simple three of a kind. It is necessary to “see” the moves in advance to be able to prepare an attack or to protect yourself. The game is fast compared to the time required for more in-depth thought.
The game can lead to a winner or a tie solution, and this can be regulated at will: upon reaching a number of games won, rematch, etc.
by Stefan Mager
In a total of six rounds you write down three words each, which you associate with a word drawn at the beginning of the round. The challenge here is to guess what the other players are writing down and not to use words that are too obvious. The less often a word is written down in total, the more points are awarded for it. However, if the word has been written down only by you and not by any other player, no points are awarded.
Think the way hardly anyone else does to win Trenoto!
The game has simple rules, a quick game preparation, a liquid game play, equal chances for everyone and no upper limit on the number of players. Moreover it leads to entertaining conversations about the chosen words!
by Stefano Cappello
Trygoon is an abstract game that will involve 1 to 3 players in a challenge to restore the balance between the Five Elements of Nature.
The pieces, each with unique abilities of the Elements, are moved thanks to a “dice-driven” system with dice management mechanics (modifiers and combos). There are different game modes (including player vs automaton) and a scoring system that balances the actions of the players by rewarding those who have managed to get closer to equilibrium: in fact, to win it will be necessary to obtain the smallest difference between the points acquired by capturing the opposing pieces and those obtained by letting your own pieces being captured.
by Enrico Feresin
Noah is still finishing building the ark but it is already starting to rain and there are still many animals to be found. Players will have to help Noah find the pairs of animals to put on his ark. The player who first manages to find five pairs of animals will win the game and will be declared Noah’s official helper.
For each animal species it will be necessary to match a wooden animal taken from a bag with an animal drawn from one of the tiles placed face down on the table.
by Francesco Frittelli
The Uffizi Gallery has gathered aspiring tour guides with the task of organizing the best guided tour. The players, in the role of one of these guides, will have to visit the various rooms of the museum trying to better study the paintings on display so that they can be included in their path. The game is played in a variable number of rounds, at the beginning of each round the players have 9 time cards of different value and must play one to move between the various rooms and another one to dedicate to study; however, the time devoted to study is secret. After 4 rounds, the round ends and all the rooms visited will be evaluated and whoever has invested more will receive the corresponding painting.
For 1-6 players
Age: 8+
Duration: about 45-60 minutes
by Bonghwan Ju
Draw your own sailing route on the world map. Your adventure becomes the history!
It’s the Age of Discovery. You become a captain of an expedition ship, and sail out to the uncharted world.
Your sailing route actually recorded on the world map as the game played on. At the end of the game, you will see the trace of your whole journey around the world, like Columbus or Vasco da Gama left behind.
During the sailing, you may discover a new port, an exotic goods, or astonishing discoveries. But of course, sailing is not easy. You have to deal with the threatening of pirates and sometimes go through a terrible scurvy outbreak.
Manage limited resources for sailing wisely, into three categories – Speed, Sailor Action, and Arming. And discover the best passage, and become a pioneer of a glorious path!
by Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta, Carlo Rigon
In Watch Out!, players find themselves in cars racing through a city center infested by zombies, mutant monsters, post-apocalyptic gangs and dangerous soccer players with even more dangerous balls!
Equipped with a deck of cards representing the road situation in front of him, the player will have to reveal one card at a time and decide in real time whether to go straight on, turn right, left, brake, reverse or hit the zombie! Victory will go to the fastest and most accurate among the players.
by Francesca Giusti, Nestore Mangone
Wedding Planner is a family game in which you have fun organizing weddings by planning events, locations and every other aspect of the big event!
The players will play dice from a fantastic tower with 5 columns corresponding to 5 rows of tiles with the requests of the future spouses: the combinations between die and tile will allow to fill the boards that will show the organizers how their job is progressing.
Special abilities will be unlocked as soon as somebody will be specialized in specific categories, victory points will increase as soon as a wedding is celebrated!
Whoever gets the most victory points will be proclaimed Wedding Master!
by Lorenzo Tarabini Castellani
Wizard’s Cup is the most important magical challenge of the moment. You will need to brew the correct magic potion using bizarre unstable ingredients that will constantly change throughout the game.
Wizard’s Cup is a deduction game that contains electronic cards, such as those used for hotel keys. The information on the cards can be accessed by bringing them close to a special reader that provides responses by means of lights and sounds.
To win you have to find the right sequence. Each ingredient is depicted on a card with a secret value. Using identification scrolls you have to find out the location of each ingredient. But it won’t be easy, one of the ingredients is not stable and changes with each consultation.
In Wizard’s Cup every game is different because the sequence changes automatically at the start of every game.
by Vincenzo Cianciullo
JURY
THE JURY TRYING OUT THE GAMES
BACKSTAGE
PRIZES
BOAT TRIP
VIDEOS
Presentation by Leo Colovini
Roberta Ramponi, director of IFN – CNR, introducing the Fotonica in Gioco’s contest
Fabio Chiarello of IFN-CNR presents the 3 finalists of Fotonica in Gioco’s contest
Interview with Thorsten Gimmler (Ravensburger)
Interview with Dieter Strehl (Piatnik)
Interview with Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück)
Interview with Michael Bruinsma (999 games)
Interview with Stefano De Carolis (Giochi Uniti)
Interview with Michele Garbuggio (CMON)
Interview with Umberto Rosin (Tana dei Goblin)
The greeting of Kevin Kichan Kim (Mandoo Games)
The greeting of Ileana Xodo (Cartamundi)
The greeting of Furio Honsell
The greeting of Wolfgang Lüdtke (Kosmos)