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Edition 2023

REX CRACOVIAE BY CIELO D’ORO WINS THE PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2023

FINAL PRESS RELEASE

Once again, there was no shortage of suspense. Until the last ballot of the international jury, the awarding of the Archimede Prize 2023 was down to the wire! In the end Rex Cracoviae of the Cielo d’Oro collective from Saronno won, repeating their 2010 success with Aquileia. Second place went to Garden Time by Filippo Landini, who until the very last moment nurtured the dream of a second consecutive victory after the success of 2021 with Overbooking. Completing the podium there was Wunderkammer by Andrea and Lorenzo Martini and Alessandro Zappi.

“The winning game,” explains Dario De Toffoli, “has a complex architecture, but it is perfectly coherent and not too difficult to assimilate; there are various and different ways to earn victory points, so it is a matter of choosing the right strategy at the right time. An interesting and innovative factor is the possibility of activating several of one’s own pawns in different areas of the board; each one goes its own way, at the end of which the pawn will be repositioned for the final score. As it has often happened to the winners of the Archimede Prize and to many more prototypes showcased over the years, I think that this game will certainly have an international publication as well, and we have already received numerous requests in this regard.”

Cielo d’Oro is a collective of friends that have been close for the past fifty years, all from Saronno: Pier Volonté, Giorgio Villa, Chicco and Gigi Tramezzani, Stefano Fontana, Mario Biscella, Renato Borgatti and Maurizio Colombo. This is their second victory (out of nine participations), after their first triumph with Aquileia in 2010. At the question at how do they felt, “Twelve years older” was their first comment. “We actually didn’t expect this victory, because we had presented three different prototypes and considered Rex Cracoviae the more complex one, a ‘boar,’ as they say in the game world. Instead, it was probably this peculiarity that impressed the jury. We are now all retired, but we are a clear example of how gaming can be an important uniting factor at all ages and not just something related to the world of the youngsters. Now we will take a short break to promote the winner game to the publishing houses, but we are already at work on at least three other projects.”

In addition to the Archimede Prize, a number of important collateral prizes were also awarded, with Emergency as the guest of honour who, in collaboration with the Iuav university of Venice, was awarded the Special Mention Sebastiano Izzo for Dragomuro, created by the university students Ruggero Perenzin, Francesco Tonon and Marcello Sponza to narrate, in the form of a game, the trauma of war as seen through the eyes and drawings of children. Sebastiano Izzo was a special person, open to diversity and always willing to share what he had: he would certainly have loved this game and Emergency’s efforts as a whole to soothe the world’s wounds.

Fotonica in Gioco prize went to Smonta la Fake from Liceo Scientifico Statale Giacomo Ulivi in Parma. In second place was Be Hive! from I.T.S. Deledda – Fabiani in Trieste, and in third place Psephos from Liceo Ginnasio Statale Orazio in Rome.

Millennium, by Leonardo Errati and others collaborators, has been selected in the project Matematica in Gioco from Trento’s University.

Cartamundi Trophy for best card game went to Adiós Amigos! by Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta and Carlo Rigon.
SAZ Italia Trophy for best development went to Croak a Lot by Carlo Sgattoni.
Scienza in Gioco trophy awarded by CNR – IFN went to Fibonacci, by Angela and Emanuela Cavinato.

The Venice City Council hosted the Prize in the magnificent Sala San Leonardo and Councillor Paola Mar did the honours: “These games are made to bring people together, helping them to develop a collaborative spirit, and I think this is a fantastic endeavour.”

As many as 238 prototypes – the majority from Italy, but also from many other countries – participated in the 18th Archimede Prize. All games were played and tested very carefully by the preliminary jury, composed of:

Leo Colovini – President
Giuseppe Baggio
Piero Modolo
Federico Colovini

The quality of the 24 finalists was truly astonishing, also because they were able to benefit from an additional stage of development, carried out in collaboration with the same preliminary jury; this procedure, i.e. the fine-tuning of the prototypes prior to the final testing, although long and arduous, was a real success, much appreciated by both the authors and the final jurors.

For the final jury, were present in Venice:
Dario De Toffoli – President (studiogiochi, Italy)
Hadi Barkat (Helvetiq, Switzerland)
Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi and Pierpaolo Paoletti (ThunderGryph, Spain)
Luca Borsa (SAZ Italia, Italy)
Bernd and Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany)
Stefano De Carolis (Giochi Uniti, Italy)
Erik de Jong and Bert Calis (999 Games, The Netherland)
Luigi De Luca Cuccia and Gianluca Corrente (Creative Jam, Italy)
François Décamp (Asmodée, France)
Miriam Donda and Alessandro Montingelli (Amigo, Germany)
Thorsten Gimmler (Ravensburger, Germany)
Hermann Hutter (Huch! & friends, Germany)
Simone Luciani (Cranio Creations, Italy)
Wolfgang Lüdtke (Kosmos, Germany)
Conor McGoey (Inside Up Games, Canada)
Umberto Rosin (Tana dei Goblin, Italy)
Michal Šmíd (Albi, Czech Republic)
Dieter and Severin Strehl (Piatnik, Austria)
Matthias Wagner (Pegasus, Germany)
Tobias Weierstraß (Moses, Germany)

It was a week of intense and tiring work, but truly gratifying. To see twenty editors from the world’s major publishing houses, some “veterans” and some newcomers, competitors in theory, playing together in perfect harmony, embracing each other, dining together, and basically enjoying this event truly filled us with satisfaction… and the compliments were not lacking.

A special mention goes to Umberto Rosin who, as a skilled rower as well as player, together with Rossana Nardo, made the jurors experience the thrill of a tour of the Grand Canal in a historic rowing boat.

The work of the studiogiochi staff was invaluable in organising the website, secretariat, graphics, video and photos. Everything was impeccable: thank you!

Premio Archimede 2023 – Ranking

Winner
Rex Cracoviae
by Cielo D’Oro

2nd place
Garden Time
by Filippo Landini

3rd place
Wunderkammer by Andrea Martini, Lorenzo Martini, Alessandro Zappi

4th place
Una Giornata Sfortunata
by Cielo D’Oro

5th place
Le Botteghe di Firenze
by Alessandro Cuneo

6th place
Adiós Amigos!
by  Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta, Carlo Rigon

7th place
Covens
by Félix Bernat Julián

8th place
Ikebana
by Francesco Testini

9th place
Croak a Lot
by Carlo Sgattoni

10th place
Let’s Wall
by Francesco Angileri, Francesco Timo

11th place
Dragomuro
by Ruggero Perenzin, Francesco Tonon, Marcello Sponza
Soaring Skies
by Aaron Kempkes

13th place
Up & Down
by Marco Rava, Simona Greco

14th place
Borgopietra
by Guglielmo Cok

15th place
Building Up
by Pietro Gabrielli
Puzzle World by David Spada

17th place
Blood & Glory
by Maria Chiara Bagli
Pond Salad
by Richard De Rijk

19th place
Aiutanti di Noè
by Giorgio Galbusera

20th place
Crazy West
by Maurizio Buso, Fabrizio Tronchin

21th place
Frutta e Verdura
by Cielo D’Oro

22th place
Crazy Worms
by Fabrizio Tronchin, Maurizio Buso

23th place
La Forgia dei Nani
by Francesco Frittelli

24th place
Dice Cream
by Gabriele Rolandini

SELECTION PHASE COMPLETED

The selection jury has completed the massive work of playtesting and evaluating all the 238 participating prototypes.
24 finalist games have been selected, many of which required some development by the authors suggested by the jury in order to refine them and make them ready for presentation to the final jury.
During the week of September 11 to 16, the international jury of more than 20 publishers from the world’s leading publishing houses will arrive in Venice to test them, evaluate them, and give their final verdict during the awards ceremony on Saturday, September 16.
A very intensive but also beautiful work, where publishers from different (theoretically competing) publishers will enjoy playing together here, united by a common passion, in this playful full-immersion.

AWARDS CEREMONY
Saturday, September 16, 2023

Sala San Leonardo, Calle de la Chiesa, 1584 – Venice

Schedule

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Exhibition of finalist games, special projects, and other noteworthy games (open to everyone)

1:30 p.m.

Awarding Fotonica in Gioco prize, organized by IFN-CNR. The three best science-themed board games, created by three classes of students from Italian secondary schools, will be awarded.

2:15 p.m.

Awards Ceremony (open only to jurors, finalist authors, special guests, and staff):

  • Awarding of Special Prizes
  • Announcement of results and winners Archimedes Prize 2023
  • Celebration

Note: Unfortunately, due to limitations communicated to us by the City of Venice regarding the capacity of the hall, only finalist authors (rather than all authors) will be able to attend the award ceremony.

6:30 p.m.

Closing San Leonardo Hall

THE TERMS OF PARTICIPATION TO THE
2023 EDITION OF THE PREMIO ARCHIMEDE
ARE DEFINITELY CLOSED

 

THE PROTOTYPES ARE

238

a new incredible record!

The PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2023, organized by studiogiochi, is centered around the invention of new, original board games. The prize is dedicated to the great Alex Randolph – who was its president for the first 7 editions – and so far has helped over 50 authors to fulfill the dream of having their game published. The participation (single or group) is open to everyone, with no age or residence restriction. The participating games must be sent by March 31st, 2023.

The closing ceremony will take place approximately around mid-September 2023 in Venice thanks to the collaboration of the City of Venice, within an ampler framework of initiatives aimed at the spreading of gaming culture and at preventing the rampant gambling disorders. Thanks to the publishers’ support, the winning authors will receive a total of €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.
  • Trophy Cartamundi to the best card game. Thanks to Cartamundi support, €500 will be granted in advance on future royalties of the game.
  • Trophy Scienza in Gioco to the best science themed game with educational and informative purposes, assigned by the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFN – CNR).
  • Trophy SAZ Italia to the best developed game that improved the most compared to the first original version submitted. To the winner a free entry of one day to IdeaG nazionale.

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 SAZ (Spiele-Autoren-Zunft, the international game designers association), by UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti) and by GioNa (Associazione Nazionale delle Città in Gioco) for its socio-cultural and inclusive values; it is in fact a playful and recreational activity that promotes the right to play, for everyone and for all ages.

Download the Premio Archimede 2023 Notice of Competition from the left menu.

MORE AND BETTER GAMES, READY TO BE TESTED!

This year, Premio Archimede will display a whole new structure, aimed at increasing the quality and number of games admitted to the final, thus also increasing their likelihood of publication.

The selection and developement stage. Upon receipt of each prototype, the Selection Jury will test and evaluate, the potential of the game. This edition’s biggest novelty will be that the Jury will immediately contact the authors of the most interesting games in order to suggest, where necessary, possible improvements to perfect the game. The contacted authors will be able to try to implement the Jury’s suggestions, taking care to send any updated versions of their games, which will be then re-evaluated.
In this way, even the games that in the past would not have reached the finals (because they needed further developement, even if they displayed a good potential), will now be able to aspire to it. The games that after this process will reach a level of quality deemed satisfactory, will be admitted among the finalists.

Developement timing. The refinement of the prototypes may take a long time, so we suggest the authors to register and send their games as soon as possible: the sooner the prototypes arrive, the more time there is to complete their developement.

The final. In Venice, during the week preceding the closing ceremony, all finalist games will be played, tested and evaluated by the Final Jury, composed of editors from many of the major publishing companies in the world. Finally, the winners of the Premio Archimede 2023 (and of the collateral awards) will be announced during the closing ceremony.

Publication. With this new system, the games that make it to the finals will have a very high chance of being published and thus find the way to comercialization. To facilitate and speed up the decision process of the various publishers, the authors of the finalst games will be asked to send more copies of their prototype.

CNR-IFN will also organize the fourth 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 closing ceremony, which will be held simultaneously with the Premio Archimede.

The Matematica in gioco project is a school-work alternation course organized by the Pop-mat laboratory and by the Fablab of the University of Trento in which games designed by Mathematics students will be analyzed, perfected and manufactured by a team of high school students of different specializations. Among the games developed in this context, one will be selected for participation in the Premio Archimede.

A selection of games from the beautiful exhibition The Game – The role of Emergency, which was held in the Venice headquarters of EMERGENCY, of which Mara Rumiz is in charge, will also participate in the Premio Archimede 2023; the games were created by the students of the Communication Design Laboratory 3 of the Master’s Degree Course in Communication Design at the IUAV, conducted by Paola Fortuna and Luciano Perondi. We are happy for this new collaboration, which proves the increasingly recognized cultural and social value of games and playing.

FINALIST GAMES

Here are, in strict alphabetical order, the 24 finalist games selected by the pre-selection jury, after months and months of hard and careful work, that will enter the next phase of the Archimedes Prize 2023. We particularly note the presence among the finalists of one of the games of the exhibition “The Game – The Role of Emergency.”

See the virtual exhibition with photos of the games that made it to the finals >

Games Authors
Adiós Amigos! Italy Matteo Cimenti, Chiara Zanchetta, Carlo Rigon
Aiutanti di Noè Italy Giorgio Galbusera
Blood & Glory Italy Maria Chiara Bagli
Borgopietra Italy Guglielmo Cok
Building Up Italy Pietro Gabrielli
Covens Spain Félix Bernat Julián
Crazy West Italy Maurizio Buso, Fabrizio Tronchin
Crazy Worms Italy Fabrizio Tronchin, Maurizio Buso
Croak a Lot Italy Carlo Sgattoni
Dice Cream Italy Gabriele Rolandini
Dragomuro Italy Ruggero Perenzin, Francesco Tonon, Marcello Sponza
Frutta e Verdura Italy Cielo D’Oro
Garden Time Italy Filippo Landini
Ikebana Italy Francesco Testini
La Forgia dei Nani Italy Francesco Frittelli
Le Botteghe di Firenze Italy Alessandro Cuneo
Let’s Wall Italy Francesco Angileri, Francesco Timo
Pond Salad Netherlands Richard De Rijk
Puzzle World Italy David Spada
Rex Cracoviae Italy Cielo D’Oro
Soaring Skies United States of America Aaron Kempkes
Una Giornata Sfortunata Italy Cielo D’Oro
Up & Down Italy Marco Rava, Simona Greco
Wunderkammer Italy Andrea Martini, Lorenzo Martini, Alessandro Zappi

PHOTO EXHIBITION OF FINALIST PROTOTYPES

Here are the photos of the 24 finalist prototypes of the Premio Archimede 2023, top-level games that will be submitted to the international jury of more than twenty editors from the world’s leading publishing houses, which will arrive in Venice to test them, evaluate them and give their final verdict during the awards ceremony on Saturday, September 16.

JURY

There will be two separate Juries, who will work in different phases of the competition. During the 1st phase, only the Selection Jury will work on the games. Its members are:

Leo Colovini (president)

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.

Giuseppe Baggio

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.

Federico Colovini

Figlio di Leo Colovini, play-tester, sviluppatore, redattore, traduttore e ora anche autore: non c’è che l’imbarazzo della scelta! Chissà se gli rimarrà tempo per coltivare le sue altre grandi passioni… fare il Mastro Birraio, l’Egittologo o magari rifugiarsi in un bel LARP di quelli tosti?

Piero Modolo

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 at the forefront of testing new games and helping in various projects of the studio.

Dario Zaccariotto

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.

The Jury will evaluate all the prototypes, keeping in mind the following criteria, in order of importance:

  • Publishing potential, i.e. the chances the game has of being considered by a publisher
  • Originality of the game’s mechanics
  • Playability, balance and functionality of the mechanics
  • Fun
  • Functionality of the prototype and clarity of the rules

It must be specified that while the quality of the prototype (and, above all, of the rules) weighs little on the overall evaluation of the game, at the same time it is a fundamental condition for a correct playthrough of the game and the enjoyment of all the other features.

The Final Jury, at the moment, is composed by:

Dario De Toffoli (president, Italy)

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 Barkat (Helvetiq, Switzerland)

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 & Pierpaolo Paoletti (ThunderGryph, Spain)

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 five years from launch, ThunderGryph’s counts eighteen published games.

Pierpaolo Paoletti decided to pursue his passion by working in the board game industry after many years of experience in graphic design.
With strong opinions yet always expressed with kindness, Pier is the most experienced tabletop gamer within the ThunderGryph team, which he joined in 2018.
His main responsibilities focus on game development, but he actively contributes to structural changes to improve the ergonomics of the games.
In addition, Pier is dedicated to the design and art direction of some of ThunderGryph’s titles.

Luca Borsa (SAZ Italia, Italy)

Born in 1962. Civil engineer, author of board games and spokesperson for Saz Italia, the association of game authors, the passion matured at an early age for the games world has turned into his professional life which led him to design dozens of board games and publish them with Italian and international publishing houses together with his friend/partner Luca Bellini. He has held game design courses and workshops at the Milan Polytechnic, the Turin Polytechnic, the Brera Academy and several high schools. He promote the use of games for educators, teachers and companies. With the pedagogist Sara Evangelista, he created the format “Come and play with me!?” aimed at parents/educators, organizing more than 50 thematic evenings in nursery schools, municipalities, associations. He is one of the founders of “Blob Factory” Game Studio, a group of game designers (Bellini – Lanzavecchia – Obert – Borsa) who deal with gamification and promotional games for companies. He collaborated in the drafting of the “Piano Giochi” for a municipality in Brianza, a tool that defines the objectives of the city from a playful point of view towards its citizens of all ages. He was a speaker at TEDx Busto Arsizio with the talk “A life at stake, inside and outside the box” where he shown the world of gaming and his experiences in the gaming field.

Bernd & Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany)

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…

Stefano De Carolis (Giochi Uniti, Italy)

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(CarcassoneSettlers 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 persuade him to publish one of your games remember this may not be so easy…

Erik de Jong & Bert Calis (999 Games, The Netherlands)

Erik de Jong was born in 1984 and very passionate about all types of competitive board games. He grews up with boardgames, his father worked in the game industry (Jumbo) all his life. After Erik graduated his study in Leisure Management, he joined 999 Games in 2007 where he worked close with Michael Bruinsma in various roles. Currently he is co-owner and responsible for the operational management of 999 Games.

Luigi De Luca Cuccia & Gianluca Torrente (Creative Jam, Italy)

Luigi De Luca Cuccia approaches the world of gaming in the early nineties by participating in numerous game realities, he publishes his first multi-genre role-playing game in 1999 and begins to play folk music, in the meantime he studies physics and moves to the capital. After an interlude in the Tuscan hills to which he remains particularly attached, he returns to Rome and opens a software development studio.
From 2016 he re-entered the world of entertainment following the birth of the Italian EscapeRooms and finally with some friends he opened Creative Jam, a publishing house of board games, role-playing games and intelligent games in 2022.
Currently Creative Jam has started producing its first games trying to use the past experiences of the members by exploiting a combination of Logic Games, Escape Rooms and Digital Media.

François Décamp (Asmodée, France)

It was with AD&D, Call of Cthulhu and Zargo’s Lords that François first learned about modern board games in the early 80s.
While studying political sciences, he started working in a Jeux Descartes store in Paris in 1987 (as a student job), and he has not left the gaming world since.
He started as a Salesman, then became a game store manager (he still has a store in Bordeaux). He also worked as an author for Casus Belli, and, for a few years, as a member of the Cannes As d’Or jury.
He then worked at Tric Trac from 2018 to 2022, where he notably participated in thematic videos, and more importantly in the Tric Trac Show, a big weekly Talk Show devoted to board games and the people who make them.
Earlier this year, he joined Asmodée group as a sourcing manager for Lab4games (Days of Wonder, Libellud, Repos Production and Space Cowboys).

Miriam Donda & Alessandro Montingelli (Amigo, Germany)

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.

Alessandro Montingelli, born in Milan in 1997, has been passionate about games since he was a child. He graduated in Milan and Berlin in Product Design and Innovation Design Management, again with a specialization in Game Design and Game Development. He presented his first game at the Maker Faire in Rome in 2018 and gained his first Game Development experiences at Ravensburger. Today he is part of the editorial team at Amigo.

Thorsten Gimmler (Ravensburger, Germany)

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.

Hermann Hutter (Huch! & friends, Germany)

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 (Mandoo Games, Korea)

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.

Simone Luciani (Cranio Creations, Italy)

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 Lüdtke (Kosmos, Germany)

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.

Conor McGoey (Inside Up Games, Canada)

He founded Inside Up Games in 2016 by launching his hit game “Summer: The Board Game”. Since then the catalog has grown, including some titles conceived by Conor and others by external designers (Block and Key, Earth, Draft & Write Records). He can’t wait to participate in the Archimedes Prize, looking for the next great game!

Umberto Rosin (Tana dei Goblin, Italy)

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.

Michal Šmíd (Albi, Czech Republic)

Michal has been involved in the gaming industry since 2007 and currently holds the position of lead developer at the Czech company Albi.
Albi Publishing has gained recognition through the game Karak and now releases several games annually, focusing more on family and gaming-oriented titles. As a developer his most recent work was on the game “The Two Heirs,” which garnered significant praise from Dice Tower reviewers.
Michal appreciates simple and straightforward game designs that still offer extensive gameplay possibilities.

Dieter Strehl (Piatnik, Austria)

Great-grandson of the founder of Piatnik, he is working at the company since 1983. He is Chief Executive Officer since April 1995.

Jay Tummelson (Rio Grande Games, USA)

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.

Matthias Wagner (Pegasus, Germany)

Matthias (re)discovered his love for board games during his time at university. After graduating as a psychologist, he got the chance to work at AbacusSpiele as an editor and product manager and stayed there for almost 10 years. After a short time at Heidelbär Games, he joined the Pegasus Spiele team in summer 2021. He likes elegant games with accessible rules that create a deeper gaming experience than one would expect at first glance.

Tobias Weierstraß (Moses, Germania)

Tobias has been playing board games all his life. Nevertheless, visiting his first board game fair was the starting point to his fascination with the board game industry. What he truly loves about it are those games that really have an impact on the playing group. Whether it is a special twist in communicating and cooperating with each other or planning a secret conspiracy. Working as a game editor means working on exactly these exciting group experiences.

Both Juries will rely on the collaboration and advice from other selected playtesters.

The jurors of the 2021 edition

JURY

THE JURY TRYING OUT THE GAMES

EXHIBITION

THE VOTES

CEREMONY AND PRIZEGIVING

STAFF

BOAT TRIP

FINAL DINNER

SPECIAL THANKS

We received numerous appreciations for the work done, both from the authors and from the jurors-editors and we are proud of it.
Among all, we were moved by the cards sent to us by the fantastic family of Conor McGoey (Inside Up Games); it was also a great pleasure to play with his wife Dominique and children Kilianne (13), Caleb (12) and Dahlia (10).

INTERVIEWS

During the Premio Archimede 2023, Dario De Toffoli made some interviews with:
Mara Rumiz (Emergency Venezia), Luca Borsa (SAZ Italia), Fabio Chiarello (CNR – IFN), Agnese Del Zozzo (University of Trento), Furio Honsell, Francesca Ercoli (Spielwarenmesse).

PARTNERS