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Andrea “Liga” Ligabue: IDeA G 2006 Report
Hi Gamers
as I told you I wasn’t able to attend IDeA G 2006 meeting but I’m been able to get a good and detailed report of the event. Paolo Mori, the man behind www.inventoridigiochi.it, the biggest Italian web site about Game Design, was there and here is his report ...
good read and good play to all!
Liga
So here I am, back from the second edition of IDeA G, the meeting that gathers game authors from all over Italy… and somewhere else, as the presence of acouple of very special guests - the french Cristophe Boelinger and the dutch Niek Neuwahl - testifies. The meeting has been held in Piossasco, a small townnear Turin, where Walter Obert - the author that has first thought of this event - is born and lives.
I have to say that his organization has been great, and the result is that the number of game designers attending the meeting has doubled since last year. Apart from authors, there was a good number of italian publishers - daVinci, Rose&Poison, Venice Connection, Scribabs, Angelo Porazzi Games, Post Scriptum - present, and also a crowd of qualified playtesters, many of them from the gaming group of “Giocatorino”. I am pretty sure somewhere else in this section of the website you can find an exhaustive list of the people that attended the event… so let me pass through all the names, directly to the 16 prototypes (apart from mine!) I was able to playtest during the weekend. This was really a huge amount of games for me, but less than a half of those that were presented by the designers (each one could take with him from 1 to 3 different prototypes). I don’t know if they were the best around, but they surely represent a significant example of the italian game design scene. Let’s give them a look: even literally, through the shots I could take during the 2 days.
Holding, by the Acchittocca team
Acchittocca is a group of four roman game designers (Antonio, Flaminia, Stefano and Virginia) that are working a lot and really well in the last years, even if nothing from has still been published. One of the members, Stefano Luperto, is internationally known for his SdJ nominee, “Viva il Re!”. Maybe that “Holding” is among the most awful looking prototypes I have ever seen, but his mechanics are clean and interesting. In this financial game the players try to climb some enterprises, drafting and playing cards alternately to get them more important in the final scoring and to increase their influence on them.
It surely has a future, perhaps with another theme pasted on.
Goblin e Draghi (Goblins and Dragons), by Morsac Morsac last year was just a playtester, and now comes in with two interesting and very different prototypes. In the first one players are goblins that try to defeat an old sick dragon, but still quite dangerous. To do this, they draft strange unconventional weapons from their experimental backpacks: but in doing this, they harm even their melee mates. The mechanic is based on two wheels. The dragon is on the inner one, and moves around to get the goblins, moving on the external one. The game was at the first playtest, and proved a bit too long than one could expect with such a silly theme.
Il palio di Siena, by Morsac
Is a game about the horse race that twice a years takes place in the Tuscany city, and makes crowds get mad. Horses in the game are moved by playing cards with colors present on their standards, but if more than one player plays the same colour, then the horses don’t move. The players don’t even known whose are the horses. I liked it a lot, even because I won.
Mirage, La Porta and Football Fans, by Walter Obert
Walter Obert, aka Wallover, was the author that organized the event. He has already published games, like “Vampiri in salsa rossa” (together with Alex Randolph!) and “Word Jam”. I tried 3 games by him, very different in themes and mechanics.
Mirage is a game derived from sudoku, but now really far away from it. The players try to identify on a squared map of a desert zones with a certain amountof objects in it. But pyramids stop the lines of sight and mirages deflect it, so that it isn’t always an easy job.
La Porta is a game being developed with Eligio Cazzato (the author of “Federicus"), that came out with the first idea of it. It is a german game, in which players control the gates through which various characters come into a medieval town. The points are scoring offering banquets, making public orations, ‘selling’ these characters and moving them tactically through the lines that form out of the city wall. It is a game with a lot of things in it, but I didn’t get to imagine a correct strategy of it, so maybe I can give it a right sentence if I am allowed to play it another time.
Football Fans is a funny game, that can host up to 14 players, divided in two teams. One player from each team is the trainer, the other are footballers. The trainer has to shout the strange and funny names of the other players and gesticulate to make them move through the field, up to the right zone. When all the players are in the correct zones, they can kick the ball to the goal, simply throwing a die. I do give my best in this kind of games, so I have to admit it was among the best games I tried in Piossasco.
Infesto (Haunting), by David Santo
In this game players try to haunt old churches, castles and manors with their families of ghosts and monsters. The map is composed through the game by coloured hexagons, on wich the players place their undeads and graveyards, trying to conquer the building in the center of the tiles. I didn’t see real bugs in this game, even if its designer easily won over us.
Signoria , by Salkaner (the picture is of Thiarna, always by Salkaner)
The game was formerly known as “Res Publica”, but the name was changedafter that the author realized that a designer named Reiner Knizia already invented a game named in this way. Signoria is a simple card game, in wich the players draft and play in front of them cards that represent the support of different gilds. At the end of the game, who has the majority of supporting cardsof a certain gild, takes all the votes from it. Some special cards can even change the course of the game. I like simple and clean mechanics, even if probably this one needs a bit more ‘flavour’.
Meteotour, by Fantavir
I didn’t like the name of this game, but I wanted to give it a try! It is a travel game: a funnny and working one. In some aspects it resembles other famous games as “Around the world in 80 days” or “Elfenland”, but in the game by Fantavir players are simply tourists going around Italy, trying to collect souvenirs and to spend as less as possible, both in time and in money. They also try to get the best weather, even if the forecasts aren’t always correct…
Angioletti e diavoletti” (Little angels and devils), by Post Scriptum
This is the party game Mario and Matteo were talking about in their last interview with Liga. Players are little angels and devils sitting on the shoulders of someone, trying to convince him to commit good or evil actions. The decision is based on a story built on a number of narrative cards that are played by the players themselves. The basic concept is a really good one, but party games and narratives one are dangerous, if played with the wrong people!
I mercenari, by Mesaverde
This was quite an abstract game. The players lead mercenary army through a map, made up of a grid of tiles that areplaced at the beginning of each game. The tiles have different defense and victory values, so that the players have to carefully plan their moves in order to maximize their scoring. This can cause a bit of downtime, but I really can judge, as I could play just a couple of turns of the game.
Doppio Gioco (Double Game), by Silvano Sorrentino
Silvano is a known author: his last game is Ostrakon, published by daVinci. Doppio Gioco is a fast trick taking game: players take the role, by playing cards on them, of thieves, policemen, judges and billionaires. When two cards of the same genre are played by different players, they can take a card of a less powerful character. This can lead to chain of effects… But it is more difficult to explainthan to play! I liked it.
Muddle Maze, by Enrico Pesce
Players are magicians that try to reach the four parts of a talisman in a floating and everchanging labyrint. You have to use carefully your cards, to balance the effect of the enchantments and the move of your character. I was just getting to appreciat the mechanic of the game when I had to leave for an interview, after a couple of turns.
Venezia” (Venice) and “Concentrazione” (Concentration), by David Zanotto
Venezia wasn’t the real title of the game, but I don’t remember the right one. In the game Venice is invaded by the french revolutionaries, and players have to move frenchmen, venetian nobles and servants through the rooms of a big palace, meeting and challenging the other with a mechanic similar to that of rock, paper and scissors. The game contains very nice elements, but mixed in a strange way. Nonetheless I liked it and I hope it will be developed.
Concentrazione is a simple card game, in which you have to play set of cards to do some kind of magic. It is not a very deep game, and players can always see the right move to do: maybe it is good for children.
Fairy Tales, by Cristophe Boelinger
Cristophe Boelinger was a special guest of our meeting. He took with him a lot of prototypes, apart from his last creation: Dungeon Twister and all his expansions. I think the prototype I tested could better be named “Fairy Tiles”, because the gameboard is composed of tiles that players place, face down, at the beginning of the game, to form their fantastic kingdoms made of adventurers, monsters and elements of terrain. I lost the game due to a crazy way of playing, but I found it quite interesting (even if it was the only normal game among the crazy ones Cris took with him).
Ur, Todesillas, Bouquet by Paolo Mori
At least, let me spend just a couple of words on my own prototypes, that of course I cannot judge. I had three of them, the maximum allowed for an author. They were “Ur”, a tile civilization game that I found quite promising, Tordesillas, a 2 players game about 15th century explorations, and Bouquet, a really silly game about the throwing of the flowers bouquet at the weddings. I had really interesting feedbacksabout them, and that is a reason for whom I like meetings like this a lot.
Of course, I couldn’t test everything, even if I dreamed of it. I didn’t get to play a lot of prototypes. Nothing of the really promising games by Paolo Vallerga, by Angelo Porazzi, by Carlo Rossi and Alex Zucchini, the beautiful looking games by Marco Avarone, Francesco Rotta, Andrea Mainini and by a lot of other authors. Time is never enough, but I hope I will have the chance to do better at the next author meeting, that will be hold in Berceto in April. Many other informations about the meeting and the italian game design scene can be found on the website where italian authors usually meet to talk about their projects: www.inventoridigiochi.it.
Thank you for reading, and thanks to Rick (and Liga) for hosting this long report.
Ad maiora
Paolo Mori
| Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version | ||
 | Holding, by the Acchittocca team | |
 | Goblin e Draghi (Goblins and Dragons), by Morsac | |
 | Il palio di Siena, by Morsac | |
 | Mirage, La Porta and Football Fans, by Walter Obert | |
 | Infesto (Haunting), by David Santo | |
 | Signoria, by Salkaner (the picture is of Thiarna, always by Salkaner) | |
 | Meteotour, by Fantavir | |
 | Angioletti e diavoletti” (Little angels and devils), by Post Scriptum | |
 | I mercenari, by Mesaverde | |
 | Doppio Gioco (Double Game), by Silvano Sorrentino | |
 | Muddle Maze, by Enrico Pesce | |
 | Venezia" (Venice) and “Concentrazione” (Concentration), by David Zanotto | |
 | Fisherman, by Cristophe Boelinger | |
 | Ur, by Paolo Mori | |
 | Tordesillas, by Paolo Mori | |
 | Bouquet, by Paolo Mori | |
 | “Holding" prototype… a bit naked, isn’t it? | |
 | Alex Zucchini, Carlo Rossi (Cogito Studio) and Flaminia of Acchittoca playing Ur | |
 | Francesco Rotta, the author of Oxxo, is playing one of his abstract games with Niek Neuwahl | |
 | Alex Zucchini, showing one of his prototypes to Dario De Toffoli (Venice Connection) | |
 | The beautiful organization by WalterObert and Giocatorino at work | |
 | The prototype of “Keltia”, by Marco Avarone. As usual, highquality standard. | |
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 | A game of “Pianeti” (Planets) by Acchittocca Team | |
 | Chris Boelinger is showing one game from his two bags of prototypes to Richard. | |
 | A game of “Thot” | |
 | 3CKlum, a game about recycling by Alessandro Dentis | |
 | Galateus, a card game by Paolo Vallerga | |
 | Marco Rocci is playing his gameabout Santa Claus toy workshop | |
 | Niek Neuwahl is showing his simple game about tetrominos | |
 | Francesco Rotta is thinking about his next move | |
 | The beautiful prototype of “The secret paths of the incas”, by Andrea Mainini | |
 | Marco Rocci’s game about baseball. Will it be an homerun? | |
 | “Infesto", by David Santo | |
 | Angelo Porazzi is showing his next small format creature: Wrestangel. You can find all the informations about thos new game at Angelo Porazzi Games web site. | |
 | A game of Keltia, by Marco Avarone | |
 | “Comuni", the new brain burning game by Acchittocca Team | |
 | Giacomo Presti is explaining the rules of his own game about Lord of the Rings | |
 | Francesco Berardi, playing his “Atoms” with Francesco Rotta | |
 | ||
 | Gameplay of Bouquet, by Paolo Mori | |
 | “Les Poux”, a crazy dexterity game by ChrisBoelinger | |
 | It’s sooo late! | |
 | A game of “Tuareg”, a card game by Francesco Berard | |
 | A fantasy card game by Alex Zucchini | |
 | An abstract game by Andrea Mainini | |
 | Lunch Time! | |
© 2006 Andrea Liga Ligabue
Posted by Andrea Liga Ligabue on Jan 20, 2006 at 03:00 AM in Andrea "Liga" Ligabue - Italy / 2801
