Lucca Comics & Games: fifteen years of games in Italy!

The autumn of games in Italy will start soon in the end of September with PLAY: the game festival, the evolution of the greatest Italian game con in Modena, from 26 to 28 of September, and will reach the top with Lucca Comics & Games, the main Italian games event, with more than 100,000 visitors in the last edition, that will take place in Lucca from 30/10 to 02/11. Later in the autumn also Ludica, a new event in Milano and also another one planned in Turin. More and bigger events, a clear signal that the games scene in Italy is exploding!

Lucca Comics &Games ... fifteen years of games in Italy!

This year, the focal points of our fantasy and gaming exhibition will be the 20th anniversary of Fantasy Football (Fantacalcio in Italy) and the 15th anniversary of Magic: the gathering, whose celebrations will be held together with the 15th birthday of Lucca Games, as a mean of fulfilling the journey we started together in 1993.
Just like every year, among the most famous guests that will take part in our exhibition, our Guests of Honour deserve a special mention: Christian Petersen, Mark Tedin e Tracy Hickman.

Source: Emanuele Vietina

So, the most important Italian exhibition of games this year is fifteen years old and continues its process of relational consolidation, strenghtening its international inclination and confirming the presence of videogames, trying to set-up a possible marriage between electronic and traditional games. Together with Electronic Arts, Atari, the duo Intel-Asus and with the Electronic Sports League, two other most important publishers are coming along, Ubisoft and Activision.

For these reasons, the Game-Designer Guest of Honour could be nobody but Christian Petersen: creative director and owner of an increasing brand like Fantasy Flight, he is the publisher that successfully brought to the gaming boards many of the games inspired to famous videogames like Doom, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, high-quality games that contributed to bring near the fans of the two gaming worlds. Petersen counts in his game-designer curriculum blockbuster games such as Twilight Imperium and Games of Thrones.

Mark Tedin, the Fine Arts Guest of Honour, will be in the middle of the celebrations of the fifteenth anniversary of Magic: the gathering and Lucca Games, a shared birthday that will have proper emphasis. Tedin is the most appreciated illustrator of some of the most famous cards in the early editions of the collectible trading card game. From Alpha to Arabian Nights and Antiquities, his are the visions that gave visual impact to the fictitious universe of Richard Garfield’s game. But Tedin is much more than just a Juzam Djinn or a Lord of the Pit, he’s one of the style guide artist of the whole Magic: the gathering visual galaxy, as well as the author of many illustration compendium of famous games, such as Talislanta and Legends of the Five Rings.

Talking about genre litterature, after the brief excursion in the Space Opera, fantasy comes back to the main role with Tracy Hickman: the cycle that started five years ago with Margareth Weis comes to an end. Hickman will be in Lucca with his wife Laura, the woman who introduced him into the Dungeons & Dragons world, with whom he has produced his last trilogy: The Mystic Warrior. The 2008 Writer Guest of Honor, author among the others of the Death Gate and Sovereign Stone saga, will bring along some of his most famous activities, from seminars to events like Killer Breakfast.

So, if it may seem superfluous to remind that Lucca Games will bring forth all the most important new releases about traditional games and all the new publication of the most dynamic publishers, we are really proud to point out the noticeable increase of the market share for the fantasy products.
For this reason, the Role of the Books programme is even richer and this year, besides the confirmed presence of Mondadori and Curcio, will present the new productions of De Agostini and EL, relaunched on the market of Game-Books by the many activities of our exhibition.

Also, the Educational section has grown bigger and better: the many courses, creative writing seminars, game-designing and illustration sessions will have a proper collocation and will be soon announced, to allow some time for registration and selection. Alongside with the Guests of Honour, also the other guests will get their share of work, with Marco Donadoni which will hold a seminar about the creation games and team working, and Alessio Cavatore, one of the developers of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, who will walk his “students” through the developing of a tridimensional wargame.

If the fifteenth anniversary of Lucca Games and Magic: the gathering will also be celebrated with an art exhibition of five Italian authors and an unmissable series of gadgets, the 20th birthday of Fantasy Football (the Italian Fantacalcio), maybe the most beloved and played game in Italy, will be celebrated and discussed with his creator, Riccardo Albini, a passionate traveler in the world of games, an explorer of the new trends, with whom we will discuss all the possible scenarios for the new millenium Fantasy Football.

Last but not least, we are proud to promote a whole series of events dedicated to the memory of Gary Gygax, the author of Dungeons & Dragons, who passed away last March. A programme rich of gaming opportunities to remember the father of Role Playing Games, along with more istitutional moments to contribute to the general success of a fundamental name in the world of games. To open the celebrations, we will have a special guest: Larry Elmore, the Art Director who gave birth to the visual universe of Dungeons & Dragons and carried out an artistic coalition of incredible intenseness with Gygax.

These are the first courses of our delicious menù for Lucca Games 2008. For the complete list, as usual...see you in September!

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