Bologna Game Farm, the accelerator for the videogame industry promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region and the Municipality of Bologna – an initiative coordinated by the Municipality of Bologna and implemented with Art-ER as part of its support to the cultural and creative industries, in collaboration with IncrediBOL! and with the technical support of IIDEA, Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association – is now in its second year.
The four video game projects in this second edition were selected last year through a public notice and are benefiting from the acceleration course at the Serre of Art-ER at the park Giardini Margherita curated by IIDEA, with mentoring provided by the experts Luca Marchetti and Gerardo Verna and coordination by Ivan Venturi, and a cash contribution of 30,000 euros each.
The acceleration program began in January and in five months allowed the young developers from Emilia to create the 4 vertical slices of their videogames, ready to be presented at trade fairs with the goal of identifying publishers interested in commercializing them.
The 4 projects are: Farafter by Giant Cog Studio, an open-world single-player RPG videogame with a turn-based combat system. The game, whose graphics are based on pixel art, focuses on the player’s ability to influence events in the game world with different choice trees and complex morality systems; Monster Chef by Studio Pizza, a roguelike hack and slash videogame with resource management components. Players impersonate Pranzo, a novice in the Order of the Good Fork, a prestigious organization of warrior chefs. The aim of the game is to help the protagonist run an inn and satisfy the palates (refined and otherwise) of the inhabitants of the world of Delizia by creating dishes using fantasy monsters as ingredients; NonStudio’s Handmancers, a humorous roguelike deckbuilder videogame that takes the player to the original world of Zirria where, after centuries of peace, something is changing and it is up to the player to investigate: exploring, creating his small empire, increasing his power and defeating his enemies with rock, paper and scissors; Ryoko by Kodama Studio, a scrolling adventure puzzle videogame with platforming elements. The protagonist is Ryoko, an apprentice priestess of light capable of using torii gates to reach a parallel reality: the spirit world.
The four videogames will be presented for the first time in demo versions by the development teams on Friday, May 12th in Bologna at the Cappella Farnese on the second floor of Palazzo d’Accursio. During the day there will be a panel discussion on policies and actions to grow the game development industry in Emilia Romagna thanks to the presence of institutional guests, and the new orientation service “BGF@Mobile” dedicated to supporting companies developing mobile videogames will be presented.
Below is the program for the day
Morning session, “Bologna Game Farm, let’s play!“
10:00 a.m. Panel “Policies and actions for the video game sector in Emilia Romagna“
Speakers:
Rosa Grimaldi – Mayor’s Delegate to CCI.
Lucia de Siervo – Head of the Culture Economy and Youth Policies Area of the RER
Sveva Ruggiero – Start-up Unit and ICC Presidium of Art-ER
Thalita Malagò – Director General of IIDEA – Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association
Moderator Giorgia Boldrini – Director of Culture and Creativity Sector of the Municipality of Bologna
11:00 a.m. presentation of the support and orientation activity “BGF@Mobile” by Orbital Games
11:30 am presentation of the 4 videogames, introduced by Ivan Venturi, coordinator of the Bologna Game Farm acceleration program
Afternoon session: “Svilupparty Intro”
3:00 – 6:30 p.m. A showcase of Italian videogame projects, including success stories and new releases curated by Svilupparty
Speakers:
Green Flamingo – Spanky
Dreambits Studio – War of Wheels
Orbital Games – Basket Party
Nacon Studio Milan – TT Isle of Man
Another Reality – VR tennis
Strelka Games – Hell is Others
Trinity Team – Slaps&Beans 2
Climax Studios – Returnal
For more information about Bologna Game Farm:
bolognagamefarm.com
info@bolognagamefarm.com
You can also follow Bologna Game Farm on Facebook
Press Office:
Prima Pagina Communication
Sara Magri
Email: sara@primapagina.it – Cell: 340 0759787