Four new teams of developers from Emilia Romagna will be part of the third edition of Bologna Game Farm!
Rosa Grimaldi, Bologna Mayor’s Delegate for Cultural and Creative Industries, said, “The City of Bologna has been committed to the growth of the videogame industry for years. Videogames are a tool for innovation, create skilled jobs and represent an important asset for the city of Bologna”.
Mauro Felicori, Councillor for Culture and Landscape of the Emilia-Romagna Region, said, “Bologna Game Farm gives Emilia-Romagna and its capital city one satisfaction after another, for how it knows how to meet the productive ambitions of young people who have chosen GAME as their area of activity.
On the institutional side, it is a demonstration that the relationship between the Emilia-Romagna Region and the municipalities cannot be limited to a sequence of calls, rankings, and contributions, but must be increasingly intense on the side of planning, concertation, and the intersection and conjugation of technical expertise. Which is what happens between the Cultural Sector of the Municipality of Bologna and that of the Emilia-Romagna Region with the offices of the Economy Directorate and ARTER.
On the tools side, the newborn companies under Bologna Game Farm already enjoy a bouquet of support tools, enriched in recent years in the function of internationalization. Now we have a new opportunity, the Law on Talent Attraction, which can probably be very useful to us in this field as well, to cover any shortage of specialists or for training at the highest international levels”.
The four selected teams will be awarded a grant of up to 30,000 euros each, coworking stations within the Serre of Art-ER and a tailored acceleration program by IIDEA professionals to develop their videogame projects with the aim of commercializing the product.
Below is the list of winners:
BitNine Studio Sas (Forlì). “tERRORbane Viral,” is a videogame in which the player’s computer is attacked by a mysterious wave of malware programs and viruses that want to take control of it. With the help of the anti-virus program and armed with the Bug-filled code of the attackers themselves, the player must try to turn the tide against these malevolent forces.
Floriano Lapolla (Bologna, Italy). “KAI” is an adventure/exploration video game with strategic resource management elements. The protagonist Akira is catapulted from a spaceship into an underwater environment, which she explores to unravel its mystery. KAI is a journey of exploring a new world, but it is also a journey of knowing and overcoming fears and memories in rediscovering one’s inner self.
Michele Furia (Bologna). The videogame “Block Number 5” is a role-playing game with freedom of movement gameplay, themed on graffiti, street art and Hip Hop culture. In a dystopian concrete jungle, the protagonist will have to assert himself with his art. As the player explores the gray city, he will be able to paint its every nook and cranny by combining signs, letters and images unlocked over the course of the game to create unique and personalized graffiti.
Paolo Zito (Bologna). The videogame “Sliding Hero” is a “metroidvania”-style puzzle adventure in which the player moves by sliding in a single direction until he or she encounters an obstacle. In Sliding Hero, the player takes on the role of Luca Sicomoro, a military man from the Republic of Venice, who finds himself stuck inside a mysterious labyrinth. In order to escape, he will have to discover its secrets by interacting with some strange characters (inspired by the tradition of Italian masks), facing different challenges.
The third edition acceleration program will begin in January at the Serre [Greenhouses] of Art-ER , a space dedicated to innovative startups and a regional ecosystem hub supporting business creation. The coaching will be managed by IIDEA through local partners, with the coordination of Ivan Venturi and mentors Luca Marchetti and Gerardo Verna and the involvement of the IIDEA member network.
During the last edition, Acceleration supported the winners with over 200 hours of classroom mentorship and the participation of 20 companies and professionals involved in game development. In-depth and ad hoc work was done on the four video games from all points of view: software, creative, market orientation and consolidation of the entrepreneurial structure.
Bologna Game Farm’s support does not end with the intensive acceleration phase but continues with constant mentoring. In fact, the first and second edition teams participated, accompanied by IIDEA, in the main international trade fairs of the sector: First Playable (Florence), Gamescom (Cologne), Game Connection (Paris) and Game Developers Conference (San Francisco).
Also speaking of fairs, this year four teams from Bologna Game Farm were selected to participate in Milan Games Week. Dreambits Studio (first edition), NonStudio and Kodama Studio (both from the second edition) participated in the fair within IIDEA’s space dedicated to the ten most interesting Italian independent games, and Studio Pizza participated within RedBull’s Indie Forge area among the five games selected nationwide.
Among the important achievements of Bologna Game Farm, we proudly mention that Green Flamingo and Orbital Games, two teams from the first edition of Bologna Game Farm in 2023 signed their first publishing agreements!
The objectives of Bologna Game Farm, one of the first videogame accelerators in Italy, continue to be the consolidation and professionalization of the videogame industry in Emilia-Romagna, confirming the relevance of this sector as a cultural factor and an element of economic growth of the regional production system, as well as socialization and inclusion. In addition, through Bologna Game Farm, the relationship between the Emilia-Romagna videogame sector, other productive sectors in the area and actors in the regional ecosystem is constantly stimulated.
Concrete results of the work Bologna Game Farm is carrying out in this direction are the partnerships already active with companies and institutions: Acer Computer, Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna, the Department of Physical Sciences Informatics and Mathematics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Slitherine, Digital Moka, Native Prime, Orbital Games, Pellicus Solutions, Doc Creativity and Operaludica. And others are currently being formalized.
Gli obiettivi di Bologna Game Farm, uno dei primi acceleratori di videogiochi in Italia, continuano ad essere il consolidamento e la professionalizzazione del settore dei videogiochi in Emilia-Romagna, a conferma della rilevanza di questo settore come fattore culturale ed elemento di crescita economica del sistema produttivo regionale, nonché la socializzazione e inclusione. Inoltre, attraverso Bologna Game Farm viene costantemente promossa la relazione tra il comparto videogiochi dell’Emilia Romagna, gli altri settori produttivi del territorio e gli attori dell’ecosistema regionale.
Risultati concreti del lavoro che Bologna Game Farm sta portando avanti in questa direzione sono le partnership già attive con imprese e istituzioni: Acer Computer, Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, il Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche Informatiche e Matematiche dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Slitherine, Digital Moka, Native Prime, Orbital Games, Pellicus Solutions, Doc Creativity e Operaludica. E altre sono in corso di formalizzazione.