Once again this year, Bologna Game Farm will be attending First Playable, the leading business event for the video games sector in Italy, scheduled to take place in Florence from 11 to 13 June 2025, organised by IIDEA and the Toscana Film Commission – Fondazione Sistema Toscana, in collaboration with the ICE Agency and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and under the patronage of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy.
Bologna Game Farm, participating as a partner for the first time, will be present at First Playable from 11 to 13 June, bringing its projects to life in a large exhibition area on the second floor of the Palazzo degli Affari in Florence. Here, visitors will have the chance to meet and get to know the eight winning teams from the fourth edition and the six winning teams from the fifth and latest edition, who, in turn, will have the opportunity to meet the more than 40 international investors and publishers already confirmed for the event.
The 2025 call for proposals, extended for the second consecutive year to studios across Italy, is organised in collaboration with the City of Bologna’s House of Emerging Technologies (CTE COBO), thanks to the funding made available to beneficiaries by the Metropolitan City of Bologna, and forms part of the wider framework of the national ‘House of Emerging Technologies’ project promoted by MIMIT.
The project involves bringing together the Hubs in Bologna, Matera and Pesaro with the aim of broadening the scope and effectiveness of the Bologna Game Farm@CTE COBO 2024 call for proposals and strengthening collaboration between the Hubs and the local authorities participating in the national initiative. This action follows on from the strategy implemented by MIMIT to strengthen the public ecosystem supporting the emergence of new, highly innovative entrepreneurship.
On Thursday 12 June at 5.00 pm, in the First Playable workshop area, there will be a panel discussion entitled ‘Bologna Game Farm: from the early years to the winners of the 2025 edition”. During the session, Giorgia Boldrini, Director of the Culture and Creativity Department at Bologna City Council, will take stock of the results of the first four years whilst looking ahead to the future, and will officially present the six winning teams from the latest edition of the competition, which was entirely dedicated to promoting Italy’s cultural heritage.
Here are the descriptions of the six winning video games from the fifth and latest edition:
“Beatrix”, by Tambù Srl (Milan): a narrative B2C video game for PC that reinterprets the Divine Comedy from an innovative female perspective. The player, taking on the role of Beatrice, travels through settings inspired by 14th-century Italy and its iconic locations, featuring architectural and artistic elements that evoke carefully reinterpreted late medieval works and frescoes. The narrative is enriched by quotations and characters drawn from Dante’s work and Christian mythology. The setting evokes not only the beauty of Italian art but also the historical and cultural context that inspired it, reinforcing the link between tradition and innovation.
“Hyperarousal”, by AION Interactive Srl (Milan): a first-person psychological video game set in Val Camonica, combining exploration, cosmic horror and non-linear historical storytelling. The game allows players to experience the story through the dreams of the protagonist, Garlo, a young man who returns to his family home to rediscover his roots. In these dreams, the player travels through crucial periods in the area’s history (from the Chalcolithic period to the Second World War), exploring real-life locations reconstructed using advanced technologies such as photogrammetry.
“Super Sofia”, by Mash & Co Srl (Taormina): a 2D side-scrolling platform video game for children, combining adventure, culture and fantasy. In each story, Sofia – a young girl in a wheelchair – and her friends help the protagonists of the legends fulfil their destinies by solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles. From Colapesce to Emepdocle and on to Sikelia, the stories collected by the great folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè come to life again in Super Sofia, transformed into interactive and engaging experiences.
“Rome: City of Cards”, by Open Lab Srl (Florence): this is a management and strategy video game set in late Republican Rome, combining city-building mechanics with a political card game. The player takes on the role of a freedman administrator, tasked with managing the city during a complex and dynamic period. The game is divided into two phases: in the Senate, players engage in debates using a card system inspired by Roman rhetoric (Cicero in particular) to secure funding and approvals; in the second phase, they move on to carrying out public works, managing infrastructure such as aqueducts, bridges and sewers, whilst facing political obstacles and conflicts with powerful senatorial families.
“Stray Company: the long road of Acqui survivors”, by BM Interactive (Marco Bianchi, Cagliari): this is a virtual reality video game that recounts the escape of a group of Italian soldiers from the Acqui Division who survived the massacre on Kefalonia, which took place after the armistice of 8 September 1943. The protagonists make their way clandestinely up the Italian peninsula, moving behind enemy lines and engaging in guerrilla warfare against the retreating German forces. The player leads the company through a series of scenarios set in realistic locations (a hill, a farm, a village) that represent the symbolic stages of their journey through occupied Italy.
“Thrill Seeker”, by Audiozone Studios Srls (Piacenza): this is a 3D musical video game set in a suspended past, inspired by 18th-century Cremona, the birthplace of the great violin-making tradition. The game aims to showcase Cremonese violin-making, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, through an immersive experience that combines rhythm and hand-drawn illustrations. At the heart of the game is an innovative rhythmic mechanic: the player moves in sync with the soundtrack, and the entire game world follows the beat of the music. The player’s actions generate notes and sound fragments in real time, drawn from traditional Cremonese stringed instruments, transforming the gameplay into a vibrant and interactive form of musical performance.
Bologna Game Farm is the gaming industry accelerator promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region and the City of Bologna, an initiative coordinated by the City of Bologna and implemented with ART-ER as part of measures to support the cultural and creative industries, in collaboration with IncrediBOL! and with technical support from IIDEA, the Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association.
A project that is constantly growing: the first five editions successfully selected 26 development teams comprising companies and freelancers, of which 15 were from Emilia-Romagna and 11 from across the country. Three teams have already signed a publishing deal, one game has just been self-published, and the others are continuing with development, again with a view to self-publishing.
In the coming years, Bologna Game Farm – coordinated by the City of Bologna, with co-funding and collaborative work alongside the Emilia-Romagna region – will continue to support the video game development sector, further establishing itself as a tangible professional opportunity within the cultural and creative sectors.