On 18 September, a brand-new event to explore how to promote cultural heritage through video games
On Thursday 18 September, the Lapidary of the Medieval Civic Museum in Bologna will host Heritage Game Farm: a day dedicated to promoting cultural heritage through video games, organised by the City Council as part of the Bologna Game Farm project and within the IncrediBOL! initiative for the development of the cultural and creative industries.
From 10.00 am to 5.00 pm, the day’s programme is divided into two morning sessions and an afternoon round-table discussion, featuring in-depth discussions on applied games: including an overview provided by IIDEA and presentations of several Italian case studies, attended by professionals and specialists from the gaming sector, featuring the experiences of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, the video game ‘Missione Magna Grecia’ and the IVIPRO project.
The event will open with official addresses from the Municipality and Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region, followed by panel discussions with the management of Bologna Game Farm and the Centres for Emerging Technologies in Italy (Bologna, Pesaro and Matera), giving those present the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the six winning video games from the fifth edition of Bologna Game Farm, which was entirely dedicated to promoting Italy’s cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. The six winning projects revolve around the traditions of violin-making, the art of oratory, folklore, Val Camonica, the Divine Comedy and the Kefalonia massacre, spanning Italy from Lombardy to Sicily, via Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia.
Here are the names of the games and teams:
Beatrix, by Tambù Srl (Milan)
Hyperarousal, by AION Interactive Srl (Milan)
Super Sofia, by Mash & Co Srl (Taormina)
Rome: City of Cards, by Open Lab Srl (Florence)
Stray Company: The Long Road of Acqui Survivors, by BM Interactive (Marco Bianchi) (Cagliari)
Thrill Seeker, by Audiozone Studios Srls (Piacenza)
The day, which will also feature the launch of the video game NO SIGNAL – Marconi the Game, produced by the City Council to mark the 150th anniversary of Marconi’s birth, will conclude with a presentation and trial of the video game WunderBO – which promotes the city of Bologna and its museums – during a guided tour of the galleries of the Medieval Civic Museum, accompanied by the professionals who developed the video game.
HERITAGE GAME FARM has been conceived and organised by the City Council as part of the Bologna Game Farm project, with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region for the promotion and digitisation of cultural heritage. The initiative forms part – alongside the 2025 call for proposals, which has been extended for a second year to include studios across Italy – of the broader framework of the national ‘Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti’ (House of Emerging Technologies) project promoted by MIMIT, which brings together the CTEs in Bologna, Matera and Pesaro, building on the strategy to strengthen the public ecosystem in order to support the emergence of a new form of entrepreneurship with a strong innovative impact.
Bologna Game Farm is the gaming industry accelerator promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region and the City of Bologna, an initiative organised in partnership 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.
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. Among these, three organisations have already signed a publishing agreement, one game has been released on the market as a self-published title, and the others are continuing with development, again with a view to self-publishing.
Bologna Game Farm, coordinated by the City of Bologna and with co-funding and collaborative work alongside the Emilia-Romagna region, continues to support the video game development sector, establishing itself as a tangible professional opportunity within the cultural and creative sectors.