The fifth edition of First Playable 2023 has just concluded in Florence, the event organized by IIDEA, Toscana Film Commission in collaboration with the ICE Agency dedicated to the Italian videogame panorama which is both an opportunity for studios and publishers to meet and an opportunity to the pulse of a sector that in Italy has always struggled to take off. The occasion is also important because the Italian Video Game Awards are assigned, the prizes, awarded by an external jury, dedicated to the best Italian video games and to the personalities who distinguished themselves the previous year.
Compared to last year, the numbers of First Playable have doubled, we are talking about 45 investors and publishers coming from 12 countries, 180 companies and freelancers who presented games, prototypes and ideas for a total of around 450 developers involved. Video games in Italy is a very varied sector in which historical realities and highly experienced professionals coexist alongside extremely young realities of kids who trained with the first academies that appeared a few years ago in Italy who jostle to find their own place.
The report More work, more female employees but still little support from the State: the video game industry in Italy by Alessandra Contin 18 April 2023
Speaking instead of the Italian Video Game Awards, Ubisoft Milan took home two awards: Outstanding Italian Company and Outstanding Individual Contribution which went to the producer Cristina Nava, who last year took care of the excellent Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and who is currently engaged with Star Wars: Outlawsnew game in the Star Wars saga by Ubisoft that we saw a few weeks ago and that looks very promising.
The best rookie of the year is instead Venice 2089 by Safe Place Studio, which tells of a Venetian future in which, obviously, we have to deal with the problems of high tide and climate change. The most important innovation award went to SaturnaliaSanta Ragione folk horror game set in Sardinia with an absolutely particular visual aspect in which the player has to solve a series of mysteries in a small village where everything can suddenly change.
But let’s talk about the game of the year award instead: tERROR path, developed by BitNine studio, namely Luca Spazzoli, the programmer, Matteo Leoni, Art Director and Andrea Leoni, author of the story. Beyond the title that could disturb, tERROR path is a sort of very ironic metagame that tells the difficulties, anxieties and challenges of those who want to develop video games. A title in which the authors dialogue directly with the player, breaking the fourth wall and challenging him to find bugs and errors in a continuous relaunch of quotes and tributes. tERROR path, its developers tell us, did particularly well in Japan and throughout Asia. “Perhaps because there is so much love for Japanese role-playing games inside,” explains Andrea Leoni. “Winning with such an ironic and absurd game is an incredible emotion – he says after the final ceremony – it’s wonderful to feel the affection of the community for a game that basically tells the story of the difficulties we face every day, the anxiety of confronting the public , with the press, with the results and I think that’s exactly what was awarded. Now we’re ready to work on the sequel, on the other hand a game that really talks about the videogame sector can’t help but be ironic about the fact that lots of sequels are made as soon as a game is successful”.
Interview Nolan Bushnell, father of Atari: “Video games have not yet expressed their full potential” by Lorenzo Fantoni 17 November 2022