Italian Videogame Developers Conference 2009

www.ivdconf.it

www.aiomi.it

Rome, October 12th, 2009

The second edition of the Italian Videogame Developers Conference ( www.ivdconf.it) closed at 8.00 p.m. on Friday 9th of October, 2009, with great satisfaction by the curators and the public, held into the Main Conference Hall of the IULM University in Milan, and organized by AIOMI, the Italian Association for the Interactive Multimedia - Movement for the Videogame Culture ( www.aiomi.it), with the collaboration of IULM University Foundation.

The IVDC, from this year also an official event of the Italian Videogame Developers Sector in Assoknowledge, Confindustria Servizi Innovativi e Tecnologici, showed a positive and clear situation of the Italian videogame industry, showing to the more than 1,000 operators attending that in Italy a very important industrial sector is forming, decisive in creating a real “made in Italy of the videogame”.

These were the most important themes of the Conference:

- Instruction opens its doors to the Interactive Multimedia, as Professor Gianni Canova, scientific director of the Executive Master in Digital Entertainment Media & Design, and Dean of the Science of Communications of the IULM University said during his speech, and as Giuseppe Colosio, Scholastic Director for Lombardy reasserted. This issue was also confirmed by many national and international speakers, like Professor Susan Gold of Full Sail University, Orlando, Florida, director of the IGDA Education SIG, or Dr. Matteo Bittanti, researcher at the Stanford University, California, or Professors Alberto Jacovoni (European Institute of Design, Rome) and Fabrizio Vagliasindi (Executive Master in Digital Entertainment Media & Design, IULM University, Milan).

- Italian creativity wins also in the videogame industry. Andrea Pessino, founder of Ready at Dawn Studios, in the USA, or Alessandro Taini, artistic director of the English studio Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword) showed that the best Italian minds are behind some of the greatest videogames in the world. Very interesting also the speeches of some of the videogame developers that still operate in Italy: among them, Giovanni Caturano of SpinVector, Simone Bechini and Giacomo Giannella of Milestone, Riccardo Cangini of Artematica, Gian Marco Zanna of Ubisoft Milano, Fabio Viola of Digital Fun / Mobile Idea, Raoul Carbone of EVE Interactive Studios, Fabrizio Calì of Kalicanthus and Flavio Bortot of Dream Locker.

- The Italian videogame industry is communicating in order to increase its growing: videogame publishers and developers met in an important meeting, trying to determine common objectives in order to make the sector grow more and more, making the institutions and the public understand the value of the videogame as a cultural and artistic medium.

- AIOMI announced the opening of the Italian Museum of Videogames, by the end of 2010. The Museum, the first permanent one in Europe dedicated only to videogames, will be in the center of Rome, with the official support of the civic authority. It will be directed by Marco Accordi Rickards, President of AIOMI, and its Curator will be Bonaventura Di Bello, pioneer of the videogame industry and culture in Italy.

- Ian Livingstone, President of Eidos and living legend in the videogame industry, held a conference about Tomb Raider and the management of an iconic character like the one of Lara Croft.

- Art and videogames. Three important international guests held a speech about the importance of the artistic contribution in modern videogames: Fredrik Johnsson, Alessandro Taini and Mattias Högvall. Debora Ferrari and Luca Traini of Fabbrica Arte introduced the new edition of the exhibition The Art of Games, that will be held in Aosta.

- The importance of mobile gaming. This theme was dealt in the round table: “Mobile Gaming becomes mass market”, lead by Fabio Viola (Mobile Idea) and various speeches by Fabrizio Calì (Kalicanthus), Carsten Van Husen (Gameforge) and Cedric Gerard, Antonin Gagelin and Silvia Mandrioli (Ankama).

- Videogames help the development of the territory. Dr. Augusto Pirovano of Studio Bard introduced the Critical City project, first social network that talks about the transformation of the urban landscape and that will have a place also in the Expo 2015, and Prof. Fabrizio Vagliasindi talked about the professional formation in the sector of the Digital Entertaiment.

- The situation of the specialized press and its future perspectives. A round table was held to talk about the situation and future perspectives of the videogame press. Some of the most important videogame magazines in Italy were present.

- The importance of the indie scene. Creativity and original ideas are at the base of the “indie games”, developed also in Italy by some small teams of young and very fond people. Vincenzo Lettera, founder and director of the IndieVault portal of AIOMI ( www.indievault.it) talked about this important new theme, introducing two quality games: Naumachia: Space Warfare by AureaSection and Zombiedog by MoonLoop.

“The Italian Videogame Developers Conference 2009 was a success not only for the people which organized it, but for the entire Italian videogame industry,” Marco Accordi Rickards, President of AIOMI and chairman of the Conference. “Videogames have finally an important and prestigious place where we can talk about it, and it’s a very important sign for the sector, but also for the institutions”.

“IULM University has been always interested in technology and innovation, and it’s proud that the first Congress of the Italian Videogame Developers was held into its seat”, said Giovanni Puglisi, Magnificent Rector of the IULM University, Milan.

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Eliana Bentivegna

Responsabile Ufficio Stampa AIOMI

Associazione Italiana Opere

Multimediali Interattive

Via Val Trompia, 136

00141 Roma

Tel./fax: +39 0645432741

ufficiostampa@aiomi.it

www.aiomi.it