The Organizing and Scientific Committee, the Jury, and the Selection

Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti – NABA Rome

Andrea Angiolino is a journalist and game designer: he has created games for radio and TV, magazines, advertising, and the internet. He has designed many board games, including the Wings of Glory series (with Pier Giorgio Paglia, Ares Games), and written around thirty books, most of them on gaming-related topics. Among these are the first Italian gamebook (In cerca di fortuna, Ripostes, 1987, reissued by Plesio Editore in 2023), the Dizionario dei Giochi (with Beniamino Sidoti; Zanichelli, 2010; 2nd ed. Unicopli, 2022), and Storie di giochi – da nascondino al Sudoku (Gallucci, 2017).

Author and editor of various role-playing games, he is the creative director of the new edition of Lex Arcana, which he helped turn into a worldwide success. He tells stories about games and toys on Wikiradio, broadcast on Rai Radio Tre. He produces documentaries on games for RAI and for the Lucca Comics & Games festival, where he also curates exhibitions on gaming themes. He writes entries on games and comics for the works of the Treccani Institute.

He teaches game design courses and Game Culture at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. In 1999 he was appointed “Expert Game Inventor” by the Italian Ministry of Public Education. He has received the Best of Show lifetime achievement award at Lucca Games 2004, the Game Personality of the Year award in 2007, and the Gradara Ludens award in 2022.

University of Trieste, Federludo

My discovery of role-playing games began when I opened the Red Box of D&D. My current interest in RPGs, which reflects my work as a researcher, focuses on exploring new mechanics and investigating the “phylogenetic” and evolutionary relationships that generate similarities, variants, and innovation.

IMT Lucca

Ennio Bilancini is Full Professor of Game Theory and Behavioral Economics at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca. He is Director of the GAME Science Research Center and coordinates the GAME Science Seasonal Schools. His research focuses on game science, prosociality, sustainable behaviors, and social norms.

LUDO ERGO SUM TdG Imperia

Fabio Boero is an educator and coordinator of socio-educational services in the Province of Imperia. He trains educators and teachers in the use of games, and designs projects for schools and institutions that employ games for inclusion, team building, and the assessment of life and soft skills.

Arcigay Florence, Arcigaymerz

Daniele Bonaiuti is an actor, director, theater teacher, LGBTQIA+ activist, and passionate about games and game design.
A lifelong nerd, he proudly contributed to the creation, development, and promotion of Lobbies, the first Italian LGBTQIA+ themed card game. He was among the founders of Arcigaymerz, the LGBTQIA+ gaming group of Arcigay Florence, where he worked on safety mechanics and safer spaces related to play.

He is part of the collective that organizes IN/VISIBIL3, a convention held for the past two years in Florence, dedicated to intersectional, transfeminist, and queer reimaginings of the present and future of the gaming world. Since May 2024, he has been President of Arcigay Florence – Altre Sponde.

GAME Science Research Center

Stefano Cecere lives and works at the intersection of games, education, open-source technologies, and the new humanism. He develops EdTech and Game-Based Learning at FEM.digital, Social Impact Games with VGWB.org, and playful training with 2042ed.org.

Father of two and Vice President of a Casa del Popolo (People’s House), he strives to play this great collaborative game at his best.

CNR-IFN (Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council of Italy)

Fabio Chiarello: physicist, researcher at CNR-IFN in the field of quantum technologies and superconducting devices. He is active in science communication through conferences, games, lecture-concerts, and workshops, with a particular interest in exploring the use of games for science outreach. He is the author of the popular science book “L’Officina del Meccanico Quantistico” and coordinator of the national competition “Fotonica in Gioco”, aimed at engaging students in the creation of science-themed board games.

studiogiochi

A passion for board games, card games, logic puzzles, word games, and mathematical games led in 1987 to the creation of studiogiochi.

Dario is the founder of the Italian Games Festival, the Archimede Prize, and the Italian Games Archive. He is a journalist, the author of around fifty books on games, and the designer of about twenty board games—but above all, a passionate player. He was Pentamind World Champion in 2002 and 2012 at the Mind Sports Olympiad, where he has earned 148 medals from 1997 to today.

In 2024, he was awarded both the Giampaolo Dossena Prize for Game Culture and the Gradara Ludens Prize.

Liceo Scientifico G. Galilei

Giammario Giannotti has always been passionate about board games and role-playing games. In 2011 he founded La Tana dei Goblin Pescara to promote gaming culture, and since 2013 he has collaborated with A.P.S. Cronosfera and other associations in the game design of live gaming events.

He teaches Mathematics and Physics and has been engaged in Playful Didactics since his university studies. He has given lectures and seminars on the subject and has designed several educational games.

La Gilda del Cassero

An activist at the Cassero LGBTQIA+ Center in Bologna and a volunteer with La Gilda, he coordinated the drafting of the Pink Manifesto of Gaming. Passionate about game outreach and game design, he contributed to the creation of Lobbies, the first Italian LGBTQIA+ themed card game, and collaborated with the informal research collective Donne, Dadi & Dati (Women, Dice & Data).

Bahçeşehir University (BAU)

Assoc. Dr. Güven Çatak began writing for video game magazines and creating short films while studying architecture at İstanbul Technical University. His shorts won several awards and were screened at various festivals. He continued his games career as an academic at Bahçeşehir University (BAU). His media network and academic studies empowered him to found "BUG Lab," which kick-started the indie game scene in İstanbul and eventually transformed into an education and incubation platform. In 2024, he started the Games for Change Türkiye Chapter.

National Research Council of Italy – Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (CNR-ICCOM)

Andrea Ienco is a chemist and researcher at CNR-ICCOM. His work focuses on atoms, molecules, and their transformations, using crystallography and applied theoretical chemistry. Within the “Language of Research” network, dedicated to science outreach, he uses games to illustrate the role of chemistry in the challenges of sustainability, energy, and critical raw materials. He spearheaded the creation of the “Periodic Issue” of Comics&Science, dedicated to the periodic table.

White Cocal Press

Diego Manna, biologist, born in Trieste on March 4, 1979. A science communicator and environmental educator with a passion for dialect literature, he founded a publishing house through which he publishes books and board games about the culture and dialect of his city.

He is the author of educational games on environmental themes and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Game-Based Learning and Gamification in Educational Contexts at the University of Urbino.

V.I.E. srl, Genoa, Italy, CeRG – Research Center on Games, University of Genoa

Michele Masini is a psychologist and researcher with a PhD in Psychology, Anthropology, and Cognitive Sciences, specialized in cognitive ergonomics and human factors. As an adjunct university lecturer, he has taught courses on cognitive ergonomics, design psychology, and non-technical skills.

His research focuses on non-technical skills, teaching methodologies, and Game-Based Learning. He has taken part in several projects on training, education, and faculty development. He is also co-founder of V.I.E. SRL, a consultancy company specialized in training, human factors, and organizational safety.

Matteo Menapace designs cooperative games and facilitates playful workshops for people to explore real-world challenges.
He lectures in game design, and was game designer in residence at the V&A Museum in London.
Matteo co-designed Daybreak, a cooperative game about stopping climate breakdown, which won the Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) award for best connoisseur game in 2024. He was banned by the SdJ jury for wearing a 🍉 t-shirt during the ceremony.

University of Torino

Ivan Mosca is a Lecturer in Game Design at the University of Turin, Department of Humanities. He combines theoretical research on games (The Social Ontology of Digital Games, Wiley-IEEE) with the study of practical design (What is it like to be a player? The qualia revolution in game studies, Games & Culture).

Graduated in Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication with a thesis on gamification, she has been a role-playing and board game player since childhood. A feminist and queer activist, she leads the Queer Box play-lab in Veneto. In 2018, together with Giulia Cursi, she founded the research group Donne, dadi & dati (Women, Dice & Data), which later gave rise to the Safe Space Project.

VIE – Valorizzazione Innovazione Empowerment srl; CeRG – Research Center on Games, University of Genoa

Tommaso F. Piccinno is a researcher with a PhD in Psychology, Anthropology, and Cognitive Sciences. He is an adjunct professor of non-technical skills at the Department of Engineering of the University of Genoa.

His research interests focus on the study of board game ergonomics from a cognitive perspective, on teaching methodologies with particular attention to Game-Based Learning, and on the development of non-technical skills. He is involved in several research projects on the impact assessment of board games as educational and training tools, particularly regarding the relationship between games and the teaching of history.

He is also the author of games designed for educational and outreach purposes.

We Are Muesli

Benedetta Pierfederici studied Italian literature (in Rome), cultural heritage management (in Siena), and public history (in Milan). She starts from and arrives at words (“Everything can change, but not the language we carry inside,” as Italo Calvino says), but she also knows when it’s time to give space to spaces! She is a content designer, public historian, and Italianist at We Are Muesli.

Impresa Sociale BASE, F.R.O.G. APS, and Game Science Research Center

Arianna Rivi is a pedagogue, freelancer, and member of Impresa Sociale BASE. She also occasionally collaborates with F.R.O.G. APS and with the cooperative LudoLabo, with which she helps organize school workshops during Play – Festival del Gioco.

Her work focuses on design and training in the following areas: adolescence, school dropout, social withdrawal, study motivation, learning processes, parenting support, and playful didactics. She is a member of the Game Science Research Center and strongly believes in the value of play both as a tool for developing transversal skills and as a language for conveying meaningful content across many fields.

University of Milan

Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan. Since 1990, he has been working on digital images, color, and visual perception. He is a Fellow of IS&T, Senior Editor for Color Research and Applications, and Associate Editor for the Journal of Electronic Imaging. In 2015, he received the Davies Medal from the Royal Photographic Society.

For years, he has conducted research in the field of accessibility in board games, with particular attention to color-blind players and the visual aspects of game components.

Event Horizon School

Mauro Salvador studies interactive digital media and their relationship and integration with other forms of communication. He works as a game designer with the collective Dotventi and for development studios such as Trinity Team. He is also a trainer for various organizations and teaches Digital Storytelling at the University of Bologna.

Scrittore e Giornalista

GDRItalia A.P.S.

Rosalba Spotorno has been a board and role-playing gamer, managed a game library/laser tag center, and since 2002 has been teaching mathematical sciences in schools using a playful approach. She employs board and simulation games to foster life skills and to address themes of environmental sustainability. She has given seminars and webinars on the use of playful didactics for teachers and educators.

GSRC

Research fellow at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences (DISPOC), she works on visual design and accessible communication, engaging in co-design projects with marginalized communities. An activist, transfeminist, gamer, and Arcigay trainer, as well as a member of the GSRC Equity Committee, she strives to change the world one small step at a time through projects such as Pink* and In/Visibil3.

Roma Tre University & ToPlay

Marco Viola, born in 1988, is a researcher and lecturer in philosophy at Roma Tre University. He studies cognitive sciences and their methods, with a focus on face and emotion perception. An avid gamer, he has been collaborating with the gaming event ToPlay, where since 2020 he has served as Head of Cultural Events.