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NOTICE

PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2016, organized by studiogiochi, concerns the invention of unpublished boardgames.

The Prize, dedicated to the great Alex Randolph, who was its president during the first seven editions, made the wishes of more than 30 authors come true, thanks to the pubblication of their games. 
Everybody can participate (single or group), there are no age nor nationality limits. 

The Competition is patronised by the City of Venice and is part of a series of cultural events dedicated to games, also as prevention against compulsive gambling.  

The J.P. Halvah Foundation, created by the very same Randolph and directed by Herbert Feuerstein, donates € 4.000 to the first three places in form of anticipations of the future publications of their games. 

The final ceremony will take place in the Sala San Leonardo of Venice on October 1st 2016. During this occasion there will be an exhibition of the finalist games. 

The Musée Suisse du Jeu will organize an exhibition of the winner games.

The prize is recognized by UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti) and byGioNa (Associazione Nazionale delle Città in Gioco) for its social and cultural value. In fact it is a ludic and recreational activity that promotes the right of playing for any person and for any age.

Besides the Archimede Prize, the jury will assign the Special Prize Sebastiano Izzo and many other awards such as:

• Carta Mundi Special Prize for the best card game: the prize consists in 1.000 copies of the winner game made by Carta Mundi for free, given to its creator; the game must be composed by one or two decks of cards.
• Special Prize IDG for the best game entirely created by an author that never published a game before. In case of a prototype with more than one author, all of them must be never published authors.
• In collaboration with CNR, inside the European Project Photonics4All and in occasion of the UNESCO Internatioanl year of Light 2015, the Special Prize Science in Games for the best educational and learning game, with a special attention to issues concerning light and its many aspects. More infos about it on:  www.fotonicaingioco.it

All finalists will also receive games offered by the publishers who support the Prize.

www.spielmaterial.de offers a 20% discount to any author participating to the Premio Archimede who makes an order. Take this chance to realize your prototype in a professional way. Please contact the Premio Archimede secretary to receive the discount code.

To participate

Fill in the participation form within May 31th 2016 and send it to:

PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2016 c/o studiogiochi
S. Polo 3083
30125 VENEZIA

The authors are required to pay a participation fee of €30 for each inscribed game in these two possible ways:

1) paypal to info@studiogiochi.com. 
2) bank transfer (IBAN DE09 3605 0105 0003 7001 84 BIC SPESDE3E).

Eventual custom fees have to be refunded by the game authors, otherwise the game won’t be inscribed. Studiogiochi will have the right of first refusal on the finalist games (see the participation form).

There will be a participation certificate for each admitted game, to witness and certify the presence of the game in this edition.

Requirements 

All the games will need the requirements below. Without these requirements, they won’t be admitted to the final.

The game
- Has to be original and unpublished.
- Can’t last more than 90 minutes.

The prototype
- All game components, including the game board, must be inside a rigid cardboard box, similar to the commercial boardgames boxes. The box should be easy to open and close, keeping safe what’s inside. It should be easy to transport: it is better to avoid too big or too heavy boxes (the ideal measures of a boardgame box are 40x30x10 cm).
- It should be functional, the jury has to be able to play it with ease. Pawns must stand well, spaces must be enough big, the cards not too thin, colours easy to identify, and so on.
- The game should not depend on its language. If text is necessary it is recomended to use english, so that the jury is able to play it indipendently.
- It doesn’t have to be presented in its final version, the graphic aspects come after its use. 
-  It is not necessary for the game to be presented as a final version, the graphic aspect comes after its use. 
- The pieces of the game have to be wrapped separately in order to make it easy to get ready for the game.
- If necessary, the board has to be folded to fit into the box.
- The organization is not responsible for any loss or damage of the prototype during the event.

Information about the authors
On the box and on the rules there must be the name of the game, the name and surname of the authors, their full address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

The rules
- Have to be both in Italian and English and printed.
- Have to be easy to understand and exhaustive (including the indication of the contents of the material and the number of players). The jury must not have a hard time understanding them. It is advisable to use examples and figures.
- Can’t be written in more than 10.000 characters.
- Advice: Before you send the game, let it be played by the testers without giving any help explaining the rules, and observe how it works! That way you will know how to refine and perfection your rules and even your game.

Participation form
The participation form has to be completely filled in and signed for each participating game.

The jury, the criteria and procedures for the selection of the games
There will be two separate juries, both directed by Niek Neuwahl. During the first part of the competition only the selection jury is working: 

• Niek Neuwahl (president) 
• Leo Colovini (spokesman) 
• Giuseppe Baggio 
• Mauro Gaffo (journalist, Italy)  
• Umberto Rosin and Stefano Scaramuzza (tana di Goblin Venezia)  
• Federico Colovini

The selection jury will carefully study all game rules, dividing them among its members

• During the jury meetings each member explains to the others the rules he read. Each game will be played by at least two of the selection jury members. If during playing the game is judged as not appropriate, its playing can be interrupted before the end of the game.
•  Each jury member will evaluate the game according to the evaluation criteria. The average of the sum of all votes gives a position to each game that will determine what game will make it to the final.
• The first 30 games will all be played once more by all selection jury members, and among them the finalists will be selected.

The jury will consider the games accordingly to the following criteria (in order of importance):

- Originality of the game mechanisms. 
- Playability, balance and functionality of the mechanisms.
- Amusement.
- Interaction between players.
- The possibility that the game will be taken into consideration from editors to be published.
- Theme coherence. 
- Quality of the prototype.

At this point the final jury come into play:

• Niek Neuwahl (president) 
• Michael Bruinsma and Wim De Boer (Phalanx, The Netherlands)  
• Bernd and Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany) 
• Cyril Demaegd (Asmodée, France) 
• Silvio De Pecher (la tana dei Goblin, Italy)  
• Dario De Toffoli (studiogiochi, Italy)  
• Uwe Molter (Amigo, Germany)  
• Philipp Sprick (Ravensburger, Germany) 
• Dieter Strehl (Piatnik, Austria) 
• Albrecht Werstein and Andreas Preiss (Zoch, Germany) 
• Barbara Schmidts (Kosmos, Germany) 
• Klaus Ottmaier (Pegasus, Germany) 

The final jury will meet about one week before the final and each member will play every finalist game, secretly voting and writing down his impressions about his 7 favourite ones.
During the final ceremony, there will be a voting in front of the public to decide the winner. Each jury member will give 7 points to his favourite game, 6 points to his second favourite, and so on.
The votes will then be imediately counted to determine the winner of the Edition.
The selection jury will also choose the 3 best card games, indifferently if they are or not among the finalists. These 3 games will be judged separately by the final jury + Luc Martens from Cartamundi. Each jury member will assign 3 points to its favourite card game, 2 points to the next game, and so on. The winner will recieve the Cartamundi Special Prize.

Both groups will be joined by F. Berger, G. Franceschini,  G. Marchesin, E. Marzorati, P. Modolo, R. Nardo and selected playtesters for consultancy.

Published games

The Premio Archimede, has demonstrated throughout the years to be an outstanding showcase. Already 42 the published games that participated to the Prize.

Edition 2014: 
there are already two contracts, but soon more will be official.

Edition 2012: 
Marco Polo by S.Luciani and D.Tascini, ed. Hans im Glück, Who sleep don’t fish by D. Rigolone ed. Piatnik (Espresso fishing), 
Ready to rock by T. Bonetti, indipendent publication.

Edition 2010: 
Builders of Egypt by Phil Harding, ed. Kosmos (release in 2016), 
Cacao by Phil Harding, ed. Abacus Spiele, 
Castles by Marco Pozzi, ed.Heidelberger Verlag, 
Aquileia by Pier Volontè, ed. Zoch and 999 games, 
Crazy race by Antonio Scrittore, ed. Zoch and 999 games (Kalimambo), 
Drop Site, by Dennis Hoyle, ed. Gordion games.

Edition 2008: 
Nuraghe by S. Luciani, ed. Cranio (Sheepland), 
Quebec by Pietro Vozzolo, ed. Huch (Campos), 
Portobello Road by Simone Luciani, ed. Piatnik (Frutti di mare), 
Egizia by Virginio Gigli, ed. Hans im Glück, 
Strada romana by Walter Obert, ed. Ghenos, 
Fairy Power by Antonino Calogero, ed. Lanza del Vasto.

Edition 2006:  
Ur by Paolo Mori, ed. What’s your game, 
Star Systemby Walter Obert, ed. Scribabs, 
The muddle maze by Enrico Pesce and Federica Rinaldi, ed Scribabs/Post sciptum (Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas).

Edition 2004: 
Terranova by Gaetano Evola and Rosanna Leocata, ed. Winning Moves, Moria by Alessandro Saragosa, ed. Clementoni (König Solomons Schatzkammer), 
Al Fischmarkt by Mario Papini, ed. Clementoni,
I vichinghi by Alessandro Zucchini, ed. Amigo (Walhalla), 
Criminal mouse by the prisoners of the San Vittore Prison, ed. Faro, 
Feudo by Mario Papini, ed. Zugames.

Edition 2002: 
Andrew’s cage by Andrea Mainini, ed. da Recent Toys International (Tunnelz),
Spin & Trap by Andrea Mainini, ed. Gold Sieber + ed. Recent Toys, 
Collection by Luisa and Francesco Cognetti, - ed. Dal Negro + ed. Piatnik (Minestrone), 
Major Tom by Roland and Tobias Goslar, ed. Kronberger Spiele (Tom Tube), 
Old Town by Stephan Riedel, ed. Clicker Spiele, 
Cromodrom by Giuseppe Bonfiglio, ed. Piatnik (Farb Flitzer).

Edition 2000: 
Bisanzio by Alessandro Saragosa, ed. 999 games (Justinianus), 
Gnomoni by Duilio Carpitella, ed. Piatnik (San Gimignano) - nomination SdJ 2002, 
Sopravvento (2000) by Alberto Zaccagni, ed. Sopravvento.

Edition 1998: 
Verba game by Giuliano Parenti and Torquato Lo Mele, ed. Dal Negro, 
Trikube by Luca Borsa, ed. da Ravensburger as Verbindung gesucht,  
Trigos by Paolo Gasperat, ed. Arg Design.

Edition 1996: 
Forma o colore? by Francesco Rotta, ed. Hiku Spiele + ed. Faro (Oxxo), Algoritmo by G.Dotta, ed. Qualitygame, 
Kupido by Giovanni Caron, ed. Qualitygame, 
C’era una volta by Francesco Lutrario, ed. Carte Segrete, 
Konos by G.Grieco, A.Grieco, N. Roccasalva, ed. GE.MI