THE WINNER IS JAP – JUST ANOTHER PIRATE GAME
by GIAN ANDREA CAPPUZZO
FINAL PRESS RELEASE
Premio Archimede 2018 was won by the game JAP – Just Another Pirate Game, by debuting author Gian Andrea Cappuzzo, who also won two secondary prizes.
“I already tried participating at the contest two times”, explains Capuzzo, 42, from Padua, who works in the horse market “but the game I presented together with a friend of mine who works as an architect was as beautiful to see as incomplete and imprecise rules wise. Jap instead seemed to be better from the start, and for that I must especially thank my two nephews, who became the perfect play testers”.
Second place: FeudaLink by Marcello Bertocchi.
Completing the podium, Qoobeland by Alessandro Dentis and at fourth place Bononia, by Gabriele Bubola.
Worthy of notice, the secondary prizes:
Special Prize "Sebastiano Izzo", given by Dario De Toffoli to Le Cinque Torri, by Agostino Recchia, for the game that – in the juror’s opinion - would have been appreciated by Sebastiano Izzo, beloved “games buddy” of his;
Special Prize Cartamundi, for the best card game, was given by Ileana Xodo to Conclave X, by Felix Bernat Juliàn;
Special Prize IDG, for the best game entirely created by a non-professional author, as well as the Special Prize AIG, for the most original game mechanic, went to JAP, by Gian Andrea Cappuzzo;
Special Prize Fotonica in Gioco went to Stop Climate Change, by the students of Liceo Scientifico G. Gandini, Lodi (classe 5G) and Special Prize Scienza e Gioco went to Scie Chimiche, by Mirko Baldicchi, both given by Fabio Chiarello, Sara Di Marcello and Roberta Ramponi, (CNR).
The best 10 games will be exhibited at the Musée Suisse de Jeu (Swiss Museum of games) in La Tour-de-Peliz.
The final ceremony took place on September 29th, at the beautiful San Leonardo Hall, made available by the City of Venice.
158 games participated this year to the 16th edition of Premio Archimede, most of them coming from all over Italy but also from other 10 countries, including Japan and Argentina. All games were played and evaluated with extreme care by the preliminary jury, led by Leo Colovini and including Giuseppe Baggio, Piero Modolo, Federico Colovini and Umberto Rosin. This last one is worthy of a special recognition, for he let the jurors experience the emotion of a nocturnal trip on the Canal Grande aboard an ancient rowing boat (arzana.org).
The 81 handmade prototypes that had been selected by the preliminary jury for the finals were also exhibited on the same day. Among them there were all sorts of games: strategy, luck, abstract, thematized, simple, complex, all with new and original ideas, with a quality that is noticeably increasing every year.
During the final ceremony, presented by Dario De Toffoli, was also present Furio Honsell, president of GioNa (Italian association for cities that promote games). The awaited and exciting final live voting of the jury was led by Dario Zaccariotto.
As always, the work of the international jury (led by Dario De Toffoli) has been remarkable: Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi (ThunderGryph, Spain), Michael and Bob Bruinsma (999 games, Netherlands), Bernd and Moritz Brunnhofer (Hans im Glück, Germany), Stefano De Carolis (Giochi Uniti, Italy), Thomas Cauet (Asmodée, France), Silvio De Pecher (Tana dei Goblin, Italy), Ulrich Fonrobert (Queen Games, Germany), Hermann Hutter (Huch! & friends, Germany), Simone Luciani (Cranio Creations, Italy), Wolfgang Lüdtke (Kosmos, Germany), Uwe Molter and Holger Grimm (Amigo, Germany), Klaus Ottmaier (Pegasus, Germany), Philipp Sprick (Ravensburger, Germany), Dieter Strehl (Piatnik, Austria), Albrecht Werstein (Game Factory, Germany).
Fundamental and important the work done by the staff of studiogiochi, who took care of planning, set up, media, comunication and graphics (Francesca Bortolato, Giulia Franceschini, Camilla Manfren, Giorgia Marchesin, Andrea Marton, Piero Modolo, Rossana Nardo and Massimo Salvador), with the help of Fabrizio Berger and Mirko Tonini.
Premio Archimede 2018 - Ranking
Winner
JAP by Gian Andrea Cappuzzo
2nd place
FeudaLink by Marcello Bertocchi
3rd place
Qoobeland by Alessandro Dentis
4th place
Bononia by Gabriele Bubola
5th place
Stonehenge by Nestore Mangone
6th place
Conclave X by Felix Bernat Juliàn
7th place
Sunshine & Showers by Gabriele Bubola
and
Lettere di Marca by Cielo d'Oro
9th place
Conestoga by Walter Obert
10th place
U.S. Vote Dry by Geordie Cassamagnaga
and
La Piramide di Micerino by Davide Zago
12th place
Zoo by David Zanotto
13th place
Repubbliche Marinare by Matteo Sassi
Special Prize Cartamundi
Conclave X by Felix Bernat Julian
for the best card game
Special Prize “Sebastiano Izzo”
Le Cinque Torri by Agostino Recchia
to the game that would have been appreciated by Sebastiano Izzo, beloved “games buddy” that we like to remember on every edition
Special Prize IDG
JAP by Gian Andrea Cappuzzo
for the best game entirely created by a non professional game author (an author that never published one of his games yet)
Special Prize AIG
JAP by Gian Andrea Cappuzzo
for the most orginal game mechanic
Special Prize Scienza e gioco
Scie Chimiche by Mirko Baldicchi
for the best game with learning purpose, concerning scientific issues
Special Prize Fotonica in gioco
Stop Climate Change by the students of 5G
(Liceo Scientifico G. Gandini, Lodi)
for the best game created by students of Italian secondary school concerning scientific theme "Transformations: how things change"
We would like to thank all of those who, in a way or another, helped with the realization of this event:
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Schedule for the award ceremony of Premio Archimede 2018
Saturday, September 29th, 2018
10:00 - 13:00
OPENING OF THE RECEPTION
General information
EXHIBITION OF THE GAMES
that make it through the final phase of the contest
COLLECTION OF THE PROTOTYPES
that did NOT make it through the final phase of the contest (by reservation only)
INTERVIEW WITH THE SELECTION JURY
for the authors of the games that did NOT make it through the final phase of the contest (by reservation only)
14:00 - 16:00
AWARD CEREMONY
• Introduction by the president Dario De Toffoli
• Speech by Comune di Venezia
• Speech by Furio Honsell, president of GioNa
• Fabio Chiarello, Roberta Ramponi, CNR:
Fotonica in Gioco Award and Special Award Scienza e Gioco
• Sebastiano Izzo Award
• Live voting and ballots
• Prizegiving
16:00 - 19:00
INTERVIEW WITH THE SELECTION JURY
for the authors of the games that make it through the final phase of the contest (by reservation only)
17:00 - 19:00
COLLECTION OF THE PROTOTYPES
that make it through the final phase of the contest (by reservation only, collection will be available in the secretaryship only, after exhibition dismantlement) about ten different countries
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Preselection jury at work
September 2018
It is official, the registered games at the Premio Archimede 2018 are 158, the second biggest edition ever!
This time games came from all across the world, from about ten different countries (Japan, Israel and Argentina among them!). A great job is awaiting the selection jury lead by Leo Colovini: about one game out of three will make it to the final, being part of the so called "great list".
As far as the playing tests of the selection jury are going, it is not easy to take decisions. Some quite good games will need to be left out. It is obvious that the quality of the registered games keeps rising throughout the years!
The "great list" has been comunicated during the Event "IdeaG Nord-est", in Udine at the City Toy Library last September 1st, with the aiding organization of the association Coccinelle Rosa (for more details click here).
The final ceremony will take place in Venice at the San Leonardo Hall (Rio Terrà San Leonardo, Cannaregio 1584) on September 29th. The international jury, representing the major game publishing houses worldwide, will vote live!
The schedule of the day will be comunicated soon.
Some of the games participating in this edition