NEWS: PIETRO RIGHI RIVA WINS BIG AT INDIECADE 2018

Pietro Righi Riva’s latest game, Asta Grande, won the Innovation in Experience Design Award at Indiecade 2018.

The Innovation in Experience Design honors the craft or design of the game that provides a unique, curated experience. This year, the award was given to Asta Grande, a drop-in, drop-out crowd game for thirty people, described as

A pretend auction of legendary items mediated by a digital interface that is used by the auctioneer to present the lots and keep track of players’ objectives and funds. Players receive a character card that doubles as their bidding paddle, and they raise it when they are interested in an item being auctioned.

This game was originally commissioned by the NYU Game Center for the 2017 No Quarter exhibition.

The IndieCade Festival is the premiere international event dedicated to celebrating independent games from around the globe. Now in its second decade, IndieCade is held each October in the Los Angeles area and this important, fun-filled event draws industry and public from around the world.

IndieCade Festival 2018, October 12th - 13th offered a unique opportunity to play and preview the latest innovative indie games of all types and from around the world. Attendees enjoyed the opportunity to play new and innovative games and meet with their creators, as well as sessions, workshops, business networking, social activities, tournaments, entertainment and more. IndieCade kicks off with an in-depth game developer summit with creators of new titles, as well as legends from across the industry.

Pietro Righi Riva teaches GAME PRODUCTION in the M.A. in Game Design at IULM University. He is co-founder and studio director at Santa Ragione where he worked on multiple award-winning independent games, such as MirrorMoon EP, FOTONICA, and Wheels of Aurelia. Righi Riva received his Ph.D in Interaction Design from Politecnico di Milano. Pietro has been a lecturer at Politecnico di Milano, California College of Arts, Shanghai Theater Academy, Tsinghua University among others. He lectured at several international conferences and festival including the Game Developers Conference, Fantastic Arcade, and many more. Righi Riva’s design philosophy is aimed at developing games that are not objective-driven, and adopts the concept of playful technology to integrate expressive technical limitations in his designs. His work was displayed at the Venice Biennale and the MCA in Chicago. In 2016, Pietro published a manifesto for nontraditional playable media called “rejecta”. He lives and works in Milan. 

Read more about Asta Grande

Read more about Pietro Righi Riva

All images courtesy of Indiecade

WHEELS OF AURELIA IS A FINALIST AT INDIECADE 2016

The most important independent game festival in the world, INDIECADE, has just announced the 50 official nominees for the 2016 edition. Among the highlights are two Italian games RIOT - Civil Unrest and Wheels of Aurelia.

The former has been developed by IV Productions/Leonard Menchiari while the latter was produced by Santa Ragione. 

Other highlights include a game about the Holocaust (Keeping The Candles Lit), a game about #Feminism, a game about killer drones (Killbox), and game about Bad News. 

Read more here.