MEDIA COVERAGE: PROF. SHEPPARD ON GAME DESIGN

Professor Mare Sheppard, who currently teaches GAME CONTEXTS in the M.A. Program, discusses the design process behind the award winning N++ Ultimate Edition on the Official US and EU PlayStation Blog. As she explains:

The heart of N++’s design is a delicate balance of challenge with reward, and tension with joy, so that players can really appreciate how their skills are developing as they play, and feel proud of themselves when they complete an exceptional task. It’s all about that thrill and satisfaction. That’s what makes N++ the game of “just one more try!” :)

Click the image below to read the full article. 

EVENT: IULM ESPORTS SUMMIT (12/12/2017)

IULM University will host its first eSports Summit on December 12, 2017 from 10 am to 1 pm in the Aula dei 146 (IULM Open Space). Sponsored and presented by the Master of Arts in Game Design and the Master in Marketing and Sport Communication Speakers include representatives from publishers (Stefano Cozzi, Riot Games), event organizers (Pier Luigi Parnofiello, Fandango Club; Simone Gambardella, PG eSports), market research companies (Andrea Valadé, Nielsen; Michele Ciccarese, GroupM ESP), and academics (Vincenzo Russo, Matteo Bittanti, Mauro Ferraresi). The event is free and open to the public but seats are limited.

Please RVSP here.

MEDIA COVERAGE: PROF. MOLINARI FEATURED ON ELLE MAGAZINE

Prof. Claudia Molinari, co-founder of indie game studio We Are Muesli, is featured on the latest issue of ELLE magazine alongside other smart Italian game designers and artists. This year, Molinari co-teaches GAME WRITING.

To read the full article, click here (text in Italian, article by Laura Ligabue)

EVENT: UNDERSTANDING GAME LOCALIZATION

On October 20, 2017, Master of Arts in Game Design sponsored the first Game Localization summit at IULM University. Four speakers from the leading game localization companies in Italy (Elena Cesana and Marco Locatelli from Keywords Studios, Simone Crosignani from Jinglebell, Daniele Pastina from Synthesis) discussed several aspects of this complex and fascinating practice. 

The event can be watched in its entirety below. 

EVENT: PROFESSOR RIGHI RIVA INTERVIEWED BY THE NYU GAME CENTER

Pietro Righi Riva is one of the four artists selected for the prestigious No Quarter exhibition, an annual event curated by the New York University's GAme Center (the other three are Auriea Harvey, Droqen, and Kitty Horrorshow). In an interview with Robert Yang, Riva talks about his new "drop-in, drop-out crowd game for 30 people", Asta Grande.

Click here to read the full text. 

EVENT: PROFESSOR NOLAN'S NEW PRESENTATION AND PAPER

Professor Kieran Nolan (GAME AESTHETICS) shares his slides from a recent talk about the JAMMA arcade platform as used by bootleggers, artists, and indie game designers. He also shares a short paper titled 'Indie Game and Media Art Exhibition Spaces as Interface Layers’, which explores the human computer interface of his experimental indie game Control was augmented through five different exhibitions across both new media art and indie game spaces. Interface elements considered include the tangible control input type, the style of visual display used, as well as the situated space of the game installation itself. The paper was presented at CHI PLAY '17.

EVENT: PROFESSOR AURIEA HARVEY INTERVIEWED BY NYU GAME CENTER

Two faculty members, Auriea Harvey and Pietro Righi Riva, will soon fly to New York to showcase their latest game in the prestigious No Quarter exhibition curated by Robert Yang and hosted by the NYU Game Center. This week, Yang chatted with Harvey about game design, innovation, and art. You can read the interview by clicking the image below. 

EVENT: PROFESSOR SHEPPARD'S GAME N++ NOW AVAILABLE FOR XBOX ONE

N is making its return to Xbox. N++ launches today on Xbox Live! Professor Mare Sheppard, co-founder of Canadian indie studio Metanet Software, who teaches GAME CONTEXTS in our Program, is releasing the revamped version of the award-winning platform game:

This is the long-awaited sequel to the legendary N+, rewritten from scratch to be bigger, better, and more beautiful in every way. N++ is a fast-paced, momentum-based platformer about darting around obstacles, narrowly evading enemies and collecting gold in a beautiful minimalist landscape. N++ is all about using your momentum to complete levels and get high scores, but in this sci-fi world, there’s a slew of inadvertently homicidal enemy robots trying to prevent you from completing your goal. Through the hand-crafted (NOT procedurally generated) levels, you’ll experience platforming at its most intense. Using only your fluid movement, you need to ‘solve’ each level and get to the exit. (Major Nelson)

EVENT: A DELUGE OF INDIE GAMES AT THE MILAN GAMES WEEK 2017

Indie games took a center stage at the latest Milan Game Week (September 29 - October 1, 2017). The show's attendance was close to 150,000. Among the 56 titles on display was Professor Pietro Righi Riva's narrative road trip extravaganza Wheels of Aurelia. The key message is that, in 2017, "game design" and "Made in Italy" are not two mutually exclusive ideas. Check the video below for a detailed overview of recent indie productions developed by Italian studios. Your project could be the next hit.

KIERAN NOLAN JOINS THE FACULTY

We are delighted to announce that Kieran Nolan has joined the faculty and he will be teaching GAME AESTHETICS.

Kieran Nolan is an artist-researcher, indie-game designer, and academic. He is a lecturer with the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology, where he is Programme Director of the BA in Media Arts and Technologies and the BA (Hons) in Communications and Creative Multimedia, and co-organiser of the Picteilín Creative Media and Games Studies Conference. Kieran is also a PhD candidate in Digital Arts and Humanities with the Graphics Vision and Visualisation group at Trinity College, Dublin. His PhD research explores the aesthetic, material and connective properties of the arcade videogame interface. Kieran’s research work has been published at conferences and exhibitions worldwide, including Vector Game Art and New Media Festival (Toronto), The Science Gallery (Dublin), Eurogamer Expo (London), Future and Reality of Gaming/F.R.O.G. (Vienna), International Symposium of Electronic Art /ISEA (Belfast, Hong Kong), ZIL Cultural Centre (Moscow), the A MAZE. International Independent Video Games Festival (Berlin), METEOR (Tokyo), MAKE (Cork), Transmediale (Berlin), Art.CHI (Seoul), Game On! El arte en juego (Buenos Aires), and Playing The Game (Milan).

Among his games are Arcade Operator (2017)

And Control (2015)

Read more about Kieran Nolan's games and project here. 

EVENTO: IULM MASTER DAY (21 SETTEMBRE 2017, 12-13)

Presentazione ufficiale del Master Universitario di Primo Livello in Game Design alla IULM il 21 settembre 2017 dalle ore 12 alle ore 13 in Aula 154 (IULM 1) con Matteo Bittanti e numerosi docenti. Vi aspettiamo! Cliccate qui per il programma completo. 

On September 21, 2017, the M.A. in Game Design at IULM University will unveil its full program. Don't miss this opportunity to meet the professors! The presentation takes place in Room 154 of IULM's Main Bulding on September 21, 2017 between noon and 13. Click here for the full program (in Italian).

WE ARE MÜESLI JOIN THE FACULTY

We are delighted to announce that Claudia Molinari and Matteo Pozzi also known as We Are Müesli will be teaching Game Writing in the upcoming academic year. As you may know, the duo has produced several award winning independent games in the past ten years, including Venti Mesi, The Great Palermo, Once Upon a Tile, and Cave! Cave! Deus videt! that have been exhibited at SXSW, Indiecade, the Global Game Jam, and many more places around the world.

You will be able to meet Claudia and Matteo on September 21, 2017 at IULM, during the next Master's Day.

Claudia Molinari is a graphic designer, illustrator and art director. After studying anthropology, photography and media, art direction and graphic, trend and concept design in Cambridge, Brighton, London and Milan, Claudia began her professional career in 2004 working for several graphic studios in Italy and abroad, including A+G, Lumen and A+A. Before entering the game design industry, Claudia worked for five years as visual designer with the Italian service design company Logotel (2009-2014). In 2011, she launched We Are Müesli with Matteo Pozzi, an independent game studio focusing on award-winning narrative games. Claudia is also a teacher, lecturer, and speaker on topics related to art and narrative in game design. Her personal achievements include a D&AD Commendation (2008), an Italian Young Creativity Award (2008) and two Spot School Awards (2008) as well as taking part in AIAP Millennials: the new scene of Italian graphic design (2015).   

Born in Monza, Italy in 1980, Matteo Pozzi began his career as a game journalist in the early 2000s while pursuing a B.A. in Journalism, Publishing, and Multimedia Communication in Milan. Co-founder of indie studio We Are Müesli, Matteo has also been working as a freelance screenwriter since 2006, mainly on sitcoms for Disney Channel Italy but also on different TV genres and ongoing productions, short formats, and branded content for several clients and channels. He also collaborated with the Italian service design company Logotel from 2008 to 2014 as a copywriter on communication projects and chief editor of Weconomy, an editorial platform about collaborative innovation and sharing economy. As a content editor, he took part in three collective exhibitions for the Milan Design Week (Making Together in 2012, (In)visible Design in 2013 and award-winning Timescapes in 2014) and contributed to the launch of Made in Lambrate (2014).