Games

LUCCA GAMES XXIII

The global event for the great global projects!

This year the most important show dedicated to all forms of gaming an to the imagination will give an in-depth look at the global projects and at the creative people who realize them.

Development of a winning idea, of a character, of a subject, and declination of the project on the narrative, gaming, visual and cinematographic levels.

Lucca Games, parterre de rois of these global projects, will host the main publishers and companies of this sector, their brands and their ideas, developing a series of thematic paths of exposition and formation focused on the key elements of entertainment from the past 10 years.

As usual, the cornerstone of the program will be the presence of three Guest of Honor (a painter, a writer and a game designer).

The opportunity that Lucca Games offers, unique in Italy, to meet great authors of fantay, science fiction and games has never been so powerful.

The genre literature is going to be represented by maybe the greatest living master of fantasy.
The author of one of the sagas that innovated this genre, introducing into the pages of heroic adventure the first anti-hero: Elric of Melniboné.
It's with great pride that we present as Writer Guest of Honor for the XXIII edition of Lucca Games: the master Michael J. Moorcock, for the first time attending a convention in Italy.
By his side there will be one of the artists that have best represented his creation in all of these years: Robert Gould who will bring for the first time in Europe his Art Show dedicated to the albino sorcerer.
As Artist Guest of Honor for Lucca Games, the name is breathtaking.
For the first time in 43 years in the history of collateral shows of this kermesse, a fantasy artist is let into the sancta sanctorum of the italian comic-book art.
No one could have been better suited for this occasion than Donato Giancola.
His tributes to neoclassicism execution and composition, the greatness of his works, and most of all his role in the artistic movement for fantasy and science fiction make him the ideal subject for the first Lucca Games show held inside Palazzo Ducale.

Giancola, winner of the Gold Award of Spectrum 13 with his "Prometheus", has been one of the most acclaimed Magic The Gathering illustrators, and with his works for the covers of many video-games (Microsoft, Lucas Art) and those for Tor Books under Irene Gallo's direction, he earned 5 out of 9 Chelsey Awards in 2007.
After Mr. Knizia and Christian T. Petersen, the Game Designer Guest of Honor is again a Roleplay Game author: Monte Cook.
Since more than 15 years he is one of the main authors of adventures (from TSR to White Wolf to Wizards of the Coast).
One of the designers behind the 3rd Edition od D&D, he spearheaded the revolution of its rule-system subsequently influencing all the D20 based games, and then yet again pushing his creature forward with the recent Pathfinder, from Paizo Publishing.

Cool will be present in Lucca thanks to the effort of Wyrd Editions, one of the most dynamic italian firms in this sector, that has established a permanent cooperation with Malhavoc Press, the publishing company founded by the american author himself.

There will also be the presence of a great european boardgame author and one of the main figures in this area, who will participate in many laboratories during Lucca Games.
He is be Bruno Faidutti, the famous author of Citadels and Il Mistero dell'Abazia, present at the event thanks to the efforts of Nexus Editrice for the launch of Ad Astra; he'll oversee the Prototype Revision Corner and will be honorary president of the Gioco Inedito Contest.

Closing this first look at the international lineup of guests for this Lucca Games 2009, that we'll update in September, are the authors of the promotional flyer of Lucca Comics & Games.
They are Rick Berry e Phil Hale, once guests in the 1998 edition of the show, who have devoted their works to the convention interpreting it as the evolution of the species within the world of shows.
Rick Berry, visualizer for Johnny Mnemonic and author of 20 oil paintings for the limited editions of Stephen King's books, and Phil Hale, who went from the Halo cover art to Tony Blair's portrait, will once again be protagonists of the Art Exhibition for Lucca Games.

An important look will obviously be directed at World of Warcraft and its many incarnations: the card, miniature and board games.
The World of Azeroth is the perfect embodiment of a global project, a video game  universe that became literature, comic and game.

Following this project will obviously be present Upper Deck Italy and its artists and editors, like Nexus, who brought on our tables the games inspired by the great saga who captured more than 10.000.000 players.
There will then be space for the history of games, art and literature.

The corner will become an island thanks to a project named Historical Island, that will be home for a host of shows and expositions, and one will see Italeri as protagonist, and an improved area dedicated to free gaming that'll be coordinated by Conan Laurenzi and Lorenzo Sartori.
More space dedicated to art performances, and a true gymnasium for miniature painting, and a whole exposition dedicated to one of the absolute masters of historical wargaming: Mario Venturi.
Global projects and global entertainment, Lucca Games has also become the main venue for video games in Italy.

Besides EA, Namco Bandai and Ubisoft other major publishers will be present to show their latest products, like Activision, Blizzard, Nintendo and other dynamic firms of the sector, like KochMedia and Ankama.

Keep the show combined with the cultural momentum, that's the rule of this event.

In addition to the publisher's space, the cultural one: we're kickstarting the first edition of the Lucca Modding Contest, and also the first edition of a prize dedicated by Lucca Games to the best productions in video gaming.
The latter one has been supported by the Italian Association for Interactive Multimedia Works (AIOMI): the Lucca Games AIOMI AWARDS.

Publishers, ideas and italian excellency for these global projects: as always Lucca Games poses itself, other than as an exhibit, also as an occasion for the formation of young talents and for the meeting between aspirant artists and professional realities in the highest levels of italian publishing.
If the program of Lucca has its foundation in the presence of great guests who give shape and substance to the dreams of the fans, this year's event will offer a unique opportunity for the growth and formation of young authors.