Emiliano Sciarra (born December 6, 1971 in

Civitavecchia Civitavecchia (; meaning "ancient town") is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two pie ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

, Italy) is a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

and

videogames Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

. He is the author of '' Bang!'', a

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

themed

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

published by daVinci Editrice.

Biography

He has been fascinated by games since when he was 12 years old, and he wrote simple board games and

word games Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...

for his schoolmates and relatives. In the same time he also showed interest in

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

(years later he earned a degree in Computer Science at

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

). In 1988 he published his first game: a

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

videogame for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

called ''Ciuffy'' (Systems Editoriale), created using the software '' SEUCK'' by

Sensible Software Sensible Software was a British software company founded by Jon Hare and Chris Yates that was active from March 1986 to June 1999. It released seven number-one hit games and won numerous industry awards. The company was well known for the ex ...

. Starting from 1999 he wrote several reviews, games and articles for the magazine ''PowerKaos'' and the

fanzine A fanzine ( blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share ...

''Un'Altra Cosa'', along with a brief "Little Informal Dictionary of Computer Science" (''Piccolo Dizionario Informale di Informatica''). His topics included

logic puzzles A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematical field of deduction. History The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of ''Alice's Adventures in W ...

, original games and theoretic discussions about the meaning of the game and its role in the human society. Before becoming a professional game designer, he acquired experience as

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/create ...

and

Privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

advisor for several companies in Italy. In 2000 he published ''Invader'', a board game inspired by early 80s videogames like ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and se ...

'', on issues 69 and 70 of the magazine ''PowerKaos'' by Nexus Editrice. In 2002 he published with daVinci Editrice, which was born shortly before, the card game ''Bang!'', created two years earlier. Sciarra decided to submit the game after the members of the local Chess Club (founded by Sciarra himself in 1998) were so addicted to the game that they preferred to play ''Bang!'' instead of Chess. The game was illustrated by Alessandro Pierangelini with Stefano De Fazi as Art Director: they were all born in Civitavecchia, too, as well as the daVinci Executive Director, Domenico Di Giorgio. ''Bang!'' hit the shelves in July 2002: without any marketing by daVinci, the game entirely sold the first run (2400 copies) in less than three months, instead of the three years estimated by the company. According to official figures by daVinci, the game sold more than 3,000,000 copies and is distributed in 22 countries over the world. In 2003 he won an

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...

for ''Best Traditional Card Game''; another Origins Award was assigned to Stefano De Fazi and Alessandro Pierangelini for ''Best Graphic Design of a Card Game or Expansion''. The game won also in 2002 the ''Best of Show'' Award at the

Lucca Comics and Games Lucca Comics & Games is an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world a ...

fair. He published several expansions for ''Bang!'', including ''High Noon'', ''Dodge City'', ''Bang! - Face Off'', and ''A Fistful of Cards''. In 2010 he published the book ''L'Arte del Gioco'' (The art of play,

Mursia ''Mursia'' is a genus of crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting " tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely unde ...

) with an own definition of ''game'' suitable for game critic as well as the view of the game as a form of art. Apart from games, Emiliano Sciarra is also a skilled

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

(he wrote the stage music for the local Live Pieces of Chess,''Il Tempo'', July 14, 1999 as well as stage music for shows and movies) and he also organizes and is invited to public speeches regarding traditional arts and sciences, videogames and

ludology Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...

Publications

Videogames

* ''Ciuffy'', Systems Editoriale (published on issue no. 19 of the magazine ''Software Club''), 1988, for the Commodore 64.

Games

* ''Bang'', daVinci Editrice, 2002. The game is titled ''Wanted!'' in France (published by Tilsit). Illustrations by Alessandro Pierangelini. * ''High Noon'', daVinci Editrice, 2003 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Toni Cittadini. * ''Dodge City'', daVinci Editrice, 2004 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Alessandro Pierangelini. * ''Bang! - Face Off'', Arima/daVinci Editrice, 2005 (PDF game, board game expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Paolo Aldighieri aka eriadan. * ''A Fistful of Cards'', daVinci Editrice, 2005 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by eriadan. * ''Bang! - The Bullet'', daVinci Editrice, 2007 (deluxe set of ''Bang!''). * ''Gold Rush'', dV Games (formerly daVinci Editrice), 2008 (expansion for ''Bang!''). * ''Udoli Stinu'' 'Valley of Shadows'' dV Games/Albi, 2009 (expansion for ''Bang!'', distributed in the Czech Republic only). * ''Samurai Sword'', dV Games, 2011 * ''Rising Sun'', dV Games, 2014 (expansion for ''Samurai Sword''). * ''Bang! The Valley of Shadows'', dV Games, 2014 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Alberto Bontempi. * ''Bang! The Duel'', dV Games, 2015. Illustrations by Rossana Berretta. * ''Bang! The Walking Dead'', dV Games, 2015. * ''FarmEd'', IFAD, 2020

Books

* ''Family Games: The 100 Best'' (chapter on '' Knightmare Chess''), by

James Lowder James Daniel Lowder (born January 2, 1963 in Quincy, Massachusetts) is an American author and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular ...

(ed.), Green Ronin Pub., Seattle 2010 * ''L'Arte del Gioco'' 'The Art of Play'' Mursia, Milan 2010

Notes

External links

Personal WebsiteOfficial daVinci websiteShort biography (in Italian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sciarra, Emiliano Italian game designers Board game designers People from Civitavecchia 1971 births Living people