Emiliano Sciarra (born December 6, 1971, in

Civitavecchia Civitavecchia (, meaning "ancient town") is a city and major Port, sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea west-northwest of Rome. Its legal status is a ''comune'' (municipality) of Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Rome, Lazio. The harbour is formed by ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) is a

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

card games A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

and

videogames A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

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

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

themed

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

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 A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its ...

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 automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

(years later he earned a degree in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

). In 1988 he published his first game: a

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre 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 typ ...

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 which was active from March 1986 to June 1999. It released seven number-one hit games and won numerous industry awards. The company used exaggeratedly small sp ...

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

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), 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 pleas ...

''Un'Altra Cosa'', along with a brief "Little Informal Dictionary of Computer Science" (''Piccolo Dizionario Informale di Informatica''). His topics included logic puzzles, 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 programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

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 video game developed and published by Taito for Arcade video game, arcades. It was released in Japan in April 1978, with the game being released by Midway Manufacturing overseas. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed s ...

'', 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 Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

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 gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

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 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) 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 someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

(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.

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 was published in France also with the name of ''Wanted!''. Illustrations by Alessandro Pierangelini * ''Bang! High Noon'', daVinci Editrice, 2003 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Toni Cittadini * ''Bang! Dodge City'', daVinci Editrice, 2004 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Alessandro Pierangelini * ''Bang! - Face Off'', Arima/daVinci, 2005 (game only in PDF). Illustrations by eriadan (Paolo Aldighieri) * ''Bang! A Fistful of Cards'', daVinci Editrice, 2005 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by eriadan * ''Bang! - The Bullet'', daVinci Editrice, 2007 (''deluxe'' version with all the expansion and promotional characters until 2009). * ''Bang! Wild West Show'', dV Games (ex daVinci Editrice), 2010 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Alberto Bontempi * ''Bang! Gold Rush'', dV Games, 2011 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by eriadan * ''Samurai Sword'', dV Games, 2011. Illustrations by Werther Dell'Edera * ''Samurai Sword - Rising Sun'', dV Games, 2014 (expansion for ''Samurai Sword''). Illustrations by Werther Dell'Edera * ''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. Illustrations by "The Walking Dead" comics * ''Bang! Halo'', USAopoly, 2015 * ''Bang! Heroes of the Storm'', USAopoly, 2015 * ''Bang! Armed & Dangerous'', dV Giochi, 2017 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Stefano Landini *''Captain Marvel: Secret Skrulls'', USAopoli, 2019 (''Bang!'' version with Marvel licence) *''Bang! The Duel - Renegades'' (expansion for ''Bang! - The Duel''), 2019. Illustrations by Rossana Beretta *''FARMED'', 2020 (didactic game for IFAD). Illustrations by Alberto Bontempi * ''Bang! The Great Train Robbery'', dV Games, 2022 (expansion for ''Bang!''). Illustrations by Stefano Landini.

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, anthologist, and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works ex ...

(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