Eccomi qua con l'intervista numero 14 ... ed ecco il turno di Domenico di Giorgio, che proprio in questa settimana ha compiuto 40 anni. Purtroppo anche Domenico, uomo di punta della daVinci Games mi ha rilasciato la sua intervista solo in inglese. Ecco qua dunque quello che mi ha detto e che e' apparso stamattina su Board Game News.
Buon gioco a tutti
Liga
[Liga] Dear Domenico, I start with the usual question: a short introduction about yourself
[Domenico] I am a biochemist, a good cook (as many chemists are), a husband/father of 2 little gamers (4 and 6), a musician (sic!) and a professional author of crosswords and riddles: I am a gamer since I was 6 (I played Scarabeo and many Alma games, then the IT ones, the SPI and AH wargames... and now the German and Italian games), and I started working as an editor in chief in the nineties, with Andrea Angiolino, when we developed the fanzine I was running with my club, in GiocAreA, one of the few Italian gamers magazine, published by Nexus (the ones of War of the Ring). In the meantime, I started
thinking about how to publish boardgames in a professional way: that's why we (me, Roberto Corbelli and a bunch of authors and friends whose names you probably know: Silvano Sorrentino, Em Sciarra...) decided to establish a publishing house - or, in our idea, a "publishing home"... daVinci Games.
Now, GiocAreA is a webzine in the da website, and I am working as editor in chief and developer in our beloved company, that's doing very well all over the world.
[Liga] Really nice. We have already interviewed both Em and Silvano. Cosa Bolle in Pentola ?
[Domenico] The next da game will be a gamer's game: after Tuchulcha, Fredericus and Palatinus (the "meatiest" games in our catalogue), we are going to publish a game by Acchittocca (an authors collective including Stefano "Viva il re!" Luperto), whose title is "Leonardo da Vinci" (in Germany, "Maestro Leonardo"). Then, we'll follow with FIGARO! (Factotum) a brand new Reiner Knizia game (with the drawings of Daniele Barletta, the painter who worked on "Viva il Re!"): before summer we'll also release 2 "Special Projects", a card game on Etruscans (Cai Cutu, by Andrea Angiolino!) developed with the National Etruscan Museum of Perugia, and a special edition of Lupus in Tabula, for a show or our National Broadcasting Radio (we used this project to support our
beloved friends of Tana dei Goblin... as you already know!).
In Essen we'll promote our idea of "Italian game" by releasing some titles in our usual style - the new game of our most famous author, Em "BANG!" Sciarra, then a further card game called F.A.T.A. (by Martina Mealli and Gabriele Rabbini), the winner of the contest for authors that we run in cooperation with Lucca Comics & Games (the second bigger gaming convention/fair in the world!), and probably another boardgame - by an Italian author - in our "Allegro" line for families.
[Liga] Really a lot of new games! And I know that the Nuremberg has gone really well for da. And which projects for the future ?
[Domenico] We'll develop my project of the the Bonsai Games (one card, one game!) in something special we are still thinking about: we are already publishing Bonsai telephone cards, but there is more to come...
I am also working on the concept of a series of games being part of a larger one (some da authors will cooperate on this design, but at the moment I don't know when we'll be able to release it).
We'll also keep working also on the pdf games for Arima (just wait and see... there's something new regarding BANG!), and on some shared project which will strengthen our cooperation with other Italian and foreigner publishers.
"Cooperation" is a word I really like: I am happy we built many good projects for cooperation (just like the one with Lucca Comics and Games), because it's the best way to build a powerful and joyful army of friends...
Probably that's the Cyrus Syndrome - do you know the Walter Hill's movie "The warriors"?
[Liga] Wow! I'm really curious about the new Bonsai titles. Before concluding: the 10 games you like to play most
[Domenico] I'll obviously exclude the da and the traditional ones (just like Ciclotappo - the father of Carabande/Pitch Car - and "Briscola Bugiarda", the best 5 players card game in the world): Settlers of Catan, Ra (the Knizia one), Kardinal & Koenig, Red Seven, Bohnanza, Power Play, Ticket to Ride, Iliad, X-Bugs, Wings of War... But ten is not enough! May I give you 100 titles? May I add Looping Louie? Anyway, I have to add 3 new games we are playing in these weeks - Heroscape, Cash & Guns and Dschamàl - I don't know if they'll hit the table many times during next year as they do now, but they are great fun.
[Liga] Good! Thank you very much for your time. Good play and, again, happy birthday!
Next week I'll go to interview Sergio Giovanni
