Emiliano Sciarra
Encyclopedia
Emiliano Sciarra is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) is a game designer of board games, card games and videogames
VideoGames
VideoGames may refer to:*VideoGames, a mid-1990s magazine about video games.*Video games in general....
.
He is the author of Bang!
Bang!
Bang! is a wild west-themed card game similar to a spaghetti western designed by Emiliano Sciarra and released by Italian publisher daVinci Editrice in 2002...
, a Wild West themed card game
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...
published by daVinci Editrice.
Biography
He has been fascinated by games from when he was 12 years old, and he wrote simple board games and word games for his schoolmates and relatives. In the same time he also showed interest in computers (years later he earned a degree in Computer ScienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Sapienza University of Rome).
In 1988 he published his first game: a shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
videogame for the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
called Ciuffy (Systems Editoriale), created using the software SEUCK by Sensible Software
Sensible Software
Sensible Software was a software house active during the 1980s and 90s, from the United Kingdom.The company was well-known for the very small sprites used for the player characters in many of their games, including Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.- Early history :Sensible Software...
.
Starting from 1999 he wrote several reviews, games and articles for the magazine PowerKaos and the fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
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 computer programmer and Privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
advisor for several companies in Italy.
In 2000 he published Invader, a board game inspired by early 80s videogames like Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
, on issues 69 and 70 of the magazine PowerKaos by Nexus Editrice
Nexus Editrice
Founded in 1993, Nexus Editrice was an Italian game publisher.Nexus produced board games, role-playing games, card games, miniature games, published magazines devoted to games, and licensed to the italian market games from many major international games publishers, such as Fantasy Flight Games,...
.
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
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
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 500,000 copies and is distributed in 14 countries over the world.
In 2003 he won an Origins Award
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 the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
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 and Games
Lucca Comics and Games is an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy. It takes place, usually, at the end of October.Launched in 1966, the event grew in importance years after years; but it's only in 2006, for the 40th anniversary, that fair has been moved to the city center: from...
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
Mursia is a genus of crabs in the family Calappidae, containing the following species:* Mursia africana Galil, 1993* Mursia armata De Haan, 1837* Mursia aspera Alcock, 1899* Mursia aurorae Galil & Ng, 2009...
) 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
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
(he wrote the stage music for the local Live Pieces of Chess) and he also organizes and is invited to public speeches regarding traditional arts and sciences, videogames and ludology.
Videogames
- Ciuffy, Systems Editoriale (published on issue no. 19 of the magazine Software Club), 1988, for the Commodore 64.
Games (in English)
- 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!).
Books
- Family Games: The 100 Best (chapter on Knightmare ChessKnightmare ChessKnightmare Chess is a fantasy chess variant published by Steve Jackson Games in 1996. It is a translation of a French game Tempête sur l'échiquier , designed by Pierre Cléquin and Bruno Faidutti....
), by James LowderJames LowderJames Daniel Lowder is an American author and editor, working most often within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres.-Early life and education:...
(ed.), Green Ronin Pub., Seattle 2010