Edition 2018

Dario De Toffoli was born in Venice in 1953. He first entered in contact with the gaming world in the early Eighties, and his life has never been the same since.
Bit by bit he abandoned his career as a chemist and begun working on all aspects (competitive, technical and cultural) surrounding all kinds of games: Board games, card games, puzzles, brainteasers, mathematical games…

This newfound interest is what motivated him to found studiogiochi in 1987.

Dario De Toffoli is

• studiogiochi’s founder
• a freelance journalist, writer and game author
• the director of the Italian Games Archive in Udine
• decorated from the PLDA with a special Career Prize “Ludic personality” in 2007
• awarded with the Best of Show Career Prize, Lucca Comics and Games 2017
• Pentamind World Champion of 2002 and 2012

Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi is a passionate gamer and game designer that joined the gaming industry in 2007 working as a video game publisher. Gonzalo grow up back and forth from Italy to Peru and he moved back definitely to Rome in his adulthood to attend to La Sapienza university. Now he is living between Rome and Sevilla, a city he fell in love with.
Since 2014 he has been developing the business side of ThunderGryph with the aim to develop and publish board games.
With nearly one year from launch, ThunderGryph’s counts three published games and seven new titles coming in 2017-2018.

My name is Michael Bruinsma, and I was born in 1952 in The Netherlands to a Dutch father and an English mother. In my early life I lived in The Neteherlands, but also in New Guinea, Paris, Spain and Italy in the vicinity of La Spezia. From an early age I played games like Monopoly, Stratego, Risk and others, and later I discovered more elaborate games during my travels. In 1981 I started collecting Avalon Hill and other games, and by 1986 I became a member of Ducosim, a games club dedicated to imported war-, fantasy and other games. In 1990 I visited the Neurenberg Toy Fair and met Mr. Bernd Brunnhofer from Hans Im Glueck Verlag, whom I asked for a representation. I was particularly interested in his railwaygame “1835”, of which I bought 120 copies to sell in The Netherlands. I did not manage to sell it to retail in large quantities, and decided to operate as a mailorder company. I invested the few guilders I had in imported games, mostly from America, and started off. It worked! I went to many games conventions and acted as a market salesman. I even went to Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Antwerp regularly, and reinvested every penny I made so as to build up a wide selection of games and accessories. In 1992 I visited GenCon in Milwaukee, and bought a few roleplaying books from a small outfit called Wizards of the Coast. So, in 1993, I became their representative in Holland for the hugely successful Magic: the Gathering. In 1998 I started publishing boardgames and later cardgames. This was another breakthrough: I had found a huge gap in the market. In 1999 the Pokemon collectible cardgame hit the market and suddenly everything grew out of proportion. The fun was over but the business was great. Now, I lead a dedicated team of 30 specialists and we supply the BeNeLux with wonderful products.

Bernd Brunnhofer was born in 1946 near Graz in Austria. He came to Germany in the 60s, studied Sociology and was later a university lecturer. He founded Hans im Glück in 1983 together with Karl-Heinz Schmiel, when they published the small handcrafted game Dodge City. The first games were no big success until in 1991 the breakthrough came with Drunter und Drüber by Klaus Teuber. It was the first german game of the year from a small company and 1994 followed Manhattan by Andreas Seyfarth and 1996 El Grande by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich. At least since that time Hans im Glück was a well known in german households.  2001 another milestone came with the worldwide success of Carcassonne by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. Especially the finetuning of the game by Bernd Brunnhofer was part of that success and every player in world knows today the cute meeple, which was designed by Bernd Brunnhofer. With Thurn und Taxis by Andreas Seyfarth in 2006 and Dominion by Donald Vaccarino in 2009 Hans im Glück won two more games of the year in Germany. Bernd Brunnhofer also is a great game designer himself. His games Sankt Petersburg and Stone Age are well known and popular in the gamers scene. And perhaps he’s just working on the next big thing…

Born in 1977, Thomas leaves in Paris, France. He began his professional life as a software engineer while working part-time for Ystari Games. He is now working full time for Ystari Games, then Space Cowboys, developping games for the Asmodée group. He is co-author of one game (Nefertiti – Matagot) and several scenarios for the Unlock! series. He is also juror for the FLIP (Parthenay festival).

Stefano literally grew up in games, being his father one of the greatest game collectors in the world. He was destined for a career in games, and is now strategic planner for the international game publisher Giochi Uniti(Carcassone, Settlers of Catan). Playing together with Stefano you may experience his dialectics, he also studied international relations actually, a specialization that tourned out to be very useful in his job for Giochi Uniti. So if you ever happen to presuade him to publish one of your games remember this may not be so easy…

I begun to play when I was 10, and going to England I bought the game Bitzkrieg. I learned the rules and found only a few friends to play with… The passion for games went on anyway with D&D, and during my University years I played games from the Games Workshop, such as Talisman, Blind Justice, Merchant of Venus and Cosmic Encounters, which is I believe still my favourite game. In 1995, during the first Italian Internet experiences, I put on the first website about games, “giochi-on-line”. Both “Lobo” and “The Goblin” were part of it, and so in 2007 “La tana del Goblin” was born, to include all the people who love games. I traveled a lot and had the opportunity to be part of very many important game events: Origins, where I met Andreas Seyfarth, Gen Con, ComiCon… I have been invited by Alan Moon as first Italian to the Gathering of Friends, I have been invited as jury member for many games competitions, first of all the Premio Archimede, which has become a real springboard for Italian authors. I am not only crazy about german games, in fact I also love the american style in which hazard can change everything in a moment.

Ulrich Fonrobert is born in northern Germany in 1967. Games have been with him since he was a child, with his father teaching him the rules of classics like Chess, Skat and Doppelkopf.
He has been collecting games since at least 1979. He joined the German armed forces in 1986, where he used to play dice games with his comrades during otherwise boring evenings. Settlers of Catan and El Grande are two of his (many) favourite games.
In Kiel he found his first permanent gaming group with whom he got part in various board gaming tournaments and championships around Germany. So he met people like Christwart Conrad and Ralph Bruhn, and with their help he became part of Family Games in 2006 and additionally did work for Hall9000 as a reviewer for a short while.
In 2007 he entered in Queen Games, where he is now one of the company’s product managers, tasked with finding the most promising newcomers and novelties to the ever-changing market of board games. After attending GenCon twice and BGG.con five times he is now very much looking forward to whatever Premio Archimede might hold in store for him!

Hermann Hutter has founded the distribution company Hutter Trade in 2004. Since then, the company has become established as an integral part of the game world. With its own brand HUCH! and innovative educational and leisure games, communication games with lifestyle character, and strategy games from foreign partner publishers, Hutter Trade has created its own distinctive profile.
Publishing games is a big passion for Hermann. Numerous awards – such as the “Toy Award 2008,” the “Children’s Game of the Year 2007,” and the “German Game Prize 2006” – provide evidence of the company’s success. Led by the joy of playing, creativity and design and an interest in new trends, HUCH! creates game innovations that provide long-lasting fun! Hermann Hutter is a very experienced retailer and is successfully managing numerous shops.

Born in 1977, Simone Luciani begins as player and amateur game designer.
He has taken part many times in the Archimede contest, which he won two times, with Portobello Road (best card game in 2008 and his first creation to be published – by Piatnik as Frutti di mare – ) and Marco Polo, Premio Archimede 2012, then published by Hans in Glück and winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis.
In 2013 Simone began to work with the Italian publisher Cranio Creations where he has now the main role in selecting and developing games. In 2015 Simone left his teaching career (that lasted over 15 years) to be a full-time game designer.

Wolfgang became passionate about games as a reviewer and collector. But when Peter Neugebauer introduced him to the game designer Klaus Teuber and his wife Claudia (almost 30 years ago), the encounter turned into a special friendship, and from then on Wolfgang has been actively involved in the development of new games at an early stage.
Wolfgang’s career as an editor began when he joined the new company TM-Spiele GmbH, which soon enough began to focus on consultancy for other game publishers.
He has edited games published under the Goldsieber label and by KOSMOS until 2013.
Wolfgang regards his ability to recognize whether a prototype has the potential of becoming a good game as one of his strenghts. As an editor at KOSMOS, he continues to take care of part of the family and adult games, and he also continues to be actively involved in the development of games at an early stage.

The play or games enriches my life ever since my studies in the 1970s. In my educational degree I specialized in game education. As game educationalist, I have worked in the children’s home, in school and in adult education. I founded an educational game publishing house in Cologne and was owner of a game store that still exists today in Cologne as well. Since 25 years I work as a games editor. First I was in the editor staff of the publisher Ravensburger and then in the publishing house of Amigo Spiel + Freizeit, Dietzenbach until now.

Klaus Ottmaier was born 1977 in Vienna. Perhaps he played games before he was able to speak… After school he studied Genetics. 2000 he moved to Cologne where he became a bookseller and a happy father of two sons. This was the time when he started to work on games in a professional way – he became the editor of the small publisher Argentum Verlag. In 2012 he got the great opportunity to work for Pegasus Spiele what he does as the head of publishing till now.

Great-grandson of the founder of Piatnik, he is working at the company since 1983. He is Chief Executive Officer since April 1995.

Albrecht Werstein is a former game designer and has been publishing games for over 25 years. He has been responsible for more than 250 game releases by the Zoch Verlag, two of which have earned the title “Spiel des Jahres” (Niagara and Villa Paletti) and three of which won the “Kinderspiel des Jahres” award (Zicke Zacke – Da ist der Wurm drin – Spinderella).
Now he works for the innovative Game Factory, and he is very much looking forward to this year’s Premio Archimede designs!

Born in Venice in 1964, Leo Colovini begins his ludic adventure at about 12 when he meets Alex Randolph, playing chess in a club of Venice. Passionate about games  since ever, he is really struck by the “Master”, and becomes a goer of Randolph’s office. He takes part to the game tests with enthusiasm and never misses a single occasion to show Alex his naive and odd ideas. As time goes by, his ideas start to refine themselves and Leo finally presents to the severe judgement of his “Master” an interesting mechanism for a game, but, even if Randolph tries more than once to put his hands on it, the game doesn’t make it to be published. After one year they realize together Drachenfels, which is Leo’s first published game (Schmidt Spiele).  Two years later (1988), again in collaboration with Randolph, it is the time of Inkognito, published by MB, a great success (part of the list of Spiel des Jahres, and winner of the Sonderpreis – the special prize of the critics).  After several years Piatnik publishes Die Magische Sieben the first game signed by Colovini as a unique author. In 1993 he signs, together with Dario De Toffoli, Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, the Role Playing Game Lex Arcana (Dal Negro). In 1993 he definitely leaves his job in the bank and begins to work full time for games. In 1994 Die Oster Insel is published by Blatz Spiele: this game also enters in the list of Spiel des Jahres. In the following years, the works with Dario De Toffoli increase until together with Alex Randolph they found Venice Connection. After several years he gets a history degree with a game-thesis about Charlemagne, and many of his games are published: Carolus Magnus in 2000 and Clans in 2003 (Winning Moves) that almost win the Spiel del Jahres by getting one of the three nominations. With his game Leo muss zum Friseur he wins the Deutscher Kinderspiele Preis 2016, gets very close to the victory of the Kinderspiel des Jahres 2016 (being among the three nominated games) and wins the Spiele Hit für Kinder 2016.

One of the best Shogi italian players, he is really passionate about all games created by Alex Randolph. Giuseppe Baggio loves abstract boardgames, but he always enjoys playing any other kind of game.
Well, he loves to play and for this reason he became member of the Premio Archimede Jury.
With studiogiochi he contributed to the realization of the chapters about Shogi (japanese chess), the ones about heterodox chess for the book Il grande libro degli scacchi and he helped out in the proof-reading of many headwords of the Enciclopedia dei giochi by Giampaolo Dossena.

Son of Leo Colovini, never get tired playing games and trying to create new odd game systems that he regularly submit to his father’s severe judgement.
Wikinder, published by Clementoni, is based on Federico’s idea.
Despite the long beard, he still hasn’t decided what to do as a grown-up. Maybe an Egyptologist. Maybe a Brewer. Or maybe he will keep on playtesting and editing here in studiogiochi. And if he gets a headache while trying to conjugate his three passions… he goes away for some days and loosens up playing some LARP.

Coming from classic studies in high school and Physics in the university, Mauro Gaffo researches for his duties first in science fiction (working for the publisher company Nord by taking care of some book series and then as translator) and after by divulging science: in 1992 he starts to work for Focus as a journalist, and in 2000 he becomes vice president of the same magazine. In 2005 he creates Focus Giochi, an innovating magazine about “games for the brain” which makes him win in 2006 the prize as ludic personality of the year. Starting form that moment he deals more and more with games, organizing for example the “Campionato della Mente” and being part of the jury for the Premio Archimede for three times. In 2013, careless about his age, he starts a new life becoming part of studiogiochi… where he discoveres that he still has a lot to learn.

Piero Modolo was born in 1991. He is passionate about every type of games (from boardgames to videogames) but, particularly, of trading card games (before Yu-Gi-Oh!, now Gwent online has become his favourite game).
He graduated in philosophy in Venice, and after the positive experience with Premio Archimede 2016 he entered as a member of the preselection jury of the contest, with the responsability to connect the games (and their authors) with italian and international jurors.
He is on the front line when there is the need to test new games and works in many projects of the studio.

President and co-founder of La Tana dei Goblin Venezia – the most important local gaming association – Umberto organizes gaming events, conventions and tournments attending the most important international kermesse in the field. With his Ph.D. he organized and took part to conferences with board games as a topic, in Lucca, Ferrara and Venice. He knows very well Euro-style board games but has a great expertise also in traditional and collectible card games, war games, role playing games, party games and the classics.

Born in Dolo (near Venice) in 1968, he has a playful childhood.
In the beginning of the 80’s he gets in touch with the association MultigiocoClub from Mestre, and immediately becomes their “mascot”, being the youngest of the group. He is called from everybody Darietto [little Dario], in order not to get mixed up with the other Dario, “Darione” [big Dario] De Toffoli. Since he has a daughter, many friends call him Zack, but some nostalic ones still call him with the first nickname.
Beeing in touch with De Toffoli becomes a lasting status, and gradually he starts to collaborate with studiogiochi: he runs tournaments, develops boardgames and produces puzzles and other games for the press.
The big jump happens during the editions of the Italian Game Festival: he is responsible for some entire sections. Starting from that moment “Darietto” really understands what he wants to do once he grows up and soon he gets the chance to cross the great sea that separates “saying” from “doing”.
All the rest is topicality: he writes books and collaborates in the creation of games, and especially has a great pleasure presenting new puzzles to people, especially logic and numeric ones.
Suddenly one day he surprises everybody that sees him as a cold  calculator by winning an international poetry competition (www.centrostudivignola.it), with his first and last verses ever written.

He begun as a child with D&D, but in the beginning of the new Millennium he fell in love with the german style boardgames, a completely new world to him.
Hanging out with the “con” he met the most important italian designers, but Carlo Rossi was the man that made him discover his abilities as an author. Together they started a profitable collaboration that became “Cogito”, in which also Alfredo Berni took part.
Thanks to the brilliant games presented to the Premio Archimede, Cogito  begun to work together with studiogiochi, officially becoming part of the society in 2006.
Anyway our “Pepperoni” (oops, sorry, I meant Zucchini)  is by now an appreciated author; editions of his games have been published in different languages, and his new interesting projects are “work in progress”.