The international event dedicated to video games as a resource for showcasing the region and its cultural heritage will be held for the fourth time in Trieste, from Thursday, October 30, to Saturday, November 1, in the now traditional and prestigious setting of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, Italy’s most important science fiction event.
The in-person event will be preceded again this year by a series of online previews, live on the IVIPRO Association‘s Facebook and YouTube channels, which will take place from mid to late October. Once again, a preview of what awaits the audience in Trieste.
The 2025 edition will be even richer: the in-person days will increase from two to three, and there will be six online previews with guests from all over the world. There will be a specific focus on Eastern European production and markets, with Thursday, October 30 – organized in collaboration with the Fantastic Film Forum – aimed specifically at professionals in the video game and audiovisual sector, with networking opportunities to create new bridges and connections between business and culture.
The content of the events is varied and diverse: from the different interpretations of reality at stake to the transformative potential of video games when it comes to integrating different cultures; from the Indian gaming industry to authors who have embraced new media, dealt with personal trauma, and showcased and narrated the complexity of the female body. There will also be artistic journeys through virtual characters and environments, strategic paths to sainthood, forays into dystopian revolutions, and new manifestos for game development. Some space will also be dedicated to independent Italian productions – including cuisine, folklore, chess, and soulslike – and for a comparison based on applied games between two cultural and geographical poles of Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Basilicata.
During the event, the winners of the IVIPRO 2025 Award for the best dissertations on video games will be announced, and the audience will have the opportunity to meet director Gabriele Mainetti (They Call Me Jeeg, Freaks Out, and Forbidden City) to explore his relationship with video games and gauge his opinions on the contemporary gaming landscape.
THE PROGRAM IN DETAIL
Online Preview (October 14 to 27)
As usual, the online dimension will serve as an appetizer for the event. On Tuesday, October 14, Francesco Baldini, Lead Artist of the Canadian studio Compulsion Games, will describe how video game characters are created, drawing on his experience with South of Midnight, set in the Deep South of the United States. The artistic side of things will also be discussed in Trieste, with Lisa Gobbi (Wushu Studios) and Christian Scampini (Art Director).
On October 16, it will be India’s turn: Sreerag Mukundan (Waves Bazaar, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India) and Sridhar Muppidi (Game Developers Association of India) will tell us about the Indian gaming ecosystem to imagine possible collaborations with Italy. On October 21, the floor will be given to the creator of Prince of Persia, game designer Jordan Mechner, and comic book artist Mario Alberti, who are working on a modern reinterpretation in graphic novel form of Alexandre Dumas’ classic, The Count of Monte Cristo.
The online previews will continue on October 22 with French game writer Pierre Corbinais, a victim of abuse who wrote and directed Wednesdays, which tackles the theme of incest between healing and hope.
The story of reality and society cannot fail to touch on current events. Joining us on Friday, October 24, is Rasheed Abueideh, a Palestinian developer working on a video game about the Nakba: an opportunity to reflect on today’s genocide and how video games can help preserve the truth.
Closing the previews on October 27, Yekta Kalantar Hormozi (Maynooth University – TU Dublin) will ask: what if a video game did not just show a culture, but invited the user to think, act, and feel like someone who is part of that context? This is the question that will kick off her lecture.
The online previews will be moderated, in order, by Arcadia Cafè, IVIPRO, GameCvlt, Fabrizia Malgieri (IULM University – Corriere della Sera), Claudia Molinari (We Are Muesli), and Letizia Vaccarella (INVISIBIL/3 – University of Siena).
Thursday, October 30 – Focus on Eastern Europe
The first day of the event, October 30, will largely feature professionals from Eastern Europe – in particular Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, and Croatia – who will have the opportunity to talk about their national contexts, review events and funding opportunities, and share local case studies.
Joining us will be Maroš Brojo (Slovak Game Developers Association), Johanna Pirker (Game Dev Graz – TU Munich & TU Graz), Aleksandar Dokic (Retromagine), Hrvoje Mitic (Croatian Game Developers Alliance), and Tomislav Plesec (SIMORA). They will be joined by game producer Fabio Cristi, who will explore the production of video games set in our region, and Davide Cavuoto, representative of IGDA Italy, a non-profit organization that brings together and supports developers in our country.
Friday, October 31 – Italian and international perspectives
The event continues on Friday, October 31, with a morning featuring other international guests: Paweł Nowak from Fool’s Theory will focus on The Thaumaturge, an RPG set in Warsaw in the shadow of the 1905 Revolution, amid growing worker protests, ethnic conflicts, and anti-Semitic tensions.
Charlotte Madelon (game dev and UI/UX designer) will explain how her game Biophobia was created from different representations of the female body: from Japanese kusōzu paintings to Shakespeare’s Ophelia, to the Anatomical Venus.
Closing the morning session will be Summer Eternal, a studio founded by some of the authors of Disco Elysium: Aleksandar Gavrilović will comment on their innovative manifesto.
On Friday afternoon, after the aforementioned artistic segment, Pietro Polsinelli (Open Lab Games) will explore the relationship between narrative design and mechanics in the development of the strategic roguelike Becoming Saint.
We will then focus on two new applied games: Ator pal Friûl and Aliens Welcome. This will be an opportunity to discuss creativity, innovation, and collaboration between institutions, development studios, and territory, with Elisa Buttussi (Ubiz3D), Luigi Catalani (National Library of Potenza), Anna Del Bianco (FVG Region), and Michele Scioscia (Effenove) taking part in the discussion.
Finally, preceding the interview with director Gabriele Mainetti, there will be a panel dedicated to labor. With the participation of trade union and political representatives – Gilberto Gini (Smart Workers Union) and Antonio Sciuto (Potere al Popolo!) – the audience will discuss the still limited presence of unionization initiatives, the challenges that workers face on a daily basis, and possible strategies to ensure rights and sustainability in the video game sector.
Saturday, November 1 – Indie spotlight
On Saturday, November 1, several representatives of the Italian indie scene will take to the stage: Daniele Bonacini, Giulia Colombo, and Ivan Maestri from Crossfall Games will analyze the challenges and limitations to be overcome or exploited in order to create a very promising title (inspired by Italian architecture) such as Stonemachia.
Giulia Martino (FinalRound) will present the book PlayHer. Rappresentazioni femminili nei videogiochi, alongside Rosy Nardone from the University of Bologna.
The 2025 edition of IVIPRO DAYS will close with another indie panel dedicated to the cuisine and folklore of Romagna. How can the traditions of this welcoming Italian region be reinterpreted in an unconventional way? Filippo Liverini and Erik Tassinari (Filthy Eden) and Melania Ugolini (Studio Kodama) will be joining us.
GENERAL INFO
The 2025 edition of IVIPRO DAYS will be held at Casa del Cinema di Trieste in Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3 (October 30) and at the Sci-Fi Dome set up in the historic and central Piazza della Borsa (Friday, October 31 and Saturday, November 1).
The initiative is promoted by the IVIPRO Association and Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. The program is curated by Andrea Dresseno with the contribution of Stefano Caselli.
Admission to the event is free upon registration on Eventbrite, subject to availability (https://iviprodays2025.eventbrite.it).
Complete program: bit.ly/iviprodays2025
