"Reviewing some of the most significant titles published by the Roman indie developer community, in the last few years, we can see that an incredible number of them were born in a game jam. For us, GGJ is a must-attend event and essential for the entire local developer community, for skilled developers, beginners and students alike."
Ivan Preziosi and Diego Sacchetti created a card game Ruba Dungeon (Dungeon Heist). It was selected as Best Game of the Global Game Jam in Rome 2023 by the local jammers and developers at the Rome Codemotion Jam site. This is their story and greetings to the Global Game Jam community.
Ivan Preziosi is a developer and game designer from Ostia Lido. He developed, in solo, the survival video game Hard Times (finalist at the 2018 Indie Prize in Los Angeles). He received the Best Game award at the Global Game Jam 2019 in Rome for the game "Bad Neighbours" (co-authored with Diego Sacchetti and others), and again in 2023 for the physical card game Ruba Dungeon (co-authored with Diego Sacchetti). He is also the author of the abstract game “La Scamorra”, and the backend engineer for the game Caracoles (another Game-Jam-born idea, also finalist at the RedBull Indie Forge 2022 in Italy) developed by Rednoy Studio. He was also co-author (with Diego Sacchetti and Roberto Zangaro) of the game "Dr. Gustav Meyrink's clinic for distressed Golems", which scored a third place at the 2020 Global Game Jam in Rome.
Diego Sacchetti is an indie developer making games under his label Morbidware. He is the author of The Textorcist: the story of Ray Bibbia, a mashup between a typing game and a bullet hell born in the GGJ 2016 (theme was Ritual) and released in 2019. He is currently working on a number of projects; on Morbidware’s next game and as a Game Design Professor at IED (design university in Rome). Diego’s first GGJ was in 2013 and since that year he has never missed one.
"Here in Rome we have a long and solid tradition of GGJ, carried on by the fantastic people at Codemotion and the Gruppo Game Jam Roma; particularly in the person of Andrea Ferlito, who is a tireless organizer, super dedicated to nurturing the local independent developer community. Reviewing some of the most significant titles published by the Roman Indie developer community, in the last few years, we can see that an incredible number of them were born in a jam. For us, GGJ is a must-attend event and essential for the entire local developer community, for skilled developers, beginners and students alike."
In the Global Game Jam 2023 Ivan and Diego wanted to try to do something different than usual.
"The theme was “Roots” and Instead of bringing computers and development software, we showed up with a deck of Italian playing cards and a box of dice. We thought about making a game for the oldest possible console ever: the italian deck of cards. We tried to think of roots as in the way we used to play games as kids and we wanted to create a Dungeon Crawler out of it."
Diego and Ivan
"By the end of the two days of development, in the beautiful Roman headquarters of Luiss Enlabs, we had made a brutal and difficult solo Dungeon Crawler. "Ruba Dungeon" (Dungeon Heist) is a game that can be played with just the help of a deck of traditional playing cards and some six-sided dice. The idea was about creating a free game that could be played with something most Italian households already have: a deck of Italian playing cards.
Right from the start everyone liked the game and the other devs at the Jam site voted it as the best game of the event, and so we continued to develop it as a side project. Today, the game has undergone many iterations of adjustments and balancing, we have taken it to numerous fairs, it has gotten some coverage in the Italian gaming press, and we are getting ready to think about how to approach the adventure of a Crowdfunding with some high quality collectors custom decks (since the game is free to play by its nature). Ruba Dungeon is already published as a Creative Commons game and you can play it for free downloading its rules from our itch.io page itch.io/ruba-dungeon. You can also check a video tutorial here."
Ruba Dungeon was shown at Play Modena, the biggest board game fair in Italy.
"As we have already mentioned, the GGJ is the heart of the local independent developer community. It is a must-attend event where, at least once a year, the whole community meets. It is also an event where students and beginners can interact and collaborate with experienced developers from established studios.
People network there, have a lot of fun, and form new friendships. All in a playful, fun and light-hearted setting, with no worries or performance anxieties. We would definitely recommend it to any person interested in game development, design and all the disciplines connected to it (music, graphic design, ux design ecc). If you’re into one of these things, then you definitely have to show up at the next Jam in your hometown!"
"We would like to send our heartfelt greetings to all the jammers around the world and to all the people who, every year, work hard to make this event happen, both at the central and local levels of the many venues around the world. Events such as these bring game creation back to its human and playful nature, for once free of market considerations or efficiencies. And, in the end, this approach pays off. It allowed us to grow so much as game creators, to learn from those who had more experience than we did, and to make lasting friendships.Not to mention the many, many games that were born lightheartedly during a jam and then became published titles within a few years.
Our final greeting will be DAJE! It's a roman slang used to express strength and to start to do things and it's the word we always shout at our Jam site in Rome when the Jam starts. Long live the Global Game Jam!"
If you want to try the game or get in touch with Ivan and Diego, you can find all from the following:
Email: [email protected]
Website: radicalfiction.itch.io/ruba-dungeon
Instagram: @rubadungeon
Facebook: RubaDungeon