GAME MATTERS.

Innovating game studies and research

SAE Institute – Conservatory of Matera - Polytechnic University of Bari

12 December 2025 | ODE (officina degli Esordi) - Bari

8.30 Registration

9.00 Opening and Institutional Greetings 

9.30 -12.15 Panel: Game design and innovation

Chair: Claudio Pomo, Polytechnic University of Bari

  1. Selin Kaynar – Beyond Realism: Architectural Stylization as Critical Commentary in Indie Games - Indipendent Researcher
  2. Nicola Zolin – Entangled Sound: Toward a Neo-Materialist Framework for Game Audio Ecologies - University of Venice
  3. Iris Zhang – Like mother, like burr: Making and playing for catharsis - UCLA

Coffee Break - 11.00 -11.15

  1. Luisa Strangis – Neuro-Driven Interfaces: UX/UI Design, Cognitive Patterns, and Ethical Frontiers in Game Environments - Bari Academy
  2. Giuseppe Candido – AI and Procedural Content Generation in Game Design - Bari Academy
  3. Gustavo Bülow – Level Design Table Generation with Artificial Intelligence - Universidade Feevale

12.15-13.00 Keynote Speaker: Ilaria Mariani, Politecnico di Milano.

Towards Social Change. Designing Games as Complex Communication Artefacts.

13.00-15.00 Lunch Break & Games Sections

15.00-17.00 Panel 2 – Games and Art languages

Chair: Fabrizio Festa, Conservatorio di Matera

  1. Paolo Clemente, Dario Mattia, Antonio Colangelo, Fabio Natale, Gianpaolo Cassano

Generative Sound Design & Gamification of Urban Exploration - Conservatory of Matera

  1. Valentina Fedele, Brunella Botte, Giada Marinensi – Skin Deep: An Exploratory Analysis of the Identity Value of Skins in Fortnite - Link University
  2. Luca Malcangi – Videogames as Participatory Art Forms - University of Bari
  3. Richard Bingham – Engine Interpretation: Decoding Time and Temporality in Zelda64 - Queen Mary University of London
  4. Matteo Genovesi – Updating Narrative Seriality in Digital Games: The New Telltale and Don’t Nod - Bari Academy
  5. Michele Varini – Virtuaverse: Nostalgia, Rebellion, and the Sonic Pixel - Catholic University of Sacred Heart

15.00-17.00 Panel 3 – Games, Society, and Culture

Chair: Alessandra Micalizzi, SAE Institute

Focus: culture digitali, pedagogie critiche, politiche del gioco, società

  1. Marika Mascitti, Salvatore Messina, Alessandro Soriani – Decolonial Playgrounds:

Intersectional Pedagogies of Resistance in Video Game Design - University of Bologne.

  1. Federico Gorziglia – Coping with Burnout through Coziness: How Wanderstop Teaches

Players to Resist Perfectionism over a Cup of Tea - Rome, University La Sapienza

  1. Federico Ferrari, Massimiliano Panarari – Political Gaming and Local Democracy: A Comparison of Some Serious Games Designed by Local Municipal Governments - University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
  2. Sabino Di Chio – TV Series and the Ambivalence of Gamification - Università degli Studi di Bari
  3. Alessandro Franzò – Precarity by Design: Gaming Houses as Organisational Spaces

Legitimising Precarious Playbour inside the Esports Ecosystem - University of Milan

  1. Luca Falzea, Matteo Botto – To Woke or Not to Woke? Gamers Discuss Baldur’s Gate - University of Genoa

17.00-17.45 Keynote Speaker Michele Scioscia - Effenove 

17.45-19.00- Special Section: From Theory to Practices

  1. Round Table: Art, Game, Design and Alternative Purposes: StarLex and the P+Arts Project

[SAE Institute, Conservatorio di Matera, Poliba, ] - con Ivana Murianni, Fabio Belsanti ,

Andrea Dresseno, Matteo Bittanti, Beatrice La Terza

  1. Award Ceremony of the SAE Mini Game Jam

From 19.00 After Game - Lucia La Rezza [violinist]

 

Si comunica che per  ogni giornata di partecipazione al festival viene riconosciuto un credito (mezzo, per meta giornata)

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