| Launched in 2003 “Ludologica. Videogames d’autore” is a series of books that honour the most significant video games of the last 40 years. Available in two formats (Monographs and Readers), these volumes discuss video games from a broad academic and critical perspective, setting characteristics, themes and techniques in context and exploring the game's significance. Focusing on one game on one series rather than an entire genre, the books dispense with the standard historical background that players know already, and cut to the heart of the game. In these paperbacks, distinguished game critics, scholars, and avid gamers explore the production and reception of their chosen titles in the context of an argument about the games social, cultural, and aesthetic importance. Each book presents the author’s insights into a game and its creator selected from a list of the most enduring and influential titles of the last 40 years. The authors provide fresh, original, and creative perspectives that go beyond the conventional reviews or game guides. They situate the games in terms of the broader cultural debate that they informed. Finely written, these illustrated books represent a new wave in videoludic criticism. UPDATE: Ludologica has evolved into videoludica. game culture. |
| "Ludologica. Videogames d'Autore" is part of a larger project on video game and new media research funded by Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione (IULM)/Cariplo Foundation in Milan, Italy. |
| Gianni Canova teaches film history and criticism at Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione (IULM) in Milano, Italy. Famed film critic and writer, Gianni Canova is the editor of duellanti magazine. His contributions have appeared on La Repubblica, il Manifesto, Sette, Sette (the weekly magazine of Corriere della Sera) and Indro Montanelli’s La Voce. He writes for Bianco & Nero, Letture, Meridiani, Max, Rolling Stone and Carnet. He is the author of many books on cinema such as L'alieno e il pipistrello. La crisi della forma nel cinema contemporaneo (Bompiani, 2000), Spazio e architettura nel cinema italiano (Alexa, Milano 2001), David Cronenberg (Il Castoro, 1993). In 2003, he edited the encyclopedia of cinema "Garzantina", the book Storia del cinema italiano vol XI, 1965-69, (Marsilio, Roma-Venezia, 2002) and organized the exhibition Le città invisibili at Triennale di Milano. He can be reached at gianni.canova@libero.it. Matteo Bittanti. Game scholar and researcher, Matteo Bittanti teaches video game culture and criticism at Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione (IULM). He also organized and currently supervises the first Game Design Master at the European Institute of Design (IED) in Milan, Italy. His research focuses on the cultural, social and theoretical aspects of emerging technologies, with an emphasis on the interrelations of popular culture, visual culture, and the arts. Primary interest is the social and cultural impact of video games. He received his Master of Science in Mass Communications at San José State University, in San José, California and a B.A. in Philosophy and Media Studies from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy. He is currently finishing his PhD in New Media Technologies at IULM University. He has written books and essays on videogames, cinema, and popular culture. His contributions appear on film journals such as Cineforum, duellanti, and Rolling Stone. If you wish to know more, please click here. |
| Each Ludologica cover has been designed by Mauro Ceolin, the Italian equivalent of art powerhouses like Takashi Murakami and Julian Opie. Mauro Ceolin creates art out of game iconographies. The flatness of his portraits evokes the bidimensionality of the game characters. If Warhol gave Pop Art a soul, Mauro Ceolin gave Will Wright an aura. And if Andy Warhol glorified Marilyn Monroe. Mauro Ceolin transformed Richard Garriott into a rockstar. After all, game designers are the new pop icons/idols. The paradox, however, is that these rockstars are depicted by Ceolin as ordinary beings, not as semi-Gods. If you want to know more, click here. |
| For the catalog, please click here. |
| Click here to see Ludologica forthcoming releases. |
| contacts & foreign rights |
| Be sure to check our "call for contributions" page. For inquiries regarding foreign rights of our titles or for submitting proposals for possible new titles, please contact the editor: Matteo Bittanti. |
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