From March 9, 2026, Online
The Complex Artefacts and System Design Studio of the MSc in Communication Design will host the 2026 chapter of the new DiGRA Italia Talks Series. A new series of open lectures on Interactive Digital Narratives and Games, organised by Ilaria Mariani and Mariana Ciancia, from the Department of Design, with DiGRA Italia, as the Italian chapter of Digital Game Research Association.
Each session will host seminal scholars from around the world.
Agenda:
- Leonardo Codamo “On AI-Driven Narrative Systems”
March 9, 2026, from 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm CET
This lecture will examine the innovative integration of AI within narrative design, focusing on an AI-driven Dungeon Master. This experimental tool represents a significant departure from traditional methods of narrative construction and presentation, enabling designers to engage with AI in the creation of dynamic, player-responsive stories. The session will explore the relationship between AI, designers, and players, discussing how AI can facilitate real-time storytelling, manipulate narrative, and enhance player agency without compromising story coherence.
Leonardo Codamo is a multidisciplinary designer specializing in interactive narratives and game design. Currently Product Designer at Arcweave, where he develops innovative storytelling tools through user-centered approaches. He serves as faculty at SAE Institute and Politecnico di Milano, teaching game design and interactive design principles. His published research explores narrative-interaction relationships in games and IDNs. His professional experience spans narrative design for RPG titles, mobile game development, experimental gameplay projects, and board game innovation, consistently crafting experiences that bridge digital and physical realms through player-centered methodologies.
Registration is required on Eventbrite.
- Joleen Blom “On Characters and transmedia storytelling”
March 16, 2026, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm CET
The talk addresses the topic of fictional characters across the domains of transmedia storytelling and worldbuilding in franchises. Adopting an inclusive and comprehensive perspective, the talk will reach out to Media Studies and Game Studies to explore the origins, boundaries, and evolutions of the role of game characters and their interplay with players. Formal elements such as narrative continuity, character proliferation, and narrative consumption will be tackled and discussed. The talk will provide references to popular game series and individual titles from Japan, China, Europe, and North America to support the discourse, providing a bridge between theory and practice.
Joleen Blom is a Japanologist and games scholar, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University in Finland, where she researches mediated intimacy, and parasocial relations with game characters.
Registration is required on Eventbrite.
- Eric Zimmerman “On The Rules We Break”
March 23, 2026, from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm CET
The borders between game studies and game design have always been wonderfully blurry, creating an intriguing playground for gaining knowledge through creative and thought-provoking approaches to design and experimentation. The Rules We Break is based on thirty years of teaching game design, filled with hands-on exercises for playful thinking and rigorous design. This highly interactive talk will present core ideas from the book and address fundamental concepts like play and meaning, system dynamics, representation and simulation, interactive storytelling, creative misbehavior, and the iterative process of design.
Eric Zimmerman is an award-winning game designer who has been inventing play on and off the computer for more than 25 years. Eric was the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab, a game development company based in New York City. Eric is a founder of the Institute of Play, a nonprofit that looks at the intersection of games and learning. With Nathalie Pozzi, he has designed large-scale game installations exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, as well as venues in Berlin, Paris, Dublin, St, Petersberg, and Los Angeles. He has taught at universities including MIT, the University of Texas at Austin, Parsons School of Design, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts. He is currently a founding faculty and Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center.
Registration is required on Eventbrite.
Other lectures will follow.
The link to the Webex room will also be forwarded before the event to those registered on Eventbrite.