MISSION: Supporting Italian Game Developers

To a large degree, last week's 🇮🇹 Summit On Tour III was made possible by the assistance of Berenice Marisei and her team at Lazio Innova, who also organized the Innovation Day for the Italian creatives (it ran at the venue just before the Summit started).

A big part of Berenice's focus is the support of the accelerator dedicated specifically to the needs of the Italian (or, more correctly, Italy-based!) independent game developers – Zagarolo Game City.

This morning, we caught up with Berenice (who was actually on her way to Zagarolo!) to get a better idea of what Zagarolo Game City is, and how we, the law firm and the studio lawyers from outside of Italy, can contribute to this good cause.

– Berenice, what's the ambition of Zagarolo Game City?

– To help the Italian indie and small-to-mid game studios connect with the global video game and board game scene.

– What exactly do you do?

– We support projects with public funding, expert mentorship, and industry visibility to get them market-ready.

– Your big dream?

– Making Zagarolo the go-to spot for the games industry in Italy!

 – For how long does the program operate?

– We kicked off in 2020.

– And when is the next admission deadline, for the local teams?

– The next call for applications will open soon – around early June 2025. If you're an Italian video or board game developer, you can check Zagarolo's website for the exact dates when these are announced.

– Who's eligible for enrolling in ZGC?

– The program is open to indie developers, startups, and small-to-mid Italian game studios with cool ideas and a goal to become successful internationally. If you’ve got a startup or a VAT number in Italy and plan to launch or move your business to Lazio, you’re in.

– Can the team combine Italian-based developers and non-Italians?

– Yes. Teams can also include people from abroad, as long as their plan is to have the studio based in the region of Lazio in the end.

– Once accepted, what do the teams receive?

– Funding opportunities, expert mentorship (local and international), and multiple chances to showcase your work at the major events of the international games industry.

 – If I am a lawyer or an executive outside of Italy, and I’d like to be involved with Zagarolo / contribute in some way, what can I do?

– First of all, thank you for thinking about it! We appreciate all the connections that we can create for our teams in other regions, because these teams definitely have international ambitions, and will collaborate with multiple regions.

– Zagarolo Game City is designed to connect international professionals with the Italian games scene. Whether you want to offer mentorship, explore business opportunities, or build deeper partnerships, we’d love to chat! We’re here to connect the dots — between the creatives, the lawyers, the investors, the publishers, and so on.

– Whether you’re looking into Italian IPs, co-productions, funding, or local tax incentives, we can help you navigate the system.

– Who's the best point of contact?

– Please reach out to me, Berenice Marisei, and to Claudio Pollina (the former creative director at Zagarolo), and we will think together about the best way to get you involved. I think that the Summit's community already understands very well the value of building bridges across the regions. We would love for Zagarolo Game City to have more connections internationally, and thus to offer more opportunities to the teams that we incubate!

– Tell me, what are some of the projects that happened thanks to ZGC/by creatives that engaged with ZGC?

– Several projects that joined Zagarolo Game City in the past, have made it to the international festivals, secured co-productions, and won funding at the regional and the national levels So far, we've supported 6 video game and 2 board game projects, which have been developed all the way up to the phase when they were ready to be pitched to a publisher.

– Give us some more details, please!

– One of these games is a point-and-click adventure game, currently available as a demo on Steam.

– Gret! So it shipped.

– Another game video game received a grant from Unreal...

– Thanks, Epic Games!

– ...yes, thanks to Epic, indeed! Four more video games secured additional public funding (on top of Zagarolo's support), with individual grants up to €30,000.

– ...which may sound small on the global scale, but which is very important to the independent teams – as this allows for several more months of work on the prototype!

– Absolutely. Two more video games are currently being self-funded, and are releasing demo versions on digital stores soon.

– And one board games is about to launch a Kickstarter campaign at the moment!

– Do you see any interest from the industry to the games in that group? As in, people getting commercial proposals?

– Yes, we do, which for us is the a great proof of market viability! Two of the games have received publisher offers of about €200,000 each, to be released on Steam in Early Access.

– Did the teams accept these offers?

— Interestingly, no! They decided not to accept, for strategic reasons – they believe that they can reach better result with alternative options.

– Last question. If a global studio is looking to hire someone in Lazio, or someone among their existing dev team wants to relocate to Lazio, can they count on Lazio Innova’s advice and initial direction as to “how to proceed / where to apply”? As in, getting a basic guidelines, which they can then explore in detail with a law firm of their choice, e.g. with Luca Guidobaldi, Nicoletta Serao, Francesco de Rugeriis, Gianluigi Marino, Vincenzo Giuffre'?

– Absolutely! Please email us without hesitation. We’re always happy to give you the basics on how hiring, relocation, or setting up a team in Lazio works. We’ll point you in the right direction and connect you with the trusted local experts, who can take it from there. Come to Rome! Let's make more games here, together!

– Thank you! Both for the hospitality during the Summit, and for all that you do to support the Italian game developers. This is the way! 💚🤍❤️

[ Vilnius / Rome | April 10, 2025 ]