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Laura
DeCarli

1998 →

I am a game designer from Ticino, an Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland (even if in the photo here I’m in Veneto, the Italian region where my grandparents are from). I’ve always held a deep passion and curiosity for the creation of stories, which prompted me to start having fun with fiction writing at a young age. Throughout school and academia, I’ve always been interested in analyzing the different forms that narrativity can take. In parallel, I’ve also developed a strong interest in the potential of videogames as a creative medium, which is why I have decided to become a game designer.

I moved to Milan (Italy) for my bachelor's degree, I moved back in Ticino while following an online course in game design, and now I live in Copenhagen to work on my Master's thesis in Games (Design Track) of the IT University of Copenhagen.

Grammatical gender to use for me:

In Italiano:

lei/la/le

In English:

​they/them

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Hobbies

Playing Videogames

I enjoy playing single player games, two player games or multiplayer games for a small group (both competitive and cooperative). The game genres I tend to play the most are: RPGs, story-driven games, platformers, puzzles, resource management, action-adventure and turn-based strategy games. However, I'm always curious to try games of different genres if they have interesting game mechanics, themes or narrative.

Some of my favourite singleplayer videogames:

  • Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios

  • Contrast by Compulsion Games

  • Dragon Age Origins by BioWare

  • Final Fantasy VI by Square

  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade by Intelligent Systems

  • Hades series by Supergiant Games

  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice by Ninja Theory

  • Ori and the Blind Forest Moon Studios

  • Portal series by Valve

  • Pokémon Emerald by Game Freak

but to be honest, my real favourite Pokémon games are fan-made ;)

  • PMD Explores of the Sky by Chunsoft

  • Pokémon Ranger: Shadows Of Almia by Creatures, Inc.

  • Spiritfarer by Thunder Lotus Games

  • Shelter 2 by Might and Delight

  • The Stanely Parable by Galactic Cafe

  • This War of Mine by 11-bit studios

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt by CD Project

  • Uncle Albert's Adventures by Lexis Numérique

  • Undertale by Toby Fox

Some of my favourite multiplayer videogames:

  • Armello by League of Geeks

  • DYO by Team DYO and Josia Roncancio

  • Deep Rock Galactic by Ghost Ship Games

  • Golf with Your Friends by Blacklight Interactive

  • It Takes Two by Hazelight

  • Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) by Upper One Games

  • Operation Tango by Clever Plays

  • Overcooked! 2 by Ghost Town Games Ltd. and Team17

  • Portal 2 by Valve

  • Ravenswatch by Passtech Games

  • Trine series by Frozenbyte

  • Untitled Goose Game by House House

  • We Were Here series by Total Mayhem Games

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LeMx.Laura

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Mx.Laura

Reading Narrative

I also like reading narrative books, mostly fantasy but I also enjoy reading other kinds of speculative fiction as well as non-fictional narratives. I have some favourite comics (graphic novels, manga and webcomics) of these same genres, but I haven't read a lot from this medium yet.

Some of my favourite books:

  • Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver

  • Cornelia delle Fate series by Miki Monticelli

  • La Sacacchiera Nera series by Miki Monticelli

  • Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

  • Extraterrestre alla pari by Bianca Pitzorno

  • Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel

  • Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin

  • His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman

  • Tales of the Otori by Gillian Rubinstein

  • The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski

Some of my favourite comics:

  • Everblue by Michael Sexton

  • Fey Winds by Nicole Chartrand

  • Fox & Willow by Irma "Aimo" Ahmed & Allison Pang

  • Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

  • Godslave by Meaghan Carter

  • Namesake by Megan Lavey-Heaton & Isabelle Melançon

  • Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas

Writing Speculative Fiction

I always loved to make up stories, and I have started writing fiction for my own fun since elementary school. I have way too many unfinished writing projects, but all of them brought me a lot of joy (there are only two finished short stories). At the moment I have two ongoing projects: one for a fantasy world and one that mixes various [insert-prefix-here]-punk genres with some magic.

​

For the most part writing fiction has been a personal past-time, but I wouldn't mind learning to write professionally.

Playing Tabletop Roleplaying Games

I have recently started playing TTRPGs and had quite a lot of fun as a player with Historia by Mirko Failoni, Michele Paroli & Matteo Pedroni, and with Cthulhu Confidential by Robin D. Laws, Chris Spivey & Ruth Tillman. At the moment I'm the GM of a few Historia games with groups (3-6) of very chaotic friends and classmates! I really enjoy designing maps and encounters, writing canovacci to use as a base to improvise from with the players, putting together audio and visual materials for the game, helping players build their characters, having to improvise gameplay and narrative responses to player's choices, and enabling them to play their adventure.

Hiking & Photography

I also like going on easy-medium difficulty hikes, which has been a fun way to explore the mountains and forests of Ticino (where I grew up) and other Swiss cantons. And in general I always like to explore the nature any other place I visit. And while I am out there, I like to take photos! Here are a few of them:

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