History, Mnemohistory and Trauma in the Italian Videogame Scene

Italian serious games can preserve and reshape the memory of traumatic national events, and this extended abstract examines two cases to show how. Progetto Ustica (IV Produzioni, beta 2018) and A Little Anti-Fa Story (Mauro Vanetti, 2017) are analyzed as serious games, meaning games designed for purposes beyond entertainment, with a focus on how each handles history, memory, and trauma. The analysis is qualitative and based on the author's play of an alpha build and the freely available visual novel in April 2018.

Progetto Ustica is a VR-enhanced walking simulator commemorating the 1980 explosion of Itavia Flight DC9 over the Tyrrhenian Sea, which killed 81 people and whose causes remain uncertain. It draws on judicial and technical documents, including the Priore judicial acts and a 1999 Turin Polytechnic evaluation, to recreate setting and aircraft with historical accuracy. The player starts as an extra passenger, passively exploring and unlocking other viewpoints, such as a fisherman or a foreign fighter pilot. Interaction is minimal, with few objects and a fixed order, and no moral choices. The finale places the player inside the explosion and fall, which producer Ivan Venturi said aims to "create a trauma and commit it to memory."

A Little Anti-Fa Story is a text-based visual novel supporting Pavia antifascists who were denounced after blocking a fascist march on November 5, 2016. Its creator was a witness, so documentary material is mixed with personal memory and ideology, as in the depiction of both fascists and police with pig noses. Branching moral choices lead to varied outcomes that are compared with the real one, encouraging replay and alternative memories. Trauma serves as a springboard for broader commentary on rising far-right violence.

The framework combines Assmann's distinction between history and mnemohistory with trauma theory from Caruth and Alexander, and Smethurst's model of interreactivity, empathy, and complicity. The author argues that Smethurst's model cannot account for games like Progetto Ustica, which convey trauma without making the player complicit, and calls for further work linking videogame studies and trauma studies.