Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello is the Game of the Year for 2021 in the Indie Groundbreaker Awards. It's a first, both for Italian projects and for live action games.

We stayed up all night to watch the award ceremony and came away with tears in our eyes. Our foremost goal has always been to keep the fire burning for a way of playing live that's so special to us. We embraced the label of "chamber larp" when the flame grew bright enough to stop flickering and we started hoping that someone would see it from afar. And it happened! First the conventions, then the Kickstarter campaigns, and finally this award.

As lovers of roleplay both live and tabletop, we've been following the Indie Game Developer Network to find new gems to play. Their awards belong to the international player community and are judged by game designers. Being part of this is truly special, and we hope it will help our music be heard by more and more people. 

Thanks to everyone who cupped their hands around this flame to shield it from the breeze. Thanks to our wonderful Orchestra, where everyone is an author and a player at the same time. Thanks to the Italian gaming community: standing up or sitting down, we'll always love playing with you! Thanks to all our friends around the world and to the judges who devoted so much attention to such a complex project.

360 pages, 12 games, no common genre or theme to make the collection easily stand out. Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello is like the little bumblebee that shouldn't be able to fly, but doesn't care and flies anyway. And this time it's not just a myth.

This is the speech we should probably have given, but we are who we are, so in the video you'll only see us laugh and yell and make happy noises. Long live the Italian Chamber Orchestra! Long live unidentified gaming objects!