The game recreates the main events of the 50-minute flight of the DC9 Itavia shot down over the Tyrrhenian, close to Ustica, sea at 8.58 pm on 27 June 1980. The player is given the option of experiencing events from different points of view: the developers started their work with research, and careful study of the trial documents and the transcriptions of the radio communications that took place that night. The player is located inside the DC9 where s/he can explore the cabin, interact with the environment and passengers and find objects that unlock new functions. The facts can be observed from interchangeable perspectives: including the position of the military airplanes involved, the radar screen that establishes the crowding in the sky in those moments and a solitary fisherman looking up at the night sky.
The game recreates the main events of the 50-minute flight of the DC9 Itavia shot down over the Tyrrhenian, close to Ustica, sea at 8.58 pm on 27 June 1980. The player is given the option of experiencing events from different points of view: the developers started their work with research, and careful study of the trial documents and the transcriptions of the radio communications that took place that night. The player is located inside the DC9 where s/he can explore the cabin, interact with the environment and passengers and find objects that unlock new functions. The facts can be observed from interchangeable perspectives: including the position of the military airplanes involved, the radar screen that establishes the crowding in the sky in those moments and a solitary fisherman looking up at the night sky.
Progetto Ustica began with an idea from Ivan Venturi, designer developer and producer of videogames, and was created with the help of Mauro Salvador, game designer and docent at the Universities of Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia. The game, created in collaboration with the Associazione Parenti delle Vittime della Strage di Ustica (lit. Association of the families of the victims of Ustica) and with the support of Carlo Lucarelli and Bottega Finzioni, does not aim to be a scientifically accurate reconstruction of the facts nor an investigative game to discover the truth. Progetto Ustica is a memory game. Some details included in the scenario are true, others could be. The player’s task is to find out more and to conserve the memory.
