In Milan, the exhibition rewriting the history of board games through women’s stories

There is a part of board game history that is rarely told: the story of the women who have helped shape its rules, languages and imagery. This is where Un gioco da ragazze begins, an exhibition making its debut on October 3 and 4, 2026, at Morel Milano, as part of the first edition of COMBO Festival of meeples, dice and cards.
The exhibition brings together fourteen game designers from Italy and around the world, with very different backgrounds, generations and approaches to game design. It is not simply a celebratory project: its aim is to give greater visibility to a contribution that, for decades, has remained largely on the margins of the sector’s official history.

The journey begins in 1904 with Elizabeth Magie Phillips. Her The Landlord’s Game was originally conceived as a tool to criticize wealth concentration and land speculation, and would later become, following various modifications, the basis for Monopoly. From there, the exhibition spans more than a century of international game design, featuring names that have shaped generations of players: Leslie Scott, creator of Jenga, one of the world’s most iconic games; Elizabeth Hargrave, who with Wingspan placed nature and observation at the heart of contemporary board gaming; Inka Brand, one of Europe’s most respected designers and a key figure behind the EXIT series, which transformed the escape room concept into a format that could be enjoyed at home; Peggy Chassenet, designer of T.I.M.E. Stories, who has explored the relationship between games, discovery and storytelling; Mary Flanagan, designer, theorist and founder of Dartmouth’s Tiltfactor Lab, whose work sits at the intersection of games, art and social research; Susan McKinley Ross, creator of Qwirkle, which has become a family game classic; Nikki Valens, known for her work on Eldritch Horror; and Sophia Wagner, designer of Noria, featuring an original action-selection system based on concentric wheels.


"Un gioco da ragazze". Illustration by di Paola Rondi

Alongside these international figures, the exhibition also focuses on the Italian scene, featuring designers who have made their mark on the industry in recent years. Flaminia Brasini is the designer behind eurogames such as Lorenzo il Magnifico, Coimbra, Egizia and Golem; Rosaria Battiato is best known for Bonsai, created together with Massimo Borzì and Martino Chiacchiera; Marta Ciaccasassi combines design, development and publishing, as demonstrated by the project Icaion; Simona Greco, with Top Drop, focuses on immediacy and the construction of the player experience; while Stefania Niccolini, particularly associated with ZhanGuo, stands out for her approach to building complex and cohesive strategic systems.


Morel Milano, offices

The exhibition goes beyond texts and panels. At Morel Milano, the former textile complex in Garegnano that has been active since the 1930s, the designers are also portrayed through illustrations by Paola Rondi. Meanwhile, some of their most representative games are presented through their individual components, with cards, tokens and other elements distributed throughout the exhibition space rather than kept inside their boxes. The installation offers visitors the opportunity to look more closely at the different stages and choices behind the design of a board game.

As Cristian Confalonieri of Studiolabo, one of the event’s promoters, points out, the designers featured in the exhibition are not exceptions: they are key figures in the evolution of contemporary game design. The exhibition does not aim to write an alternative history, but to make the history we already know more complete. The opening will take place on Saturday, October 3 at 12:00 PM, with a talk featuring some of Italy’s leading female game designers.


COMBO Festival, illustration by Jacopo Rosati

Un gioco da ragazze is part of the programme of COMBO Festival of meeples, dice and cards, organised by Ludo Labo, Studiolabo and Cranio Creations.