Team 17
Worms

As a child, I loved board games. They were a way to pass the time on cold and rainy winter Sundays, and it certainly didn't hurt to spend a few hours with family or friends without real competition, but with the sole purpose of having a laugh. "Worms" was left out of the games I could play with relatives, but it certainly established itself among those I could play with friends.

Born from the genius of Andy Davidson, this curious mix of elements borrowed from classics like "Lemmings" and of absurd violence like "Cannon Fodder", started as a small project to present in a contest announced by an Amiga magazine. Written in BASIC and presented under the name "Total Wormage" (referring to Midway's shooter "Total Carnage"), unfortunately, the charming little game didn’t win anything. Andy nevertheless sent a copy of the game to various publishers but received rejections until, while passing through the ECTS in '94, he showed the game at the Team 17 stand, a small software house that made him the classic offer he couldn’t refuse. The game was developed and published in record time, and its success on the Commodore machine allowed the game to be converted to every single platform, from 8 to (then-new) 32 bits.

If the game was moderately fun solo, with four players, it reached heights of fun never seen before. Each player took turns controlling a worm on their team and had to make their move within a limited time using strategy and wits to eliminate opponents without exposing themselves too much to crossfire. On paper, it seemed like a chess match, but in practice, it was indiscriminate carnage, with fragile alliances, sudden betrayals, and ruinous attitudes, which ended up making the battlefield look like a piece of Swiss cheese.

Being a direct conversion from Amiga, the technical framework served its purpose, the VGA graphics appeared dated, but the gameplay was so irresistible and the worms' voices so delirious and hilarious that instant ovation followed from both the public and critics. Having become a successful brand, Team 17 confirmed the series as a cornerstone of the genre by releasing Worms 2 in 1998, which boasted colorful SVGA graphics and expanded the arsenal with increasingly funny and absurd tools of destruction. The peak was "Worms Armageddon," a true concentrate of creativity and silliness which also introduced online play, later refined in "World Party."

Years passed, and even Team 17 couldn't resist the allure of 3D, which forcefully arrived with the third chapter. Numerous games were developed using the new perspective, introducing new modes and abilities for the crazy worms; however, despite the good commercial success, the feel of the two-dimensional games was gone, and the impression of facing different games was more than palpable. The team's attempts to go beyond the "Worms" brand failed miserably throughout the 2000s, but the rise of digital delivery and the flourishing of indie productions through new distribution channels pointed them the way back to glory.

2D made a comeback, and with it the immediate and hilarious approach that had made the brand successful. In 2009, the direct sequel to "Armageddon" was released on XBLA, becoming one of the best-selling games of all time on Microsoft's online platform. Fifteen years after the first chapter, the worms have retained their charm, the move to online play hasn’t greatly diminished its social gaming value, and the concept was effectively carried over from one generation to the next. It’s possible that future generations will play "Worms" as we used to play Monopoly...