My friend Alberto reminded me that another source of inspiration for this game could be the song Oltre il ponte (Beyond the Bridge), written by a young Calvino: https://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=en&id=771
We were twenty years old and past the bridge, / Beyond the bridge there held by the enemy. / We spied the other side, and all life held there, / All the good in the world, beyond the bridge. / All the evil we had standing before us, / And all the good that we held inside our hearts. / At twenty life lies beyond the shoreline, / Beyond the fire, where love begins.