Traveling to Ireland tomorrow for #DiGRA2026, where I'll present a paper on mythological game mechanics beyond pure violence (w/ Marco Caracciolo), and another on haptics & focalization in video games, VR, and 4DX film (or, just a sneaky way to talk about Star Wars). Looking forward to it!

You know the economy is bad when the silver studs in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight now only give you 1 instead of 10 points...

Game changer ⬇️

God of War Laufey was announced last night, featuring Faye as protagonist and set in the Afterlife of the Gods where she meets (dead) gods from various mythologies ⚡ If only someone had just published a chapter on games & mythological crossovers... www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLMX...

Was delighted to contribute with my fellow series editors to this piece on intersections between the Humanities disciplines and game studies in our series and more broadly, as part of a great collection!

Next week, I'll be traveling to Rome for the 2026 Games and Literary Theory Conference! I'll present a taxonomy of five strategies with which games have presented ancient literature, from clicking through translations in visual novels to materializing texts in a historical space.

It's publication day for Writing Game Histories!! 🥳🎉 Please do recommend it for your library, but it's also out in paperback so not as hideously expensive as academic books can be: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g... @doktornick.bsky.social @doni.bsky.social @historygamesnet.bsky.social

A very special day today: the physical copies of my book arrived! It felt great to finally hold it in my hands for the very first time ⚡

This weekend!! The AIMS May event. Register: antiquityinmediastudies.wordpress.com/events/

Very excited to announce that my new postdoc project, "Who Plays Mythology? Player (Counter-)Hegemonies of Greek Mythology in Video Games" (in collaboration with Marco Caracciolo and Steven Malliet), has just been accepted for funding by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social! 🎮 🎉

Congratulations to @alexvandewalle.bsky.social who's 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 released from @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social this past week. More details in this week's Newsletter ☝️ #Gaming #Booksky

#ScreenshotSaturday Before Games of Thrones, before Lord of the Rings, before even Geoffrey of Monmouth compiled the legends of King Arthur - before all of these came the Mabinogion. Discover the magical stories of this ancient book in Tales from the Mabinogion.

The hardback version of Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games (in @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social's IMAGINES series) is out today! 🎉 Visit www.bloomsbury.com/uk/character... for more information on everything myth, games, & more!

Looking forward to traveling to Granada next week to present my paper on @supergiantgames.bsky.social's Hades II at the Ancient World on Screen Conference, celebrating 50+ years of classics and film reception!

It's Star Wars Day and there is a special event on the horizon for the franchise's 50th anniversary next year. Durham University is hosting a special conference in 2027 reflecting on the legacy of the iconic series. The CFP is below. starwarsat50.webspace.durham.ac.uk

Great to have @alexvandewalle.bsky.social present on some of the findings from his forthcoming book and research in Bristol today!

Well...

✨ Third annual international prize for a doctoral thesis in Classical Reception Studies! 📅 Submit your thesis to centre directorDr Caroline Barron by 30th June to enter. 🔗 More details: www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Mythological Characters in Video Games - join us for this Centre for Creative Technologies and Game Lab keynote lecture by International Visiting Fellow Dr @alexvandewalle.bsky.social. Thursday 30 April 5pm (BST), University of Bristol (in person and online). forms.office.com/pages/respon...

The ebook versions of my book Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games are now out! It's a study of mythological games and how they include characters like gods, heroes or monsters. The hardback releases on May 14th. For more information: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/character...

I've wished for Arab-made games about Arab mythology for so long, and despite assisting on the project I still can't believe there's one swinging for the fences this hard. House of Hikmah is something very needed in a time where the world would rather erase us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZTu...

Truly a fantastic launch weekend for Nova Roma. So far it's garnered over 2,200 peak concurrent players and an overwhelmingly positive review score. We could not be more proud of the development team. Thank you to everyone who has played the game so far! You are true Roman spirits.

Our latest instalment of the #PeoplingBlog, features the exciting pedagogical work of @egarcmol.bsky.social. Here, he takes us through his course “The Ancient World in Video Games” to highlight the value of bringing gaming into the modern university classroom: peoplingthepast.com/2026/03/27/b...

As we get more 'Daredevil: Born Again' on our screens, with Wilson Fisk, Jessica and more, it might be a good time to have a look at this piece by @alexvandewalle.bsky.social and I, published at the end of 2025. #DaredevilBornAgain (1/3) playstorypress.org/books/the-ps...

Play HAMM-3R! 🚀 FREE + SHORT (5-10 mins.) >> hammer.gua-le-ni.com << An experimental game about tools and technologies made with @amidos2006.bsky.social, @demigiant.com and other friends at the @indigitalgames.bsky.social! 🔨

Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform and never miss an episode! Find all of the relevant links, as well as links to our website, other socials, and online bookshop here: linktr.ee/ancienthisto...

Hey folks, CfP coming up for a Workshop on Analogue Games and the Ancient and Pre-Modern Past at Durham University hosted by cool HGS folk @drhelenroche.bsky.social and @peregrinekiwi.bsky.social. Looks great; wish I could be there! submission email in the CfP

🏹🏹🏹 Mythmatch is OUT NOW on Steam! 🏹🏹🏹 AND there's a 20% launch discount! 🐐 Merge the items 💪 Unite the people 🏠 Make a home And it's Steam Deck Verified!! store.steampowered.com/app/1778050/...

🚨NEW ARTICLE OUT🚨 My most recent paper on historical agency & games is available in open access! It deals with environmental studies, posthumanism, fantasy, the 'ontological turn' in the philosophy of history & my upcoming video-game, Galar. Quick thread on the contents 🧵1/6 #gamestudies #gtp

Thanks so much for having me on, @lexie-henning.bsky.social! Really enjoyed talking games, Classics, and academia on the Ancient Office Hours podcast 😊🎮

Stoked to have this article see the light of day next year! Covering a large variety of examples (from AC to Elden Ring, WoW, Pokemon, & many more), @egarcmol.bsky.social and I conceptualize the interplay between inscriptions and games as a tripartite encounter: epigraphy in, of, and as games.

En esta ocasión, Samuel Carreño nos presenta el trabajo sobre recepción clásica en creación de mundos secundarios en videojuegos que ha realizado en su estancia con @alexvandewalle.bsky.social , quien ha presentado su investigación sobre caracterización en videojuegos ambientados en el mundo antiguo

👀

Was reading @alexvandewalle.bsky.social article (finally doing some reading now that the book is done, Alex!) on dev influences for Hades, Apotheon, and this and thought it looked neat and deserved a repost. @polygontreehouse.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/2000210/...

You can pet the dog in God of War Sons of Sparta @canyoupetthedog.com

Not on my bingo list ⤵️

TIBERPUNK

“Please enjoy the museum”: Relooted is OUT NOW! Please share!

Taught the intro class of our classical reception course today! We covered the field's history, reception mechanisms, & critical ancient world studies. They seemed to be most engaged when discussing God of War, Roman Empire TikTok, accuracy, and the aesthetics of AI reels. Excited for the semester!

Sisyphean gaming reception continues with Imagine Sisyphus Happy, an idle clicker where Sisyphus livestreams his trial. A mixture of the rise-and-grind mindset and cynical, cyclical online content creation, Sisyphus has found a resurgence digitally. Oh yeah and Thucydides is in the livestream.

One of my favorite artists, ILLENIUM, just dropped a new album called 'ODYSSEY'. Nothing distinctly Homeric about it, but it does give the listening experience a certain fantastical flair 😊

Next week Tuesday is coming as fast as Nomali can snap her fingers! Just under a week to go until Relooted launches! #indiegame

A new collection added to Exhibit:Play 👀 Deciphering Languages Featuring games from @inkle.co, @rundisc.bsky.social, @kevindu.itch.io, @playismen.bsky.social @lizardrydev.bsky.social and more. 11 games in total and always on the lookout for more.

This Saturday, I'll be presenting at this year's Hitpoints & History conference! My talk is focused on standardized temporalities in games, and how challenges to such ideas of time can lead to new experiences, or active critiques, of mythology. More information at www.hitpointscon.com!

This Call for Papers may be of interest to a lot of you: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The more I play Dawn of Ragnarök, the more I think that this is the spiritual successor to Immortals Fenyx Rising. IFR's sequel might have been cancelled, but if you want to explore (or fly in!) a mythic open world, solve puzzles, find scattered myths, and avert a cosmic threat, DoR is right there.

Had never played AC Valhalla's Dawn of Ragnarök DLC before now, but I like the "Mythical Memories" spread across Svartalfheim. They're a nice way to establish the game's Norse mythography without relegating the stories to a Codex menu, but by actively embedding them in exploration and gameplay.

Interesting video essay by @thehiddenoneyt.bsky.social, offering a survey of current discussions & polemic/toxic fan practices in the Assassin's Creed community, calling for more actual conversation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C1A...

Just published a paper on the complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir meme, the decade-old tumblr in-joke that continues to impact the public understanding of the ancient world. Paywalled but email me if you want a copy. 🏺