Happy New Year! 🎉 On Thursday, I'll present (online) at SCS 2026 on how paradigms / ideas of Greek myth shape (players' perceptions of) games with other mythological inspirations. Many thanks to @lexie-henning.bsky.social for organizing a fantastic panel on games, I'm really looking forward to it!

1753. WRITING GAME HISTORIES ​ 👉 www.thevideogamelibrary.org/book/writing... "An accessible guide to Historical Game Studies, exploring how games represent, shape, and create history across digital and analogue forms" #Books #Booksky #Gaming #VideoGames #GameStudies #GamingThePast

Hi folks! I’m currently co-editing a special issue for GAME about queer and trans games studies. Find the full cfp here www.gamejournal.it/n-132025-bey..., deadline for abstract submission is 12 January 2026!

Enotria: The Last Song (2024), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025), and Tides of Annihilation (forthcoming) surely is an unexpected trilogy of European cultures-inspired games, but an intriguing one nonetheless

Today I organized my secondary-school-oriented 'myth in video games' workshop for a primary school, which was a refreshing change of pace! There were no major interruptions or extensive classroom management - just pure enthusiasm and fascination with games and various mythologies. Really enjoyed it!

Ok the Clair Obscur craze is going pretty far now

Featuring chapter(s) on games, both focused and (in my case) more broad scope - I looked at Persephone's narrative roles across a range of games to argue that despite seeming variety, games do not provide a wide range of possibilities or, particularly, narrative agency, for this fascinating goddess!

And now, Writing Game Histories (2026) with cover art (courtesy of @murthynikhil.bsky.social’s Syphilisation) www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-g...

Now that the paperwork is FINALLY done I can tell you all that 'Persephone in Love: Hades and Persephone in Popular Culture' will be coming out in 2026!!!

☁️🌊 TOROA: SKYCALL 🌊☁️ 🐥 OUT NOW ON STEAM! 🐥 Unravel the fate of the ocean and glide across an ever changing seascape in the hopes of reuniting Toroa with their family 💙 After 5 years of hard mahi, love and dedication, we're so excited to share our first game with you all 🥹 Mauri ora e te whānau!

The book's description and the table of contents are now online! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/character...

As the year wraps up, some of my favorite games of 2025: 🌙 Hades II: Complex, detailed, and epic 🪄 South of Midnight: Heartfelt, and made me explore new stories 🦸 Dispatch: Refreshing, innovative, and fun 💥 Battlefield 6: Nostalgic, cinematic, and great to play with friends On to 2026!

💥 Join us for the Durham Centre for Classical Reception Prize Lecture! 🏫 Dr Alexander Vandewalle (Gent) "Play the Hero, or Play God Characterization of Greco-Roman Mythological Characters in Video Games" 📅 5pm, Weds 10 Dec 📍 TLC123 / hybrid on Teams: tinyurl.com/yav2u5da

Ancient Egypt in Video Games is now available for pre-order! The website says a March publication, but my schedule from the publisher says Jan (🤞). The hb version is pretty pricey, but a ppb version will hopefully be down the line! Check out details here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isb...

From Early Access to eruption! 🌋 I’m excited to announce that Pompeii: The Legacy will fully release at the end of March 2026. A huge update lands before the Winter Sale, bringing new systems, story content, visuals, and ... #IndieGameDev #GameDev

Yesterday concluded the lecture-based part of our game studies course. We covered topics from storytelling to agency, history, gender, ecocriticism & more - it's been a great experience. Next two weeks? Students pitch creative ideas for a history/literature-inspired game, using concepts from class.

Watched the credits roll on @supergiantgames.bsky.social's #HadesII yesterday. It's an achievement of epic proportions (in both senses of the word) and, like its predecessor, such a detailed and clever retelling of the Greek myths - one of the best I've ever played. Now, on to the epilogue!

It's amazing to see that "The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Marvel Cinematic Universe" (co-edited with real-life superhero @rowandaneels.bsky.social) is finally out - available in OPEN ACCESS thanks to Play Story Press and Psychgeist editor @drkowert.bsky.social! ⚡ Massive thanks to everyone involved!

May can't come soon enough! Really grateful to the editors for including a chapter where I discuss inter-mythological games (eg Smite, Age of Mythology, GoW). I try to explain this relatively game-specific phenomenon, and how combinations of mythic traditions construct a Western-centric worldview.

hey y'all! my questionnaire on player experience in historical videogames is now LIVE! if you play videogames about the past, we want to hear from you! edu.nl/7w3yn

It's my birthday~ 🎂🥳 Two years ago, I was struggling with mental health but now I am the healthiest I have ever been, and a big part of that is because I got to work on Toward Dawn. 🐺✨️ For the weekend, my Welsh mythology jrpg will be on sale for 35% off! 🥰 store.steampowered.com/app/3140160/...

Coming Soon! www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

I'm a BIG fan of physical media, so it's safe to say I'm SUPER STOKED that our multi-awarding winning indie game Mythwrecked will be getting a physical release!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Snag your copy below & signal boosts are most welcome folks. 🏝️ bit.ly/mythwrecked

Delighted to have a short piece in this week's TLS on Hades 2, gender, and modern myth making. www.the-tls.com/arts/hades-i...

Incredibly honored to have been selected and to be in such wonderful company - I'm very excited to travel to Durham in December. Huge thanks to everyone involved!

In video games, you will often find a fully roasted chicken abandoned on the ground, and eating it extremely quickly makes you feel better. What's less known is that this is also true in real life

printing this out and hanging it near my desk to look at next time I need to follow word counts

May 2026 👀 My monograph "Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games" will be out next year in @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social's IMAGINES series! Many thanks to @ubisoft.com for the #ImmortalsFenyxRising art ⚡ More information (soon!) on www.bloomsbury.com/uk/character...

In the name of research (but also genuine enjoyment), I accept this message

#ClassicsTober prompts for October ‘25 #ClassicsTober25

(Co-)Taught my first class today! It's a game studies course, focusing on the interplay between video games, literary texts, and history. We had some introductions to video game narratives and game studies, and we finished by playing Return of the Obra Dinn!

CRSN is looking for Early Career Researchers who are interested in convening or co-convening the Classical Reception seminar series at the Institute of Classical Studies this summer! For more information, see the link below: classicalreception.org/call-for-ecr...

The Mandalorian, Grogu, and a touch of Hannibal?

Becoming increasingly convinced that The Last of Us, Norse God of War, and A Plague Tale are all basically the same game

One day I wish to be as persistent as the typos you apparently can't get rid of no matter how many times you and others read your manuscripts

One side effect of sequel culture is that it suddenly feels strange to refer to what used to be individual games as part of a larger series. "The Titan Quest series", "the Hades franchise", "the Okami games"; it all feels very weird to say...

This one is ranked high on the wishlist!

Historians (rightly) get annoyed when other academics weigh in on their subject & claim to have “solved” or “completed” history, ignoring existing research & nuance. Yet historians keep weighing in on games as if no one has ever paid attention to them before (& it’s not great)

🚨 New publication alert (OA!) 🚨 I argue that unruly Apollo—far from ⚡ Zeus' ⚡ loyal son—was a potential challenger to his father’s throne. In Prometheus Bound (907–12), the curse of Kronos looms… and Apollo could've avenged Granddad and deposed Zeus! #Classics #GreekMyth doi.org/10.14746/spp...

This is amazing - Hades II releases Sep 25! 🌙⚡ Really looking forward to starting from scratch again and experiencing the full story! Really not looking forward to re-reading and updating every reference list of manuscripts under review from "Hades II (2024)" to "Hades II (2025)"

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

The Discovery Tour is back, but as a free mobile app that is more text-based than the earlier ones:

Getting more and more tired of people with an interest in classical history discrediting games because they are 'too violent'. The Iliad literally has hundreds of verses featuring the gruesome deaths of many, many characters - oftentimes more graphic than what you'd find in most games.

Had a blast at #gamescom2025 yesterday, and a lot of fun tracking down historical / ancient / mythological references! Highlights: the Hades II update on Switch 2, a presentation on Anno 117, beating a mission in the Japanese Age of Mythology DLC, Onimusha, and, completely unrelated, LEGO Batman

Marvel's Ironheart on Disney+ is basically the story of how getting one's university funding pulled is the first step in a long process of getting entangled with demonic forces

In May last year my academic career ended. In June last year I (secretly) began working as the historical consultant at @blackmillgames.bsky.social. Today we announced 'WW1: Gallipoli': youtu.be/Yp0WfD85DzU?... I can't wait for everyone to find out more: store.steampowered.com/app/3065940/... 🗃️

Co-writing this article on virtual epigraphy in games has me looking at player tombstones, writing cultures in Elden Ring, extraterrestrial Rosetta Stones, and crafted objects with digital makers' inscriptions like the epoiesen on Greek objects. Currently enjoying the winding paths of research.

Also worth pointing out that avoiding (but then having to find descriptive alternatives for) highly game specific terms like 'bullet heaven roguelike' in non-video-game-oriented publishing outlets is one of the most frustrating parts of being a game scholar

if you love mythological games but you've always felt that the one thing they really needed was cars, then oh do I have good news for you Just discovered the 2024 bullet heaven roguelike Champion Shift where you play as Arthur, Athena, Sun Wukong, Gilgamesh & more and transform into cars at will

It was a real pleasure to write this, and has long been something I've wanted to give thought to. If you're interested in Total War, historical games or especially Carthage, feel free to have a read!