📖😍🐍 I am absolutely thrilled to announce that my edited volume "The Nile Delta: Histories from Antiquity to the Modern Period" is now available in paperback AND at a 20% discount on CUP's website! 🎊

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...

I wrote a piece for the Guardian games newsletter this week on my PhD research into preserving play experiences, and why I think that the most archaeological games are those that that actually make you *think* like one 🏺 www.theguardian.com/games/2025/s...

Still, there's something inherently violent even about dice rolls. It's like every time you cast a die, something disappears. Some alternative ending, or an entirely different world...

We have a cover for Ancient Egypt in Video Games! Out either late 2025 or early 2026 - will post a link with contents once it’s up on the DeGruyter website. I’m very excited that this is soon out in the world!

If you’ve been curious about what I mean when I talk about using history in “non-historical” games, then this design diary I wrote about Amberspire will give some insights. It’s about finding inspiration in the tension and meeting of micro and macro history lunardivision.net/micro-and-ma...

LITHOBREAKERS, an anonymous artist collective, organises a biannual game jam. The latest theme was World Wide Weird 👁 Play the entries here: itch.io/c/6217238/li...

I’ve slowly been writing a TTRPG based on the Battle of Qadesh (Egyptians v Hittites). I’m interested in game-making-as-research-process, so have been recording my questions, led by the requirements of the game. Inspired by @florencesn.bsky.social I’ve been distilling these into mini zines.

ICYMI - Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be from @punctumbooks.bsky.social has released, featuring contributions from an incredible lineup of scholars. 780 pages of #GameStudies goodness entirely for FREE! Just one of many stories in this week's Newsletter 👇

After some technical hiccups (including a broken laptop), I'm happy to annouce the first prototype of my new game, 'Galar', is available for download! 🧵1/5 #historygames #gamingthepast #gamestudies #gamedev #archaeogaming

Apparently Nintendo and Epic Games are lobbying against the Stop Killing Games movement because they want Games to be licenses not property So you KNOW the Stop Killing Games Movement is onto something www.stopkillinggames.com

I would be grateful for your help! I agreed to write an overview of political studies in digital games for the @akgwds.bsky.social. Apart from usual suspects (Bevc and Sicart), I find extremely little. Which (of your) texts do you think I should definitely consider? #GameStudies #PoliticalStudie

If you’re lucky enough to meet @florencesn.bsky.social at a conference, or wherever, make sure to grab one of their zines. Great little pieces of research communication and great for thinking about how you distill info/work.

PIRANESIAN // "...is a narrative-driven Game Boy adventure inspired by the novel Piranesi. You explore The House, a mysterious labyrinth of halls, uncovering lost memories, solving riddles, and reflecting on Plato’s virtues." #GameBoy tizummo.itch.io/piranesian

New open access volume published: “Pursuing Hope in the Premodern World”, edited by Ville Vuolanto and Oana-Maria Cojocaru. Looks really interesting and a new way of looking at premodern history. You can check it out here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Wishlist the game so you can read our words and enjoy this weird world Nic let me play in - store.steampowered.com/app/3350750/...

Apropos the recent RDR2-adjacent *discourse*, @readdead.com’s work is a phenomenally in depth consideration of RDR2’s literary, cultural & historical contexts. You should check it out, incl. this hugely valuable demographic assessment of all significant characters (1/2) readdead.com/2025/07/02/r...

The new Cambridge Elements book on “Hieratic: An Ancient Egyptian Cursive Script” by Fred Hagen is currently free to download! Check it out here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Last call for our exciting online panel discussion with experts on history, games and gender! 16:00 UK time >>today<<.

It was great to host this meeting yesterday at ManMet! And some of my favourite items in our Game Centre archive are the 30-year-old Nintendo game manuals!

Ahead of the 31st international congress of papyrology taking place later this month, the proceedings of the 30th congress held in Paris in 2022 is available as a free download (in two different resolutions, for your viewing pleasure): www.college-de-france.fr/fr/studia-pa...

Incredibly excited to share this collaborative article with @richardcole.bsky.social, out now in Convergence! We hosted an active play experiment to explore how players make choices in historical games, and which role history plays (or doesn't) in this process: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

We’re excited to announce that the online panel discussion for our Gender theme will take place on 29 July, 16:00-17:30 UK time, featuring @tesswatty.bsky.social (chair), @katexe.bsky.social, @andreaskjeldsen.bsky.social and a third, mystery panellist. Tickets at buytickets.at/historicalga....

How we use game mechanics to explore and educate about archaeology in our board game Cultivaria- a thread. #archaeology #boardgame

I’m having fun playing with zone as a way to communicate info in a neat little bundle. A few tweaks to make, and then to decide what to do with them! Thoughts welcome!

It's not too late to sign up for this summer Coptic course! www.religiondepartment.com/coptic Begins July 8th. Available Asynch. or Synch. Lectures live Tuesdays at 10:00am Atlanta/EDT (3:00pm London/BST, 4:00pm Amsterdam/Zurich/CEST, 5:00pm Cairo/EEST, and 12:00am July 9th Australia/AEST).

Everything, eventually, is an Egypt game. Locked up in the Vault in Blue Prince (Dogubomb, 2025), you can find a statue of Anubis. #archaeogaming

We’re delighted to be returning to the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds next week. We’ve got 20 papers in person and online spread over two days of the event, alongside a roundtable on medievalist games outside the Anglophone world.

late antiquity nerds! @vox-magica.bsky.social's awesome new Element is scheduled to drop *this week* so bookmark now so you can get your ~free~ download when it hits! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

New open access book on dress in the ancient world, edited by Aleksandra Hallmann: “Outward Appearance vs Inward Significance”. You can download it here: isac.uchicago.edu/research/pub...

We're finally getting somewhere with our painterly effects #madewithgodot. Likely have several more days to get this right; the shader is only maybe 80% complete. It ain't easy coding #handdrawngame effects! 🖌️🎮

Funded PhD opportunity at Leiden University on Greek papyrology! Application deadline in August. Check out all the details here: url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/_z7-CYQEkc...

Multiplatform 2025: Rituals of Play opens with a keynote from Dr Jeff Howard.

Interested in Games Workshop? With @pfwgames.bsky.social I’m organising our 2nd annual GW research day in Manchester in October. It’ll be a day of great talks, game demos, and an exciting final live - streamed! - game of Blood Bowl! Read more in our Call for Papers in Paul’s post below.

Temp job alert!! Senior lecturer in Egyptian archaeology and cultural history at Uppsala University (Sweden) Read more here: www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Followed by Jenny Cromwell @jennycromwell.bsky.social on historical pedagogy through gameplay and game design: "Introducing ‘Qadesh: A Soldier’s Journey’: a TTRPG set in ancient Egypt".

If you're working on the Middle Ages in digital or analogue games of any sort then you won't want to miss this CfP. The event is completely free and completely remote and a great place to pitch work in progress to a large and diverse audience.

Free new book on Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Egypt! The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1550 BC), Contributions on archaeology, art, religion, and written sources. Volume III. Get your free pdf download here: egittologia.cfs.unipi.it/wp-content/u...

Off to London to talk about my undergrad unit “Gaming and the Humanities” to colleagues at SOAS: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...

🚨Just out: Egyptian Riverine Harbours edited by Marine Yoyotte, Irene Forstner-Müller & Harco Willems In my chapter, I argue that Lake Menzaleh was a socio-economic hub well before the Arab conquest & that as such, it was already an eastern complement to Alexandria’s fluvio-maritime harbour network

Congratulations to Sarah Derbew, Daniel Orrells, Phiroze Vasunia and their contributors on the publication of their new #OpenAccess book Classics and Race today. Read and download free at: uclpress.co.uk/book/classic... #Classics #Race #IntellectualHistory

New inscription with Rameses III’s cartouches found in Jordan - but what resources were the Egyptians hoping to secure in the area? www.heritagedaily.com/2025/04/rams...

So very tempted to support this kickstarter game for the GameBoy: Orpheus, To Hell and Back. Puzzle game with music mechanic. It looks really nice. Have you seen it @alexvandewalle.bsky.social @katexe.bsky.social @ancientplay.bsky.social www.kickstarter.com/projects/stu...

In Western Desert #RockArt, giraffes can appear alone or in groups. They may also be accompanied by other motifs. The pairing of the giraffe with this motif must have carried significance. Do you have an idea as to what this motif might depict? #Egyptology #Archaeology #AncientEgypt #AncientSky

Our Monastic Economies book is now put in paperback and there’s 20% off until the end of the month! I’m so happy to see it out now at a much more affordable price!!!