The sixth HGN panel event took place on 25 January and discussed the theme of “Development”. We welcomed Dr Maurice Suckling (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York), Saadia Gardezi (Project Dastaan and Warwick University) and Sarah Cole (TIME/IMAGE) as panellists. Hosted by Dr Adam Chapman, the panel discussed the development of historical games, and the challenges and opportunities of working in this space.
In case you missed it or would like to watch it again, you can find the video of the event below.
Our call for contributions had asked various questions, for example, what impact do the development practices, patterns, mechanics, dynamics or aesthetics have upon the history being represented? How do development practices adapt to different technologies? The panellists took on these and other questions from the audience.
This was the final event of our sixth theme and as always we are very grateful to the many people who contributed to the theme over the past few months. You can check out the full articles and posts from the contributors here.
We now move on to our next theme, Alternatives. Games can serve as alternatives to traditional forms of both historical media reception and historical practices, and increasingly offer alternatives to hegemonic interpretations of historical events, narratives and identities. In this theme, we hope to explore how games use what was not and what might have been to help us understand what was, and what is. Contributions can interpret and/or address the idea of ‘Alternatives’ in any way they see fit, as it relates to historical games of all kinds, as well as the histories we might tell of games. If this is something you want to contribute to you can read the full call for contributions here.
As usual, the contributions will lead us to our theme event, which we currently expect to take place in May 2023.