playing with the past: an informal presentation

Playing with

the Past

Don’t hate

the player…• @gamingarchaeo

• Compsci, games, design, archaeo

Method Man• Designing + developing too many

case-studies + an engine.

• Running game jams

• Interviewing collaborators &

creators & participants.

• Recording myself doing everything

• Made an encoding system app for

this

Why’d you have

to go and make

things so

complicated?

“2D plans are at the core of

how we do and think about archaeology”

- James, Tuesday pm

“The medium is the

message”- Mcluhan, not Tuesday pm

The mediation cycle of

archaeology…- ME, just now

What's in a game?- Shakespeare, remixed

Procedural rhetoric…- Ian Bogost, cow clicker Genius

Narrative structures and

archaeological theory…

I got the power

Art, science, craft…

design?…

It aint what you do it’s the way

that you [critically] do it…

“I was thinking in such a

different way… things

which I took for granted

were suddenly in focus…”

Danger, danger,

high voltage!

• Digital literacy is a privilege. (but designing isn't)

• Game design skills is yet another thing to tack on to a full kit of stuff to do…(but its kinda cool)

• Making in the field is super hard… (this I don’t have an answer to)

That’s what iGo to [grad] school for

• Games as a different way of

thinking bout’ archaeology…

– Different code, art, sim style etc =

different results / experiences

• “Design” in archaeology alongside

art, science and craft.

• Deconstructive & conceptual sim

In the end…I TRIED SO HARD… BUT…

Does it even matter?

• Media affords how we think about,

document and do archaeology

• Design is a powerful tool

• Video-games are a super cool

media

• Working with other programmers

/ artists etc is important.