The video game Semblance by the South Africa-based Nyamakop studio has players reshaping a malleable digital world before it petrifies.
Video Games
A Video Game Takes You Cross-Country into the Origins of American Folklore
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a game of gathering and sharing stories, which grow and change in the telling.
A Playable Archive of 74 Retro Games, Including Frogger, Tamagotchi, and Donkey Kong
The Internet Archive has uploaded emulations of classic games to Handheld History, a free digital library, allowing for old-school experiences on modern computers.
The Casual Colonialism of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones
An anthropologist and a historian weigh in on the troubling genre of the archaeological adventure story.
A Satiric History of Video Games
Do the games Earthworm Gym, Lizard Designer Pro, Vin Diesel’s Weasel Easel, Silent Butcher, or Wrestlechess intrigue you? If so, then this book is for you.
Efficient Roadway or Gridlocked Nightmare? The Choice is Yours in this Highway Engineering Game
Freeways by Justin Smith is an urban planning simulator where players construct complex highway systems while avoiding traffic jams.
Drive a Hand-Drawn Tram for Cats in This Illustrated Game
Artist Alexander Perrin’s Short Trip is a hand-drawn interactive game in which players drive a trolley for cats.
You’re a Medici. Can You Support the Renaissance’s Best Artists, or Will You Be Exiled?
ARTé: Mecenas from Triseum is a game on the economies of art, set in the tumultuous Italian Renaissance, in which you are a Medici patron.
Stroll a Fauvist Shore in a Digital Tribute to André Derain
FAUVISTa is a digital exploration of the Fauvist colors and brushstrokes in André Derain’s 1905 “Bateaux à Collioure.”
A 1980s-Style Game Takes You Through a Wikipedia Rabbit Hole
Wikipedia: The Text Adventure by Kevan Davis turns Wikipedia’s data into a pixelated game that you navigate through typed directions.
Live a Year in Virtual Solitude in Walden, the Game
Walden, a Game transforms Henry David Thoreau’s famed book into a thoughtful digital experience.
A Browser Game Recreates the Tedium of a 1990s Office Job
Pippin Barr’s game It is as if you were doing work simulates the distractions and mundane tasks of the office, imagined for a future when work is replaced by machines.