A fun take on my paper on antagonistic game design!
Exeunt Press 💀🎲@exeunt.press · last wk.What is antagonistic game design? I try to answer that question in this week's Skeleton Code Machine.
Institute of Digital Games - University of Malta
@indigitalgames.bsky.social
Making big waves in Game Studies research, Game Design, and AI from a tiny, Mediterranean island | Check us out: https://www.um.edu.mt/digitalgames/ | Hosts of DiGRA 2025
Exeunt Press 💀🎲@exeunt.press · last wk.
🌞 Day 2 kicked off strong! We started the day with an incredible keynote from Stefano Gualeni @gua-le-ni.com, setting the tone for another day of learning, collaboration, and inspiration at iGGi Con 2025. #iGGiCon #GamesResearch #AI #GameDev
Can games challenge theoretical ideas? 🎮 At @iggi-phd.bsky.social, @gua-le-ni.com keynoted 'On Games as Conceptual Tools,' alongside @tabbyhanita.bsky.social & Daniel Hernandez (Sony AI). Watch the recording: www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/pe... #GamesResearch #GameDev
Games as Conceptual Tools - Prof. Gualeni keynotes iGGi 2026
Exploring the socio-cultural effects of epistemic artifacts, games and video games
um.edu.mt
Cellular automata are powerful but painful to author. Rules are a lookup table; neural CAs are more expressive but a black box. What if each CA rule was just code that you can read? Introducing Programmable Cellular Automata (PCA)
Soulsborne fans assemble, The Scholars Codex audiobook from @tuneandfairweather.bsky.social is out now, narrated by yours truly! Absolute pleasure to get to nerd out about my favourite game series. Grab it now on Audible! #darksouls #audiobook #fromsoftware #narrator #books
In a few days, I will be talking with the ineffable @maurovanetti.itch.io about my scifi novel 'What We Owe the Dead' (SetMargin's 2025). The event will be in #Milan (Italy) on the 8th of September. If you're in the area, join us for hot takes and cold drinks!
Let's talk research, education, and business! We'll be at Gamescom with the Malta delegation, send a DM or reply and we can set up a meeting! @danielvella.bsky.social | @gua-le-ni.com | #Gamescom
FromSoftware and Romanticism, Dark Souls II and Walter Benjamin’s theory of history? Justin Fenech reflects on Scholar's Codex and the depth of the FromSoftware Games in new @geeknative.bsky.social article. www.geeknative.com/240233/a-wor... @gua-le-ni.com @tuneandfairweather.bsky.social
A Word on The Scholar's Codex - An Accessible Academic Study on FromSoftware Games
Art historian Justin Fenech reviews The Scholar's Codex, an accessible academic study offering fresh perspectives on FromSoftware games and game design.
geeknative.com
Scholar’s Codex is a beautifully illustrated, philosophical exploration of the FromSoftware universes curated by game studies researchers @gua-le-ni.com @danielvella.bsky.social (U of Malta), @domford.bsky.social (U of Bergen), and @nelevdm.bsky.social (Tilburg U). www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/ac...
New book decodes FromSoftware’s Lore and Philosophy through discarded items
A new deeply philosophical exploration of the FromSoftware games by leading game scholars
um.edu.mt
📰 @gua-le-ni.com spoke to El Dia, a leading news outlet in Buenos Aires, Argentina about the new Spanish translation of his book 'El videojuego del mundo' published on Adriana Hidalgo, exploring the intersection of video games and philosophy. 🎮📚 www.eldia.com/temas/i-stef...
<I>Stefano Gualeni</I> Filosofía con mando en mano | El Dia
El filósofo y diseñador italiano publica un ensayo que cruza el existencialismo, la semiótica y el diseño interactivo. Su propósito parece sostener que los mundos virtuales no son entretenimientos men...
eldia.com
Now available at Adriana Hidalgo: Stefano's philosophical exploration of digital worlds translated into Spanish by Ana Miravalles!
Stefano Gualeni@gua-le-ni.com · 3mo agoFriends who speak Spanish, a book of mine was translated in your beautiful language (in Argentina). It's about existing with and within games, and in case you're interested, you can find it here: www.adrianahidalgo.com/libro/el-vid...
Just got my beautiful copy of The Scholar’s Codex from @tuneandfairweather.bsky.social. Congrats to the contributors and editing team for pulling this off! From what I’ve read so far, it’s very compelling. I love seeing academic works meld with and celebrate fan culture like this.
Congrats! Institute of Digital Games students, @teamdienosaur.bsky.social, have won the Best International Game at Expovit 2025 in Costa Rica. The team sacrificed Roxanne as the member to pick up the award and get a photo with the award. 😅 Read more about the award: www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/st...
3 of our students recently took to the stage to present their research at #DiGRA2026, the largest academic game studies conference in the world, hosted by @maynoothuniversity.ie this year. Read more: www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/st... #gamestudies #research #students
Next at the #GameAISchool2026 is "Hype into Practice: The Harness Behind Unity AI" by Anping Wang from our sponsors at @unity.com !
We are starting our third day strong with "A Decade of SEED: Lessons from 10 years of Research and Development in Games" with Konrad Tollmar from EA SEED.
Exciting news for @mightyboards.bsky.social and the core team of UM and IDG founders including David Chircop, Prof. Gordon Calleja and Mark Casha!
Spiel des Jahres@spiel-des-jahres.de · 5mo agoNun auch im Vorstellungsvideo: Belohnende Anlegestrategien, nominiert für das Kennerspiel des Jahres. "Rebirth" von Reiner Knizia, erschienen bei Frosted Games und MightBoards ist "elegant und zwingt zur Konzentration auf das Wesentliche", sagt die Jury. youtu.be/124t4gmRcp8
Huge inspiration for (board) game designers in Malta!🎲 Rebirth by @mightyboards.bsky.social —co-founded by IDG alumnus David Chircop, Prof. Gordon Calleja, and UM's Mark Casha—is nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres! 🏆 Read more: timesofmalta.com/article/malt... @spiel-des-jahres.de |
Maltese board games publisher is nominated for top industry award
Rebirth is Mighty Boards’ 13th game
timesofmalta.com
Submission form is now open for Game Poems Magazine Issue 2! Learn more and submit your game at www.gamepoems.com/submit Submission deadline is July 1, but early submissions are welcome. Thinking of submitting something, but haven't started yet? No worries, you've still got a whole month. :-)
Just received physical copies of our volume of essays on the games of From Software, out now on @tuneandfairweather.bsky.social - and it's an even more gorgeous thing than photos can convey. I was planning on doing some work today but might just stare at this on the shelf instead.
Scholar's Codex (@tuneandfairweather.bsky.social) is out! Edited by @domford.bsky.social, @gua-le-ni.com, @nelevdm.bsky.social and @danielvella.bsky.social, with an essay of mine on the relationship between Darkness and humanity from Augustine of Hippo to Elden Ring.
📢The second edition of 'What We Owe the Dead' (my quirky, procedural sci-fi novel) is out 📢 Get it while it's hot at Set Margin's Press! @freeklomme.bsky.social >> www.setmargins.press/books/what-w... <<
Stress-testing architectural designs for their emotional impact before a single brick is laid. PhD research by E. Xylakis focused on using machine learning to predict emotional impact of architectural experience from spatial variables. Read more: www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/di... #Architecture #VR
Can Video Games and Virtual Worlds Help Us Understand Architecture?
Training machine learning model to predict emotional responses in relation to architectural spaces
um.edu.mt
In case you missed it, I wrote about #Deadpool games, the dead in our games, and the Italian game of #Fantamorto in my latest gamestudies.org contribution. Take a look! :) >> gamestudies.org/2601/article... <<
Institute of Digital Games - University of Malta@indigitalgames.bsky.social · 5mo agoDid you know Marvel's #Deadpool was named after a game? Dead pool games are folk games where players predict which public figures might die within a given period. @gua-le-ni.com explores the space where play, ethics, and mortality meet in new #GameStudies article. www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/li...
Join us in #Rome on June the 3rd for a 'Bonfireside chat' with the authors of the Scholar's Codex! The event starts at 4PM at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Rome (Vicolo Doria), feat. @domford.bsky.social @danielvella.bsky.social, @nelevdm.bsky.social & more! CC: @tuneandfairweather.bsky.social
Our student Paul Psaila is nominated for the FreeHour Malta Youth Awards (Sci & Tech)! 🎓 Paul teaches our DegreePlus unit on #Unity & shares science on his YouTube Channel: Fruity Pol. Great to see #gamedev represented with Ryan from Midow Studios as well. youthawards.freehour.eu/vote/tech-an...
🎢 FutureCopLGF goes through a rollercoaster of emotions playing HAMM-3R in his Best of @newgrounds.com April 2026 video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoKh... #indiegame #gamedev #philosophy #Chekhov @gua-le-ni.com @amidos2006.bsky.social
Newgrounds Monthly Game Review (Best of April 2026)
YouTube video by FutureCopLGF
youtube.com
Did you know Marvel's #Deadpool was named after a game? Dead pool games are folk games where players predict which public figures might die within a given period. @gua-le-ni.com explores the space where play, ethics, and mortality meet in new #GameStudies article. www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/li...
Fantamorto - Fantasy Football with the Dead
Exploring the Italian folk game about predicting which public figures might die
um.edu.mt