CMW6 Panel: Mechanics and Medievalisms

[Jubal]

This panel focused on the question of how we represent particular ideas about the Middle Ages through mechanics. Mechanical design can often provide implicit truths in a game-world, setting the boundaries in which players can explore and laying down fundamental ways that a world model behaves - though it can also have its own constraints depending on the hardware and medium available in different situations. Taking a game developer and a historian with different focus points around medieval Britain, we look at the ways that realistic-educational and fantasy games can pass on ideas about historical cultures, interactions, and problem-spaces and the way they function.

The panellists:

Vinicius Marino Carvalho is a post-doctoral researcher at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, and is a co-convenor of the Middle Ages in Modern Games conference and a key researcher in the ARISE (Arqueologia Interativa e Simulações Eletrônicas) network which works on the analysis and production of historically informed computer games. He is also a scholar of historical cultural and environmental crisis, especially in medieval Ireland. His ludic work has included writing The Triumphs of Turlough, a game examining strategies taken by the Irish and the English to navigate the conflicts of the 13th-14th centuries.

Stevan Anastasoff is a Canadian-based independent game developer and former AAA game and level design lead, with credits including Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, For Honor, and Warhammer Online. He's currently creating Tales from the Mabinogion (https://store.steampowered.com/app/30..., a narrative-driven exploration game rooted in Welsh mythology, told through full Welsh-language voiceover and a painterly, mythic visual style. His work sits at the crossroads of folklore, language, and modern interactive storytelling.

The panel was chaired by Tess Watterson.