The cover of "Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games" by Alexander Vandewalle, to be published in the IMAGINES series by Bloomsbury Academic in May 2026. The cover depicts the cover art of Immortals Fenyx Rising, showing the game's protagonist Fenyx in battle with a towering Cyclops.

May 2026 👀

My monograph "Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games" will be out next year in @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social's IMAGINES series!

Many thanks to @ubisoft.com for the #ImmortalsFenyxRising art ⚡

More information (soon!) on www.bloomsbury.com/uk/character...

Thanks!

I’ve been meticulously rotoscoped, that’s why my movements are so realistic

Any sufficiently open videogame world is indistinguishable from tourism:

“the player takes a left in Piazza Venezia and enters the Colosseum. After a spiral loop with Swoops ending with a ramp, the player enters the Roman Forum, littered with fallen columns that can be used to obtain Jump Boosts”

In the Bitmap Brothers game The Chaos Engine, “The Mercenary” looks to me a lot like Peter Lorre as Dr Gogol in Mad Love (1935). (Especially since Lorre was completely bald under the hat)

Baby monsters resembling Gremlins, hatching from a golden egg in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which Greek mythical creatures are these supposed to be? Clue in background

1960s: invention of gashapon capsule toys
1986: invention of Samus Aran's Morph Ball
2000: invention of Pokeballs

Tempted to be Domitian? A keyboard is less practical than a stylus for pest control, but needs must

Marisa’s stage in SF6 showing Spartan warriors in a Roman colosseum background.

There’s a special place in videogames I like to call Greco-Rome. Marisa’s stage in Street Fighter 6 has Spartan warriors in a ruined colosseum. It’s in south central Greco-Rome

Pre-AI: pics or it didn’t happen
Post-AI: pics and it didn’t happen

a drawing of a woman sitting on a rock with a dragon ALT: a drawing of a woman sitting on a rock with a dragon

In under 90 minutes from now, I'm chairing Panel 4 of #MythGames2025: "Deep Dive: Supergiant's Hades". Looking forward to it!

This ancient image of a Roman gladiator, accompanied by graffiti, has been dated to August 1983

I think old videogames might be why isometric images of Chinese ports do not register in my brain as real photos.

ORPHEUS: TO HELL AND BACK Game Boy cartridge retrogame 🕹️A puzzle adventure Game Boy game🔥Relive Orpheus' ordeal to the Hades | 🆓demo https://studioloading.itch.io/orpheus | April 27th 🔚

So very tempted to support this kickstarter game for the GameBoy: Orpheus, To Hell and Back.
Puzzle game with music mechanic. It looks really nice. Have you seen it @alexvandewalle.bsky.social @katexe.bsky.social @ancientplay.bsky.social

www.kickstarter.com/projects/stu...

for reception of antiquity via Middle Ages, there's the Roman coins (and ruins) in Assassin's Creed Valhalla...

a man wearing a hat that says wayne 's world is standing next to another man ALT: a man wearing a hat that says wayne 's world is standing next to another man

It's mainly about the foot placement, but not entirely

Question about Delphi in popular culture: can anyone help?

The Oracle famously inhaled fumes, but when is the first time that these were imagined as green?
Image is from Call of Duty Black Ops 4 (2018), Zombies mode, Chaos story

I forgot the most obvious reason: it’s Crytek and their big franchise at that point was Crysis

How long’s it been a wreck? Did the regional population decide they didn’t want water after all?

Third, putting a Y in a word creates a pronounceable brand (Myst).

Clive Sinclair once said X and Z are sexy, but I'd include Y too (IMHO usually feminine: womyn like Yuffie, Rayne, Symmetra&Zarya, Bayonetta, Aloy, Fenyx. Paging Dr Freud...)

Just guesses (only developers know)...

Second, without getting too graphic, Ryse sounds virile - it's now the name of a protein supplement

movie title cliches: "rise"

First, rise/rising has always sounded adventuresome (Rise of the Robots, Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising)
www.imdb.com/list/ls05715...

Christopher Nolan's Odysseus (for the summer 2026 movie) is Matt Damon with standard-issue manly cheekbone scratch.

I've already got a lot of notes, and this is just a helmet

Computer game cases spelling out the message.

I know you’ve Ben Hur.
An Endless Ocean of Horrible Histories can make you so Quraishy, it’s Touch & Go.
But Jewel Master The Dream, for a Wonderful Life that Will Rock.

"Too much is never enough". So, more

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Satō wa amakute
aishiteimasu

DOOM: The Gallery Experience (2025) | 4K/60 YouTube video by Dosgamert

“A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original.” Best DOOM mod ever

Ad for computer camp for children aged 10-16, aimed at girls. It comes SO CLOSE to getting it right...but it was still 1983.

Paradox Interactive acquires Haemimont Games - Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive is a world leading PC games publisher known for games such as Cities: Skylines, Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings.

Corrected post (thanks pavelpeychev.bsky.social!)

Paradox have bought Haemimont, Bulgaria's excellent games studio, makers of many historical strategy games (Europa Universalis, Glory of the Roman Empire, Imperium Romanum, Grand Ages: Rome).

www.paradoxinteractive.com/media/press-...