Gordon Calleja

Gordon Calleja is currently associate professor and director at the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta. He is also an associate professor at the Center for Games Research at the IT-University of Copenhagen. Prior to founding the Institute of Digital Games at UoM he was the director for the Center for Games Research at ITU for five years. He is also game designer and writer at Mighty Box, an independent game studio in Malta.
At the heart of his research and design work is a fascination with the way contemporary media both express and increasingly shape the human condition. His research focuses primarily on player experience, which has so far revolved around player involvement, immersion and presence. Another thread of research he has published extensively in is game narrative, once again advocating for an experiential approach to the subject. He has also written a number of articles on game ontology.
In recent years he has derived great satisfaction and inspiration in switching between analytical and design lenses, developing a number of successful digital and board game projects. While his roles varied on each project he was mainly in charge ofideation, game design and writing. The design of these games is intimately interwoven with his research work resulting in a rich feedback loop of ideas and observations that would have not been possible without that shift in perspective.
His recent publications include: In-Game:From Immersion to Incorporation, and academic analysis of player involvement and immersion published by MIT Press; Will Love Tear Us Apart, an art game adaptation of Joy Division’s track that was nominated for several international awards; Posthuman,a highly commercially successful narrative boardgame and its digital cousin, Posthuman:Sanctuary which adapts the boardgame through a blend of a rogue-like mechanics and interactive fiction and delves more deeply in the issue of human evolution introduced in the boardgame.