Victor Navarro-Remesal, Game Scholar
(Si quieres leer esto en español, haz click aquí.)
I am a Media scholar, specialized in game studies, teaching History of Videogames, Cultural Industries, and Interactive Narrative at Tecnocampus (UPF) in Mataró (Barcelona, Spain). I’ve also taught Animation cinema and Screenwriting.
I’m a founding member of DiGRA Spain.
My last book is Perspectives on the European Videogame, coedited with my colleague Óliver Pérez Latorre and published by Amsterdam University Press in their Games and Play series.
Before that, I edited Pensar el juego. 25 caminos para los game studies, a collection that served as the first volume in the game studies collection Ludografías, of which I’m also the editor. The series is now on its third book, with a fourth one coming soon.
My books as single author are these (all of them in Spanish):
Libertad Dirigida is an overview of Game Studies theory with a focus on (directed) freedom as designed.
In Cine Ludens. 50 diálogos entre el cine y el juego, part of the Essential Filmographies by UOC Press, I study the many relationships between cinema and toys, play, games, and videogames, as well as cinema as play.
I’ve also published a collection of some of my pieces as a critic in the book Gaming & Watching. Apuntes sobre videojuegos, cine, animación y cultura digital (2010–2019).
My research, including papers, book chapters, and conference presentations (in English and Spanish), is available at ResearchGate and Academia.edu.
I am currently one of two PIs of the project “Mito e ideología en los videojuegos contemporáneos (LUDOMYTHOLOGIES)”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, with reference number PID2020–118776GA-I00.
My main scholarly interests are:
1) freedom and/in games,
2) the preservation of failed games and systems,
3) Zen in games and slow gaming
4) Japanese games
5) Postcolonial and refugee games
If there’s anything you would like to read and I haven’t uploaded it, please contact me.
As part of my “Zen in games” project, I’ve been collecting videogames with Zen modes, elements or references in the Twitter account @ZenModeVG. Feel free to check it out and suggest submissions.
I write at LaInercia.com (of which I’m an editor and one of the founders) and contribute to several media as a cultural critic on games, film, and TV shows. Some of them have been translated into English, but are sadly not available.
You can also read my notes and thoughts here on Medium, at the Free Play publication.
I also host a radio show at Ràdio Cambrils with Dr. Beatriz Pérez Zapata called Miriorama, where we recommend cultural works to a general audience, and run a series of relaxed, in-depth interviews with Spanish scholars (in Spanish) called Miriorama Open Access. It can be found on YouTube and as a podcast on iVoox and iTunes.
I’ve made a few short games/interactive things using Bitsy. They’re playful reflections on games and play. You can play them here.
