Gordon Calleja

Gordon Calleja is director at the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta and a game designer/writer at Mighty Box, an independent game studio in Malta known for Posthuman - a post-apocalytic board game - and Will Love Tear Us Apart - an experimental game inspired by the Joy Division song. Prior to founding the Institute of Digital Games at University of Malta in 2013, Gordon was the director for the Center for Games Research at ITU for five years.

His research focuses on digital games and addresses three broad areas: game ontology, narrative in game environments and player experience.

Background

Born in Malta, Gordon Calleja graduated from the University of Malta in 1999 with a B.A in English and Communications. He went on to complete his PhD at the University of Wellington in New Zealand. His thesis Digital Games as Designed Experience: Reframing the Concept of Immersion examined how players were effected by game play with a focus on immersion.

Following his education Gordon began working at the ITU Copenhagen where he was the director for the Center for Games Research for five years prior to founding the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta.

Academic Work

Calleja's research has addressed a range of areas within Game Studies including Player Involvement, Immersion and Presence, Game Narrative,Game Ontology and Board Game Design. The focus of his research has mainly been on issues relating to player experience. The latter is the subject of his book from MIT Press title "In-Game : From Immersion to Incorporation". In-Game investigates what makes digital games engaging to players and gives a thorough analysis and reconceptualisation of the concept of “immersion”.^[2]

The main contribution of In-Game that has made an impact on both academia and industry is the Player Involvement Model, which outlines the various aspects of player involvement,expressed in six fluid and overlapping dimensions: kinesthetic, spatial, shared, narrative, affective, and ludic. The blending of these experiences can culminate in "incorporation", the concept that Calleja proposes as an alternative to the more problematic concept of "immersion".

Gordon Calleja's Player Involvement Model

Games

The first digital game Gordon published was "Will Love Tear Us Apart", a game adaptation of Joy Division's cult track. WLTUA has received international acclaim for its unique game design approach and aesthetics and has been covered extensively by publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine, Spin, Fact, Consequence of Sound, PC Gamer, Polygon, Kotaku and Kill Screen.

"Will Love Tear Us Apart" encourages players to reflect on the darker side of love in a free-to-play, browser-based game. Each verse of the song is symbolized by a level in the game. In an interview with Consequence of Sound, Gordon describes how he wanted to “crea[te] interesting tensions in the design process, resulting in scenarios which deliver the desired thematic experience whilst going against what is conventionally considered good game design.”

"Will Love Tear Us Apart" received critical acclaim as was nominated for the 2014 Webby Award in the 'Games' category, was a Finalist in 2014 SXSW Interactive Awards Experimental category, was chosen for the 2013 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, and was also nominated for an Innovation Award at Montreal’s Festival du Cinema Nouveau in 2013.

"Posthuman" is a board game set in a post-apocalyptic world where genetic mutation is out of control and where the mutants blame the original humans for the discord and thus strive to eradicate them from the Earth. The players start off as human survivors trying to reach a fortified community, but as the travel they will come across mutants who spread their mutations and eventually the players will need to choose a side. Reaching the fortress first ensures the victory of an individual human player while mutant players win as a collective by stopping humans from ever arriving at their destination. The game was launched on Kickstarter and reached its funding goal in less than 12 hours.

He has also designed "Vengeance", a board game based on revenge flicks. The game follows a similar three-act structure starting with "the wronging" where the player will be drafting cards depicting the gang bosses that wronged them and choosing the ways there have been broken. Players can strategically chose the gang bosses and the wounds which will impact how they play the game. After "the montage" planning phase, the players are out for revenge, exploring and invading the various available maps of criminal dens to exact violent and merciless revenge.

External links

• Mighty Box Games - http://mightyboxgames.com/mightybox/
• Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta - http://www.game.edu.mt/

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