The Interactive Pasts Conference 4
The Interactive Pasts Conference (TIPC) is an event where we get together to celebrate our joint love for video games and the past and share our playful, creative, smart, cool, beautiful ideas with each other.
The theme of this fourth in-person edition of TIPC is ‘The Fellowship of Past and Play’. It is inspired by the diverse, interdisciplinary, and multi-vocal perspective that has allowed this field to grow and thrive. At the same time, as this year marks 10 years of VALUE, we are also looking to celebrate the friends we have made along this epic journey of past-play discovery. As such TIPC4 will focus on openness, collaborations, inclusive scholarship, links between researchers and game developers, and all the things that bring us together!
You can expect to learn about the development of video and board games set in the past, representing cultural heritages in games, counterplay and alternative pasts, experiments with game-making, matching the past through art or mechanics, and many more awesome topics.
The registration for TIPC4 is now closed. However, you can still join us online!
Program Overview
TIPC4 will take place over three days, on 8-10 October 2025 in Leiden, the Netherlands. The first day, Wednesday 8 October, will consist of an afternoon of workshops. Conference participants will be able to sign up for one of four workshops when they register, all of which will take place at Leiden University venues within central Leiden. The other days, Thursday 9 and Friday 10 May, are for paper presentations and panels which will take place in the main hall of the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. TIPC4 will again include a Game Exhibit in which you can try out historical and other past-related video games on site!
Full Program
Check out the program at a glance or, for all the information, the detailed conference program. Want to get into the details of each paper presentation? Read the book of abstracts.
Workshops
Participants of TIPC4 can choose to join one of four workshops. Each is open to max. 25 participants, except for ‘Guided Play’ which is open to max. 3 players.
Ancient Game Reconstruction
Led by Walter Crist
The rules for many games have been lost to us through time, but various methods exist to identify snippets of the rules. This workshop will review what we know about ancient and historical board games as well as the methods available to us for turning what we know into something playable. You’ll then try your hand at reconstructing the rules for an ancient game!
Here There Be Dragons? Crafting Historical Fantasy in Ink
Led by the Playful Time Machines Project
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Join us as we host a historical fantasy-themed game jam, because we believe in wish fulfillment, creativity, and putting dragons in Ancient Rome. In this workshop, we’ll walk you through everything you need to make your own historical fantasy hypertext game. You’ll get to collaborate with fellow nerds, get input from other game jammers, and create and playtest the games in a peer-playing session. We’ll take you through a tutorial of ink, a scripting language designed by inkle studios (80 Days, Overboard!, A Highland Song). Once you’re equipped with your hypertext writing toolkit, you’ll be able to start crafting your historical fantasy adventure, either on your own or with a team. There’ll be a team of experts available to help you out and offer guidance, but this game will be your vision, and you’ll be making it a reality. We’ll end the day with an informal presentation and playtesting session to show off everyone’s arcane creations!
Note: we suggest you bring your own laptop, if possible. Otherwise, one can be provided.
Playful Teaching
Led by Aris Politopoulos
In this interactive, playful workshop we will explore, reflect on, and play with different ways of using playful methods for formal and informal education.
Guided Play ‘Wherever Books Are Burned’
Led by Fiona S. Schönberg, for max. 3 participants.
Exhibiting a proprietary game developed concurrently with my phd thesis, this workshop intends to explore the narrative potentials of game mechanics for the mediation of subaltern experience and proactive historiography in Tabletop Roleplaying Games as well as the unique ways in which those games in particular are suited for the implementation of the proposed formal ‘alignment of concerns’ game design concepts. This workshop will include a guided play section, and a discussion to reflect upon the exhibition.
Note: players (max. 3) will be contacted in advance, proper RPG safety tools will be observed. Previous ttrpg experience will be helpful, but is not required.
Game Developers Panel
Featuring Leyla Johnson (Mohawk Games), Roy van der Schilden (Wispfire) and Cole Wehrle (Wehrlegig Games & Leder Games), and chaired by Angus Mol (VALUE Foundation). In this panel, game designers of tabletop and digital games will discuss the specific dynamics, opportunities, and pitfalls that arise from developing historical games and working with the past.
Playful Archaeology Panel
Featuring Walter Crist (Leiden University), Colleen Morgan (University of York) and Despoina Sampatakou (University of Glasgow) and chaired by Aris Politopoulos (VALUE Foundation). In this panel, archaeologists working with different forms of games and play will discuss the role of play, games and fun in archaeological theory and practice.
Game Exhibit
At the game exhibit you will be able to try out and play a number of video games and demos which are featured in presentations during the conference. The exhibit will include The Archivist: The Dalziel Illustrations, De-Pict Dunkeld, Rennie Room Decorator, the virtual world of the Southern Jê, and Waulking Simulator. Additionally, you can browse the “Pop-Up 3D Projekt” and its interactive library of kinetic 19th-20th century books. You can also try out the analog card-based game Never Again. Five Stars.
Registration
TIPC is for all sorts of playful people who want to be part of a fun, knowledge-driven event, including but not limited to game developers, students, heritage and history buffs, scholars, artists, and all sorts of other stewards of and players with the past.
The registration for TIPC4 is now closed. However, you can still join us online!
Costs?
We believe knowledge should be as accessible as possible. This is why TIPC registration has always been, and will continue to be, 0, nada, zilch, zip! To sweeten this free deal, registration will include lunch, coffee/tea, and a pizza party for all 🙂
Participation Fund
We know that attending a conference can lead to costs, such as travel expenses, accommodation, taking time off work, child care, etc. Not everyone can get these costs reimbursed or can afford to make the investment out of their own pocket. In practice, this leads to the exclusion of (among others) students, early career researchers, indie developers, women, cultural minorities, …. Our participation fund is here for you, whoever you are, if financial reasons would otherwise restrict you from participating in The Interactive Pasts Conference 4.
We want to welcome anyone, including conference speakers, who would be helped by a financial contribution. The only requirement is that you will attend the conference in person. You can request as much as you need, up to a maximum of 150 EUR per person. There will be no need for you to provide receipts or other documentation. The money will be given to you in cash at the conference or transferred to your bank account after the conference ends, whichever you prefer.
Unfortunately, the participation fund application form is now closed, the total sum of 1350 EUR has been claimed.
We kindly thank past TIPC speakers and VALUE Foundation members who have donated to this fund over the years.
Join Online
TIPCs cherish face-to-face encounters. Although the program includes one session of pre-recorded video presentations, all other presenters will speak from a lovingly crafted podium in front of a lovely live audience. At the same time, TIPCs have always been shared online, so the conference – excluding the workshops – will also be streamed straight to our Twitch channel. No need to register, just show up and chat along!
Location
The main conference location is the Faculty of Archaeology, Van Steenis building. The workshops will be hosted at the Lipsius, Arsenaal and Johan Huizinga building.
Accessibility
For information about the accessibility of the conference venues, please check out the information provided by Leiden University concerning the main conference venue (on 9-10 Oct: Faculty of Archaeology, Van Steenis building) and the venues for the workshops (on 8 Oct: Lipsius, Arsenaal and Johan Huizinga building)
Check Out Past Editions
TIPC4 follows up on the first TIPC in April 2016, TIPC-Online in May 2017, TIPC2 in October 2018, TIPC-Online 2 in November 2020 and TIPC3 in May 2023. If you would like some inspiration of the vibe and topics discussed at these events, you can check out all the presentations of TIPC1, TIPC2, TIPC-Online 2, and TIPC3 on YouTube. If you want to kick back with some interesting reading, may we suggest the books The Interactive Past & Return to the Interactive Past. And, yes, there will be another, open access Interactive Past book resulting from TIPC4 (the TIPC3 book is still in the process of publication).
Organization
The VALUE Foundation is in charge of organization. Additional financial support is provided by the Past-at-Play Project, the Playful Time Machines Project and the Archaeological Futures Project.
Programme Committee
- Corine Gerritsen — historian, master of coins, and board member of the VALUE Foundation
- Sebastian Hageneuer — digital archaeologist, cultural debugger, and board member of the VALUE Foundation
- Angus Mol — human digitalist, random doctor, and board member of the VALUE Foundation
- Colleen Morgan — archaeologist, ageing punk, director of the Digital Archaeology and Heritage Lab, University of York
- Aris Politopoulos — playful archaeologist, bearded person, and board member of the VALUE Foundation
- Keerthi Sridharan Vaidehi — sociolinguist, forever GM, and PhD in the Playful Time Machines project
