Andrew Reid

StreamingthePast - Twitch Geekhood and nerdery united into a wonderful, history-infused hodgepodge of enthusiasm and puns, generally. Streaming the Past hosts a variety of history-infused games and experts as passionate about ...

The full conference will be presented live on Twitch (twitch.tv/streamingthe...) - our talks are on Thursday 9th October (mine from around 09:15 GMT, and Kayleigh's from around 11:00 GMT).

I'll be talking about preserving Scottish heritage and culture through games, with projects on archaeology with Historic Dunkeld and art history with V&A Dundee.

Kayleigh will be presenting her research on Scottish and Gaelic cultures in games, and showcasing her practice with Waulking Simulator.

A picture of Molenmuseum De Valk

Arrived with @systemerrorkaye.bsky.social in wonderful Leiden for The Interactive Pasts Conference 4 (@valuefnd.bsky.social)!

Looking forward to the talks, workshops, and project showcase! 🙌

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...

From Classrooms to Controllers - National Videogame Museum Claymatic Games Donation Powers National Videogame Museum's Educational Strategy - National Videogame Museum

We've partnered with @claymatic.games, to enhance our 2025 educational strategy. Thanks to their generous donation, we’re deepening our support for learners across the region, bringing high-quality, curriculum-linked STEAM learning to life through the power of videogames.
thenvm.org/blog/from-cl...

Selfie picture within the exhibition hall at the Alzheimer Scotland Annual Conference 2025

A picture of the main auditorium with a speaker on the stage.

With @lyesoussaiden.com at the Alzheimer Scotland Annual Conference 2025 (@alzscot.bsky.social)

Supported by @alzscotdrc.bsky.social, Lyes is soon to start a Masters, exploring tactile play-based interventions for people living with dementia.

(read more here: sdrc.scot/alzheimer-sc...)

Exploring New Horizons in Video Game Cultures @ Sidestone Press This book brings together a selection of papers delivered at the Video Game Cultures 2023 conference, held from 7 to 9 September 2023 at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. An interdisciplinary col...

As part of our reboot of the @videogamecultures.bsky.social conference series, we have our first book coming out, of papers from the 2023 conference in Klagenfurt, Austria. It should appear in the wild on 6 November. Details here: www.sidestone.com/books/explor...

British students lack ‘drive’ of their American peers, says Business Secretary | LBC The Business Secretary has defended comments he made at a meeting with investors where he said British students lack the ‘drive’ and ‘vigour’ of their American peers.

“Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’."

Perish the thought...

www.lbc.co.uk/article/brit...

If your placeholder assets aren't clearly placeholders, you'll forget to replace them

Back in ~1999, the art director for some dollhouse game made a temporary diamond-shaped model for their character UI. By the time he realized they hadn't replaced it, it was too late and it shipped as-is. Oops!

🧵👏

Newzoo: Global games market forecast to reach $188.8bn in 2025 The global games market is estimated to reach $188.8 billion in 2025, a 3.4% increase year-on-year according to Newzoo'…

The global games market is estimated to reach $188.8 billion in 2025, a 3.4% increase year-on-year according to Newzoo's latest report

www.gamesindustry.biz/newzoo-globa...

We understand that charity is difficult when times are hard – but we need your help April Stallings from Make-A-Wish International says the charity has seen a surge in interest around games, but support from the industry isn’t meeting demand

April Stallings from Make-A-Wish International says the charity has seen a surge in interest around video games – but support from the games industry isn’t meeting demand.

www.gamesindustry.biz/we-understan...

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

New academic year, new social platform ✨

Abertay has officially landed on Bluesky, just in time to welcome new and returning students to campus!

Stay tuned to keep up with the latest from campus with news, updates, stories and more.

Take A Seat by Andrew J. Reid Available for Windows

Rough-and-ready prototype about memories and memory benches for the Weans Game Jam 2025. 💐

ajreid93.itch.io/memory-benches

Exterior shot of ARC Glasgow building.

Looking forward to today's @youngacademysco.bsky.social AGM at ARC Glasgow - giving an update to our project on alternative career pathways!

SHAPE Involve and Engage A funding programme for innovative public engagement from the British Academy.

Applications for SHAPE Involve and Engage 2026-27 will open on 1 September. This innovative public engagement programme requires UK researchers to work in partnership with a gallery, archive, library or museum (GLAM organisation). Find out more: buff.ly/efUOSoL

Everything costs too much and nobody has money seems like a bad combo.

‘Worrying’ levels of screen time means young people losing confidence to socialise in person, minister warns – UK politics live Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says ‘majority of young people spend all, or almost all, of their free time alone in their bedrooms, online’

This is not caused primarily by "screen time".

It's been caused by the mass eradication of third places for young people in basically every city over the past three decades - and a society that's hostile to the concept of teens socialising in public spaces.

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Looking forward to sharing our work and catching up with some familiar faces! (@gatdesoia.es @rbrandis.eu @bettibo.bsky.social @times-new-roman.bsky.social) 🙋

The full programme and registration for TIPC4 (@valuefnd.bsky.social) is now live!

interactivepasts.com/the-interact...

(All presentations are streamed on Twitch: www.twitch.tv/streamingthe...)

My talk will prod and poke at the ways in which games are used to solve the world's most complex issues. My talk will shed light on global and national examples, discuss some cutting-edge research, and profess that - in using game-based solutions - we're only just getting started.

Delighted to be invited to talk as part of the 10th season of CuriousMinds, hosted by the Perthshire Society of Natural Science.

The talk will be held at the AK Bell Library on Friday 30th January 2026 (19:30 GMT).

Full programme of talks here: www.psns.org.uk/curious-minds/

Story Café Special: A Most Unsuitable Game | Glasgow Women's Library Women have been playing football in Scotland for over a century and its roots can be traced back hundreds of years.

🏆 Massive congratulations to the England Women’s team on their epic Euros win! ⚽️👏

If the tournament has sparked your love of the beautiful game, don’t miss our upcoming Story Café Special: A Most Unsuitable Game.

📅 Thursday 28th August
🕐 1:00–2:30pm
📚 ⚽️ Poetry, storytelling & herstory — all in one

I've created a basic prototype based on memory benches and their embodied human stories.

Benches are symbols of remembrance, but often they can be desecrated or fall into disrepair.

I'm hoping to create a contemplative experience to highlight discussions of humanity, preservation, and dignity.

UK university job cuts put at 20,000 after full impact ‘hidden’ Number of roles affected could be almost double previous estimates when voluntary schemes and hiring freezes factored in, say researchers

20,000 job losses and Labour (and most of media) is silent

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-univ...

If I do say so myself, a brilliant lineup of speakers to chat about video games, fantasy, history and conflict in Edinburgh this September! Online and in person (and free!!) 👇🎮 @historygamesnet.bsky.social
@chriskempshall.bsky.social @drtimpeacock.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org

Respectfully, this non-profit might be the most public-facing industry initiative but it is not the only org doing work in this space - there are more grassroots initiatives that are explicitly (with games) and tangentially (through e.g. digital youth work) engaging with this demographic!

Does the UK video games industry have a class problem? A non-profit organisation is trying to create more pathways into the sector for working-class people.

Thanks to Declan of Into Games & @ukieofficial.bsky.social for speaking to me @developconference.com about issues faced by working class people in the UK video games industry & how they're trying to fix it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... @willluton.bsky.social @manycatsstudios.bsky.social

Does the UK video games industry have a class problem? A non-profit organisation is trying to create more pathways into the sector for working-class people.

The UK games industry has had a huge class problem since its inception. Private school kids with generational wealth were first through the door and overwhelmingly hired people from similar backgrounds. www.bbc.com/news/article...