Alexander Vandewalle
@alexvandewalle.bsky.social
3.2K followers 600 following 330 posts
Postdoc at Ghent University // Video games and mythology // DiGRA Belgium Co-Chair
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alexvandewalle.bsky.social
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...
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.
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
printing this out and hanging it near my desk to look at next time I need to follow word counts
Scylla from Hades II (2025, Supergiant Games) saying "Ohh, youwent looking through our work! So what if a few ideas go unused here and there? If you don't cut... you never get to the good stuff."
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
😂😂 You're too kind, Kira!!
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
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...
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.
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
I know, I think I'm missing something somewhere...
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
(they liked it! - even though we did get stuck and basically ran out of max health by the end of our 40 min play session 😂)
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
I'll keep that in mind, thanks!
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Hah, apologies... Here's hoping Hades II can manage to take your mind off them in less than two hours!
Reposted by Alexander Vandewalle
classicstober.bsky.social
#ClassicsTober prompts for October ‘25
#ClassicsTober25
ClassicsTober25: Katabasis

1. Hypnos
2. Thanatos
3. Graeae
4. Shroud
5. Hermes Psychopompos
6. Moirai
7. φαρμακίς (pharmakis) - witch, sorceress
8. Erebos
9. Lampades
10. Hekate
11. Torch
12. Styx
13. Empousa
14. Cocytus
15. Τέρατα (Térata) - monsters 
16. Typhon
17. Echidna
18. Kharon
19. Shade
20. Acheron
21. Kerberos
22. Judge
23. Lamia
24. Phlegethon
25. Tartarus
26. Punishment
27. Erinyes
28. Phobos & Deimos
29. Mysteries
30. Lethe
31. Elysian Fields
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Yes!!! Looking forward to students' reactions here 😄
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
However, when we're playing Civilization in November, I think I we might play for an hour, as it's a slower and more complex game. In general I think it depends on the point I want to make with it (e.g. we don't *need* to play Braid for an hour to grasp its storytelling, great though it is).
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
It varies! We played Obra Dinn for +/- 35 minutes today, which was enough to get a sense of how it works, how it tells a nonlinear story, etc. Next week we're playing Braid, but 10-15 minutes should suffice here (as I'm also showing A Highland Song, and that's the one I really want to focus on).
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
(the picture is illustrative and not an accurate reflection of attendance this morning)
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
(Co-)Taught my first class today! It's a game studies course, focusing on the interplay between video games, literary texts, and history. We had some introductions to video game narratives and game studies, and we finished by playing Return of the Obra Dinn!
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
The Mandalorian, Grogu, and a touch of Hannibal?
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Haha, that would be a good opportunity for it!
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Becoming increasingly convinced that The Last of Us, Norse God of War, and A Plague Tale are all basically the same game
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
One day I wish to be as persistent as the typos you apparently can't get rid of no matter how many times you and others read your manuscripts
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Fair point! Though on some level I guess it is easier to just call it a series rather than keep having to write "in both Titan Quest and Titan Quest 2" (or something of the like) the entire time...
alexvandewalle.bsky.social
One side effect of sequel culture is that it suddenly feels strange to refer to what used to be individual games as part of a larger series. "The Titan Quest series", "the Hades franchise", "the Okami games"; it all feels very weird to say...