Daniel Vella
@danielvella.bsky.social
Director & Senior Lecturer at Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta // Narrative designer with Mighty Boards (Posthuman Saga, Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan) // Debut novel out 2026
I don't willingly use AI for anything, but the fact that every app insists on shoving it into my face means I keep seeing things like this which remind me why I don't willingly use AI for anything.
February 3, 2026 at 4:58 PM
I don't willingly use AI for anything, but the fact that every app insists on shoving it into my face means I keep seeing things like this which remind me why I don't willingly use AI for anything.
One of those 'no rhyme or reason' kind of weeks. #LastFourWatched #LetterboxdFriday
January 23, 2026 at 2:48 PM
One of those 'no rhyme or reason' kind of weeks. #LastFourWatched #LetterboxdFriday
Last month The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games, ed. by @add-hawk.bsky.social & John Richard Sageng, was also out! I've got a chapter on the idea of 'beauty' in the aesthetic philosophy of Kant & Schiller and how it applies to play & games, and it's in great company in this huge collection.
January 20, 2026 at 9:43 AM
Last month The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Games, ed. by @add-hawk.bsky.social & John Richard Sageng, was also out! I've got a chapter on the idea of 'beauty' in the aesthetic philosophy of Kant & Schiller and how it applies to play & games, and it's in great company in this huge collection.
It's been a great run! #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
January 16, 2026 at 4:01 PM
It's been a great run! #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
I also wrote a piece in the issue about ruins in occupied Palestine - from post-1948 attempts to erase the ruins memorialising centuries of Palestinian presence, to post-2023 (ab)use of images of the ruins of Gaza to foreground, rather than obscure, the violence and cruelty of the Zionist project.
January 15, 2026 at 6:30 PM
I also wrote a piece in the issue about ruins in occupied Palestine - from post-1948 attempts to erase the ruins memorialising centuries of Palestinian presence, to post-2023 (ab)use of images of the ruins of Gaza to foreground, rather than obscure, the violence and cruelty of the Zionist project.
I haven't been great at sharing my recent work on here. Time to fix that! First up: with Mathias Fuchs, I co-edited a special issue of Digital Culture & Society on Ruins and the Contemporary, exploring images and imaginaries of ruin in contemporary culture. www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/...
January 15, 2026 at 6:21 PM
I haven't been great at sharing my recent work on here. Time to fix that! First up: with Mathias Fuchs, I co-edited a special issue of Digital Culture & Society on Ruins and the Contemporary, exploring images and imaginaries of ruin in contemporary culture. www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/...
I look forward to this every year, and I finally found time to watch this! Look what you made me do (complimentary)
January 9, 2026 at 4:25 PM
I look forward to this every year, and I finally found time to watch this! Look what you made me do (complimentary)
Only Important Serious Cinema this week.
November 14, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Only Important Serious Cinema this week.
As always it was a pleasure to be at Essen Spiel with @mightyboards.bsky.social! Got to show off our new Fateforge expansion, caught up with friends, made new ones, played some excellent new games (special shout out to the Yōtei team, who made one of the most delightful games I've played in a while)
October 28, 2025 at 11:20 PM
As always it was a pleasure to be at Essen Spiel with @mightyboards.bsky.social! Got to show off our new Fateforge expansion, caught up with friends, made new ones, played some excellent new games (special shout out to the Yōtei team, who made one of the most delightful games I've played in a while)
Just some of the game libraries mentioned in the article: Fire Emblem: Three Houses // Elden Ring // Mutazione // Alone in the Dark
September 18, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Just some of the game libraries mentioned in the article: Fire Emblem: Three Houses // Elden Ring // Mutazione // Alone in the Dark
The new issue of Countertext includes a paper by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone and myself on libraries in digital games - their significances, (non-)functions, meanings. It's not open-access (boo), but ask and you shall receive
www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2
www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2
September 18, 2025 at 9:34 AM
The new issue of Countertext includes a paper by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone and myself on libraries in digital games - their significances, (non-)functions, meanings. It's not open-access (boo), but ask and you shall receive
www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2
www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2
Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan is awarded Adventure Game of the Year at the Polish Board Game of the Year awards! It's beyond amazing to see Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan continue to get recognition, especially right as we've wrapped up work on the second expansion.
September 17, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan is awarded Adventure Game of the Year at the Polish Board Game of the Year awards! It's beyond amazing to see Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan continue to get recognition, especially right as we've wrapped up work on the second expansion.
At #historyofgames2025, where the focus is the 1990s! My own 90s in gaming involved playing NES game knockoffs on my cousin's Micro Genius, getting my first PC, and, as a 13-year-old, buying pirated PC games from a police officer running a side business from the trunk of a squad car. Ah, nostalgia.
September 3, 2025 at 10:11 AM
At #historyofgames2025, where the focus is the 1990s! My own 90s in gaming involved playing NES game knockoffs on my cousin's Micro Genius, getting my first PC, and, as a 13-year-old, buying pirated PC games from a police officer running a side business from the trunk of a squad car. Ah, nostalgia.
The future dystopian Rome of Lucio Fulci's Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984). My paper on the film's use of the gladiatorial combat trope has just been published in @gua-le-ni.com @domford.bsky.social and Riccardo Fassone's special issue of Eludamos on fictional games. eludamos.org/index.php/el...
July 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
The future dystopian Rome of Lucio Fulci's Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984). My paper on the film's use of the gladiatorial combat trope has just been published in @gua-le-ni.com @domford.bsky.social and Riccardo Fassone's special issue of Eludamos on fictional games. eludamos.org/index.php/el...
520+ participants from 42 countries, 326 paper & abstract presentations, 16 workshops, a PhD consortium, a public discussion, conference dinner, board game night, improv show, and a beach visit. I think we can safely say that #DiGRA25 organized by @indigitalgames.bsky.social was a big success!
July 12, 2025 at 10:06 AM
520+ participants from 42 countries, 326 paper & abstract presentations, 16 workshops, a PhD consortium, a public discussion, conference dinner, board game night, improv show, and a beach visit. I think we can safely say that #DiGRA25 organized by @indigitalgames.bsky.social was a big success!
Presenting at Film-Philosophy 2025 next week and working on a thing.
June 21, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Presenting at Film-Philosophy 2025 next week and working on a thing.
A meta moment? From a soon-to-be-published paper on libraries in videogames.
June 17, 2025 at 11:53 AM
A meta moment? From a soon-to-be-published paper on libraries in videogames.
Mark your calendars! 30/06 18.30 CET, as part of DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta, I'm thrilled to be co-chairing Games at the Crossroads - a public discussion with a great lineup of speakers! Livestreamed on Zoom, free attendance - just sign up to receive the link: forms.gle/jmwCWyLQtof5...
June 16, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Mark your calendars! 30/06 18.30 CET, as part of DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta, I'm thrilled to be co-chairing Games at the Crossroads - a public discussion with a great lineup of speakers! Livestreamed on Zoom, free attendance - just sign up to receive the link: forms.gle/jmwCWyLQtof5...
I'm at Nord University in Bodø, Norway for the already excellent Northern Star Symposium, organized by @torillelvira.bsky.social and others. Getting into the building was a challenge but we finally made it with some summoned help.
May 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM
I'm at Nord University in Bodø, Norway for the already excellent Northern Star Symposium, organized by @torillelvira.bsky.social and others. Getting into the building was a challenge but we finally made it with some summoned help.
Was lucky enough to catch one day of Off Camera Festival in Krakow: Sister Midnight is a standout and I can't see it not being one of my films of 2025.
May 2, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Was lucky enough to catch one day of Off Camera Festival in Krakow: Sister Midnight is a standout and I can't see it not being one of my films of 2025.
Björk - Vulnicura, 22 years after solo debut
May 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Björk - Vulnicura, 22 years after solo debut
It's a sunny day in Kraków, perfect to sit with some lovely pu'er tea and @gua-le-ni.com's new dystopian detective novel.
April 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
It's a sunny day in Kraków, perfect to sit with some lovely pu'er tea and @gua-le-ni.com's new dystopian detective novel.
Military dictatorships, outlaw couples, genetically engineered flower kaijus, and postcolonial perspectives: one of those all-over-the-place weeks, I guess.
April 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Military dictatorships, outlaw couples, genetically engineered flower kaijus, and postcolonial perspectives: one of those all-over-the-place weeks, I guess.
All hail the Anderson-Jovovich ascendancy.
March 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
All hail the Anderson-Jovovich ascendancy.
To check if any of my published work has been used to train Meta AI, I had to make an exception to my boycott of the publication that had published articles saying it was legally okay for Israel to kill children. Everything is compromised.
March 20, 2025 at 5:13 PM
To check if any of my published work has been used to train Meta AI, I had to make an exception to my boycott of the publication that had published articles saying it was legally okay for Israel to kill children. Everything is compromised.