Games, History and Heritage

Researchers at the Manchester Game Centre engage with games and gaming in different ways to explore life in the ancient world and how it is represented in modern contexts. We have three key areas of research: the reception of the ancient world in analogue and digital games; the use of digital technology to engage audiences with heritage; and the adoption of games as a creative method to explore historical questions. Our thematic lead is Dr Jennifer Cromwell.

Keywords

Games and History; Games and Heritage; Archaeology; the Ancient World in Video Games; Digital Heritage; Reception Studies.

 

Staff and PGR students working in Games, History and Heritage

Gabriele Aroni has a background in architecture and digital media, and works at the intersection of architecture, game studies, cultural heritage, and semiotics.

Jennifer Cromwell is an Egyptologist who explores how games (re)present and contribute to public understandings of ancient Egypt in games. She is also interested in games as a creative method to examine questions about Egyptian history.

Ben Edwards is an archaeologist with an interest in heritage-themed gaming and the representation of heritage assets in digital space. His ongoing work includes the reproduction of archaeological landscapes in Minecraft.

Dice on the Nile

This project, which brings together historians from Manchester, Leiden, and Warsaw, and Aix-en-Proveance uses the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons 5e to explore the history of the early Islamic world (ca. 8th century AD). Through roleplaying, this group is interested in several questions, including: What challenges are posed by the use of historical settings in roleplaying games? What kind of ethical issues are involved in roleplaying characters from diverse cultural and historical locations? How can roleplaying games be used to explore untold stories within the ancient world (e.g., women, poor, children)? 

You can hear more about the project here:

 


Digital Heritage & Digital Games

This project, developed in collaboration with the Manchester Museum and the National Etruscan Museum in Rome, aims to digitize artefacts of the museums to create high-detailed “digital twins” for scholarly study, but also game ready assets. The research will investigate which artefacts are most appropriate to be utilized in digital games and develop policy guidance papers useful to cultural institutions and the entertainment industries on how to implement cultural heritage in digital games, respect local and international regulations, as well as appropriately portray cultural heritage.

Playing Ancient Egypt

This project explores how ancient Egypt is presented in analogue and digital games, examining how these games construct a popular understanding of Egyptian culture and history.

For the study of analogue games, undergraduate students from history joined Jennifer Cromwell in playing Egypt-themed games, as an activity through MMU’s RISE programme, and, in October 2023, three students co-presented a paper with Jennifer Cromwell on their research on these games for the Manchester Egyptology Seminar Series. Cromwell’s work in this area appears in exhibition catalogues (Leiden, Echo’s van oud Egypte; ISAW, The Playful Past: Ancient Games, Modern Lives) and edited volumes on Cleopatra and Ancient History in Board Games.

In terms of digital games, Jennifer has published studies on diverse video game genres, including Persona 5 (JRPG), Skullgirls (2D fighting game), The Talos Principle (3D puzzle game), and others. She is also the editor of Ancient Egypt in Video Games (DeGruyter 2026).

Videogames and the Ancient World

How are ancient cultures displayed in videogames and why do they provide such a popular background for a range of game genres, from action and adventure to strategy to mobile games? Can such games be used for educational purposes, both those with intended educational resources (such as the Discovery Tour in recent Assassin’s Creed games) and those without? Dr Jenny Cromwell, is particularly interested in how aspects of ancient Egypt are incorporated within videogames as well as how such games can be used within a classroom setting.

The 2020–21 pandemic created particular problems in undertaking fieldwork. During the initial lockdown, Manchester Metropolitan University archaeologist Ben Edwards recreated the site that he works on (Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey, Wales) in Minecraft, together with his daughter. Not only did Minecraft Educational Edition allow him to build the site, but it is also available for others to explore.

 The Manchester Metropolitan Game Centre have hosted a range of talks on history and videogames, which you can view here:

Publications on the topic include: