Prof. Stefano Gualeni (University of Malta) and his team, which includes Dr. Nele Van de Mosselaer (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and other members of the Institute of Digital Games (University of Malta), are happy to announce the launch of a new, FREE and SHORT playful attempt at making a new set of philosophical arguments.

You might remember their previous game about the analytical definition of what a soup is: Something Something Soup Something. Well, their new game is titled ‘Doors’ and is about doors. It takes about 20 minutes and it is great for in-class use.

PLAY IT AT: https://doors.gua-le-ni.com

‘Doors’ was made possible with funds made available by Maltco Lotteries and the FWO (FWO Research Foundation – Flanders).

What is the game about?

‘Doors’ is a ‘playable essay’ designed to playfully examine existing theories about how objects are represented within games and virtual worlds more in general. Each door in the game raises a different question regarding its representation!

How is it valuable as a didactic tool?

‘Doors’ can be used in a variety of ways, beyond being played and reflected upon. It can be assigned as homework in order to stimulate in-class conversations concerning the representation of in-game objects and related theories in fields such as the philosophy of fiction, the philosophy of imagination, the philosophy of games, game studies, and so on.

Also, each student can be tasked – as an assignment – to find doors in games that are represented in a way that aligns with one of the categories offered by the game (and related literature). After that, they can present to the rest of the class about what they found, such as interesting overlaps and uses, cases that transcend basic categorizations, or particularly relevant examples.

All the doors and the papers connected to each are also possible to be browsed off-game HERE.

‘Doors’ is a SHORT and FREE experiment in playable philosophy about in-game doors. Do you think you can HANDLE it?