About Rudolf Thomas Inderst

Rudolf Thomas Inderst (*1978) enjoys video games since 1985. He received a master’s degree in political science, American cultural studies as well as contemporary and recent history from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich and holds two PhDs in game studies (LMU & University of Passau). Currently, he's teaching as a professor for game design at the IU International University for Applied Science, has submitted his third dissertation at the University of Vechta, holds the position as lead editor at the online journal Titel kulturmagazin for the game section, hosts the German local radio show Replay Value and is editor of the weekly game research newsletter DiGRA D-A-CH Game Studies Watchlist.

Rudolf Inderst is a professor of Game Design at the IU International University of Applied Science.

Rudolf's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Rudolf:

Richard Moss, "Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games" (Bitmap Books, 2024)

November 1, 2024

Tale of Two Halves

Richard Moss

Painstakingly researched and written by football-obsessed writer and experienced game journalist, historian, and documentarian Richard Moss – author o…

Tom Smith, "Anatomy of Game Design" (CRC Press, 2024)

October 30, 2024

Anatomy of Game Design

Tom Smith

People have played games forever, but it’s only in the past few decades that people really started thinking about what games are, how they work, and h…

Maurice Suckling, "Paper Time Machines: Critical Game Design and Historical Board Games" (Routledge, 2024)

October 12, 2024

Paper Time Machines

Maurice Suckling

James Dunnigan’s memorable phrase serves as the first part of a title for this book, where it seeks to be applicable not just to analog wargames, but …

Jordan Minor, "Video Game of the Year: A Year-By-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977" (Abrams, 2023)

September 26, 2024

Video Game of the Year

Jordan Minor

Pong. The Legend of Zelda. Final Fantasy VII. Rock Band. Fortnite. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For each of the 40 years of video game history, ther…

Marta Fijak and Artur Ganszyniec, "How and Why We Make Games" (CRC Press, 2024)

September 18, 2024

How and Why We Make Games

Marta Fijak and Artur Ganszyniec

How and Why We Make Games (CRC Press, 2024) delves into the intricate realms of games and their creation, examining them through cultural, systemic, a…

Jordan Magnuson, "Game Poems: Videogame Design as Lyric Practice" (Amherst College Press, 2023)

September 4, 2024

Game Poems

Jordan Magnuson

Scholars, critics, and creators describe certain videogames as being “poetic,” yet what that means or why it matters is rarely discussed. In Game Poem…

Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas R. Baima, "Why It's Ok to Be a Gamer" (Routledge, 2024)

September 3, 2024

Why It's Ok to Be a Gamer

Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas R. Baima

If you enjoy video games as a pastime, you are certainly not alone—billions of people worldwide now play video games. However, you may still find your…

Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle, "Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us" (Duke UP, 2024)

August 24, 2024

Made in Asia/America

Christopher B. Patterson and Tara Fickle

Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us (Duke UP, 2024) explores the key role video games play within the race makings of A…

Sören Schoppmeier, "Playing American: Open-World Videogames and the Reproduction of American Culture" (De Gruyter, 2023)

July 19, 2024

Playing American

Sören Schoppmeier

Videogames have always depicted representations of American culture, but how exactly they feed back into this culture is less obvious. Advocating an a…

Edwin McRae, "Narrative Worldbuilding: A Player Centric Approach to Designing Story Rich Game Worlds" (Narrative, 2024)

May 28, 2024

Narrative Worldbuilding

Edwin McRae and Rachel Rees

Game worlds differ from traditional fictional worlds. While literary and cinematic worlds are written to host character arcs and plots, game worlds ne…

Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans, "(Not) In the Game: History, Paratexts, and Games" (de Gruyter, 2023)

May 8, 2024

(Not) In the Game

Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans

How do games represent history, and how do we make sense of the history of games? The industry regularly uses history to sell products, while processe…

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, "The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games" (MIT Press, 2024)

May 4, 2024

The Rule Book

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola

How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work. Board games to sports, digital games t…

Peter D. McDonald, "Run and Jump: The Meaning of the 2D Platformer" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 15, 2024

Run and Jump

Peter D. McDonald

How abstract design decisions in 2D platform games create rich worlds of meaning for players.Since the 1980s, 2D platform games have captivated their …

Poppy Wilde, "Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities" (Routledge, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Posthuman Gaming

Poppy Wilde

Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities (Routledge, 2023) explores the relationship between avatar and gamer in the massively …

Stefano Gualeni, "The Clouds: An Experiment in Theory-Fiction" (Routledge, 2023)

January 24, 2024

The Clouds

Stefano Gualeni

On a slow autumn afternoon, an atmospheric physicist working at the Malta Weather Station receives a surprising email from a colleague working in the …

Hartmut Koenitz, "Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative: Immersive Expressions for a Complex Time" (Routledge, 2023)

January 19, 2024

Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative

Hartmut Koenitz

This remarkably clearly written and timely critical evaluation of core issues in the study and application of interactive digital narrative (IDN) unta…

David B. Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman, "Mainstreaming and Game Journalism" (MIT Press, 2023)

January 15, 2024

Mainstreaming and Game Journalism

David B. Nieborg and Maxwell Foxman

Why games are still niche and not mainstream, and how journalism can help them gain cultural credibility. Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Pres…

Emma Reay, "The Child in Videogames: From the Meek, to the Mighty, to the Monstrous" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

December 20, 2023

The Child in Videogames

Emma Reay

Drawing across Games Studies, Childhood Studies, and Children’s Literature Studies, Emma Reay's book The Child in Videogames: From the Meek, to the Mi…

Robert Houghton, "Playing the Middle Ages: Pitfalls and Potential in Modern Games" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

December 7, 2023

Playing the Middle Ages

Robert Houghton

The Middle Ages have provided rich source material for physical and digital games from Dungeons and Dragons to Assassin's Creed. Playing the Middle Ag…

Chad Randl and D. Medina Lasansky, "Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space" (MIT Press, 2023)

November 9, 2023

Playing Place

Chad Randl and D. Medina Lasansky
Listen:

An essay collection exploring the board game's relationship to the built environment, revealing the unexpected ways that play reflects perceptions of …

Peter Nelson, "Computer Games As Landscape Art" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

November 6, 2023

Computer Games As Landscape Art

Peter Nelson
Listen:

Peter Nelson's book Computer Games As Landscape Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) proposes that computer games are the paradigmatic form of contemporary …

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal, "Time and Space in Video Games: A Cognitive-Formalist Approach" (Transcript, 2020)

September 23, 2023

Time and Space in Video Games

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal

Video games are temporal artifacts: They change with time as players interact with them in accordance with rules. In Time and Space in Video Games: A …

Marc Bonner, "Open World Structures: Architecture, Urban and Natural Landscape in the Computer Game" (Büchner-Verlag, 2023)

September 7, 2023

Open World Structures

Marc Bonner
Listen:

What role do algorithms play in the construction of images and the representation of the world and weather in computer games? How does the design of r…

Stefan Heinrich Simond, "Pixelated Madness: The Construction of Mental Illnesses and Psychiatric Institutions in Video Games" (Hülsbusch, 2023)

August 23, 2023

Pixelated Madness

Stefan Heinrich Simond

The relationship between madness and video games has been notoriously tense. In an abundance of titles, stereotypes and stigmatisations can be found—n…