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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 and game studies at the HNU University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany, holds the position as lead editor at the online journal Titel kulturmagazin for the game section, and is editor of the weekly game research newsletter Game Studies Watchlist.Rudolf Inderst is a professor of Game Studies & Game Design at the HNU, University of Applied Sciences, Neu-Ulm, Germany.
NBN Episodes hosted by Rudolf:
March 11, 2026
Bounce
Bounce: Balls, Walls, and Bodies in Games and Play (MIT Press, 2026) follows an array of bouncing balls through the histories of nonelectronic and ele…
March 9, 2026
Life is Strange
Despite its time travel mechanics, high stakes, and pulpy murder plot, Don’t Nod Entertainment’s 2015 adventure game Life is Strange stood out from mo…
March 3, 2026
Zen and Slow Games
A deep dive into the reflective modes of playfulness in video games. Slowness and reflectiveness have always been part of the video game medium, thoug…
March 2, 2026
Playing Software
The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whet…
February 20, 2026
Dragon Age II
Rushed through development in just a year to capitalize on the runaway success of its predecessor, Dragon Age II's writing team had only a few months …
February 6, 2026
Artgames after GamerGate
Videogame culture is obsessed with development. But gaming is still widely associated with wasted time, squandered potential and backwards attitudes. …
January 31, 2026
Video Games and Mental Health
How do video games and mental health intersect from the perspectives of psychology and game design? In recent years, the topic of mental health has ga…
December 15, 2025
Building SimCity
Building SimCity explores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made: SimCity. As author…
November 23, 2025
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Last of Us (Playstory Press, 2025) explores the psychological themes at the heart of The Last of Us franchise. Auth…
November 3, 2025
Dance Dance Revolution
On September 26, 1998, a video game made its debut in Japanese arcades. It was over seven feet tall and weighed just over 900 pounds. It had no charac…
September 22, 2025
Of Floating Isles
An immersive journey into the author's lifelong attachment to video games, revealing how they shape us, shatter us, and give us the courage to start a…
September 17, 2025
Historiographies of Game Studies
Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be (Punctum Books, 2025) offers a first-of-its-kind reflection on how game studies a…
August 10, 2025
African American Males and Video Games
African American males are confronted with formidable barriers in their pursuit of quality education, resulting in stark disparities in academic perfo…
August 8, 2025
Grant Us Eyes
Grant Us Eyes is a book-length close reading of Bloodborne by literary critic Nathan Wainstein (LA Review of Books, Cartridge Lit, American Book Revie…
July 23, 2025
The World is Born from Zero
The World is Born From Zero is an investigation into the relationship between video games and science fiction through the philosophy of speculation. C…
July 18, 2025
Untitled Goose Game
It's a beautiful day in the village, and you are a horrible goose, ready to wreak charming havoc on the weary locals. You'll ruin their gardens, invad…
June 20, 2025
Ultima and Worldbuilding in the Computer Role-Playing Game
Ultima and World-Building in the Computer Role-Playing Game (Amherst College Press, 2024) is the first scholarly book to focus exclusively on the long…
May 31, 2025
Go Straight
Get ready for the fight of your life in Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-'Em-Ups (Bitmap Books, 2022). Written by award-winning …
May 9, 2025
The Well-Read Game
How players evoke personal and subjective meanings through a new theory of player response. In The Well-Read Game: On Playing Thoughtfully (MIT Pres…
April 23, 2025
The Rise of the Roguelite
The Rise of the Roguelite: Inside a Gaming Phenomenon (CRC Press, 2025) analyzes the wave of roguelite games that have appeared over the past decade, …
April 19, 2025
Zombies, Consumption, and Satire in Capcom's Dead Rising
Zombies, Consumption, and Satire in Capcom's Dead Rising (Routledge, 2024) explores the relationship between video games and satire through an in-dept…
April 12, 2025
Playthrough Poetics
Game streamers and live commentators are producing increasingly comprehensive analyses of gameplay, yet scholarship still tends to flatten the experie…
March 5, 2025
The Avengers in Video Games
For decades, Marvel Comics' superhero group the Avengers have captured the imagination of millions, whether in comics, multi-billion dollar grossing f…
March 4, 2025
Minesweeper
If you had some free time and a Windows PC in the 1990s, your mouse probably crawled its way to Minesweeper, an exciting watch-where-you-click puzzle …