Welcome to CH LUDENS!
a Sinergia project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF.
CH LUDENS looks at a vibrant game design and development scene in the pre-Internet age. For decades, digital games were programmed in Switzerland in niches, but also with commercial success. They bear witness to many sub-scenes and a society changing through digitization.
The CONFOEDERATIO LUDENS team explores this largely ignored games industry from 1968 to 2000 and takes a step towards the broader preservation of a highly ephemeral and disappearing cultural heritage.
Research Projects
Do you know something about game development in the early days in Switzerland and would love to share that with us? Maybe you worked yourself one a game and didn’t release it, maybe you know people who did. Either way, get in contact and send a message to info@chludens.ch!
vintagecomputing.ch collects all artifacts, memories and social events around the transformation of computer and the retro movment.
swissdigitzation.ch collects memories, experiences of the Swiss digitalisation 1960+.
Events
Ringvorlesung
2.10, 16.10, 6.11, 20.11. 2023, Unitobler, Bern
Playbern Festival
16. September 2023, Bern
Tagung Games & Literature
28.–30. June 2023, Marbach
DiGRA
2023, Sevilla, Spain
GRADE Conference
20. – 21. April 2023, Warsaw, Poland
Vintage Computing Festival
November 2022, Zurich
PARTICIPATING MEMBERS
LEAD
Eugen Pfister
CO LEAD
Tobias Hodel
Yannick Rochat
Beat Suter
Mela Kocher
Arno Görgen
PHD STUDENT
Adrian Demleitner
Aurelia Brandenburg
David Krummenacher
Larissa Wild
Sophie Bémelmans
POSTDOC
Addrich Mauch
Hiloko Kato
Pierre-Yves Hurel
RESEARCHER
René Bauer
Noemi Chow
Laura Strub
ASSISTANT
Johan Cuda
PARtiCIPATING UNIVERSITIES
NEWS
19 RESEARCHERS from 4 UNIVERSITIES
IMPRESSUm
FUNDED BY SNF
Swiss National Science Foundation
ZHdK
Zurich University of the Arts
Gamelab
Pfingstweidstrasse 96
8005 Zürich
Beat Suter
Research associate
beat.suter@zhdk.ch
Mela Kocher
Research associate
mela.kocher@zhdk.ch
UB
University of Bern
Digital Humanities
Muesmattstrasse 45
3012 Bern
Tobias Hodel
Research associate
& Assistant professor
tobias.hodel@unibe.ch
HKB
Bern Academy of the Arts
Ein Departement der Berner Fachhochschule
Fellerstrasse 11
3027 Bern
Eugen Pfister
Research associate
eugen.pfister@hkb.bfh.ch
UNIL
University of Lausanne
Gamelab UNIL–EPFL
Quartier Centre
1015 Lausanne
Yannick Rochat
Assistant professor
yannick.rochat@unil.ch