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

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