Florence Smith Nicholls
@florencesn.bsky.social
Video game archaeologist + game dev//
PhD on archaeogaming as play preservation + procgen//
Prev: Story Tech @gutefabrik.bsky.social, Planning Archaeologist at Museum of London Archaeology
they/them
💾 florencesmithnicholls.com
PhD on archaeogaming as play preservation + procgen//
Prev: Story Tech @gutefabrik.bsky.social, Planning Archaeologist at Museum of London Archaeology
they/them
💾 florencesmithnicholls.com
Pinned
~Thread of my past publications~
"Virtual Dark Tourism in The Town of Light"
2018, Routledge
In this book chapter I argue that video games marketing a setting associated with historical suffering can be considered dark tourism experiences.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...
"Virtual Dark Tourism in The Town of Light"
2018, Routledge
In this book chapter I argue that video games marketing a setting associated with historical suffering can be considered dark tourism experiences.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...
It's the last day of the month and my first blog post in a while... so, how do you paint November?
A blog about Pentiment, creativity and game development.
florencesmithnicholls.com/2025/11/30/h...
A blog about Pentiment, creativity and game development.
florencesmithnicholls.com/2025/11/30/h...
How We Paint November
For a long time, people told me to play Pentiment. It’s an adventure role-playing game set in 16th century Bavaria. It’s historical. So I should like it, right? The thing is, I’m less interested in…
florencesmithnicholls.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
It's the last day of the month and my first blog post in a while... so, how do you paint November?
A blog about Pentiment, creativity and game development.
florencesmithnicholls.com/2025/11/30/h...
A blog about Pentiment, creativity and game development.
florencesmithnicholls.com/2025/11/30/h...
A good meditation on why just "recreating" an historic structure architecturally without the everyday lived context ends up with a sterile result.
Also why thoughtful environmental storytelling is so powerful
Also why thoughtful environmental storytelling is so powerful
For this weekend's PC Gamer column, I went for a walk through Kowloon Walled City
(in Minecraft).
www.pcgamer.com/games/surviv...
(in Minecraft).
www.pcgamer.com/games/surviv...
This Minecraft map that recreates one of history's most notorious slums made me reconsider what's important in 3D level design
Kowloon Walled City in Minecraft is a feat of virtual architecture, but it's missing one crucial ingredient.
www.pcgamer.com
November 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM
A good meditation on why just "recreating" an historic structure architecturally without the everyday lived context ends up with a sterile result.
Also why thoughtful environmental storytelling is so powerful
Also why thoughtful environmental storytelling is so powerful
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
"Interpassivity is so dominant that doing+making are referred to as obstacles to pleasure. You don't read a book because reading is work, LLMs can summarize. You don't learn an instrument because practice is work. Skillsets distract from the time we might set aside for passive consumption."
This week I reach back to the 1990s and the concept of “interpassivity,” a critique of the widespread idea that “interaction” was inherently liberating for an audience. But to think in nuanced and critical ways about creativity with generative AI, the “gesture of disappearance” has new salience.
From Interactive to Interpassive
Where AI Art Meets Cognitive Offloading
There is the joke about AI: we wanted robots to do our dishes so we could have time to make art, but we got robots that make art while we do the dishes. We can...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
"Interpassivity is so dominant that doing+making are referred to as obstacles to pleasure. You don't read a book because reading is work, LLMs can summarize. You don't learn an instrument because practice is work. Skillsets distract from the time we might set aside for passive consumption."
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
SOUP ROOMS is a collaborative minimalist art-game featuring over 100 ROOMS created by cool and talented indie devs from around the world.
Admission is free of charge, and you can even make your own ROOMS and SOUP-like games to share with others!
We hope you enjoy your stay.
LINKS BELOW!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
Admission is free of charge, and you can even make your own ROOMS and SOUP-like games to share with others!
We hope you enjoy your stay.
LINKS BELOW!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
November 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM
SOUP ROOMS is a collaborative minimalist art-game featuring over 100 ROOMS created by cool and talented indie devs from around the world.
Admission is free of charge, and you can even make your own ROOMS and SOUP-like games to share with others!
We hope you enjoy your stay.
LINKS BELOW!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
Admission is free of charge, and you can even make your own ROOMS and SOUP-like games to share with others!
We hope you enjoy your stay.
LINKS BELOW!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
The meat of my #PROCJAM 2025 entry will be these logs. As you sight different creatures and locations, different story tracks will move along in randomized ways. A limited set of crew members have random events and can die or be changed by the weird polar ocean.
#gamedev #pixelart
#gamedev #pixelart
November 26, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Saw an amazing little exhibition at the new Petri archaeology museum in Berlin - "degenerate" art confiscated by the Nazis and excavated in 2010 during construction of a metro station.
November 29, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Saw an amazing little exhibition at the new Petri archaeology museum in Berlin - "degenerate" art confiscated by the Nazis and excavated in 2010 during construction of a metro station.
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Such an honor to host the 2025 @arabic.games Showcase with a tremendous lineup of Arab made games from all across the Arab World.
More than 60 games and tools, across an hour, and I cannot be more proud. Big kudos to the team behind the scenes, and speakers throughout.
VOD: youtu.be/oE72ZONsXM0
More than 60 games and tools, across an hour, and I cannot be more proud. Big kudos to the team behind the scenes, and speakers throughout.
VOD: youtu.be/oE72ZONsXM0
November 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Such an honor to host the 2025 @arabic.games Showcase with a tremendous lineup of Arab made games from all across the Arab World.
More than 60 games and tools, across an hour, and I cannot be more proud. Big kudos to the team behind the scenes, and speakers throughout.
VOD: youtu.be/oE72ZONsXM0
More than 60 games and tools, across an hour, and I cannot be more proud. Big kudos to the team behind the scenes, and speakers throughout.
VOD: youtu.be/oE72ZONsXM0
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
A caveat: once you’ve been around a while you can’t stick to your cohort all the time or the field dies. Only through intergenerational mentoring & support do we move forward. Otherwise the same mistakes repeat forever.
And outreach needs to be to people who don’t uniformly remind you of yourself.
And outreach needs to be to people who don’t uniformly remind you of yourself.
I’m thinking about this because this PAX (my 2nd) felt dense with friendly faces.
Many folks spoke of the value of the folks they came up with: that’s your cohort, who hopefully know YOU & not a brand/pitch. They hold your hand. They know your mess as you know theirs. You’ll butt heads, honestly.
Many folks spoke of the value of the folks they came up with: that’s your cohort, who hopefully know YOU & not a brand/pitch. They hold your hand. They know your mess as you know theirs. You’ll butt heads, honestly.
November 29, 2025 at 5:35 PM
A caveat: once you’ve been around a while you can’t stick to your cohort all the time or the field dies. Only through intergenerational mentoring & support do we move forward. Otherwise the same mistakes repeat forever.
And outreach needs to be to people who don’t uniformly remind you of yourself.
And outreach needs to be to people who don’t uniformly remind you of yourself.
Gonna go see Pillion tonight in an effort to lift me out of paper and thesis writing blues
November 29, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Gonna go see Pillion tonight in an effort to lift me out of paper and thesis writing blues
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
The Sims (2000)
November 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The Sims (2000)
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Adivinha quem comprou o pacote com o cartucho fofinho com desenho de criança? Será que é o jogo que todos estavam pensando? Vamos de fio pra descobrir! 🧵 [1/6]
November 27, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Adivinha quem comprou o pacote com o cartucho fofinho com desenho de criança? Será que é o jogo que todos estavam pensando? Vamos de fio pra descobrir! 🧵 [1/6]
Such a great concept for a jam, makes me want to try and sneak something in over the weekend...
planning to join the game manual jam but ran out of time? the deadline is now extended until sunday night :)
itch.io/jam/game-man...
itch.io/jam/game-man...
Game Manual Jam 25
A game jam from 2025-11-14 to 2025-12-01 hosted by hatimb00, boshi's place, mariopartygod & Nichole Shinn. ________ ____ ___ ___ _____ ___ ___ ____ ___ __ __ ____ __ / _____// __ // _ ´_ // __ / / _ ´...
itch.io
November 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Such a great concept for a jam, makes me want to try and sneak something in over the weekend...
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Errol is an exceptionally talented editor, narrative designer, and writer whose support stopped me from giving up on You Will Die In This Place when I was faltering. If you need any of these skills, I believe that you will struggle to find better.
Hey! I write words. I’m told I write words very well. If you’d like me to write words for your project, I am currently open to part-time or freelance work.
errolseymour.carrd.co
errolseymour.carrd.co
Errol Seymour
Writer and Narrative Designer
errolseymour.carrd.co
November 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Errol is an exceptionally talented editor, narrative designer, and writer whose support stopped me from giving up on You Will Die In This Place when I was faltering. If you need any of these skills, I believe that you will struggle to find better.
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Out now! The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and Creative Practice explores the role of creativity as a tool for critical engagement with heritage. It explores how heritage and creative practice intersect, in research, in practice and in a transnational context.
www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and Creative Practice
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and Creative Practice explores the role of creativity as a tool for critical engagement with heritage. It provides a comprehensive study of ways in which heritage an...
www.routledge.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Out now! The Routledge Handbook of Heritage and Creative Practice explores the role of creativity as a tool for critical engagement with heritage. It explores how heritage and creative practice intersect, in research, in practice and in a transnational context.
www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...
Sorry there is no more room in the bandwagon
1. Pausing new submissions about AI topics for 90 days. That is, papers about AI models, testing AI models, proposing AI models, theories about the future of AI, etc. We will make exceptions for papers that are already accepted for publication (or published) in peer-reviewed scholarly journals
/2
/2
November 27, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Sorry there is no more room in the bandwagon
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
New report on how people engage with archaeology is out - Trowel and Error: A Public User Needs Survey. Lots to digest but key conclusions are: 1) archaeologists risk undervaluing and hiding ourselves, our practices and the role we play in society... www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
Trowel and Error
A Public User Needs Survey for Archaeology
www.archaeologyuk.org
November 27, 2025 at 3:11 PM
New report on how people engage with archaeology is out - Trowel and Error: A Public User Needs Survey. Lots to digest but key conclusions are: 1) archaeologists risk undervaluing and hiding ourselves, our practices and the role we play in society... www.archaeologyuk.org/our-work/tro...
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
If writing is so easy why do people argue that they can’t do it without the pablumatic verbiage extruder
And if it’s so difficult then why do people think it’s not labour and writers are not workers
And if it’s so difficult then why do people think it’s not labour and writers are not workers
November 27, 2025 at 4:10 AM
If writing is so easy why do people argue that they can’t do it without the pablumatic verbiage extruder
And if it’s so difficult then why do people think it’s not labour and writers are not workers
And if it’s so difficult then why do people think it’s not labour and writers are not workers
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
Preparing slides for a local developer event later today. I'm having a great time bringing puns and etymology into play on one slide!
November 27, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Preparing slides for a local developer event later today. I'm having a great time bringing puns and etymology into play on one slide!
Really fantastic resource!
I updated my guide to digital preservation of Actual Play to make it easier to navigate & added a little diagram to explain the relationship between backups, digital preservation & digital archives
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org/digitalpres
Also, now it has a glitter cursor.
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org/digitalpres
Also, now it has a glitter cursor.
Digital Preservation of Actual Play
All My Friends Are Stories is a project designed to help people tell collaborative stories through Table Top Roleplaying Games (TTRPG). There are so many ways to play TTRPGs: you can play them for the...
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Really fantastic resource!
Even Tarantino is making machinima now
A narrative sequel to Kill Bill is premiering in Fortnite later this week, over 20 years after the original film
www.eurogamer.net/a-narrative-...
www.eurogamer.net/a-narrative-...
November 27, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Even Tarantino is making machinima now
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
November 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
Got a piece on three-sided football in tomorrow's Bathysphere! Looking into it has made me want to read more situationist theory
November 26, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Got a piece on three-sided football in tomorrow's Bathysphere! Looking into it has made me want to read more situationist theory
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
obsessed with the Roseisle pictish silly goose
November 26, 2025 at 12:04 PM
obsessed with the Roseisle pictish silly goose
Reposted by Florence Smith Nicholls
There should be more games inspired by avant-garde stage design.
November 26, 2025 at 4:35 PM
There should be more games inspired by avant-garde stage design.