Game Poems Resources

Check Out the Game Poems Book

How can videogames operate as a kind of poetry apart from considerations of poetic words and language? How does the idea of a videogame poem expand on (and also distinguish itself from) established traditions within digital and computational poetry? This scholarly but accessible short book by the founding editor of Game Poems investigates one angle on the concept of "born-videogame" poetics. The book is grounded in creative practice, and serves as one starting place for thinking about ways in which videogames can be made as a form of poetry.

Choose your preferred way to read (all FREE except paperback):

• Paperback Book

• eBook

• Online / In-Browser

• Chapters by Email (one chapter emailed to you each week)

• Audiobook (AI narrated)

Learn more at GamePoemsBook.com

Take a Deep Dive Into Videogames+Poetry

A small selection of some of the most relevant books, papers, and articles.

Books

• Dual wield: the interplay of poetry and video games (Jon Stone, DeGruyter, 2022)

  • An insightful scholarly monograph by a member of the Game Poems editorial collective, Dual Wield investigates multiple ways in which poetry and videogames can be seen to interact. 

• Literary Gaming (Astrid Ensslin, MIT Press, 2014)

  • A foundational text on the interplay of videogames and literature, which discusses the concept of "poetry games."

• Making Deep Games: Designing Games with Meaning and Purpose (Doris C. Rusch, Routledge, 2017)

  • Doris C. Rusch investigates practical strategies for engaging deep and meaningful themes with games. While she is not primarily concerned with a poetry lens per se, much of her discussion is relevant to anyone attempting to make poetic games.

• Videogame Formalism: On Form, Aesthetic Experience and Methodology (Alex Mitchell & Jasper Van Vught, AUP, 2023)

  • A fascinating exploration of ways games create aesthetic experiences through the use of poetic gameplay devices. 

Papers and Articles

• Stone, Jon. "Can a poem be adapted into a video game? Here’s what I learned from trying." The Conversation, July 24, 2024.

• Stone, Jon. "Separation Anxiety: Plotting and Visualising the Tensions Between Poetry and Videogames." Game Studies 21.2 (2021).

• Stone, Jon. "Ludokinetic Poetry." GoJonStoneGo.com, May, 2020.

• Mitchell, Alex. “Making the Familiar Unfamiliar: Techniques for Creating Poetic Gameplay.” In Proceedings of DiGRA 2016, 2016.

• Papa, Thomas J. Poetic Videogames: A Haiku Perspective. Mimicry Games, 2014. (Self-published book based on Papa's master's thesis.)

• Lindsay D. Grace. “The Poetics of Game Design, Rhetoric and the Independent Game,” in Proceedings of DiGRA 2011 Conference: Think Design Play, 2011.

• Asad, Mariam. “Making It Difficult: Modernist Poetry as Applied to Game Design Analysis.” Master’s thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011.

Additional Resources

Check out the bibliographies of any of the works above for additional resources on this topic!