Other outputs & impact

UM — Game-Playing Strength of MCTS Variants

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is widely used to build game-playing agents. This competition challenges participants to predict the performance of one MCTS variant against another in a given game, using the game’s features.

By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different variants, the competition supports research into choosing suitable algorithms for different games and decision-making problems.

ACM JOCCH special issue: Computational Techniques for Games Heritage

A special issue of the ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage bringing together research on computational approaches to games heritage. ACM has extended the submission deadline to December 31, 2026.

GameTable: Bridging Disciplines for Heritage Games

GameTable organised Session S49 at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference in Athens, connecting research on games with archaeological and computational approaches.

Past Moves, Present Finds: The Archaeology of Games in Their Social Context

A GameTable session at the 31st Annual Conference of the European Association of Archaeologists, dedicated to games and their archaeological and social contexts.

GameTable at the Recreational Mathematics Colloquium 8

A special GameTable session at the Recreational Mathematics Colloquium 8 / Gathering 4 Gardner Europe in Lisbon, connecting the network with the recreational mathematics community.

How to Explore Games with AI

GameTable organised a panel at the 26th Board Game Studies Colloquium in Tampere, Finland, on exploring games with artificial intelligence.

ParaAdapt: Parametric User Modeling & Adaptation for Navigating Complex Interactive Domains

ParaAdapt explores parametric interaction design, user modeling and adaptation across complex interactive systems, including games and procedural content generation.

Organised by Swen Gaudl, Mark J. Nelson and Guenter Wallner as part of UMAP 2026 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Playful Archaeology and Ancient Game Reconstruction at TIPC4

The Interactive Pasts Conference 4 in Leiden included a Playful Archaeology panel and an Ancient Game Reconstruction workshop. Led by Walter Crist, the workshop explored evidence and methods for reconstructing the rules of ancient and historical board games, with participants trying their own reconstructions.

Replay: Computational Heritage of Games

Session S32 · Vienna, Austria · April 3, 2026

Organised by Summer Courts, Walter Crist, Tim Penn, Barbara Carè, Branislav Kovár and Dorina Moullou at the CAA 2026 conference. The session brought together archaeology, artificial intelligence and cultural studies to explore how computational methods can illuminate historical games, their playability and their social roles.

Playing the Past: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ancient Board Games, Society, and Learning

Session 421 · Athens, Greece · EAA Annual Meeting, August 26–29, 2026

Organised by Barbara Carè and Dorina Moullou, this session connects the study of ancient board games with their social contexts and their potential for learning and public engagement.

Reconstructing Play: Digital Technologies and the Archaeology of Games

Session S20 · Vienna, Austria · CHNT31, November 11–13, 2026

A session organised by Barbara Carè, Walter Crist and Dorina Moullou, focusing on digital technologies and the archaeological study and reconstruction of games.

TRACE-IT — Tracing Transformations in Cultural Artefacts through Imaging Technologies

Barbara Carè, with Sarah Kenderdine

TRACE-IT focuses on astragali (knucklebones) and their different uses, drawing on imaging technologies to study transformations in cultural artefacts.

Project start: January 2027.

Graffiti on Roman counters

Thomas Daniaux · University of Reading

SNSF Postdoc.Mobility funding supports research on graffiti engraved on bone, horn and ivory counters from Roman Gaul, Germany and Britain.

Histoires d’os — Bones’ Tales

Barbara Carè

An SNSF Agora project connecting research on astragali (knucklebones) with public engagement and science communication.

Graffiti in the shadow of the Acropolis: People, gaming, and urban landscape

Barbara Carè, Yannick Rochat and Sylvian Fachard

Funding for research on graffiti and game boards in their archaeological, social and urban contexts in Athens.

Whose game is it anyway?

Tim Penn

Funding for analysing ancient and post-antique board games at Aphrodisias, Türkiye.

Play and the city: Investigating the cultural heritage of games of the City of Rome (200 BC–500 AD)

Tim Penn · University of Reading, with GameTable collaborators

A funded project exploring the cultural significance and social role of board games in ancient Rome, bringing together archaeological research and the study of games.

Roman games: Public engagement, education and student-led activities

University of Reading

Three funded initiatives use ancient games to connect research with wider audiences:

Roman games in society: Play and well-being through ancient board games

University of Reading

An impact fellowship supporting activities that connect the study of Roman games with play, public engagement and well-being.

Rolling the Roman Dice: Experiencing Ancient Chance with AI

University of Reading

Funding for research bringing together ancient games and artificial intelligence to investigate experiences of chance and play.

Playing in ancient Iberia: The materiality of games in a multicultural context (c. 800 BCE–800 CE)

Ilaria Truzzi · University of Reading

Three years of doctoral funding for research on the material culture of games in ancient Iberia, examining play in a multicultural context between approximately 800 BCE and 800 CE.

Achille Morenville — General Game Playing and Imperfect Information

UCLouvain · Supervised by Éric Piette

Doctoral research on general game-playing agents for imperfect-information games, including reasoning and decision-making when parts of the game state are hidden.

This doctoral funding is linked to GameTable WG1 research on game-playing artificial intelligence.

Aloïs Rautureau — Human-Like Game AI

UCLouvain · Supervised by Éric Piette

Doctoral research on human-like artificial intelligence for games, studying agents whose behaviour and reasoning reflect aspects of human play.

This doctoral funding is linked to GameTable WG1 research on game-playing artificial intelligence.

LUDITECH — LUDIc + TECHnology

Barbara Carè

An interdisciplinary project connecting archaeology, ancient games, digital technologies and artificial intelligence to rethink play and gaming artefacts in the ancient world.

LUDITECH is listed among the projects resulting from GameTable networking in the second progress report.

Ludus ex Machina: Studying Ancient Games Through Human-Like AI Play Agents

Tim Penn, Éric Piette and Walter Crist, with James Goodman, Summer Courts and Aloïs Rautureau

A project investigating ancient games through human-like AI, connecting historical evidence about Roman play with computational modelling. The research considers socially meaningful behaviour beyond optimal strategies, including risk-taking and social performance.

The project brings together GameTable WG1 and WG2 researchers.

Travel grant for games-related research — Ilaria Truzzi

Ilaria Truzzi

A travel grant supporting research related to games, reported among the external funding obtained by GameTable WG2 members during GP3.

Computational Techniques for Tabletop Games Heritage — MVTS B

Branislav Kovár

Funding awarded for the project “Computational Techniques for Tabletop Games Heritage, project MVTS B”, reported among WG2-related external funding during GP3.

Connect-Two: The GameTable Matchmaker

Connect-Two helps GameTable members meet researchers from other working groups. Members indicate the groups they would like to interact with and receive a new match each month, arranging their own conversations and exchanges.

Palamedes — Museum and heritage network

Palamedes is the museum-oriented subgroup of GameTable WG5, connecting museums, archaeological sites, cultural centres and heritage institutions with research on historical games.

The network coordinates collaborations around game reconstructions, educational activities and public engagement, bringing researchers and heritage practitioners together.

GameTable YouTube channel

The GameTable channel provides a central place to explore videos shared by the network.

Cultural Heritage of Games webinar series

A recurring webinar series bringing together research on historical games, archaeological evidence and the cultural heritage of play.

Mathematics in Games seminars

A series of talks connecting games with mathematical research and teaching. Topics announced in the news include digital topology, positional games, calculus and Mathematical Qwirkle.

Implementation, Dissemination & Education webinars

A webinar series exploring games as educational resources and cultural heritage, with contributions on teaching, learning and public engagement.

European Heritage Days in Greece

GameTable WG5 announced participation in the European Heritage Days in Greece, bringing games heritage into a public engagement setting. The linked news presents the announced activity; a post-event account and resources can be added when available.

Games, Gaming and the Ancient World

GameTable participated in this public event at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, bringing ancient games and research on play to academic and wider audiences.

A team of four GameTable members ran playable game sessions and a dissemination table, guiding visitors through historical contexts, gameplay and the Action’s interdisciplinary research.

Heritage Games and Education

N. Akkus, E. Ozturk, J. Sikorska, B. Carè and D. Moullou

An outreach contribution on heritage games and education, reported among WG5 outputs in the GP3 Management Committee presentation for the European Educational Research Association (EERA) Blog.