Authors:
Eric Piette, Walter Crist, Dennis J. N. J. Soemers, Lisa Rougetet, Summer Courts, Tim Penn, Achille Morenville

Venue:
International Computer Games Association (ICGA) Journal, 2024

Topics:
GameTable, tabletop games heritage, digital archaeoludology, artificial intelligence, cultural heritage, interdisciplinary research

Links: PDF · ICGA Journal

This paper reports on the kickoff event of the GameTable COST Action, a European interdisciplinary network dedicated to computational techniques for tabletop games heritage.

The event brought together researchers from diverse backgrounds to present key research areas, discuss case studies, and foster exchanges between disciplines that do not usually interact closely, including artificial intelligence, archaeology, mathematics, and cultural heritage studies.

The report summarises the structure of the Action, its five working groups, the discussions held during the kickoff, and the future plans for developing collaborative research, tools, and educational initiatives around tabletop games heritage.

This kickoff report is important because it formally introduces the GameTable COST Action and its broader scientific vision.

The Action aims to connect fields that have traditionally worked in isolation, such as game AI, archaeology, mathematics, education, and cultural heritage, in order to develop new approaches for studying, reconstructing, and preserving tabletop games.

It also highlights the strategic organisation of the network through five working groups, covering search and learning, cultural heritage, automated game design, mathematics in games, and implementation, dissemination, and education. This positions GameTable as a major framework for future interdisciplinary work around games as both computational objects and cultural artefacts.

Piette, E., Crist, W., Soemers, D. J. N. J., Rougetet, L., Courts, S., Penn, T., Morenville, A. (2024). GameTable COST Action: kickoff report. ICGA Journal, 46, 11–27.

@article{piette2024gametable_kickoff,
  author  = {Piette, Eric and Crist, Walter and Soemers, Dennis J. N. J. and Rougetet, Lisa and Courts, Summer and Penn, Tim and Morenville, Achille},
  title   = {GameTable COST Action: kickoff report},
  journal = {ICGA Journal},
  volume  = {46},
  pages   = {11--27},
  year    = {2024},
  doi     = {10.3233/ICG-240245}
}