Educational Gaming

The Goals

In Samothrace Mariner, a study of ritual and mobility in the ancient world, the project is working to build bridges between:

• academic and scientific research, integrating theory and method from anthropology, geography, Classics, religion and ancient history
• pedagogical needs, supporting instructors in primary and secondary education
• gaming applications with broad potential for public education in the most informal of settings.

Sailing with the Gods

As a part of these goals, the Samothrace Mariner project launched the Sailing with the Gods educational game project in 2016 with the following goals:

• to maximize immersion in the realities of sailing the ancient sea, closing the gap between our modern perspectives of sea travel and ancient realities
• to generate data recorded from players’ behavioral patterns when making choices about how to move about the maritime networks
• to integrate ancient voices from history and mythology with geospatial realities of economic resources, political trends and potential for gathering up to date knowledge

The Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and Emory Classics Department supported development of the game, in partnership with Kennesaw State University. Find out more about Sailing with the Gods and its development:

• Read about the Game and its research goals.
• Play the game Sailing with the Gods and find information on installation.
• Find out more about how to play Sailing with the Gods on the Game Guide page.
• Find old builds of the game on the Game history page.

Casual Educational Games

Samothrace Mariner continues to work on the development of gaming applications to address pedagogical needs, to support instructors in primary and secondary education. The project began to develop separate casual educational games, now including Kottabos VR, the Royal Game of Ur, and Petteia, as minigames. These were originally developed to be components within the Sailing with the Gods game.

Samothrace Mariner is now focused on developing, in partnership with Kennesaw State University, these games as freestanding casual educational games for independent release. The games are being developed to release freely through the Steam gaming site for use in classrooms and independently.

The following three games are all being redeveloped from minigames created by Kennesaw State game design students for Sailing with the Gods. You can find information on the students and their work on the Credits page. Find out more about these games below:

Kottabos VR

Kottabos VR was developed by lead programmers Aiden Gohlke and Donovan Lott. Now released on Steam, you can download this game for free from the Kottabos VR store page! Read more about the game on the following posts:

• Play Kottabos VR. The Game is Released!
• Kottabos VR – Steam store page live!
• VR Kottabos Testing by the NJCL

Find out more about the game on our Kottabos VR page.

The Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur was developed by lead programmer Kylie Gilde, and was released on Steam on April 8, 2024! The store page is live on Steam, you can download this game for free from the Ur store page! Read more about the game on the following posts:

• Ur – educational game – Released on Steam!
• The Royal Game of Ur – Steam Store Page Live!

Find out more about the game on our Ur page.

Petteia

The ancient game of Petteia, also known as Ludus Latrunculorum in ancient times, is under development by lead programmer Kevin Dressel. Check back for updates!