Like Assassin’s Creed but upset over how it could have made history exciting without having to employ and manipulate central historical characters? Love Lara Croft: Tomb Raider if only the tombraiding (stealing) mechanics could be replaced by something more meaningful? Wish that the Total War Series allowed you to employ agent modelling to test competing archaeological theories of migration, colonisation and invasion or just to improve its historical accuracy? Dream you could use the  language, graphic vision and immersion of Far Cry Primal in the classroom to explain (through engaging interaction) the Mesolithic rather than primarily use it as a backstage to fight semi-believable creatures? Then this book is for you. Correction. This book is BY you.

Brief: Archaeologists and historians either take a game with an inspiring concept, technique or mechanic and extrapolate it to a game or simulation of the future OR they share their vision of a game or simulation that reveals, expresses or augments their own research.

1. This becomes an edited book. But wait…

The writers could meet at a workshop, bring their own designs, video cutscenes, and illustrations and media depicting what this new vision would look like or how it could be experienced or how it could be revealed. Or other writers or the public or even budding game designers could provide their own illustrations, walkthroughs, PLAYABLE DEMOS, diagrams or audio recordings of what the original author’s vision could be experienced as.

2. This becomes an online sensory experience mixed in with online chapters of the book. But wait..

3. There can also be a dynamically compiled new online game created from tagged elements of #2. The reader can either choose to read the book, to read and experience the multimedia book chapters online OR select their favourite mechanics, scenarios, techniques, illustrations etc from any or all of the chapters and then the online website automatically creates a multimedia collection to suit the tags of the chosen components..the reader has now designed, experimented, or played with a whole new potential game or scenario of archaeology, history and heritage in the future..

But wait…

4. The game designers who helped in the workshop are so inspired they help the archaeologists design these new ludic visions of the future..