Kaelan

Below you will find a full list of my published works and my teaching and public speaking experience.

I have extensive experience teaching and mentoring diverse audiences from the University level to workshops open to the public.

I have presented my research at conferences and conventions, including the largest scholarly venues in my academic field and conventions for general audiences.

I organize game jams and events that bring games researchers and creators into dialogue, including the Queerness and Games Conference.

I have published my critical writing in both journalistic venues and academic journals. If you want to read some of my work, I recommend this piece in The Conversation, in which I discuss the emerging genre of worldbuilding tabletop RPGs; or this article for First Person Scholar, in which I use theories of new media to inform my practice organizing local game jams.

My PhD research concerns the politics and history of worldbuilding, with an eye towards its radical potential. More generally, I’m interested in the emotional capacities of games and the relationship between play and local communities.

journalism

“What Does it Mean to be the Creator of a World?” in the Story Engine Deck blog, September 9, 2021.

“New Indie Board Games Build Worlds Without Capitalism or Colonialism” in The Conversation, May 3, 2021.

workshops and teaching

Worldbuilding Intensive, DMG, Toronto, Canada, Summer 2021. I designed and taught a four-week intensive online worldbuilding workshop for fifteen students with DMG, a Toronto-based community organization for marginalized game developers.

Intro to Game Design, OCAD University, Winter 2020, Fall 2020 and Winter 2021. I designed and taught OCAD University’s introductory game design course for three semesters. I taught students the fundamentals of game design through a series of analog projects, including game mechanics and systems, social dynamics, narrative, and game feel.

Recasting the Player Workshop, Stockholm, Sweden, January 2018. This game development workshop was a collaboration between the Swedish Games Industry and the MIT Game Lab with the goal of designing games with more inclusive roles and modes of play. I attended as a research assistant, facilitated and participated in the workshop, and presented my research.

So Bad It’s Good: An Introduction to Media Analysis Through Watching Bad Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, January 2018. I designed and taught this three-day seminar in which we analyzed famously bad media from The Room to Keeping Up With the Kardashians in order to understand basic media studies concepts.

Recasting Player Two: The Dynamics of Involvement in Co-operative Play Workshop, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 2016. This workshop brought together game industry professionals, developers and academics to rethink approaches to co-located co-operative gameplay. I attended as a research assistant, facilitated and participated in the workshop.

game jams and events organization

Co-organizer, Queerness and Games Conference, Spring 2019-present. QGCon is a conference for researchers and game developers that celebrates queerness and queer culture in games.

• Organizer, QGCarnival, a winter carnival-themed fundraising event to raise money and build community for QGCon.

Organizer, Neighborjam, Summer 2020.

Organizer, Jamdemic, Spring 2020.

Organizer, Wasaga Beach Game Jam, Summer 2018 and 2019.

public speaking and presentations

“A Queer OS Powered by the Apocalypse: Speculating on Feminist Platforms through Analog Game Engines” at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, March 2022.

“Collaborative Critical World-building in 30 Minutes or Less” at the WordPlay Festival, November 2020. Recorded talk available here (starts at 13:33).

“The Path that Lies Ahead: Intimacy and Overwhelmedness in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) International Conference, August 2019.

“How to Build Intimate Worlds: A Travelogue from Theory to Praxis” at the Queerness and Games Conference, Concordia University, September 2018.

“If You Can’t Fix What’s Broken: The Redemptive Sensation of Movement in Mad Max: Fury Road” at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, University of Toronto, March 2018.

“How to Build Intimate Worlds” at the Worlds & World-Building Symposium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, February 2018.

“I’m Taking Care of You: Pharmercy and Intimacy in Overwatch” at the Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG) Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, September 2017.

“I’m Taking Care of You: Pharmercy and the Logic of Sensation.” at the Queerness and Games Conference, University of Southern California, April 2017.

“You and I Have Begun to Blur: Intimacy and Identity in Hannibal and The Iliad.” at Feasting on Hannibal: an Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia, November 2016.

academic publications

Doyle-Myerscough, K. (2021) “Designing Games for Affect: A Two-Year Post-Mortem.” In First Person Scholar.

Doyle-Myerscough, K. (2019) “The Path that Lies Ahead: Intimacy and Overwhelmedness in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” In Proceedings of the 2019 DiGRA International Conference: Game, Play and the Emerging Ludo Mix.

Doyle-Myerscough, K. (2019) “The Monster Has Kind Eyes: Intimacy and Frustration in The Last Guardian.“ InVisible Culture 30 (2019). Digital.

Doyle-Myerscough, K. (2018) “To be Beautiful is to be Almost Dead: The Erotic Logic of Necrophilia and Mediated Undeadness in Penny Dreadful.” Dark Arts Journal 4.2 (2018). Digital.

Doyle-Myerscough, K., Eberhardt, R., Jakobsson, M., and Lo, C. (2017) “Jamming for Allies: Finding a Formula for Inclusive Co-Design Exploration.” In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual International Conference of Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events. ACM New York, NY, USA.

• Winner, Best Paper award at the 2nd Annual International Conference of Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events.

creative publications

Doyle-Myerscough, K. (2016) “A Shifting Assemblage” in Theoretically in the Gutter: A Manga Essay Collection, eds. Chan, H and Harrisson, A.  A semilinear comic adaptation of Kathleen Stewart’s Ordinary Affects.

Humanshape. Dir. Kaelan Doyle Myerscough, 2014. An experimental documentary film that engages with notions of the body, objectification, embodiment and dolls.

• Winner, Best Avant-Garde Film at the TV McGill Fokus Film Awards, 2016.

Shizuka: Peaceful. Dir. Kaelan Doyle Myerscough, 2010. This short documentary film about a local Japanese grocery store in Toronto, Canada premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival in 2010.