Pitt Games Reading Group

Welcome to the Pitt Games Reading Group main page! Below you will find a mailing list sign-up sheet, general information about the group, details about our next meeting, and links to previous meetings.

Sign-Up / Mailing List

If you intend to attend, please sign up for our mailing list!

General

The Pitt Games Reading Group meets once or twice per semester and is open to students and faculty/staff at the University of Pittsburgh.

When we meet, we will discuss a game played in advance of the meeting, and then consider its design, story, mechanics, aesthetic, and more. We will also discuss a supplemental reading that gives useful context to the game under focus.

This group is a great opportunity for aspiring designers, avid game players, particularly unique game enjoyers, and those interested in the study of games to gather and explore the medium together, through examples that engage us in novel and unexpected ways.

Next Meeting

Fall 2026 (October)

Meeting Details: October 7th, 2026, 5:00 – 6:00PM, Lawrence Hall 232

Game: Umurangi Generation (2020) by Origame Digital

Reading: excerpts from On Photography by Susan Sontag

Description: For our next meeting, we will be playing Umurangi Generation (2020), “a first person photography game in the shitty future.” Follow your heart (or a list of bounties) as you navigate and capture a mix of changing cyberpunk locales with your camera—swapping lenses, zooming and focusing, changing color balance and exposure. You can unlock new features, abilities, lenses, and more as you earn depressingly little money for your artistic endeavors and see the narrative world develop around you. Welcome to the future, and may it be as bright as your flash!

Discussion Questions:

• What do you think of this game’s structure as a mode of storytelling? Do you see a narrative here? Did you feel engaged with the narrative as such? Would you say this game has ludo-narrative harmony?
• Through this game, do you see significance in the game’s setting and main character identity as New Zealand/Maori (which also match the developer’s identity)? Does that impact or have presence in the game?
• Does this game make you think differently about photography? Its use in the world or its impact? Do you think this adequately gamifies photography?

Previous Meetings

To find information on previous meetings, please visit our archive page.

Contact

For more information, please reach out to me or Dr. Nathan Koob by email: addison[dot]eldin[at]pitt[dot]edu / NBK18[at]pitt[dot]edu

Acknowledgments

This club was started by Justin Bortnick, who kindly offered several reference materials that were used for this page, including the logo.