James Coltrain

Assistant Professor

Game Design | Storrs

UConn Affiliations: Department of History

Education: PhD in History, Northwestern University
BA in History, University of Kansas

Areas of Research/Artistic Focus:  Narrative Games, Game Art, 3D Modeling, Public History

James Coltrain’s research focuses on the development of public-facing, humanities-themed games.  His first project is Cassius, a first-person narrative exploration game set in colonial Virginia.  He is also a scholar of the historic architecture and material culture of the early Americas and has worked for over a decade building historical 3D visualizations. 

Recent Research Achievements:
“A Historian’s Guide to Researching Your Historical Game”
Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 Game Narrative Summit, Spring 2019
“Can Video Games Be Humanities Scholarship?” with Steve Ramsay
Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019
University of Minnesota Press
“Making History: Practical Tips for Researching and Designing Historical Games” Presenter and Panel Chair with Tracy Fullerton and Sam Butin
Indiecade 2018, Santa Monica, California, Fall 2018

James Coltrain
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