Confoederatio Ludens is a Sinergia project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, that looks at Swiss games culture in general a vibrant game design and development scene in the pre-Internet age. For decades, digital games were programmed in Switzerland in niches, but also with commercial success. They bear witness to many sub-scenes and a society changing through digitization. This is the podcast on the project.
...talking with Pierre-Yves Hurel (UNIL)
2026-06-30 44 min
In our fourth episode of the CH Ludens podcast, Eugen Pfister talks with his colleague Pierre-Yves Hurel from UNIL. Hurel is a postdoctoral researcher in media studies on our team who wrote his thesis on amateur video games, approached through an ethnographic study of online communities of practice. In our project, he is using his expertise to unearth the forgotten history of digital games in French-speaking Switzerland through extensive media research and over 60 oral history interviews. Together with Yannick Rochat and Eugen Pfister, he has channelled his experience and expertise in researching local gaming history into a methodology: REGHEX – The REgional Game History EXcavation method.
More episodes
...talking with Addrich Mauch (University of Bern)
2026-05-22 45 min
In this episode, we delve into the world of Swiss Gamescapes, focusing on regional gaming culture, digital heritage and the challenges of documenting and map...
...talking with Yannick Rochat (UNIL)
2026-03-11 46 min
In this second episode of the CH Ludens podcast, host Eugen Pfister talks with his colleague Prof. Yannick Rochat, who leads the project Team at UNIL. Togeth...
What is Confoederatio Ludens?
First Insights into Swiss Game History
2026-02-11 34 min
In this premiere episode of the CH Ludens podcast, hosts Eugen Pfister and Arno Görgen present the project ‘Confederatio Ludens. Swiss History of Games, Play...