Alf Seegert
  • Professor (Lecturer), English

Creative Research

  • "A Bard Day’s Night," Eagle-Gryphon Games, 2023 (board game – designer). Humorous procedurally generated collaborative ballad-making board game featuring rival bards singing for their supper like Jaskier in The Witcher. Other, completed 10/2023.
    https://www.eaglegames.net/A-Bard-Day-s-Night-p/10...
  • "The Road to Canterbury: a Game of Pilgrims, Pardoners, and the Seven Deadly Sins," Eagle-Gryphon Games, 2011, 2021 (a new “Impoverished Pilgrim’s Edition,” now with Middle-English text supplementing the components). Humorous and strategic literary board game based on “The Pardoner’s Tale” from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – designer. Original game was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian UK, GAMES Magazine, The Onion AV Club, The New Yorker blog, the Huffington Post, and in the U of U’s own magazine Continuum. Other, completed 03/2021.
    https://www.eaglegames.net/The-Road-to-Canterbury-...
  • "Illumination," Eagle-Gryphon Games, 2021. Board game based on medieval illuminated manuscripts and a spiritual sequel to The Road to Canterbury – designer. Other, completed 03/2021.
    https://www.eaglegames.net/Illumination-p/102342.h...
  • "Sleeping Gods," epic storytelling board game – story co-writer for "Tides of Ruin" expansion, published by Red Raven Games Other, completed 12/2020.
    https://redravengames.squarespace.com/sleeping-god...
  • "Haven," a board game of City vs. Forest (very loosely based on Hayao Miyazaki's film "Princess Mononoke"), published by Red Raven Games. Other, completed 11/05/2018.
    https://redravengames.squarespace.com/haven
  • "Fantastiqa: Rival Realms." Fine art card game based on 19th century art (Caspar David Friedrich, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, John William Waterhouse, and others), published by Eagle-Gryphon Games. Other, completed 02/26/2018.
    http://islaythedragon.com/featured/review-fantasti...
  • Wrote a chapter for the anthology "Board Game Design Advice from the Best in the World," ed. Gabe Barrett. Other, completed 02/01/2018.
    https://www.amazon.com/Board-Game-Design-Advice-Wo...
  • "Near and Far." Storytelling board game published by Red Raven Games (I am co-writer for the interactive storybook encounters, which include branching narratives and extended multi-game questlines). Other, completed 11/01/2017.
    https://redravengames.squarespace.com/
  • "Heir to the Pharaoh." Whimsical strategic board game based on the gods Bast and Anubis and set in ancient Egypt, published by Gryphon Games. Other, completed 11/2016.
    http://www.eaglegames.net/product-p/101828.htm
  • "Dingo's Dreams." Board game based on Australian animals and dream imagery, published by Red Raven Games. Other, completed 05/2016.
    http://www.redravengames.com/
  • "Above and Below." Storytelling board game designed by Ryan Laukat and published by Red Raven Games. I was co-writer for the interactive storybook encounters. Other, completed 11/2015.
    http://www.redravengames.com/games/
  • "Musee." Board game in which players collect and curate fine art. Other, completed 12/2014.
    http://www.alfseegert.com/museacutee.html
  • "Cubist." A board game in which players create Cubist sculptures out of dice. Co-designed with Dr. Steven Poelzing. Other, completed 06/2014.
    http://www.alfseegert.com/cubist.html
  • "Ritual" -- Inklewriter Interactive Story. Included as part of the Inklewriter Library Other, completed 07/2013.
    http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter/
  • "The Road to Canterbury," a humorous and strategic board game I designed based on "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. It has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Guardian UK, GAMES Magazine, The Onion AV Club, The New Yorker blog, the Huffington Post, as well as in the U of U's own magazine Continuum. Other, completed 11/2011.
    http://www.alfseegert.com/the-road-to-canterbury.h...
  • Dishonorable mention in the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton fiction writing contest for the entry, "The Zinfandel poured pinkly from the bottle, like a stream of urine seven hours after eating a bowl of borscht." Competition, completed 06/2010.
    http://www.bulwer-lytton.com

Presentations

  • "Modern Games, Medieval Wireframes." Getty Museum, Los Angeles (online panel). Invited presentation and roundtable as part of Play and Pastimes in the Middle Ages. Discussed my medieval-themed board games The Road to Canterbury and Illumination along with the Art Directors of the video games Inkulinati and Pentiment. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/02/2023.
    https://youtu.be/sW14moAOd_k
  • “Game Design and Literary Narrative,” guest presentation for Phillip Bimstein’s Honors College course The Artfully Extended Mind. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2022.
  • Presented for ‘Ila Tua’one’s Salt Lake Community College Bridge Course to share how video games narratives are taught in the U of U English Department. Presentation, Presented, 07/19/2018.
  • SaltCon. Panelist, Board Game Designer and Publisher Panel -- focus on storytelling and games. Other, Presented, 03/03/2018.
    https://saltcon.com/
  • “The A-ha of Attention in Video Games (Sword and Sworcery: EP and Gorogoa),” Awe and Attention Symposium, University of Utah. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/20/2018.
    https://english.utah.edu/aweandattention/
  • Blade Runner panel discussion with Lisa Swanstrom and Mike White in the Union Theater. English Student Enrichment Association (ESEA)-sponsored event tied to the opening of Blade Runner 2049. Other, Presented, 11/2017.
  • 2017 CLCS 6900: Aesthetics – Empathy – Form. “Virtuality and Empathy in the film Atonement” presentation for Joseph Metz’s class. Presentation, Presented, 11/2017.
  • Gateways to Learning, Literary Classics III, “‘The Machine Stops’ and WALL-E” (presentation for teacher workshop coordinated by Vince Cheng through the Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah). Presentation, Presented, 07/2017.
  • SaltCon. Panelist, Board Game Designer and Publisher Panel -- storytelling and games. Other, Presented, 03/2017.
    http://saltcon.com
  • ENGL 2045 Greatest Hits in Literature with Dr. Barry Weller, presentation on E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops". Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2016.
  • “Storytelling and Game Mechanics” . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2015.
    http://saltcon.com
  • “Pixels and Pathos: Video Games and Empathy.” Interdisciplinary Symposium on Empathy, Contemplative Practice and Pedagogy, The Humanities, and the Sciences. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/2014.
    http://languages.utah.edu/events/Empathy%20Symposi...
  • Panelist: ComicCon Game Design and Publication Panel. Other, Presented, 09/2014.
    http://saltlakecomiccon.com
  • “Component-Inspired Game Design and Storytelling”. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/2014.
    http://ala14.ala.org/
  • “Desert of the Real, Oasis of the Virtual: Technostalgic Pastoral in À Rebours and Ready Player One.”. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/2014.
    http://novel.trinity.duke.edu/blog/2013/09/04/call...
  • “Materials and Mechanics in Game Design”. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2014.
    http://saltcon.com
  • “Nature and Virtuality in Ecocriticism.” Faculty Presentation for Humanities 6102, “Field Methods in Environmental Humanities,” Salt Lake City, 3/2012. Presentation, Presented, 03/2012.
  • “Knotty Problems of Narrative Identity in Tristram Shandy.” SCSECS Conference, Salt Lake City. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/2010.
  • “Cybercultural Ecologies: Interfacing Nature and Virtuality.” Tanner Humanities Center Work-in-Progress Talk, Salt Lake City. Presentation, Presented, 02/2010.

Research Groups

Publications

  • “Into the Wilde? Theatricality, Technological Media, and the Lethal Indifference of Nature in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man.” Eco-Trauma Cinema, Routledge. Published, 10/2014.
    https://www.academia.edu/9028003/Into_the_Wilde_Ar...
  • “The Mistress of Sp[l]ices: Technovirtual Liaisons in Adolfo Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 23.2. Published, 12/2012.
    http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/
  • “Ewe, Robot.” Philip K. Dick and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Anthology). Published, 11/2011.
    http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/philipkdick....
  • “Harsh to the Feet of Shadows: The Wild Landscape of the Real in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and William Faulkner’s ‘The Bear.’” Doors in the Air: C.S. Lewis and the Imaginative World (PortalEditions anthology). Published, 11/2010.
    http://www.portaleditions.com
  • “Till We Have [Inter]faces: the Cybercultural Ecologies of Avatar.” Western Humanities Review (Summer 2010). Published, 06/2010.
    http://www.hum.utah.edu/whr/
  • “Technology and the Fleshly Interface in E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’: An Ecocritical Appraisal of a One-Hundred Year Old Future.” The Journal of Ecocriticism 2:1. Published, 01/01/2010.
    http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe/article/view/98/2...
  • “‘Steam of Consciousness’: Technology and Sensation in Dickens’ Railway Sketches.” Philament: The University of Sydney’s Online Journal of the Arts and Culture 14: Sense and Sensation (August 2009). Published, 08/01/2009.
    http://sydney.edu.au/arts/publications/philament/i...
  • “’Doing There vs. ‘Being There’: Performing Presence in Interactive Fiction.” Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 1:1 (January 2009). Published, 01/01/2009.
    http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/abs/10.1386/jgv...