Research & Development

Games

We believe that to best help industry leaders and teams make games, we have to understand game development.

Our own proof-of-concept games projects include Digital Munya 2, The Córdoba Journey (with Abertay University Professional Game Design students), and Digital Munya 3 (with Ubisoft World Design Director Maxime Durand).

Our R&D games projects help us better understand the workflows, timelines, processes, and specific needs and constraints developers face, while also supporting our core aims and mission as a purpose-led business.

DLIVCC R&D

Proof-of-Concept Games/Immersive Experiences

Digital Munya 3 (2024-25)

Our historical game concept learning experience and collaboration with Maxime Durand, a longtime Assassin's Creed franchise historian and World Design Director, Ubisoft.

The Cordoba Journey (with Abertay University, 2023)

The Cordoba Journey is a video game introducing players of all ages to the archaeology, visual culture, and history of caliphal Cordoba, capital of Islamic Iberia (Arabic al-Andalus).

Digital Munya 2 (2023)

Digital Munya 2.0 is an immersive 3D digital experience and imaginative visualisation of a medieval Islamic villa (Arabic munya), its landscape, and authentic primary source texts and artefacts that illuminate its historical and artistic significance. It was inspired by the real-life archaeological site of al-Rummaniyya, a luxurious 10th c. court estate located near Córdoba, in present-day Spain.

The Digital Munya Project (2010-12)

A creative visualization using the Unity game engine, created in tandem with Glaire Anderson's first book, The Islamic villa in early medieval Iberia: architecture and court culture in Umayyad Córdoba (Ashgate, 2013). It is informed by archaeological evidence from al-Rummaniyya (ca. 965) and other Cordoban sites of the same time period, notably Madinat al-Zahra' near Córdoba, in present-day Spain.

"I read you are interested in video games - how can video games successfully communicate history and education? Has it been done successfully so far?"

“Yes, absolutely video games can successfully communicate history and education. They provide a way for us to immerse ourselves in history in much the same way that we can lose ourselves in a great historical film or a book. But video games can provide an incredible level of immersion and engagement in history. A video game puts you in the role of active participant, rather than a passive observer, and that provides an opportunity for education that goes beyond film, and even in some ways beyond what a great book can do. And while not everyone might want to read a serious history book, no matter how well-written, lots of people of all ages enjoy playing games and enjoy learning about history. This means that games – digital or analog – have the potential to bring history to much wider audiences. Video games with historical themes are very popular … Because video games have such potential to educate, I would argue that specialists in Islamic history and civilisation should be involved in game creation…”

Interview with Digital Lab founding director Glaire Anderson, “Ask The Expert,” Asia House/Barakat Trust, May 1, 2021.