Mirek Stolee

Game creator, scholar, and instructor

Hello, folks! I'm Mirek. I'm a Texts & Technology (T&T) Ph.D. Student at the University of Central Florida. I do research about the intersection between digital and analog media, currently focusing the history of escape games including live-action escape rooms. Before joining the T&T program, I was a lecturer in the Art & Design: Games & Playable Media and Computational Media departments at UCSC. The classes I taught covered game history, analog and digital game design, and 3D modeling. I also earned my Master's Degree in Computational Media from UCSC.

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Research Publications

diagram of escape games including thematic games, narrative games, puzzle games, and setting-agnostic games

A Refinement-Based Narrative Model for Escape Games

Author
Published in the 2023 proceedings of the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS)

A taxonomic model for narratives in escape games based on how they design the game's progression and utilize its fictional space.

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screenshot from the game Tabletop Simulator depicting a board with a hero miniature facing three enemy miniatures.

From Boards and Chits to Circuit Boards and Bits

Author
Published in the 2021 proceedings of Generation Analog: The Tabletop Games and Education Conference

Explores analog to digital board game adaptations, presenting a taxonomy based on how the games mediate their objects and enforce their rules.

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diagram of escape games including tabletop escape games, live-action escape rooms, point-and-click escape games, and virtual reality escape games

A Descriptive Schema for Escape Games

Author
Published in Well Played: A Journal on Video Games, Value, and Meaning

Presents a snapshot of escape games in 2020 that compares point-and-click, live-action, tabletop, and virtual reality subgenres based on how they mediate their space and objects.

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Creative Work

Pencil Poetics

Solo Developer
A poetry generation game based on flowing thoughts. Created in the Unity game engine.

Play on Itch.io

Co-located VR Escape Room

Project Lead
A two-player live action escape room with one player in virtual reality. Created in the Unity game engine.

More info

Arduous Escape

Solo Developer
An escape-the-room adventure game for the Arduboy game platform. Programmed in C++ using the Arduino IDE.

Github

Dr. G. Lich's Lab

Solo Developer
A live-action escape room designed to help high school students review coding concepts. Run at the South Bend Code School in 2018.