Polish History up to 1795 in Polish Games and Game Studies

Situated within historical and regional (CEE) game studies, this article is an overview of games made in Poland after 1989 about Polish history up to the eighteenth century. It also outlines research made on those games, and it comments on changing cultural and political factors shaping the development of Polish history/heritage-themed games over the last three decades. We group the games in thematic-chronological categories: early medieval Slavic settings up to 1000, medieval to Renaissance Poland, and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1795. Main findings: (a) Slavic fantasy became very popular with game developers after Witcher 3, but it has received little scholarly attention beside the witcher series. (b) Medieval Polish monarchies have barely caught the eye of game developers, which translates to the absence of related research. (c) The PLC period is well-represented in digital and nondigital games, and well-researched in historical games studies by Polish scholars in Polish and English.