Students from two secondary schools in Gdańsk met in an online event with project CITADEL’s consortium partners to discuss their experience of the project’s teaching campaign and ideas for the video game being developed.
On 17 November 2025, the Division of Classical Studies at the University of Gdańsk (UG) hosted an international online meeting bringing together members of the CITADEL consortium and students who took part in the project’s teaching campaign led by UG. Joining from the 1st and 19th Secondary Schools in Gdańsk, these students had previously proposed some very creative ideas for the Iliad-inspired video game.
Led by the project’s Principal Investigator Dr Carmel Serracino (UM), the event invited students to reflect on their experience of the teaching campaign. How did the teaching campaign change their perception of Greek mythology? How did working with game-design tools change their view of Classics? Andrew Debono Cauchi (UM) and Bram van der Velden (RUG) also explained how their feedback is now shaping the gameplay, characters, and plot of the forthcoming game.
On the part of UG, Dr Agnieszka Witczak and Elżbieta Starek (Division of Classical Studies), together with Dr Joanna Tillack (Institute of English and American Studies), moderated the discussion and led an informal award ceremony to thank the students for their contributions. Prizes recognised both knowledge of the Iliad and imaginative proposals for dialogue, locations and non-violent solutions to the Trojan conflict.
The session closed with a look ahead to the next stages of the project, as the consortium moves from the analysis of data collected during the teaching campaign data to game development and the eventual launch in May 2026. Students expressed enthusiasm at seeing their ideas contributing directly to an international project and looked forward to exploring the completed game, and perhaps even using it in future classrooms!
