Robyn Hope, PhD

Video Essays

I produced my first video essay for Milena Droumeva’s Playthrough Poetics project with Amhurst Press. Playthrough Poetics is a multimedia collection of edited chapters, each of which is paired with a video essay available on YouTube. My contribution to this collection was an essay titled “Pathologic 2 and the Phenomenology of Illness”.

Illustration

Nagasaki Kitty

I am beginning to incorporate illustration into my critical creative work. You can find some of my art in Ryan Scheiding’s historical game, Nagasaki Kitty.

Nagasaki Kitty is an educational game based on historical research designed to better inform Western audiences about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. It has been translated as a study tool for intermediate to advanced Japanese language students.

As a contributing artist, I sought to add realistic details to the world of Nagasaki Kitty. I used Ryan’s photographs from the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, as well as other photographs of post-war Japan, as direct references for my artwork. I also strove to keep in line with the game’s anime-inspired art style by teaching myself to draw rubble backgrounds from screenshots of Grave of the Fireflies. The everyday items I drew—bottles, scarves, and lunchboxes—are important glimpses into the civilian lives lost to the atomic bomb.

The Curse of the Letter-Writer: Forthcoming

This is another historical game project captained by Ryan Scheiding, currently in the visual development stages. I have created some early sketches, including a preview poster for the game that was exhibited at the Digital Games Research Association Conference in 2025.

Click on the image to enlarge

Bonus: Pixel Art!

I have yet to incorporate my pixel art into critical creative work, but I do experiment with it when I can–like this bunker door, which I made to accompany my dissertation defense!