Katja Aller is the program manager for the interdisciplinary MA Game Development and Research. She holds a joint master’s degree in German and Comparative Literature from both Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Germany) and St Andrews University (Scotland) and is a co-organizer of the Young Academics Workshop. As a former literature scholar, she has a soft spot for narrative-heavy games and so-called walking simulators. In 2020, she became a PhD candidate in media studies at Cologne University. Her dissertation “The Narrative Capacities of Spaces and Objects in Walking Simulator Games” explores the connections and relationships between player, narrative(s), and in-game environments in walking simulators. Her research interests include (transmedial) Narratology, Theory of Space, Object/Thing Studies, and Horror in games and film.
Teaching
Media and Game Studies
Research Priorities
Comparative Media Studies.
Human-Object-Interactions (Thing Theory), and the Role(s) and Representation of Materiality in Digital Games.
Recent Publications
Aller, Katja. “But for Edie, the Past Never Went Away: Magisch-realistische Objekt-Erzählungen und Identität in What Remains of Edith Finch.” Vergegenwärtigungen: Künstlerische Praxen – didaktische Reflexionen (Kinder – Kunst – Kultur), edited by D. Merlin, N. Mitterer, and H. Nagy, koaped, 2025, pp. 189–210.
Aller, Katja. “Die (Spiel-)Welt muss romantisiert werden! – Die Rezeption europäischer Romantik in Walking Simulator-Games.” Colloquium: New Philologies, vol. 8, no. 1–2, special issue “Die Frage nach dem Wahren, Guten und Schönen in virtuellen Räumen. Neue Formen fiktionalen Erzählens und deren Relevanz für den Unterricht im 21. Jahrhundert,” edited by Nicola Mitterer, Felix Schniz, and René Reinhold Schallegger, 2023, pp. 114–139. Open Source Download via https://colloquium.aau.at/index.php/Colloquium/article/view/175
Aller, Katja. “I Don’t Feel at Home in This Game Anymore: A Closer Look at Uncanny Atmospheres in Walking Simulators.” Mental Health | Atmospheres | Video Games: New Directions in Game Research II, edited by Jimena Aguilar Rodríguez et al., transcript, 2022, pp. 177–193. Open Source Download via: https://www.transcriptverlag.de/media/pdf/f4/1c/33/oa9783839462645BAr27EzFPXy5k.pdf
Contact
| Email: | ka(at)colognegamelab.de |
| Phone: | +49 221 8275 – 3482 |
| Social Media: | @katjaaller.bsky.social |