Dr. Anastasios Theodoropoulos is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese, where he teaches and conducts research in the fields of digital game development, immersive technologies, human-computer interaction, and character animation in digital environments. His teaching and research work focuses on video game development and the creative application of game mechanics in education, virtual reality, and the arts.
His doctoral research explored innovative teaching methodologies and the use of digital games for learning programming principles, while his postdoctoral research specialized in the development of personalized games to support computational thinking. As a research associate of the HCI-VR Lab, he participates in projects that examine the relationship between technology, user experience, and culture through the lens of digital games, interactive storytelling, and artistic expression. He played a key role in the design and development of MobiCAVE, a portable immersive virtual reality system specifically designed for the study and presentation of digital games incorporating bodily interaction, narrative, and performative elements.
He has many years of teaching experience in Informatics and Programming (since 2006), across diverse age groups and cultural contexts, and has received awards with his students in national and international educational game design competitions. For over ten years, he was an active member of the EU Code Week initiative, serving as National Ambassador and promoting creative programming education through games and interactive activities. He has supervised and co-supervised undergraduate and postgraduate theses in the fields of game development and character animation, using tools such as Unity, Ren’Py, Godot, and Maya.
His research interests include digital game development, player/user experience, digital character animation, game-based learning, the intersections of VR and performance, and the cultural applications of interactive and immersive technologies. He has published in international journals and conferences and serves as an editor and reviewer in respected academic publications. He is a member of ACM, SIGCHI (and CHIGreece), SIGGRAPH, SIGCSE, DiGRA (and board member of DiGRA CEE), IGDA, and ASIFA Hellas.
In October 2024, he co-organized — together with Dr. Elina Roinioti — the international CEEGS 2024 conference in Nafplio, titled “Reimagining Games, Art, and Performativity”, focusing on the creative intersections between games and the arts.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Antoniou, A., & Lepouras, G. (2025, June). Games in Cultural Venues Using Public VR: Designing Motion-Tracked and Story-Driven Experiences. In Conference Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads.
- Kougioumtzoglou, G., Antonakis, A., & Theodoropoulos, A. (2025, June). The Evolution of Women and Gender Representation in computerized RPGs: The Baldur's Gate Paradigm. In Conference Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Ntetzonai, M. I., & Aggelakos, Y. (2025, June). Virtual Memories of Displacement: A Narrative Game in VR Exploring Refugee Stories through Symbolic Interaction. In Abstract Proceedings of DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Roinioti, E., Papadopoulos, P., & Lepouras, G. (2025). Prometheus Unbound: Embodied Gaming in a VR Cave Environment. CEEGS 2024, University of the Peloponnese. https://doi.org/10.26263/P7PR-TF04
- Theodoropoulos, A., Vrellis, C., Papadopoulos, P. & Lepouras, G. (2024). Pixel Prodigy: Exploring the Role of AI Tools in the Art of Game Design and Development. In 2d 3ai international symposium - Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Corfu, Greece, 2024/5.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Stavropoulou, D., Papadopoulos, P., Platis, N., & Lepouras, G. (2023, May). Developing an interactive VR CAVE for immersive shared gaming experiences. In Virtual Worlds (Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 162-181). MDPI.
- Theodoropoulos, A., & Antoniou, A. (2022). VR games in cultural heritage: A systematic review of the emerging fields of virtual reality and culture games. Applied Sciences, 12(17), 8476.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Poulopoulos, V., & Lepouras, G. (2021). Towards a framework for adaptive gameplay in serious games that teach programming: association between computational thinking and cognitive style. In Educating Engineers for Future Industrial Revolutions: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2020), Volume 1 23 (pp. 530-541). Springer International Publishing
- Theodoropoulos, A., & Lepouras, G. (2021). Augmented Reality and programming education: A systematic review. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 30, 100335.
- Theodoropoulos, A., Antoniou, A., & Lepouras, G. (2016). How do different cognitive styles affect learning programming? Insights from a game-based approach in Greek schools. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 17(1), 1-25.