Center for Game Research

Center for Game Research

The central hub for disseminating game research from Utrecht University

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    • Game Research @ CHI 2025
    • Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
    • Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
    • Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum
    • Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
  • Most viewed

    • PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI
    • Masterclass & Public Lecture with Prof. Mandy Rose (UWE, Bristol UK): Virtual Reality and the Immersive Turn May 15, 2025
    • Playing the Hidden Curriculum
    • Game Research @ CHI 2025
    • Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Connected to our project Playing the Hidden Curriculum, we’re recruiting a fully funded PhD student at Utrecht University/University Medical Center Utrecht. The PhD will be conducting research into the “hidden curriculum” prevalent at Utrecht University, using games and play as heuristic to explore the hidden curriculum’s goals and rules (i.e., prevalent norms, social and institutional

dr. Jasper van Vught
06-05-2025 // Jobs // Criticism and Analysis, Games Beyond Entertainment

Game Research @ CHI 2025

The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play

Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment

Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

On April 30th 2025, the Utrecht Gamelab and the Manchester Game Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University collaborated on a first-of-its-kind hybrid three-hour co-design workshop, building on the work of Chloe Germaine and Paul Wake on ‘game hacking’ and the ‘franchise hacking’ technique developed by the Utrecht Game Lab on the basis of Germaine and Wake’s

07-05-2025 // Education, Events // Criticism and Analysis, Game Design, Games and Sustainability

Research Projects

>> All Research Projects

Toxic Behaviors in Multiplayer Games

Game Research @ CHI 2025

The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play
  • Events:

    Game Research @Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium

  • Events, Insights:

    Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

Shape2Gether - Erasmus+

Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school

  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School

STRATEGIES

Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

On April 30th 2025, the Utrecht Gamelab and the Manchester Game Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University collaborated on a first-of-its-kind hybrid three-hour co-design workshop, building on the work of Chloe Germaine and Paul Wake on ‘game hacking’ and the ‘franchise hacking’ technique developed by the Utrecht Game Lab on the basis of Germaine and Wake’s

07-05-2025 // Education, Events // Criticism and Analysis, Game Design, Games and Sustainability
  • Education, Events:

    Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

  • In the media, Interview:

    In the media: “The game industry emits as much as the whole of The Netherlands”

Crisis to Resilience

Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

The workshop is part of the ongoing USO project Crisis to Resilience (2024-2027), which develops and evaluates techniques based on creative practices like game-making and community gardening/biophilia to foster resilience counter climate anxiety as well as other negative climate emotions. The workflow used in this workshop is built on top of free and accessible tools

16-04-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability
  • Events:

    Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience

Themes

>> All Themes

Game Technology and AI

Game Research @ CHI 2025

The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play
  • Jobs, News:

    PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI

  • Events, Insights:

    Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

Ethics of Play

Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

The Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY) was recently held in Tampere, Finland. Our researchers were strongly involved in the organization (serving as papers chair, student volunteer chair, and workshop organizers) and presented a variety of contributions.

Editorial Team
25-10-2024 // Events, Insights // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme, Player Research and Psychology, Social Games and Play
  • Events, News, Publications:

    Game Research at CHI 2024

Social Games and Play

Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Playing the Hidden Curriculum: Exposing, materializing and questioning the unwritten rules of higher education is a research project that aims to adress the unwritten social and cultural rules in education, so that the UU will foster its education in a more social and inclusive way.

Editorial Team
31-05-2024 // Education, Insights, News // Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme, Social Games and Play
  • Events, News, Publications:

    Game Research at CHI 2024

  • Insights:

    Franchise Hacking – Magic: the Gathering

Games and Sustainability

Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

  • Education, Events:

    Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

Disciplines

>> All Disciplines

Human-computer Interaction

Game Research @ CHI 2025

The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play
  • Insights, News:

    Pinball Research at School

  • Jobs, News:

    PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI

Computer Sciences

Pinball Research at School

Utrecht University performed play experiments at Basisschool De Odyssee (Utrecht) to understand the positive effects of playing for children. To what extent does playing together promote self-disclosure? Specifically, the researchers were interested in to what extent playing together creates feelings of safety and social connectedness for children, and to what extent those feelings promote self-disclosure,

dr. Sander Bakkes
14-02-2025 // Insights, News // Play Research, Player Research and Psychology
  • Insights, Longread, News:

    A new game that opens up your mind

  • Jobs, News:

    PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI

Media and Culture Studies

Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

  • Jobs:

    Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Geosciences

Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school

Hello again! We are five student from Utrecht University who for the past few months have been participating in the Erasmus+ Project Shape2Gether, an initiative to teach students how to communicate complex information relating to climate change using new media technologies. This piece is a retrospective of the second ‘summer school’ on the islands of Malta.

29-11-2024 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School

  • Insights, Longread:

    “Change makers don’t understand games; game makers don’t understand change”

Center for Game Research

Central hub for disseminating high-quality game research from Utrecht University to a diverse audience that includes academics, students, game developers, and journalists.

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Drift 10, 3512 BS Utrecht

The Netherlands

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