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

Meet the Makers: Roos Groothuizen

The Transmission in Motion research group is organizing another Meet the Maker event, this time focusing on media artist Roos Groothuizen who works primarily with playful media.

Editorial Team
17-10-2024 // Events, News // Extended Realities (AR/VR/XR), Games Beyond Entertainment

Summer School Game Design and Development 2024

From August 19-23, 2024, we had the pleasure of hosting this year’s Summer School Game Design and Development, organized by Dr. Sandes Bakkes and Dr. Julian Frommel and supported by Jens Steenmetz and Philip Tap. We had the pleasure of welcoming 23 students from various countries and a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to Utrecht.

Editorial Team
29-08-2024 // Education, Insights //

Ecogame Playtesting Series 2024/25

In September 2024, the Network for Environmental Humanities (NEH) and the Utrecht Game Lab are launching a new series of events playtesting and discussing ‘ecogames’: or games that engage with the environment and with the climate crisis.

Editorial Team
23-08-2024 // Events // Games and Sustainability

CFP: Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium

Our colleagues at Erasmus University are hosting a Symposium for the Dutch chapter of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). The full CFP should prove interesting for all game researchers at UU.

Editorial Team
21-08-2024 // Events // Criticism and Analysis, Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme

Game Research @ DiGRA 2024

The yearly international confernce of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) was held in Guadalajara, Mexico from 1-5 July, and members from the Utrecht Center for Game Research were present to present their current work.

Editorial Team
15-07-2024 // Events // Criticism and Analysis

Fostering an Open Mind – First Test of WP2

On June 7th 2024, the Fostering an open mind and open attitude in higher education using games and art-based educational activities (Open Mind) project ran an initial play test of the first two components of Work Packet 2 (WP2), a toolbox to aid students in building games that deal with often complex and polarizing topics in an approachable manner.

Editorial Team
12-06-2024 // Insights, Longread, News // Games Beyond Entertainment

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

Read the Anticiplay blog post written by Joost Vervoort about why policy makers, activists and game developers should "enter each other's worlds".

Editorial Team
06-06-2024 // Insights, Longread // Games and Sustainability

In the media: René Glas in NPO Radio 1’s De Nacht van…

Game researcher René Glas was interviewed by presenter Benji Heerschop on Dutch national radio channel NPO Radio 1 to talk about games within our contemporary society.

Editorial Team
04-06-2024 // In the media, Interview // Criticism and Analysis

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