Group: Utrecht Game Lab
With the Utrecht Game Lab, we understand game-making as a form of rhetoric, of participating in public discourse through the ‘language of games’, and co-designing existing games and game franchises as a form of ‘response’ to the ideas and ideologies put forth in commercial games, official expansions or grassroots modifications (‘mods’).
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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.
“Hacking Board Games” Workshop at RMeS 2024 Summer School
Concluding the RMeS Summer School 2024: Environmental Media, Laura op de Beke and Stefan Werning of the Utrecht Game Lab organised a workshop for RMA students to facilitate ecological thinking by redesigning (or: ‘hacking’) board games.
Franchise Hacking – Magic: the Gathering
'Franchise hacking’ within Magic: The Gathering (MtG) means to creatively alter game elements to embed urgent real-world ecological narratives into the game’s design.
Week of the Game @ Utrecht University
Here is the full up to date programme overview for Utrecht University's Week of the Game 2024.
Spationomy 2.0- An Application of Discursive Game Design
In a time where it is difficult to engage with the increasingly fraught world around us, games scholars are continuing to search for new ways to approach difficult topics. One such example, is the application of Discursive Game Design(DGD) as seen in the Carbon Pearl game produced in 2021.
Taking Playful Scholarship Seriously: Discursive Game Design as a Means of Tackling Intractable Controversies
The article at hand explores the concept of playful scholarship, focusing specifically on the use of playfulness in re-assessing the collaboration between academia and societal partners to tackle “intractable policy controversies” (Schön and Rein 1994, p. 23)—i.e., challenges in which opposing parties operate with conflicting frames (often without even noticing).
Making data playable: A game co-creation method to promote creative data literacy
This article explores how making data playable, i.e. developing exploratory co-creation techniques that use elements of play and games to interpret small to mid-sized datasets beyond the current focus on visual evidence, can help a) promote creative data literacy in higher education, and b) expand existing definitions of data literacy.