Center for Game Research

Center for Game Research

The central hub for disseminating game research from Utrecht University

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  • Most recent

    • Take a course, build a video game, change the world
    • Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design
    • CFP: “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament”
    • Ecogame Playtesting Series 2025/26
    • New book on Historiographies of Game Studies
  • Most viewed

    • PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI
    • Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game and Play Research.
    • Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
    • Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum
    • Ecogame Playtesting Series 2025/26

Article: Digital literacy games: a systematic literature review

Frontiers in Communication journal has published the open access article “Digital literacy games: a systematic literature review”, authored by the team behind the Digital Literacy Games KIEM GO-CI grant project, a collaboration between Erasmus University and Utrecht University.

Editorial Team
10-10-2024 // Publications // 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

Research Projects

>> All Research Projects

ANTICIPLAY

Take a course, build a video game, change the world

Heads up UU students! Ever wondered what it would be like to build a video game to change the world? We have a few late registration spots left in our BSc course ‘The Sustainability Game’! This course is open to all 2nd and 3rd year Utrecht University students who have some previous interest and background

dr. Joost Vervoort
14-01-2026 // Education, News // Games and Sustainability
  • Insights, Longread:

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

  • Events:

    Week of the Game @ Utrecht University

Shape2Gether - Erasmus+

Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design

Last November Aengus, Isabel and Mick visited two conferences to share some of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ hape2gether project with a broader audience.

Mick Raamsteeboers, Isabel Rump, Aengus Schutte
10-01-2026 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

  • Events:

    Shape2Gether – Time for Workshops

Virtual Reality as Empathy Machine

CFP: “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament”

 Book Title: Beyond the Empathy Machine: Critical Perspectives on Virtual Reality  Editors: Professor Sandra Ponzanesi (s.ponzanesi@uu.nl), Dr. Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang (j.a.m.evang@uu.nl), Dr. Wouter Oomen (w.a.oomen@uu.nl), Laurence Herfs (l.l.herfs@uu.nl), and Lisa Burghardt (l.burghardt@uu.nl)  Over the last decade or so, Virtual Reality (VR) has been honed as a new frontier in social tech. From Chris Milk and Gabo

Editorial Team
07-01-2026 // Books // Extended Realities (AR/VR/XR)
  • Events:

    Week of the Game @ Utrecht University

  • Education, Events, Publications:

    History of Game Research at Utrecht University

Crisis to Resilience

Ecogame Playtesting Series 2025/26

After a successful run last fall, Flora Roberts, Laura op de Beke, and Stefan Werning, representing the Network for Environmental Humanities (NEH) and the Utrecht Game Lab, are back with another series of ecogame play(testing) sessions. 

dr. Laura op de Beke
20-08-2025 // Insights // Games and Sustainability
  • Education, Events:

    Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

  • Education, Events:

    Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

Themes

>> All Themes

Games and Sustainability

Take a course, build a video game, change the world

Heads up UU students! Ever wondered what it would be like to build a video game to change the world? We have a few late registration spots left in our BSc course ‘The Sustainability Game’! This course is open to all 2nd and 3rd year Utrecht University students who have some previous interest and background

dr. Joost Vervoort
14-01-2026 // Education, News // Games and Sustainability
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design

  • Insights:

    Ecogame Playtesting Series 2025/26

Games Beyond Entertainment

Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design

Last November Aengus, Isabel and Mick visited two conferences to share some of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ hape2gether project with a broader audience.

Mick Raamsteeboers, Isabel Rump, Aengus Schutte
10-01-2026 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Books, News, Publications:

    New book on Historiographies of Game Studies

  • Education, News:

    Open Mind game challenges to look further

Extended Realities (AR/VR/XR)

CFP: “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament”

 Book Title: Beyond the Empathy Machine: Critical Perspectives on Virtual Reality  Editors: Professor Sandra Ponzanesi (s.ponzanesi@uu.nl), Dr. Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang (j.a.m.evang@uu.nl), Dr. Wouter Oomen (w.a.oomen@uu.nl), Laurence Herfs (l.l.herfs@uu.nl), and Lisa Burghardt (l.burghardt@uu.nl)  Over the last decade or so, Virtual Reality (VR) has been honed as a new frontier in social tech. From Chris Milk and Gabo

Editorial Team
07-01-2026 // Books // Extended Realities (AR/VR/XR)
  • Events, News:

    Meet the Makers: Roos Groothuizen

  • Events, News, Publications:

    Game Research at CHI 2024

Criticism and Analysis

New book on Historiographies of Game Studies

We would like to point you in the direction of a recently released edited volume titled Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be. The chapters in the book, two of which were authored by UU scholars, critically reflect on both the past and potential futures of game studies as a field.

Editorial Team
14-08-2025 // Books, News, Publications // Criticism and Analysis, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

  • Jobs:

    Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Disciplines

>> All Disciplines

Media and Culture Studies

Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design

Last November Aengus, Isabel and Mick visited two conferences to share some of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ hape2gether project with a broader audience.

Mick Raamsteeboers, Isabel Rump, Aengus Schutte
10-01-2026 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Books:

    CFP: “VR as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament”

  • Books, News, Publications:

    New book on Historiographies of Game Studies

Geosciences

Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game and Play Research.

Programme, sign-up sheet, and abstracts now available! This year the Dutch DiGRA is hosted by Utrecht University. The programme is filled with research about the future of game studies, gamification and play in contemporary society, and much more! All are welcome, so sign up using the Google Form in this post!

Marijn Benschop, dr. Laura op de Beke
21-05-2025 // Events, Insights, News // Multi theme
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School

  • Events:

    Shape2Gether – Time for Workshops

Computer Sciences

Open Mind game challenges to look further

From now on, the Open Mind game, a creative educational game in the style of “whodunit”, is available in the Apple App and Google Play store. Students play the game on their own smartphones and receive mysterious messages from an unknown sender. By talking to various characters about their traits, values and beliefs, they have

14-07-2025 // Education, News // Games Beyond Entertainment, Social Games and Play
  • Events, News:

    Game Research @ CHI 2025

  • Insights, News:

    Pinball Research at School

Psychology

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
  • In the media:

    In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.

  • Events, Insights:

    Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

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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