Summer School on Game Design and Development
Utrecht University’s Summer School on Game Design and Development is approaching maximum capacity of 30 students.
“Beavers don’t walk on roads”: Beaver-play for more-than-human cartographies
In this paper, Laura op de Beke, Linas Kristupas Gabrielaitis, Oğuz ‘Oz’ Buruk,Velvet Spors, and Ferran Altarriba Bertran introduce the notion of beaver-play to understand play that challenges spatial conventions, transgresses boundaries, and redraws territories.
Week of the Game @ Utrecht University
Here is the full up to date programme overview for Utrecht University’s Week of the Game 2024.
Research Projects
>> All Research ProjectsSTRATEGIES
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
- 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
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
- Events:
Game Research @ DiGRA 2024
- Education, Insights, News:
Playing the Hidden Curriculum
Comenius - Fostering an Open Mind
Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!
The participants of the Playing Perspectives workshop at the Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University are fully engaged in conversation. The striking photo on the table is what they’re talking about. Because what do you see in this photo? What stands out and what is your interpretation? This turns out to be quite different for each participant.
- Insights, Longread, News:
A new game that opens up your mind
- Insights, Longread, News:
Fostering an Open Mind – First Test of WP2
Themes
>> All ThemesGames and Sustainability
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
- Education, Events:
Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
- Publications:
Sea level game creates climate awareness among young people
Criticism and Analysis
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
Games Beyond Entertainment
Sea level game creates climate awareness among young people
Can a board game help young people better understand sea level rise? Over the past two years, Nieske Vergunst, a researcher at Utrecht University’s Freudenthal Institute, explored this question. She developed the Sea Level Game, tested it with various youth groups, and analyzed its impact. The findings? After playing the game, participants felt more aware
- Events, Insights, News:
Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!
- Insights, Longread, News:
A new game that opens up your mind
Player Research and 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,
- In the media:
In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
Disciplines
>> All DisciplinesMedia and Culture Studies
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
Educational Sciences
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
- Education, Events:
Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
- Events, Insights, News:
Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!
Human-computer Interaction
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,
Computer Sciences
A new game that opens up your mind
Have you ever received a message from someone who’s number is not in your phone? We’ve all been in that situation before, trying to guess who the mystery sender is. This all-too-common situation is one of three starting points of Open Mind, a creative ‘whodonnit’-type educational game. Players have to talk to various characters –