Week of the Game @ Utrecht University
Here is the full up to date programme overview for Utrecht University’s Week of the Game 2024.
Book Launch: Four Ways of Hearing Video Game Music – Dr. Michiel Kamp
Please join us to celebrate the publication of Michiel Kamp’s Four ways of Hearing Video Game Music, published with Oxford University Press, 2024.
Book Launch: Videogame Formalism: On Form, Aesthetic Experience, and Methodology
Please join us to celebrate the publication of Alex Mitchell and Jasper van Vught’s book: Videogame Formalism: On Form, Aesthetic Experience, and Methodology, published open access with Amsterdam University Press, 2023. To mark this occasion, Alex and Jasper will give an (online) talk on:Friday, 22 March 2024, 7Am (2PM Singapore time).You can register for the
Research Projects
>> All Research ProjectsSTRATEGIES
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
- In the media, Interview:
In the media: “The game industry emits as much as the whole of The Netherlands”
- Insights, Longread:
“Change makers don’t understand games; game makers don’t understand change”
Crisis to Resilience
Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience
On March 6th, 2025, as part of the annual Onderwijsfestival at Utrecht University, Flora Roberts, Larike Bronkhorst and Stefan Werning organized a workshop on how co-designing iconic (board) games like Monopoly can facilitate imagining sustainable futures and help mitigate negative and cultivate positive climate emotions.
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
Shoulder-to-Shoulder
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,
Themes
>> All ThemesGames and Sustainability
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
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!
Play Research
Game Research @Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium
On November 21, game scholars from all over The Netherlands and well beyond gathered at Erasmus University for the Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium. Many researchers from Utrecht presented their projects.
- Insights:
Game Research @FDG 2024!
- Insights:
Europe’s prime ecosystem for applied games
Disciplines
>> All DisciplinesMedia and Culture Studies
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
- Events, Insights, News:
Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!
- Events:
Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience
Educational Sciences
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.
- Events:
Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience
- Insights, Longread, News:
Fostering an Open Mind – First Test of WP2
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,
Psychology
In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.
Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant has published a longread article investigating the pleasures of blood and violence in games with two Utrecht researchers reflecting on how violence has become part of the gameplay experience, and how it may affect players.
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
- Insights:
Game Research @FDG 2024!