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 ProjectsToxic Behaviors in Multiplayer Games
Game Research @ CHI 2025
The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the
- Events:
Game Research @Dutch DiGRA 2024 Symposium
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
Shape2Gether - Erasmus+
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School
STRATEGIES
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
- Events:
Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience
- Education, Events, Publications:
History of Game Research at Utrecht University
Themes
>> All ThemesGame Technology and AI
Game Research @ CHI 2025
The latest installment of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems took place in Yokohama, Japan from April 26 to May 01, 2025. CHI is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction and had a record attendance with more than 5200 on-site attendees this year. Researchers from the
- Jobs, News:
PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
Ethics of Play
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.
- Events, News, Publications:
Game Research at CHI 2024
Social Games and Play
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.
- Events, News, Publications:
Game Research at CHI 2024
- Insights:
Franchise Hacking – Magic: the Gathering
Games and Sustainability
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.
- Education, Events:
Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
- Education, Events:
Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
Disciplines
>> All DisciplinesHuman-computer Interaction
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game Research
Call for Abstracts Call for abstracts out now! The Digital Games Research Association is “An international association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena.” Its aim is to stimulate high-quality research on games, and to “promote collaboration and dissemination of work by its members.” Aside from the main conference, countries may
- 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,
- In the media:
In the news: About the pleasures of blood and violence in games.
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
Educational Sciences
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
Geosciences
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
This is a reflection of the third and final “summer” school of the Shape2Gether Erasmus+ project that took place a month ago in Bochum, Germany.
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School