Center for Game Research

Center for Game Research

The central hub for disseminating game research from Utrecht University

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  • Most recent

    • Dutch Games Association: Generative AI and Video Games Event @Utrecht University
    • Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game Research
    • Game Research @ CHI 2025
    • Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
    • Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
  • Most viewed

    • Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game Research
    • Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum
    • PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI
    • History of Game Research at Utrecht University
    • Playing the Hidden Curriculum

Fostering an open mind and open attitude in higher education using games and art-based educational activities 

With the use of art and media tools such as dialogical art, game play, and game development, this project aims to foster a space wherein it is possible to discuss complex topics, and for students with diverging opinions to be able to civilly discuss while learning from one another and developing a greater understanding of those whose opinions may differ from their own.

Editorial Team
28-06-2023 // Insights, Longread, News // Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme

Spationomy 2.0

The Spationomy 2.0 project was started in October of 2019, and concluded with a final conference held in November of 2022. The project was funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

Editorial Team
22-11-2022 // Events, Insights // Criticism and Analysis, Games Beyond Entertainment, Social Games and Play

Ecomodding: Understanding and Communicating the Climate Crisis by Co-Creating Commercial Video Games

This article explores how the climate crisis and specifically the underlying “crisis of the imagination” (Bendor 2018, 132) exacerbate the entrenchment of environmental communication, and how modifying commercial video games (ecomodding) can facilitate the use of games as effective communication infrastructures to address this issue. Environmental communication challenges are well-studied, but remain difficult to tackle in practice.

Editorial Team
20-10-2021 // Insights, Publications // Criticism and Analysis

Research Projects

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Toxic 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

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play
  • 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.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • 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

07-05-2025 // Education, Events // Criticism and Analysis, Game Design, Games and Sustainability
  • 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

16-04-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability
  • Events:

    Redesigning Monopoly to Foster Climate Resilience

  • Education, Events, Publications:

    History of Game Research at Utrecht University

Themes

>> All Themes

Game Technology and AI

Dutch Games Association: Generative AI and Video Games Event @Utrecht University

Everyone seems to have an opinion on generative AI — or at least 99% of Dutch developers do. And for better or worse, it’s clear that GenAI will impact this industry. That’s why Matthijs Dierckx and the Dutch Games Association organized an event about adoption, stance, and the general past, present and future of this

dr. Johannes Pfau
26-06-2025 // Events // Game Technology and AI
  • Events, News:

    Game Research @ CHI 2025

  • Jobs, News:

    PhD Position in Player-Centric Video Game AI

Ethics of Play

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

dr. Julian Frommel, dr. Johannes Pfau
14-05-2025 // Events, News // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Social Games and Play
  • Events, Insights:

    Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!

  • Events, News, Publications:

    Game Research at CHI 2024

Social Games and 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.

Editorial Team
25-10-2024 // Events, Insights // Ethics of Play, Game Technology and AI, Games Beyond Entertainment, Multi theme, Player Research and Psychology, Social Games and Play
  • Education, Insights, News:

    Playing the Hidden Curriculum

  • Events, News, Publications:

    Game Research at CHI 2024

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.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)

  • Education, Events:

    Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

Disciplines

>> All Disciplines

Human-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

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

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

07-05-2025 // Education, Events // Criticism and Analysis, Game Design, Games and Sustainability
  • Jobs:

    Funded PhD position: Playing the Hidden Curriculum

  • Education, Events:

    Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)

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.

12-05-2025 // Education, Events // Games and Sustainability, Games Beyond Entertainment
  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Malta summer school

  • Education, Events:

    Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Trondheim Summer School

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.

Contact

Drift 10, 3512 BS Utrecht

The Netherlands

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