Persuasive Gaming in Context
In this volume published in 2021 by AUP various scholars explore the role of persuasive gaming, and the ways in which games have expanded beyond merely an entertainment capacity.
Playable Personas: Using Games and Play to Expand the Repertoire of Learner Personas
This article explores how playing and co-creating games in higher education contexts contributes to expanding learner personas and facilitating a multimodal learning experience. Working from the interdisciplinary perspectives of media/games studies, pedagogy, and linguistic anthropology, Stefan Werning, Deborah Cole, and Andrea Maragliano conceptualize in-class learning as the making and playing of games, reporting on game experiments and playful practices targeted at learning key theoretical concepts in our disciplines.
Making Games – The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools
In Making Games, Stefan Werning considers the role of tools (primarily but not exclusively software), their design affordances, and the role they play as sociotechnical actors. He frames game-making as a (meta)game in itself and shows that tools, like games, have their own “procedural rhetoric” and should not always be conceived simply in terms of optimization and best practices.
Research Projects
>> All Research ProjectsCrisis 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.
- Education, Events:
Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
- Education, Events:
Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
Comenius - Fostering an Open Mind
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
- Events, Insights, News:
Taking Perspectives with Game Design: Teachers wanted for pilot!
- Insights, Longread, News:
A new game that opens up your mind
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
- 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
Themes
>> All ThemesGames and Sustainability
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.
- In the media, News:
Dutch Games Monitor 2024 is out now!
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
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.
Games Beyond Entertainment
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
Social Games and 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
- Events, Insights:
Game Research @CHI PLAY 2024!
- Education, Insights, News:
Playing the Hidden Curriculum
Disciplines
>> All DisciplinesMedia and Culture Studies
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.
- Education, News:
Open Mind game challenges to look further
- In the media, News:
Dutch Games Monitor 2024 is out now!
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
- Events, Insights, News:
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game Research.
- Events, News:
Game Research @ CHI 2025
Human-computer Interaction
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game Research.
Update: the call is closed. Call for abstracts. This year the Dutch DiGRA is hosted by Utrecht University. Do you wish to attend and contribute to this symposium? We then invite you to submit an abstract of your (un)published research or project using the form in this post.
- 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!