Dutch Games Monitor 2024 is out now!
The new Dutch Games Monitor of 2024 has just been released by the Dutch Games Association. This monitor reports the facts, trends, and developments in the Dutch games industry over the past few years.
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
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game and Play Research.
Programme, sign-up sheet, and abstracts now available!
This year the Dutch DiGRA is hosted by Utrecht University. The programme is filled with research about the future of game studies, gamification and play in contemporary society, and much more! All are welcome, so sign up using the Google Form in this post!
Research Projects
>> All Research ProjectsSTRATEGIES
STRATEGIES summer school ‘Planetary Futures’ in Cologne wraps up
From 31 August to 2 September 2026, the Horizon Europe project STRATEGIES (led by Prof. Joost Raessens, UU) conducted its 2nd annual summer school on games, the climate crisis and sustainable futures, this time organized by Prof. Sonia Fizek and Dr. Ruth Eggels of the Cologne Game Lab/TH Köln. For more information on the STRATEGIES
- Education, Events:
Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
- Education, Events:
Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x WUR Games Hub)
ANTICIPLAY
Making Game Studies’ Research Practical with Discursive Game Design
Co-creation of games, participatory design, open dialogue, and social perspective-taking currently lie at the centre of game research at Utrecht University. All these practices are characteristic of Discursive Game Design (DGD), a method that highlights the processes underlying practice-based game research, rather than a final "fixed" product.
- Education, News:
Take a course, build a video game, change the world
- Insights, Longread:
“Change makers don’t understand games; game makers don’t understand change”
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
Shape2Gether - Erasmus+
Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design
Last November Aengus, Isabel and Mick visited two conferences to share some of the outcomes of the Erasmus+ hape2gether project with a broader audience.
- Education, Events:
Shape2Gether: Experiencing the Bochum Summer School
- Events:
Shape2Gether – Time for Workshops
Themes
>> All ThemesGames Beyond Entertainment
STRATEGIES summer school ‘Planetary Futures’ in Cologne wraps up
From 31 August to 2 September 2026, the Horizon Europe project STRATEGIES (led by Prof. Joost Raessens, UU) conducted its 2nd annual summer school on games, the climate crisis and sustainable futures, this time organized by Prof. Sonia Fizek and Dr. Ruth Eggels of the Cologne Game Lab/TH Köln. For more information on the STRATEGIES
Games and Sustainability
All Will Rise – crowdfunding campaign now live!
The Kickstarter campaign for All Will Rise: a narrative courtroom deck-builder has gone live. This game, developed by the team of Speculative Agency, has our own Joost Vervoort as science and impact director. He leads the academic side of the project and focus on the societal impact of the game.
- Education, News:
Take a course, build a video game, change the world
- Education, Events:
Shape2gether: Sharing our knowledge about discursive game design
Game Design
New minor “Games and Play in a Changing Society” open for registration
The new curriculum, which replaces the previous minor “Game Studies’, is a transdisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Media & Cultures studies (MCW), the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and the Department of Information and Computing Sciences and enables students to analyze games and play in contemporary culture and to creatively apply them to address societal challenges.
Social Games and Play
Publication: Belongingness and Resistance in Platformed Play: Feminist Agency among Female Gamers in China
A new special issue of the Gamevironments journal on 'Beyond Play' was recently published and in it we find a contribution by UU PhD candidate Weijie Huang together with Payal Arora and Maya Yerkes.
- Education, News:
Open Mind game challenges to look further
- Events, News:
Game Research @ CHI 2025
Disciplines
>> All DisciplinesEducational Sciences
STRATEGIES summer school ‘Planetary Futures’ in Cologne wraps up
From 31 August to 2 September 2026, the Horizon Europe project STRATEGIES (led by Prof. Joost Raessens, UU) conducted its 2nd annual summer school on games, the climate crisis and sustainable futures, this time organized by Prof. Sonia Fizek and Dr. Ruth Eggels of the Cologne Game Lab/TH Köln. For more information on the STRATEGIES
- Events, Insights, News:
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game and Play Research.
- Education, Events:
Hybrid Franchise Hacking Workshop (Gamelab x Man Met)
Media and Culture Studies
Publication: Belongingness and Resistance in Platformed Play: Feminist Agency among Female Gamers in China
A new special issue of the Gamevironments journal on 'Beyond Play' was recently published and in it we find a contribution by UU PhD candidate Weijie Huang together with Payal Arora and Maya Yerkes.
Sociology
Book: Toys and Communication
A new edited volume has been published by Palgrave Macmillen titled Toys and Communication and edited by Luísa Magalhães and Jeffrey Goldstein.
Computer Sciences
New minor “Games and Play in a Changing Society” open for registration
The new curriculum, which replaces the previous minor “Game Studies’, is a transdisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Media & Cultures studies (MCW), the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and the Department of Information and Computing Sciences and enables students to analyze games and play in contemporary culture and to creatively apply them to address societal challenges.
- Education, News:
Open Mind game challenges to look further
- Events, Insights, News:
Dutch DiGRA Symposium 2025: Futures for Game and Play Research.