Supporting game research

• 

  • Event
  • Future

  Generation Analog 2025 - PUNK

  Analog Game Studies and Game in Lab are happy to announce the return of Generation Analog for the fifth year in a row. The online event is free and open to the public with registration. All presentations will be recorded and made available after the event AGS YouTube’s channel.   This edition will explore Punk through games. Questionning Punk attitude, aesthetics, mode, legacy and histories in play. The conference will examine mechanics, genres, platforms, stories embracing the Punk spirit.   The event also aims to to highlight recover, remember, and reinvigorate the stories, voices, bodies, places, practices, and play of those forgotten and marginalized. Give back a place to forms of play and universes too often set aside, promoting alternative, subversive or experimental dynamics of play.   Generation Analog 2025 is open to researchers, teachers, artists, professionals and curious minds altogether!

• 

  • Project
  • Underway

  Benjamin Le Hénaff
  Collective Role Play as Inclusive Territory (CRIT): Role-playing as and with diverse others to promote gender and sexual orientation social inclusion

  In 2024, Game in Lab selected Dr. Benjamin Le Hénaff’s project to explore how playing characters with different genders and sexual orientations can foster empathy and intergroup interaction. Through a series of experimental studies, this research investigates the potential of role-playing games to reduce prejudice and promote social inclusion among players of the Dungeons & Dragons community. This contributes to a deeper understanding of how games can become spaces for experiencing and transforming gender and sexual norms.

• 2025 Call for Projects

  Our international call for projects is currently open!
  Research proposals, spanning fundamental or applied research, are invited from both disciplinary and interdisciplinary domains, and from any institution dedicated to scientific research.

   

  Click here to learn more about our call for projects.

• 

  • Project
  • Underway

  Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin
  The impact of board games’ materiality on the reception of their environmentalist message

  In 2024, Game in Lab selected Pr. Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin's project to examine how the materiality of board games influences the reception of their environmentalist messages. This research focuses on games that promote sobriety and degrowth, and investigates whether minimalist or sophisticated production choices affect negatively or positively players’ interpretation of ecological values. The project will contribute both to the advancement of game studies and sustainable design practices.

• 

  • Project
  • Underway

  Tim Penn
  Play and the city: Investigating the cultural heritage of games of the City of Rome (200 BC-500 AD)

  In 2024, Game in Lab selected Dr. Tim Penn's project to explore the cultural significance and social role of board games in the city of Rome between 200 BC and 500 AD. The project aims to shed light on a lesser-known facet of ancient Roman society. Using a digital approach that ensures the preservation of data for future research, it documents and analyzes archaeological evidence of board games found across Roman sites.

• 

  • Event
  • Past

  Multiplatform 2025: Rituals of Play - Shaping Alternative Futures with Games and Occulture

  The Manchester Game Centre and Game in Lab, in collaboration with DVRK – the Dark Arts Research Kollective, are proud to present Multiplatform 2025, a symposium exploring the intersections of games, play, and contemporary occulture. Held at the Burgess Foundation and the MMU Arts and Humanities Building on 12–13 June 2025, this edition focuses on the ritualistic and speculative dimensions of play and how they can help shape alternative social, political, and cultural futures. Bringing together academics, designers, engineers, and artists, Multiplatform 2025 examines how games are increasingly entangled with mysticism, esotericism, and ritual. From analog role-playing games to immersive digital experiences, the symposium explores how these practices enable forms of worldbuilding that go beyond narratives and offer new perspectives on play and society. Participants will have the opportunity to experience The Museum of Lost Futures, an immersive game experience, and to attend talks by leading figures such as Jeff Howard, Associate Professor of Games and Occulture at Falmouth University, and Rob Donkin, game designer of Strange Horticulture. Researchers, designers, educators, artists, students, and all curious minds are invited to register and delve into the mysteries of games and occult play.

Founding Members