Week of the Game 2022

boekafbeeling Mijn Gamende Kind

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Attributed to Confucius

The Week of the Game is the yearly event organized by the Utrecht Center for Game Research, one of the ten Focus Areas of Utrecht University. This week is a showcase of activities that take place at UU related to research and education in the areas of games, gamification, game culture, game technology, etc.

Programme

All activities are open to anyone, without fee or registration.

Monday 31 January, 16.00-17.00h

In Dutch: view the video Week of the Game: panel discussion on games and gaming behavior with resources for parents

Panel discussion with the authors of the book "Mijn Gamende Kind", https://mijngamendekind.nl/, e-sporter Koen Schobbers and journalist Deirdre Enthoven, and Utrecht University researchers Margot Peeters and René Glas. Moderated by Irene Geurts, the discussion focuses on the effect of the corona pandemic on the intensity of gaming within families, what parents should know about games and gaming behavior. One tool discussed is the play five-slice disc: Sleep, Study, Sports, Social, Screen/Play.

Tuesday 1 February, 14.45-15.15h

Location: live at University of Arts Utrecht, Ina Boudier Bakkerlaan

Game and Media Technology Small Project: Utecht University students, together with a group of students of the University of Arts Utrecht showcase the interactive systems they have designed and implemented commissioned by an external party.See for one of the projects: Turn the Tide.

Wednesday 2 February, 14.30-17.00h

Location: Victor J. Koningsbergergebouw, room Atlas.

Game Software Project presentations. Teams of ca. 10 students, together with students from the Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht worked on the development of a game solution for an external stakeholder within a period of 20 weeks.

  • Botz Ques. This project was commissioned by Stichting Praktijkleren. This foundation develops, in cooperation with teachers, teaching and examination materials for vocational education, mainly for the ICT and business services sectors.
  • POPPI Drugs Museum Amsterdam: XTC pharmacy citizen-science game. This project explores collaborative game-design as a new modality to generate, categorize, and reflect on user-generated data by developing tools that tap into the collective intelligence of a community.

Thursday 3 February, 15.00-16.00h

Location: MS Teams link

Game technology projects: bachelor students present the games they designed and developed as part of their Game Technology Introduction Project course.

  • Unnamed Dungeon Crawler - The name's up to you
  • Devil's Degree - Venture down a mythical temple in search of your bachelor's degree
  • Defeat The Robots! - A tower defense game to train for the future
  • Crystal of Eternity - The battle between elementalists and robots

The games are reviewed by an expert panel using aspects such as technical challenge, attractiveness of the design, and the story behind it.

Whole week, submissions open from February 4th, 12:00 PM to February 4th, 5:00 PM

Location: https://itch.io/jam/gamejam-week-of-the-game

Sticky game jam. This year you'll have the whole week to make a game for this jam. The theme of this Jam is ... Mechanics! We get that making a game isn't always as easy, that is why this year we have chosen that it is all about mechanics above all else. So set out the find the most creative and appealing game mechanic and showcase this in a game you made! Perhaps you'll be the lucky winner who takes home a Steam Giftcard. It is recommended to work in a team of max four people. Join the game jam at the above location, good luck!