| Yellow rows indicate Keynote presentations |
| Green rows indicate Presentations of full papers / posters / and games competition entries |
| Purple rows indicate Social Events that are free for GALA participants |
Day 1
Wednesday, November 19
| 09:30-10:00 | Registration is open (all day) |
| 10:00 – 10:15 | Opening words by the conference chair (Sander Bakkes) |
| 10:15 – 11:00 | Keynote Regan Mandryk (Session chair: Sander Bakkes) Innovations in Social Gaming Games have long been used to support social interaction and create shared experiences that draw us closer together. Digital games are increasingly being used to form and maintain relationships, and in-game friendships have been shown to help satisfy our need to belong and can even combat loneliness, improving our wellbeing. In this talk, Mandryk will present her perspective on the benefits of social gaming—including in casual, esports, and streaming contexts, show how the benefits can be thwarted by toxicity and harassment, and discuss innovative game technologies that can better connect players, streamers, spectators, and fans. |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee break |
| 11:15 – 12:30 | Session 1: Educational Science track (Session chair: Antonio Bucchiarone) 1) Antti Koskinen. Foundational AI Knowledge Enhances Epistemic Curiosity Development in Game-Based AI Ethics Instruction 2) Raphaela Montera and Imke Alenka Harbig. Game Over! Exploring the Effects of Playing the Existential Video Game “The Painting” 3) Stefan E. Huber, Hanna Rajh-Weber, Elizabeth B. Cloude, Eva Boehlke, Moritz Edlinger, Kristian Kiili and Manuel Ninaus. Cognitive, affective, and motivational effects of gamified learning in a research-guided teaching context 4) Helka Hirvonen, Manuel Ninaus, Carita Kiili and Kristian Kiili. Supporting Adolescents’ Skills to Interpret Misleading Graphs Through Game-Based Learning: Did Signaling of Visual Manipulations Matter? |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch break at lunchroom Carmel Market |
| 13:30 – 14:45 | Session 2: Game Design track (Session chair: Kristina Risley) 1) Eli Lazarus. DOZER: a toy model of coastal hazard mitigation during a storm 2) Xinyi Wu, Yiming Zhang, Yawen Zhang and Ruowei Xiao. Go Beyond Atmosphere Rendering: XR-Mediated Script Entertainment 3) Domenico Schillaci and Salvatore Di Dio. Engaging Gen Z in Transformational Games: How Complementary Features Enhance Core Mechanics for Sustainable Mobility – The MOB Tournament Case Study 4) Maéva Kurtz, Luis Alberto Pinos Ullauri, Azzeddine Benabbou, Catherine Pons Lelardeux and Julien Broisin. Analysis of Students’ Collaborative Behaviours in a Virtual Laboratory |
| 14:45 – 15:00 | Four Pitches on Game Research Initiatives (Session chair: Susanne Poeller) 1) International Toy Research Association congress (Jeffrey Goldstein) 2) European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action Proposal “EUGAME – European Network for Game-Based Learning and Training Engineering” (Antonio Bucchiarone & Pierpaolo Dondio) 3) CAPTRS 2025 Challenge: AI-Powered Human Augmentation for Emergency & Crisis Games and Exercises (Francesca de Rosa & Antonio Bucchiarone) 4) European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action Proposal “Interdisciplinary Design and Evaluation Approaches for Serious Games in Society” (Daniela De Angeli) |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | One-minute pitches of Posters (Session chair: Susanne Poeller) 1) Michael Louis Eulenstein and Thorsten Schoormann. Escape Game Chatbot: Designing Educational Games for Sustainability 2) Masiar Babazadeh and Jonathan Ferreras Ferreras. Exploring Minecraft Education Edition’s Effects on Motivation and Learning Strategies in STEM Subjects 3) Antonio Pio Facchino, Daniela Marchetti, Maria Cristina Verrocchio and Piero Porcelli. Avatar-Based Serious Game for Training Psychologists in Rorschach Test Administration: An Evaluation from Experts 4) Eva Boehlke, Stefan E. Huber, Kristian Kiili and Manuel Ninaus. Examining the Impact of Gamification on Utility Value and Learning Performance 5) Sinead Impey, Gaye Stephens and Declan O’Sullivan. Proposed design requirements for a digital knowledge management game for nurses – lessons learned from The Nurses’ Knowledge Bank 6) Pierpaolo Dondio. Can a Maths Game Stimulate Spontaneous Home Practice? 7) Chloé Vigneau and Stéphanie Mader. Tangible Interfaces in Game Design Education: A Pilot Study on Learning 2D Level Design through Physical and Digital Tools 8) Cristiano França, Genesis Betencourt, Beatriz Peres, Pedro Campos and Frederica Gonçalves. Using Virtual Companions on Serious Games to Increase Knowledge and Immersion of Students 9) Brunella Botte, Francesca de Rosa, Giada Marinensi and Alessandro Rizzi. Towards Human-Game Interaction (HGI) 10) Frazen Tolentino-Zondervan, Margarita Bagamanova, Raul Casado Linares, Casper Draijer, Erik van den Thillart, Habiba Khan, Maarten van Amerom and Teresa Sanchez Rico. Gamification in international supply chain management: Impact on students’ engagement and performance 11) Aye Chan Zay Hta, Simon Campion, Georg Meyer, Craig Rothwell and Tony Smith. Clinical Avatar for Nerve Diagnosis & Instruction (CANDi): A Serious Game for Cranial Nerve Examination Training 12) Fatima Althani, Chris Madge and Massimo Poesio. How Puzzles and Emojis Impact Engagement in Gamified Text Annotation 13) Iulia Adina Zaha and Hanna Hauptmann. User Experience of Simulated Reality in Museums 14) Michael Kickmeier-Rust. Elucidating Learning Gains of Educational Games by Comparing Statistical and Structural Analyses 15) Filipe Tomé, Carla Ponte, Carlos Coelho, Pedro Ferreira, Rúben Campos, Ana Pires and Pedro Campos. Excellium: Designing a Psychological Visual Novel to Foster Reflection on University Students Mental Health 16) Barbara Göbl, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge and Heiko Duin. Integrating Participatory Design and Reuse in Serious Game Development 17) Élton Camacho, Pedro Campos and Paulo Bala. Social Anxiety in VR-CBT: Transformative Insights for College Students 18) Aslıhan İstanbullu, Şirin Küçük-Avcı and Murat Topal. Digital Game Mediation Through the Lens of Parental Mediation: Understanding Turkish Parents’ Ludo Literacy Perceptions 19) Daniela De Angeli, Daniel Finnegan and Lee Scott. An Integrative Process for Making Serious Games 20) Oguz Orkun Doma, Vanissa Wanick and Yuanyuan Yin. HLDD–STRIDES: A Conceptual Framework for Instructional Serious Games 21) Katerina Tsarava, Johannes Schubert, Manuel Ninaus, Korbinian Moeller, Mathias Benedek and Ann-Kathrin Jaggy. Design and Pilot Study of a Digital Gamified Assessment for Computational Creativity 22) Katharina Richter and Michael Kickmeier-Rust. When Does Gamification Help? Exploring Item-Level Effects on Physics Misconceptions 23) Bárbara Barroso, Inês Barbedo, Rita Costa and Cláudio Gonçalves. Fuelling creativity with Brainrot as a theme: Game Design Interdisciplinary Week |
| 15:30 – 15:45 | Coffee break |
| 15:45 – 17:00 | Session 3: Media and Cultural studies track & Application track (Session chair: Francesca de Rosa) 1) Aquila Wessels, Sander Bakkes and Julian Frommel. Feeling an Itch: A Systematic Review of Games for Mental Health on Itch.io 2) Thomas Widlok. Decolonizing Gaming 3) Janina Bittner, Greta Hoffmann, Ulrike Hoffmann and Joerg M. Fegert. “XXX” – a Serious Game to Raise Awareness of Perpetrator Strategies 4) Kevin Körner and Rena Nagata. Dragons in VR: Designing Visitor-Centered VR Exhibitions |
| — | Participants walk to AKIBA District game arcade (~15 minutes walk) |
| 18:00 – 20:00 | AKIBA District game arcade visit Everyone that wants to join is expected at the entrance of Akiba District at 18:00h. Directions: Enter the Hoog Catharijne mall via the entrance across address “Achter Clarenburg 21”, and take the escalator to the 1st floor. The Akiba District game arcade is directly on your right when leaving the escalator. |
Day 2
Thursday, November 20
| 09:30 – 10:45 | Session 4: Technology track (Session chair: Pierpaolo Dondio) 1) Angela Pasqualotto, Marios Fanourakis, Zeno Menestrina, Mor Nahum and Daphne Bavelier. Modeling Skill Progression in Children through Novel Multidimensional Human Psychology and the Player Experience: Leveraging Cognitive Biases Loss aversion is a core cognitive bias in human psychology. Simply stated, losses make people feel worse than gains make them feel better – the negative emotions from losing money, for example, are stronger than the positive emotions from gaining the same amount. Understanding this and other cognitive biases allows game designers to fine tune the emotional engagement and reactions of players to the ludic experience. This talk will survey a number of experiments exploring these biases and discuss how they have been used in various designs. The goal is to give a toolkit to the designer to craft mechanics and systems for specific effects.Probabilistic DDA 2) Gonzague Yernaux, Martin Verjans and Wim Vanhoof. Formalizing Escape Game Mechanics: A Graph-Theoretical Framework for Modeling and Analyzing Puzzle-Based Environments 3) David Widberg, Chelsea Hong, Linus de Petris, Markus Fiedler and Siamak Khatibi. Immersive Enhancement of Game Experience by Smell Sensing 4) Alexandre Isabelle, Frédéric Muhla, Mehdi Ammi, Yannick Francillette, Éric Desailly and Bob-Antoine Menelas. An Adaptive Therapeutic Serious Game Using Connected Toys for Pediatric Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation |
| 10:45 – 11:30 | Keynote Hannah Boeijkens (Session chair: Vanissa Wanick) On Metrics and Meaning: Combining scientific and experiential knowledge for impactful game design Is the impact of our games on players always clearly measurable? This talk dives into the gap between scientific knowledge and the richness of what players experience. Inspired by a classic thought experiment from neurophilosophy, we explore why knowing about something isn’t the same as living it—and why that matters in game design. While research often leans heavily on data and validation, the messy, meaningful experiences of players deserve careful attention. Through academic and industry examples on working with children with special needs, Hannah advocates for including participatory methods in research and design to create games that truly make a difference in the lives of our players. |
| 11:30 – 11:45 | Coffee break |
| 11:45 – 12:45 | Session 5: Educational Science track (Session chair: Manuel Ninaus) 1) Antero Lindstedt, Kristian Kiili and Manuel Ninaus. Towards valid stealth assessment: Developing a novel assessment mechanic for a fraction learning game 2) Cameron Marano, Megan Wiedbusch, Annamarie Brosnihan, Milouni Patel, James Lester and Roger Azevedo. Gaming the System or Learning? Understanding Self- Regulation through Learning Processes and Outcomes in Game-Based Learning 3) Katharina Richter, Michael Kickmeier-Rust and Dominik Tschirky. Gravitas: A Simulation-Based Learning Game for Diagnosing Misconceptions in Mechanics |
| 12:45 – 13:45 | Lunch break at lunchroom Carmel Market |
| 13:45 – 15:00 | Session 6: Game Design track (Session chair: Kristina Risley) 1) Sakura Mizobuchi and Hiroshi Suzuki. Design and Evaluation of “Sancoro Bingo”: An Interactive Game Encouraging Continued Participation Among Older Adults 2) Ilenius Ildephonce and Claudine Allen. Toward Prescriptive Design of Educational Games: Mapping Game Mechanics to Learning Elements through Literature and Expert Review 3) Antonio Bucchiarone, Francesca de Rosa and Alfonso Pierantonio. Jjodel for Serious Games: A Metamodel-Driven Vision for Assisted Game Design (Presentation removed from programme due to personal circumstances) |
| 15:00 – 15:45 | Keynote Geoff Engelstein (Session chair: Francesca de Rosa) Human Psychology and the Player Experience: Leveraging Cognitive Biases Loss aversion is a core cognitive bias in human psychology. Simply stated, losses make people feel worse than gains make them feel better – the negative emotions from losing money, for example, are stronger than the positive emotions from gaining the same amount. Understanding this and other cognitive biases allows game designers to fine tune the emotional engagement and reactions of players to the ludic experience. This talk will survey a number of experiments exploring these biases and discuss how they have been used in various designs. The goal is to give a toolkit to the designer to craft mechanics and systems for specific effects. |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | SGS General Assembly (Session chair: Francesco Bellotti) Held at Kromme Nieuwegracht 80, room 006 |
| 17:00 – 19:00 | Game Competition & Expo + Poster Exhibition (Session chair: Kristina Risley & René Röpke) |
| 19:30 – 20:00 | Welcome drink in Museum Speelklok (Café room) |
| 20:00 – 22:30 | Dinner in Museum Speelklok (“Danszaal”) |
Day 3
Friday, November 21
| 09:30 – 10:45 | Session 7: Educational Science track (Session chair: Manuel Ninaus) 1) Maral Karimi, Megan Wiedbusch, Natalie Blaize, James Lester and Roger Azevedo. Efficiency or Effectiveness in Game-Based Learning: Is Engagement Enough? 2) Martin Sillaots and Mikhail Fiadotau. The European Parliament Virtual Role-Play Game: Results of a Player Study 3) Antonio Bucchiarone, Simone Bassanelli and Tommaso Guidolin. Enhancing Student Engagement Through AI and Gamification: A Case Study of an Educational Platform 4) Kristina Risley, Vanissa Wanick, Richard Gomer and Christopher Buckingham. What Would Your Character Do? Emotional Intelligence, Psychological Safety and Identity in TTRPG Design |
| 10:45 – 11:30 | Keynote Hanneke Scholten (Session chair: Vanissa Wanick) The hybrid playground: Games as interactive spaces for discovery and identity development Young people increasingly grow up in a hybrid ecosystem where physical and digital environments intersect. The traditional playground, once central to development, now partly exists in digital spaces such as games. While often framed negatively in public debate, games—like classic play settings—offer valuable opportunities to practice skills. They support cognitive, social, and emotional growth and play a key role in shaping narrative identity during adolescence. Unlike passive media, games provide agency and immersive experiences that foster reflection and self-discovery. This talk examines how hybrid play spaces positively contribute to youth development and identity formation and how these spaces could be built in an evidence-based yet engaging way. |
| 11:30 – 11:45 | Coffee break |
| 11:45 – 12:45 | Session 8: Educational Science track & Game Design track (Session chair: Vanissa Wanick) 1) Jaron Müller. Videogames do belong in classrooms: Empirical insight into learning with narrative video games 2) Seyed Mahdi Seyedishandiz, Amirmohammad Dalvand, Sina Gholami Fashkhami, Amirali Hoseinnatajaghamaleki, Chiara Eva Catalano and Francesco Bellotti. MLOPOLY: a “Mod” for Machine Learning 3) Vittorio Murtas and Vincenzo Lombardo. Designing Cultural Heritage Serious Games with Generative AI: From Structured Frameworks to Playable Prototypes |
| 12:45 – 13:45 | Lunch break at lunchroom Carmel Market |
13:45 – 14:45 | Session 9: Application track (Session chair: Antonio Bucchiarone) 1) David Šosvald, Lukáš Kolek, Christelle Dethy, Emilie Divoy and Benjamin Wahl. Are narrative VR games effective in promoting positive attitudes embedded in museum educational missions? Results from a pilot study 2) Kenji Saito, Shinji Hatta, Yasuhiro Yoshimura and Toshiya Hanada. Learning to Govern the Orbital Commons: A Serious Game on Incentivizing Debris Removal 3) Dagh Zeppenfeld and Sebastian Schier-Morgenthal. A Serious Gaming Schematic Design for Efficient and Application-Specific Chatbot Validation on the Example of Air Traffic Control |
| 14:45 – 15:00 | Closing words + Award Ceremony (Session chair: Sander Bakkes) |
GALA Conf 2025 