The main conference will take place at the Richmond Event Centre located at this address:
No.1 North Brunswick Street, D07 TH76
The Game exhibition and Competition witll take place at TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus in Dublin, Ireland located at this address:
Central Quad, Grangegorman Lower, Dublin 7, D07 H6K8
The two locations are 10 mins away walking.
The conference proceedings are available for conference participants from Springer publisher.
| Day 1, Wednesday, November 29 | |
| 09:00 – | Registration opens (it will be possible to register all day) |
| 09:45 – 12:00 | Workshop Hands on Godot Game Engine Workshop Dr. Bryan Duggan, TU Dublin This workshop is a hands on introduction to Godot for game development and research, delivered by Dr Bryan Duggan from TU Dublin. Godot is a free, open-source, lightweight but powerful game engine for developing complex mobile, PC, 2D, 3D and VR projects. Godot has comparable functionality to commercial Game Engines such as Unity or Unreal but comes with a small download size of just 100Mb, and a fast workflow that make it ideal for creative projects, classroom teaching, and research. It has many advanced capabilities, such as a unique node system for organising 2D and 3D scenes, built in code editing and debugging, and the ability to hot reload code into a running project. The editor can run efficiently on low end student laptops, and even a mobile phone running Godot engine can be used can develop VR projects using the Godot XR toolkit. Dr Bryan Duggan has been teaching Game Development, Creative Coding and VR for 23 years. Last year he switched from Unity to Godot after 8 years of work with Unity. In this workshop will share his experience on the process of switching engine, and he invites participants to be part of the future of open-source games education. |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00 – 13:15 | Opening Words |
| Session 1 // Serious Games for Instruction (1) Session Chair: Mariana Rocha | |
| 13:15 – 14:25 | Ying-Dong Liu, Bertrand Marne, Iza Marfisi-Schottman, Tiphaine Galpin and Aurore Caruso EscapeCell: Serious Game Integration to a University Biology Course on an E-learning Platform Thomas Bjørner, Nick Büchmann Blume, Nicolaj Junget Dehn Frederiksen, Victor Søllingvraa Hjort, Amalie Fransiska Heugert Mørck and Martin Øhlers Petersen An engaging serious game that strengthens high school students’ understanding of the periodic table Kevin Körner, Patrick Muczczek and Jana Knickrehm Yabusame!!! – Historical Japanese cross scroll meets VR Yimin Zhou, Merlijn Mac Gillavry, Pengzhi Yang, Zihao Xu, Baitian Zhang and Rafael Bidarra Astral Body: a virtual reality game for body ownership investigation |
| 14:25 – 14:45 | Coffee break and snacks |
| 14:45 – 15:30 | KEYNOTE Speaker: Prof. Luca Chittaro Creating successful serious games for safety: a behind-the-scenes account of how we appealed to millions of players |
| Session 2 // User experience, user analysis and user assessment in Serious Games Session Chair: Francesca De Rosa | |
| 15:30 – 16:40 | Rosa Lilia Segundo Díaz, Gustavo Rovelo, Miriam Bouzouita, Veronique Hoste and Karin Coninx The Influence of Personality Traits and Game Design Elements on Player Enjoyment: An Empirical Study in GWAP for Linguistics Gerda Huber and David Rueckel UX and Serious Games – A Research Agenda Pierpaolo Dondio Does playing video games give a child an advantage in game-based learning? Alessandro Pighetti, Luca Forneris, Francesco Bellotti, Alessio Capello, Marianna Cossu, Giuseppe Gioco and Riccardo Berta A Teacher-Configurable Scoring System for Serious Games |
| Game Competition, Game and Poster Exhibition @ TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus (food Reception included). | |
| 18:15 – 19:00 | KEYNOTE Speaker: Brenda Romero The expressive power of Video Games for Education |
| 19:00 – 21:00 | Game Exhibition and Poster Session Food reception |
| 21:00 – 21:20 | Game Competition Awards Ceremony |
| Day 2, Thursday, November 30 | |
| 8:45 – | Registration Opens |
| Session 3 // Evaluating and Assessing Serious Games elements Session Chair: Manuel Ninaus | |
| 09:00 – 10:10 | Hubert Cecotti, Louis van der Putten, Robin Coste and Michael Callaghan Assessment of Input Modalities for Control and Accessibility in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Educational Game Santiago Góngora, Luis Chiruzzo, Gonzalo Méndez and Pablo Gervás Skill Check: Some Considerations on the Evaluation of Gamemastering Models for Role-playing Games Michael Riesner A Comprehensive Classification of the Elements in Video Games – Explorative, Ludic, Narrative, Sociable Daniel Majonica, Nardie Fanchamps, Deniz Iren and Roland Klemke Exploring Immersive Learning Environments in Human-Robot Interaction Use Cases |
| 10:10 – 10:30 | Coffee break and snacks |
| BEST PAPER AWARD SESSION (5 papers and 20 minutes allocated to each paper) Session Chair: Iza Marfisi-Schottman | |
| 10:30 – 12:10 | Stefan Huber, Antero Lindstedt, Kristian Kiili and Manuel Ninaus Are game elements fueling learners’ motivation via positive affect? Francesca de Rosa, Mark Escott, Douglas Havron, Desmar Walkes and Lauren Ancel Mayers The C3C Game: Serious Games and Community-Centered Design for Improved Pandemic Decision Making Pierpaolo Dondio, Mariana Rocha, Andre Almo, Ephrem Tibebe, Maira Amaral and Attracta Brennan Not (only) a matter of position: player traits which influence the experience with the leaderboard in a digital maths game Daryn Dever, Megan Wiedbusch, Saerok Park, Andrea Llinas, James Lester and Roger Azevedo Assessing the Complexity of Gaming Mechanics during Science Learning Nádia Pereira, Paula Ferreira, Sofia Francisco and Ana Margarida Veiga Simão Pro(f)Social: A serious game to counter cyberbullying |
| 12:10 – 13:10 | Lunch |
| Session 4 // Serious Games for Health, Wellbeing and Social Impact Session Chair: Avo Schönbohm | |
| 13:10 – 14:40 | Mirka Leino, Taina Jyräkoski, Tommi Lehtinen, Jussi-Pekka Aaltonen, Sandra Herrnegger, Johanna Virkki and Sari Merilampi JOYRIDE: Mobile Robot-Integrated Gamified Exercise Tour for Increasing Physical Activity Among Elderly People Kazuhisa Miwa Does Players’ Prosocial Behavior in Computer Game Predict Their Well-being in Real Life? Vanissa Wanick, Cara Black, Craig Hutton, Mary Barker and Adam Watts Balancing inequalities: a board game for young people from coastal communities to discuss plausible futures Charlotta Elo, Tiina Ihalainen, Tanja Vihriälä and Johanna Virkki The Gamification Elements Speech-Language Pathologists Use to Motivate Children for Speech Therapy Training Fahad Ahmed, Riccardo Berta, Francesco Bellotti, Federica Floris, Luca Lazzaroni, Giacinto Barresi and Jesus Requena Carrión Application of a Serious Game for Emotion Elicitation under Socio-Economic and Trust based Decision-Making Scenarios for Autistic Adolescents |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Coffee break and snacks |
| Session 5 // Serious Games for Instructions (2) Session Chair: Ciarán O’Leary | |
| 15:00 – 15:50 | Peadar Callaghan and Mikhail Fiadotau Using Meaningful Choices and Uncertainty to Increase Player Agency in a Cybersecurity Seminar Game Rene Roepke and Johannes Ballmann Towards a Competitive Two-Player Anti-Phishing Learning Game Barrie Robison and Terence Soule The design and implementation of biological evolution as a video game mechanic. |
| 15:50 – 16:00 | Coffee break |
| Session 6 // Serious Games for Instructions (3) Session Chair: Attracta Brennan | |
| 16:00 – 16:50 | Sinead Impey, Gaye Stephens and Declan O’Sullivan The nurse’s knowledge bank: A serious knowledge elicitation and evaluation game Zhixin Li and Sharon Jessica eKinomy: Designing a serious game to promote economic decision-making skills from elementary level Steven Hawthorn, Rui Jesus and Maria Ana Baptista A Transferable Serious Game Model for Natural Hazard Risk Communication: Evaluation of a tsunami-focused prototype |
| 17:00 – 18:15 | SGS General Assembly |
| 19:30 | Conference Dinner @ Arlington Hotel (address: 23-25 Bachelors Walk, O’Connell Bridge, North City, Dublin 1) |
| Day 3, Friday, December 1 | |
| 8:45 – | Registration Opens |
| Session 7 // Serious Games and Game Design Session Chair: Michael Kickmeier-Rust | |
| 09:00 – 10:10 | David Baberowski, Thiemo Leonhardt and Nadine Bergner Inside the System – Designing VR Serious Games for Computer Science Education Bérénice Lemoine and Pierre Laforcade Generator of Personalised Training Games Activities: A Conceptual Design Approach Pelin Celik Haptic Recording Experience The Iceberg Model as a Serious Game for Decision Making in Systemic Design Oriented Leadership (SDOL) Bérénice Lemoine and Pierre Laforcade Mapping Facts to Concrete Game Elements for Generation Purposes: A Conceptual Approach |
| 10:10 – 10:55 | KEYNOTE speaker: Prof. Alf Inge Wang Games in the classroom, game+ and startups |
| 10:55 – 11:15 | Coffee break and snacks |
| Session 8 // Game Design and User Analysis in Serious Games Session Chair: Rene Roepke | |
| 11:15 – 12:25 | Michael Kickmeier-Rust, Corsin Niggli and Katharina Richter An Introduction to Game-based Competence Assessment Based on Cognitive Diagnostic Models Fazilat Hojaji, Adam J. Toth, John M. Joyce and Mark Campbell An AI Approach for Analyzing Driving Behaviour in Simulated Racing Using Telemetry Data Georgios Thoma, Korbinian Moeller, Manuel Ninaus and Julia Bahnmueller Collectible content – Towards a modular ecosystem of intrinsically integrated gameplay S M Musfequr Rahman, Asif Shaikh, Henna Mattila, Tarmo Lipping, Merilampi Sari, Pasi Raumonen and Johanna Virkki A Hat-Integrated HCI System – Proof-of-Concept Applications in Focus Detection and Game Controlling |
| 12:25 – 12:50 | Closing Words Next GALA conference location Best Paper Award Presentation |
| 13:00 – | Lunch and Networking |
List of Posters (Wednesday 29th November, 19:00-21:00)
- André Almo, Mariana Rocha, Attracta Brennan and Pierpaolo Dondio: A game design-centric taxonomy for feedback features in digital serious games
- Sari Merilampi, Taina Jyräkoski, Anja Poberznik, Nina Karttunen, Toni Seessalo, Johanna Virkki and Tarmo Lipping: Gamified Wearable EEG Technology to Support Controlling of Cognitive Load after Brain Injury
- Avo Schönbohm and Jan-Henrik Walter: Future Blocks: Sci-Fi Storytelling as a Serious Game for Leadership Development
- Tobias Grubenmann and Francesco Shankar: Astera, an Educational Game about the Evolution of Galaxies
- Stefan Bodenschatz, Tilo Mentler and Christof Rezk-Salama: A Security-Focused Architecture for Gameplay Telemetry in Serious Games
- Antti Koivisto, Sari Merilampi, Darija Marković, Johanna Virkki and Mirka Leino: Game-based Teaching Scenarios in Upper Secondary Mathematics Teaching – European User Experiences
- Georgios Liapis, Katerina Zacharia, Kejsi Rrasa and Ioannis Vlahavas: Serious Escape Room Game for Personality Assessment
- Elena Shliakhovchuk and Miguel Chover Selles: Appling a Solution-Focused Approach (SFA) to Overcoming Barriers in Integrating Video Games into the Classroom
- Mariana Rocha and Paul Doyle: BlendMaster: a collaborative board game for training teachers in Blended Learning
- Sören Aguirre Reid, Richard Lackes, Markus Siepermann, Georg Vetter and Wladimir Wenner: Oral Examinations Simulator – An Intelligent Tutoring Tool to reduce Oral Exam Anxiety
- Mamoudou Ndiaye, Fabrice Pirolli and Raphaëlle Crétin-Pirolli: The digital Serious Games, a specific educational resource: Analysing teachers and educational engineer’s information seeking behaviour using the Concept of Information Horizons.
- Erik McGuire and Noriko Tomuro: What can you do with a sword? Gender biases in text game affordances
- Pheobe Sun, Flavia Santos and Andrew Hines: Browser-based game design for cognitive effort aware quality of experience evaluation
- Francesco Floris, Valeria Fradiante, Marina Marchisio Conte and Sergio Rabellino: Design Gamification Strategies in a Digital Learning Environment: the impact on students
GALA Conf 2025 