About

Games: Research and Practice publishes major contributions to games and playable media that are practically useful and grounded in robust evidence and argument. A quarterly peer-reviewed online journal published jointly by the ACM and ETC Press, it offers a lighthouse for games research – a central reference point that defines the state of the art on games and playable media, bridging academic research and industry practice. 

Inclusive in community, discipline, method, and game form, it publishes major reviews, tutorials, and advances on games and playable media, alongside case studies, opinions, and dialogues on new developments that will change games. It embraces open science and scholarship and actively champions new and underrepresented voices.

Scope

Games: Research and Practice publishes major contributions to games and playable media that are practically useful and grounded in robust evidence and argument. We especially invite submissions on the following topics, which reflect major research and practice communities and are covered by Associate Editors in our Editorial Board:

    AI and Data: AI, data science, and visual analytics in games and playable media
    Alt.Play: Novel, critical, alternative, and boundary-crossing phenomena and interventions in games and playable media
    Applied Gaming: Serious games, gamification, and game- and play-based interventions in education, health, and other domains
    Audiences and Communities: Community management, content moderation, community health and safety, Esports, streaming, and players as producers
    Audio and Music: Music and sound design and technology for games and playable media
    Business and Production: Business, marketing, monetisation models, production processes, structures, workflows and life cycles for games and playable media, including analyses of industry shifts, production cultures, and working conditions
    Computing: Architectures, engines, operations, and tools for game and playable media development
    Design: Principles, methods, and practices of designing games and playful experiences
    Education: Teaching and learning game and playable media design, development, research and scholarship
    Graphics: Graphics algorithms, techniques, rendering and pipelines for games and playable media
    Hardware and haptics: Computing devices, controllers, sensors, actuators, peripherals, and haptics for games and playable media
    Immersive Experiences and Future Realities: Embodied, extended (AR/XR/VR), persistent and shared realities in games
    Inclusive Gaming: Accessibility, localization, culturalization, and inclusion and diversity, making games and playable media welcoming for all
    Ethical, Political, and Societal Issues: Ethical, political, and societal issues and impacts of games and playable media, their industries and communities 
    Narrative: Narrative design and technology for games and playable media
    Simulation: Games physics and physical authoring in games
    Game User Research and Player Experience: Understanding, studying, and modeling players, their experience and behavior
    Visual Arts: Visual design and art direction for games and playable media