Rowan Daneels

Interested in the social impact of video games? Want to understand how games can make our world better? Attend this webinar at @uniofbathsom.bsky.social on 13/11! Special guests include experts @drkowert.bsky.social & @kathrynbfrancis.bsky.social! Pls share www.bath.ac.uk/events/explo... #videogames

Looking forward to the next DiGRA Belgium Symposium: Namur on December 19! Thanks to @ypsenn.bsky.social and Pierre-Yves Houlmont for organizing!

3 Postdoctoral Researchers (cultural game studies) / 3 tutkijatohtoria (kulttuurinen pelitutkimus)

A reminder of our open call for postdoctoral researchers focusing on cultural game studies, closing on Friday this week, 31 October at 23.59.00 EET / UTC+2 (Finland time): tuni.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index...

YouTube video by Psychgeist The Psychgeist of Pop Culture | The Legend of Zelda

It's dangerous to go alone. Take this.

youtube.com/shorts/vp8Gb...

Super happy to see this chapter published!

Anisha and I discuss how 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 & 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 are represented in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Link to the book (FREE): playstorypress.org/books/the-ps...

@annayahprosser.bsky.social @drkowert.bsky.social

A book called the Psychgeist of pop culture, the legend of Zelda sitting on top five other books in the same series. The background is a mountain landscape.

The latest #Psychgeist entry has arrived!

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA 🗡️

I’m SO excited to read it this weekend ♥️

Thank you @annayahprosser.bsky.social @drkowert.bsky.social 🙏

YouTube video by Psychgeist The Psychgeist of Pop Culture | The Last of Us

NEW PUBLICATION ALERT ✨ The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Last of Us is here!

As always, free to download but who wouldn't want that beautiful cover on their shelf?! #TLOU

www.youtube.com/shorts/pdS0R...

A graph titled Scope of video games according to Hushcrasher Classification System. The Y axis shows Game Size (from 10 MB to 100GB), the X axis shows Credits count (sourced from Mobygames). The clustered dots on the graph represent 4 distinct scale categories of games - Kei, Midi, AA, AAA. The larger correlation between the size and the credits means larger category of a game.

I love this analytical take on video game categorization from Antoine Mayerowitz and Julie Belzanne:

hushcrasher.substack.com/p/taxonomy-o...

Instead of trying to vibe-intuit the definition of an "indie" game, the authors analyzed the data from the perspective of game size and credits length

#GameUXsummit '25 was a blast! SO MANY GREAT TALKS (see gamaste.net/game-ux-summ...)

I presented my research on how players' personal, social, and game-related factors impact 𝐄𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬.

A huge thanks to the organizers! @gameuxsummit.com @celiahodent.com AP Hogeschool & Gamaste

It’s a wrap for the #GameUXsummit ‘25! Thank you so much everyone and see y’all next year ☺️

Photo of David Sears presenting his title slide

This is already our last session at the #GameUXsummit… Our keynote speaker today is David Sears, creative director (most recently on South of Midnight) and writer. He takes us on a journey: “Life takes you to unexpected places, love brings you home”.

Photo of Jennifer Lufau presenting her title slide

We now welcome on stage Jennifer Lufau, Authenticity consultant and Founder of @afrogameuses.bsky.social. She talks about “Demystifying Sensitivity Reading to create better games”.
#GameUXsummit

Photo of Artem Ivanov and Dmitrii Sokolov presenting their title slide

Now at the #GameUXsummit we listen to insights from Artem Ivanov & Dmitrii Sokolov (user researchers at Wargaming on the World of Warship franchise). They talk about “Making sense of player satisfaction: Why it matters and how to measure it”.

Colleen Macklin and Ben Van Buren presenting in front of an auditorium.

First session of the afternoon at the #GameUXsummit: Colleen Macklin and Ben Van Buren, coming all the way from New York City (Parsons School of Design)! They talk about “Perception in Virtual Worlds: Psychology and design students collaborate to study user experience in videogames”.

Photo of a video playing Maria Amirkhanyan’s slides (the slide shown introduces her)

It’s Pecha Kucha time at the #GameUXsummit! Our first PK speaker, Maria Amirkhanyan (Head of Gaming Division at Duamentes) wasn’t sadly able to join us because of extremely frustrating visa issues. But she recorded her talk “Make me stay, don’t make me play” so that we can still hear her insights.

Photo of Holger Wurst presenting his title slide

Next up at the #GameUXsummit: Holger Wurst (Lead UX designer at Wooga) talks about “Changing the FTUE* after 7 years live: Lessons from June’s Journey”

*First-Time User Experience

Photo of Kamila Isaeva presenting her title slide

Our next speaker is Kamila Isaeva, senior UX researcher at Wargaming (in collaboration with Rich Davis, research supervisor). Her talk is about biometrics: “EEG or not EEG? Reflections on Using Biometrics in Game UX Research”.
#GameUXsummit

Photo of Mike Ambinder presenting his title slide

Next up at the #GameUXsummit: Mike Ambinder (founder & chief research officer at Cognitive Experiences) talking about “A Science of Game Design”.

Time for some SCIENZZZZ!!! 😊

Photo of Daekeon Kim in front of the auditorium presenting the title slide

Photo of Mihyun Ko showing a slide presenting herself

Welcome to Day 2 of the #GameUXsummit! Daekon Kim and Mihyun Ko (Product designers at Ubisoft) are kicking off the day. Their talk is about “Surviving the Game Production Wild: Essential tips for internal tool design”.
#GameUXsummit

Photo of all the speakers and attendees in the amphitheater. People look like they are cheering and joyful.

And.. that’s a wrap for Day 1 of the #GameUXsummit! Thanks again to all speakers, organizers, sponsors, volunteers, and attendees! ❤️
See you tomorrow ☺️

For those who cannot be with us, you can follow this great thread by Robin-Yann Storm! ☺️
#GameUXsummit

Photo of Olivier Nourry on stage with a slide presenting him and Alice Grégoire

Our next speaker is Olivier Nourry, Chief #a11y Officer (Games Accessibility Hub), in collaboration with Alice Grégoire (Producer at Abiding Bridge): “Wordatro: From awesome to awesome AND accessible”.
#GameUXsummit

Photo of Alex Tokmakchiev presenting his title slide.

Next up at the #GameUXsummit: Alex Tokmakchiev (senior UI/UX designer at Raw Power Games), talking about “Applying object-oriented ux design to break up complex game systems”.

Picture of Corinna Rath presenting her title slide

Corinna Rath is giving the last Pecha Kucha session of the day: “Some learnings while developing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew”
#GameUXsummit

Laura and Sven on stage presenting the title slide

And now, our AP University hosts Laura Herrewijn and Sven Charleer are doing their Pecha Kucha on “From game metrics to meaning: designing ux across play, learning, and XR”
#GameUXsummit

Photo of Morgane Ruiz introducing her talk, with her title slide displayed.

Now that our bellies are full, we listen to our next speaker: Morgane Ruiz (lead user researcher), talking about Leveling up game ux research with ludology and play theory.
#GameUXsummit

Never said that many words in such a small amount of time 😅 #GameUXsummit

Photo of Jess Butler presenting her title slide

Coming all the way from Canada, Jess Butler (Presentation Directeur at @hinterland.bsky.social) talks about her work on The Long Dark: A UX permaculture for genre-defining survival games. Now at the #GameUXsummit!

Photo of Jean Luc Potte presenting his title slide: I have no buy-in and I must UX: lessons learned from being the new team at 4 different studios

Now on the #GameUXsummit stage we listen to Jean-Luc Potte (researcher, ex Rockstar Games) sharing the lessons he learned (including existential ones) from working at 4 different studios as the new team!

Photo of Samuel Austin presenting in front of the audience at a University amphitheater

Our first speaker at the #GameUXsummit is Samuel Austin, UX designer at NetEase Games, talking about Cross-Cultural Game UX Design: Lessons adapting between China and the West.