Kazimierz Wielki University, Faculty of Cultural Studies, The University of Novi Sad, Academy of Arts, invite you to the Fourth International Video Game Studies Conference (SVI2025) Bydgoszcz, Poland December 1st-2nd 2025
GAME DESIGN STUDIES
The fourth edition of the SVI video game conference seeks to return to topics of game design and game analysis. Game design studies as a focal point for research means combining the theoretical backdrop and sensibilities of game analysis with an interest in better understanding the practice of game design. Within this frame, we include examinations
of game design as theory and practice, its historical developments, current challenges, and related theoretical frameworks such as game design patterns and core mechanical building blocks. We may also find concentrated efforts to analyse specific games at greater depth, whether through the framework of gameplay, narratology, or otherwise, as well as
explorations of game analysis methodologies. Finally, we may also examine longer-term trends, searching for stylistic, authorial and industrial influences across groups of games, or analogously, patterns and practices local to a specific country, geographic area or culture.
The SVI Conference, as always, aims to be a bridge between the academic and industrial worlds. Having originated at theAcademy of Arts in Novi Sad in Serbia, this year the conference is being co-organised with Kazimierz Wielki University, and will be held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Our two institutions are connected by a focus on practical training; our
students learn to design and to make games first, with game studies an important but secondary concern, allowing the practical to feed on the theoretical. Design feeds on analysis. We invite, therefore, analytical
scholarship concerning game structures, design philosophy, gameplay, game narrative and worldbuilding, as well as current and historical analyses of design and development practices – all with an eye towards providing insights for a new generation of game designers and developers.
Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:
Game analysis ●Game mechanics, rules, and games as ludological constructs ●Game narratological analysis ●Game settings as worlds ●Case studies of games as works of art ●Comparative studies of games ●Formal, stylistic, thematic and generic analyses of games ●Longitudinal analyses of game series or groupings ●Game analysis methodologies Game design ●Design-centric game analysis ●Game design patterns as objects of analysis ●Game design methodologies ●Game design history ●AI-assisted game design innovation ●Game design across game forms and genres ●Analysis of game design discourse ●Multidisciplinary aspects of game design Industrial & artistic contexts ●Game designers as auteurs ●Game studios as collective auteurs ●Consoles, platforms and technological influence on game design ●Local, national and international game industry histories ●The search for national “schools of game design” ●Game design education, past, present and future ●Games as objects of memory and cultural or technological heritage ●Political contexts and their influence on game development past and present
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Clara Fernández-Vara Associate Arts Professor, the Game Center New York University
Bruno Faidutti
Freelance boardgame designer of more than 40 board and card games
The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts of up to 300 words, with up to 5 keywords before September 30th, 2025 should be sent to (conference.svi /at/ gmail.com)
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<mailto:(conference.svi /at/ gmail.com)>