Games Beyond Entertainment
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
May 28-29, 2026
This symposium will be hybrid allowing for remote participation and will feature a Round Table format to promote critical discussion that will lead to collaborative projects and papers. Rather than proposing papers and presentations, participants should submit an abstract with ideas for one or more roundtables and bring experiences and thoughts to share in group discussions on a selection of topics. The final Round Table topics will be determined after participants have indicated their preferences on the registration form.
You are invited to share and showcase what’s happening in your departments, courses, studios, and labs right now, as well as what you imagine your work and the the future of games may look like. After the symposium, participants are strongly encouraged to collaborate on papers to be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Games and Social Impact.
Symposium Registration
Please register to attend by May 25, 2026
Register Today
Registration and Submission Guidelines
Since we plan to collaboratively develop papers using the symposium as a launch pad, the submission process begins with an abstract submitted before the conference and then continues after the conferences with paper submissions:
- Register by May 25, 2026
https://go.illinois.edu/PBD2026 - Submit Abstracts with ideas for Round Table discussions and subsequent papers. – Due April 10, 2026
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pbd26 - Final Program and selected abstracts notification – May 8, 2026
- View Program Agenda
- Final deadline for participation (without abstract submission) – May 15, 2026
https://go.illinois.edu/PBD2026 - Symposium – May 28-29, 2026
- Full Paper Submission – July 31, 2026
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pbd26 - Notification of Acceptance for the Journal – November 30, 2026
- Publication of Special Issue in International Journal of Games and Social Impact: March 2027
Questions?
All questions about submissions should be emailed to bievenue@illinois.edu
Organizing Committee
Lisa Bievenue
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, USA
João Alves de Sousa
Universidade Lusófona
Porto, Portugal
Yochanan Moran
Garinym, Lda.
Porto, Portugal
María Zapata Cáceres
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Madrid, Spain
Aarón Sújar Garrido
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Madrid, Spain
Baltasar Fernández-Manjón
Complutense Universidad
Madrid, Spain