This article addresses common questions on integrating serious gaming into your research project. Learn how co-creation and iterative processes can improve data collection and increase the chances of your research results benefiting people and society.

On October 18, 2024, the final conference of the GRACING project took place in Harghita County, Romania. Representing 8D, designer Bas Altenburg and Sven Snoek attended to share our expertise in design thinking and game-based approaches. Our goal: to support heritage professionals in developing sustainable, playful approaches to heritage preservation. The conference showcased five pilot projects that demonstrated how the best practices and e-learning module, to which we contributed, have been put into practice by local heritage professionals.

Due to the considerable interest from agricultural education, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences decided to produce additional copies of the board game “To Table” and also link a usage course to it. On Thursday, December 1, the first students got to work with the game.

Nienke Beerlage-de Jong is Assistant Professor at the University of Twente and a researcher in the field of infectious diseases and One Health, a field in which human, animal and planetary health are closely linked. She worked with 8D on a serious game about complex decision-making in zoonoses, diseases that can pass from humans to animals.

The Center for Language and Speech Technology at Radboud University Nijmegen and the game company 8D Games collaborated to investigate the possibilities of speech technology within games that promote reading and speaking skills. During the project, the game concept and functional prototype DigiJuf was developed and tested at various stages with children in elementary schools.

Software Engineer Sietse Hoekstra talks about the application of geodata in games, using the edugame The Lost Collection as an example. What are the possibilities of this combination?

Design-driven research: what is the added value? Successful implementation of research results requires a perfect balance between user, the form of the intervention and the context in which it will be used. When all these elements are well aligned, research results end up where they really make a difference: in the middle of society.

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of Erasmus+ projects. For those unaware; projects under the Erasmus+ programme are aimed at solving…

8D is working on a co-creative design process within the research partnership ‘VR4eVR’, which includes the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Royal Visio, and a range of healthcare providers and academic institutions.

In collaboration with educational partners from Romania, Cyprus, Estonia, and the Netherlands, 8D Games is working on the “Growth Game” – an innovative way to promote the growth mindset among primary school students. The game, inspired by the theory of renowned psychologist Carol Dweck, is expected to be launched in the spring of 2024.

Discover how serious gaming is revolutionizing research and get inspired. In this blog, we highlight innovative projects where game development intersects with scientific inquiry. Learn how co-creation, prototyping, and even educational board games are transforming data collection and target group participation within the research field. Whether you’re exploring behavior change, knowledge transfer, or engaging target groups, our examples showcase the immense potential of using design principles as a research tool.

As an employer or manager, how can you contribute to better inclusion of people with autism in the labor market? The European project ASES revolves around this question. Within the consortium, we are developing a game that teaches managers how to take ASD into account during a job interview.

Cross-continental game development: how does it work and what can we learn from each other? Let’s have a chat about this with Giel Hekkert (8D Games) and Eyram Tawia (Leti Arts). They are currently working on Shkorey, an informative game about sexual health, pregnancy and birth care.

So who are these people who build bridges between science, technology and social issues? That is what we will be asking a number of partners in the near future. Lise Beumeler – PhD researcher at
RuG Campus Fryslân – kicks off the interview.