On April 16, GI alumni, and full-time game designer at Wiggles 3D, AC Atienza’s latest boardgame One-Hit Heroes quickly surpassed its Kickstarter goal of CA$30,000 within an amazing 30 minutes. By May 16th at the end of the campaign, Wiggles 3D’s Kickstarter for the game reached a final total of CA$296,467 with the support of 3465 backers.
CHI 2024 ran from May 11 - 16, and many GI members attend to present their papers, in-progress studies, and projects.
On April 4th, GI member and visiting PhD candidate Bruna Oliveira presented her ongoing PhD research into exploring how children use digital technologies and how it impacts their understanding of play and building friendships.
Games Institute (GI) members are no strangers to the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), and this year is no different with two GI alums, Alexandra Orlando and Tina Chan, leading sessions about their ongoing work within the games industry.
On March 16, Dr. Shana MacDonald (Communication Arts) spoke with Joe Scarpelli on Global News about the recent social media controversy surrounding Kate Middleton Princess of Wales.
Congratulations to the following GI faculty members for securing $565,580 in Tri-Agency funding for their research projects!
Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole (Communication Arts) received an Insight Development Grant for their project "Disabled Feminists and Digital Storytelling: Zine-Making Pandemic Lives" ($21,330).
Dr. Lai-Tze Fan (Sociology and Legal Studies) is a collaborator on the Insight Development Grant "Digital Imaginations and the Decameron Storyworld" ($66,750).
Dr. Lennart Nacke (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) received an NSERC Discovery Grant for his project "Engineering Novel Game Technology To Improve People's Lives" ($52,000 per term for five terms totalling $260,000).
Dr. Ville Makela (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) received an NSERC Discovery Grant for his project "Developing Technologies for Bringing Physical Objects into Virtual Reality" ($41,000 per term for five terms totalling $205,000 + $12,500 for the Discovery Launch Supplement).
Visiting scholar, Eléa Thuilier (University of Galway) presented her research to the Waterloo community at the Games Institute which focuses on designing and assessing virtual rehabilitation through Exergames for people with Osteoporosis.
Members of The First Three Years Project PhD candidate Kenzie Gordon (University of Alberta), Dr. Jennifer Whitson (Sociology & Legal Studies), Dr. Johanna Weststar (Western University), and Dr. Sean Gouglas (University of Alberta) published an op-ed in The Conversationto unpack why so many layoffs are currently happening in the games industry.
GI Faculty Member and Canada Research Chair (CRC) Dr. Lai-Tze Fan (Sociology and Legal Studies) recently appeared on a panel hosted by the TRuST Scholarly Network in collaboration with the Perimeter Institute and on the CTV news show The Mike Farwell Show to discuss her work on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI).
Series editors Drs. Neil Randall (Executive Director) and Steve Wilcox (Alum) have already published two new edited collections as part of their Palgrave Games in Context series this year. Previous publications in the series have spoken on aspects of feminism within games, theory and practice within tabletop roleplaying communities, and critical reflections on games like Minecraft. The two latest additions to the series continue the critical examination of games within the context of our culture, technology, politics, and more.