JARPS 2025 – “Tools of the Trade: Props, Techniques, and Inspirations for Analog Role-Playing”

Game in Lab supports the conference “Neuropsychological intervention with modern board games.” at the Educator’s Day, SPIEL, on Friday 24 October, at 4:30 pm, Hall 4.   Learn about play and learning! Modern board games go beyond mere entertainment: they engage essential skills, necessary to learn and adapt. Game in Lab invites you to explore how scientific research sheds light on the links between board games and the development of cognitive skills.   Through Prof. Jorge Moya-Higueras and Dr. Nuria Vita-Barrull’s studies, discover how gameplay influences learning, concentration, and group dynamics, with concrete findings that can inspire players, game designers, and any curious mind!

Analog Game Studies and Game in Lab are happy to announce the return of Generation Analog for the fifth year in a row. The online event is free and open to the public with registration. All presentations will be recorded and made available after the event AGS YouTube’s channel.   This edition will explore Punk through games. Questionning Punk attitude, aesthetics, mode, legacy and histories in play. The conference will examine mechanics, genres, platforms, stories embracing the Punk spirit.   The event also aims to to highlight recover, remember, and reinvigorate the stories, voices, bodies, places, practices, and play of those forgotten and marginalized. Give back a place to forms of play and universes too often set aside, promoting alternative, subversive or experimental dynamics of play.   Generation Analog 2025 is open to researchers, teachers, artists, professionals and curious minds altogether!

The Manchester Game Centre and Game in Lab, in collaboration with DVRK – the Dark Arts Research Kollective, are proud to present Multiplatform 2025, a symposium exploring the intersections of games, play, and contemporary occulture. Held at the Burgess Foundation and the MMU Arts and Humanities Building on 12–13 June 2025, this edition focuses on the ritualistic and speculative dimensions of play and how they can help shape alternative social, political, and cultural futures. Bringing together academics, designers, engineers, and artists, Multiplatform 2025 examines how games are increasingly entangled with mysticism, esotericism, and ritual. From analog role-playing games to immersive digital experiences, the symposium explores how these practices enable forms of worldbuilding that go beyond narratives and offer new perspectives on play and society. Participants will have the opportunity to experience The Museum of Lost Futures, an immersive game experience, and to attend talks by leading figures such as Jeff Howard, Associate Professor of Games and Occulture at Falmouth University, and Rob Donkin, game designer of Strange Horticulture. Researchers, designers, educators, artists, students, and all curious minds are invited to register and delve into the mysteries of games and occult play.