Tracks
The theme for this conference is “New Beginnings”. The world has just faced a pandemic and continues to face mounting crises and uncertainty. More than ever, digital games need to contribute to bringing cultures and generations together. This edition of FDG also marks something of a new beginning since this is the first time FDG will be held in Spring instead of in the Fall. FDG 2023’s theme of New Beginnings is all about challenging current practices in user studies, game technology, game design and evaluation, reaching deeper understandings of user experiences, and fostering better representation and inclusivity in playable media. Generally, “New Beginnings” in FDG also means valuing contributions such as surveys and meta-reviews of past work and can work as a framing for vision papers related to the current and future societal and cultural needs.
Topics
Technical Game Development, Novel Controllers
This track is for research that advances game development practices. This track is suitable for papers on game engines, frameworks, computer graphics techniques, rendering, animation, networking, novel interaction techniques (such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and alternate controllers) and other technical areas. Furthermore, the submission of work focusing on the development of novel hardware interfaces are also welcome. This track focuses on the technological aspects of game development and offers a venue for researchers and developers to share technological advancements of the field. Please consider that papers that focus more on Artificial Intelligence, or Player Analytics should be submitted in their respective tracks.
Game Design, Studio Practices, Novel Mechanics, Novel Experiences
This track is for papers that examine, validate, and refute game making practices, patterns, mechanics, dynamics, or aesthetics. This track also favors alternative methods of game design, practical examinations of user-testing protocols, exploration of alternative controllers, study on human-computer interaction in games and the empirical analysis of game-making processes, and more. Methods in submissions can include case studies, A/B testing, literature reviews, comparative analysis, and other appropriate efforts. This track focuses on game design and the influence of games, their mechanics or alternative controller systems on players, and different methods for playtesting.
Game Analytics and Visualization
This track invites authors to submit research related to data science, analytics, and game data visualization, as well as analyzing player behavior. Techniques such as player modeling, churn analysis, player profiling, business intelligence and performance evaluation or workflow optimization applied to the field of digital games, are all suitable submissions for this track. Submissions spanning across quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method approaches are also encouraged. Novel methodological approaches are valued in this track. Examples of encouraged and valued submissions include game data visualization; behavioral analysis (or other) game data; advances in methodological approaches that analyze and/or visualize game data; application or expanding novel statistical methods; machine learning such as deep learning, clustering, or other AI algorithms; game data mining; and novel visualization and analytical methods for game data.
Game Artificial Intelligence
This track focuses on the many applications of computational and artificial intelligence to the design, play, development, and improvement of games, as well as autonomous game testing. Relevant topics for submissions in this track include general game-playing AI, procedural and player-driven content generation, mixed-initiative authoring tools, computational narrative, believable agents, multi-agent systems and AI assisted game design. This track also encourages authors to push the boundaries of autonomous content generation such as game content orchestration, procedural game assets (e.g., audio, graphics, or game mechanics), computational creativity and affective computing within the context of digital games. This track focuses on more experimental technically driven aspects of game development, such as developing algorithms capable of automating certain aspects of games, systems that dynamically influence certain aspects of play or tools that actively help developers during the development process.
Game Criticism and Analysis
This track invites submissions with perspectives in the digital humanities, cultural studies, critical theory, and related fields. Submissions are encouraged from scholars engaging in narrative, visual and software studies approach to games and games criticism using methodologies such as archival research, hermeneutics, and oral history. This track will also consider critical, theoretical and/or historical analysis of games, and game genres from perspectives such as (but not limited to) postcolonial theory, feminism, historicism, subaltern studies, queer theory, the environmental humanities, and psychoanalysis. Socio-cultural critiques of the game-making culture are equally encouraged submissions for this track.
Games Beyond Entertainment
This track is dedicated to game inclusion, game accessibility, and game development for activism, citizenship, health, games as therapy, education, heritage, and other purposes beyond entertainment. Digital, mixed, analog, and locative games and play-spaces are all relevant to this track. Co-creation, participatory design, and game creation kits are relevant for this track. For games in education and training, this includes teaching and assessment methods, tools and techniques, and educational game-related programs.
Late Breaking Short Papers
This track is an amalgam of all previous tracks, focusing on smaller scale studies, work in progress, vision studies and tools/artifacts related to digital game research. Papers in this track will be 4 pages in the final double column format (including references). All papers will be included in the official ACM FDG 2023 proceedings.
Workshop Proposals
FDG 2023 provides venues to host a series of full-day or half-day workshop sessions, focused on current and emerging game-related topics. Workshops are an opportunity to discuss, present, and demonstrate new technological developments, emerging technologies, specific research topics and game-related topics. We especially encourage workshops and topics that involve participants from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, towards strengthening interdisciplinarity in games research.
Workshop proposals should be concise (2-4 pages, excluding references, in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template) and include: a background section explaining and motivating the workshop, the objectives of the workshop, planned activities, the background of the organizer(s), publication plans (if any), anticipated number of participants, and the means for soliciting and selecting participants.
Note
Workshop proposals will not be included in the conference proceedings.
Panel Proposals
Friendly debate-style panels are welcome at FDG2023. Panels for bringing attention to emerging areas and topics and encouraging their development are valued. Interested researchers should consider finding panel-members interested in the discussion of the proposed topics before submitting their proposals. It is also important to consider diversity and speaker representation during the participant recruitment process. The maximum length for panel proposals is 2 pages (excluding references) in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template. Proposal contents should include the panel’s topic, participants, how the panel is organized, and a citation-supported statement of why the event is relevant and topical (which accounts for the theme of FGD 2023 of "New Beginnings").
Note
Panel proposals will not be included in the proceedings.
Competitions
Competitions provide a venue for the submission of community-driven solutions capable of solving game related complex problems. FDG welcomes competition proposals, with a maximum length of 2 pages (excluding references) in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template. Contents of the proposal should include a description of the competition and the organizers, the criteria for winners, anticipated number of participants, past number of participants (if the competition was held in the past), and how entries to the competition will be submitted.
Note
Competition proposals (or outcomes) will not be included in the proceedings.
Games and Demos
The games and demo exhibition provides a forum for demonstrations of work best suited to interaction rather than a paper or formal presentation. This track encourages submissions of games in various stages of development, from playable physical mock-ups to full-fledged implementations, as well as technical demos showcasing the latest tools, techniques, and systems created for games by academic or industrial research groups, or other early-stage or late-breaking research not yet ready for formal presentation.
Submissions should include a 2-page extended abstract using the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template, an unedited video illustrating the game or technology, and (if possible) a link to the demo. Games and tech demos will be presented at a dedicated games and tech demo session open to the public.
Doctoral Consortium
A Doctoral Consortium will be held at FDG 2023. This will allow PhD students to discuss their research with fellow students and obtain valuable feedback from the community, including researchers who are respected members in their fields. The consortium is primarily for PhD students who intend to pursue a career in academia and who will soon submit or have recently submitted their research proposal.
To apply, students must submit a non-anonymized 2-4 page paper (page-count not including references) describing their proposed research in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template. The paper should address the goals of their research, the proposed approach, any results, and plans for completing the work. This should be accompanied by their CV and a short letter explaining how they would benefit from the consortium and what questions they want to discuss (general and/or specific to their research). The submission should combine all the above in a single PDF file.
Accepted Doctoral Consortium students will give a presentation and are invited to present a poster on their abstracts during the conference.