The 4th Geogames Symposium (4GGS) brings together researchers, developers, designers, practitioners, and game enthusiasts to exchange ideas and advance the growing field of geogames. It offers a platform for the exploration of how analogue, digital, and hybrid geogames can connect people, places, environments, and cultures,and inspire new ways of understanding and shaping our world.
This year, 4GGS places a special focus on geogames for cultural heritage and place. How can geogames help experience historic places differently? How can games bring stories, memories, traditions, architecture, and cultural landscapes to life? We invite contributions exploring how geogames can help discover, preserve, interpret, and reimagine heritage while creating meaningful connections between the past, present, and future. We welcome theoretical, methodological, experimental, and applied contributions related to geogames, game design, and playful approaches to place.
What are Geogames? 4GGS builds on the definition proposed by Poplin (2025): “Geogames are digital, analogue, or hybrid games that center on Gaia as Earth’s interconnected system of the physical environment, living organisms and its non-physical elements. They create playful experiences grounded in the use of real-world geographic data, locational knowledge, and spatial reasoning.” The broader definition
emphasizes geogames as playful experiences that foster systems thinking, problem-solving, environmental awareness, and the resilience and well-being of Earth’s systems.
Let’s explore how geogames can:
- Bring cultural and architectural heritage to life
- Connect people with places, histories, stories, and identities
- Preserve and reinterpret tangible and intangible heritage
- Strengthen community engagement and placemaking
- Inspire playful responses to local and global challenges
- Encourage environmental awareness, responsibility, and care
- Create more resilient, sustainable, and regenerative futures
We invite you to join us at 4GGS!
Topics may include cultural heritage, architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design, placemaking, community engagement, history, geography, geospatial science, digital twins, climate resilience, environmental challenges, psychology, anthropology, health and well-being, and more. We especially welcome work that crosses disciplinary boundaries and explores new relationships between
games, people, place, and heritage.
Let’s play with the past, experience the present, and co-create the future through geogames.
Key research topics include and are not limited to:
- Geogames, Cultural Heritage, and Place
Explore how geogames can bring cultural and architectural heritage, histories, memories, traditions, and places to life through playful experiences. - Co-Creation with Geogames
Explore how geogames can engage communities in participation, co-creation, citizen science, and collaborative planning while enabling players to imagine, visualize, and explore more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable futures. - Geogames Across Application Areas
Share geogame applications in education, planning, architecture, environment, health, disaster management, geography, cybersecurity, religion, and other fields. - Geogame Design, Technology, and Evaluation
Present approaches to geogame design, prototyping, playtesting, and evaluation, including AI, AR/VR/MR, digital twins, geospatial technologies, and other emerging technologies. - Theory of Geogames
Contribute to the foundation of geogames by presenting theoretical foundations for geogames.
SUBMISSION TYPES
All submissions should include the title, names of the author(s), their affiliation(s), and their emails. INDICATE one of the following submission types:
- Short paper demonstrates most recent research in the form of a short scientific paper. It should contain between 750-1000 words. Please include a problem statement, research focus, research methodology, results and conclusions.
- Workshop is in-person run workshop on a selected topic of geogames. It can last 2 – 3 hours. The submission should describe the goals of the workshop in around 300 words.
- Game demonstration is in-person showcase of the game or games developed by the authors. These games can already be a final product or in the phase of testing as a testable prototype. The authors bring their games and showcase them to the participants. Descriptions of these games should be around 300 words long.
- Student forum is in-person gathering of students showing and demonstrating their work related to geogames. The descriptions should be around 500 words long and can include created geogames or their prototypes, graduate or PhD thesis work related to games, class work or research in progress.
- Panel is a discussion forum on a specific topic of geogames which can include theoretical approaches, revisiting definitions, exciting novel ideas. Descriptions should be around 500 words long.
Every accepted contribution will receive an individual DOI. They will be openly accessible and will be officially published via the Iowa State University Digital Press. The proceedings will also be available in PDF format via the same publisher.
Additionally, please choose between IN-PERSON or ONLINE presentation mode on EasyChair platform.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
- First submission for peer-review: December 20 (00:00 UTC)
- Reviews completed: January 29
- Acceptance letters sent to the authors: February 15
- Upload the final contributions: March 19
REGISTRATION FEES
Indicate how would you like to participate: online or in person
- Students: $40
- Early bird by March 16: $120
- Regular registration fee after March 15: $160
Let’s explore together how geogames can promote environmental awareness, foster community engagement and cohesion, and offer creative solutions to local and global urban challenges!
Geogames Lab 