One of the more exploratory and experimental forms of output in the games research community involves authors utilising games they have developed in the academic context. Whether fully embodying the role of a designer-researcher in communicating the development process, or presenting the data that derives from a complete game artefact, academics can use games as an integral part of their research. The academic game making context is distinct from other forms of game creation, with academia allowing for certain freedoms while also enforcing its own strict constraints. Our understanding of academic games derives from how they have been reported in the literature, as there is limited preservation of these games as playable experiences. For the 20th Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) conference, we analysed its corpus of 1,437 articles to take examine their historical development and identify some of the developmental trends of academic games as reported over nearly two decades. Through this study, we identify the diverse purposes of these games and examine how they have contributed to advancing research efforts.

In this paper, we explore the historical development of playable quantum physics related games (quantum games). For the purpose of this examination, we have collected over 260 quantum games ranging from commercial games, applied and serious games, and games that have been developed at quantum themed game jams and educational courses. We provide an overview of the journey of quantum games across three dimensions: the perceivable dimension of quantum physics, the dimension of scientific purposes, and the dimension of quantum technologies. We then further reflect on the definition of quantum games and its implications. While motivations behind developing quantum games have typically been educational or academic, themes related to quantum physics have begun to be more broadly utilised across a range of commercial games. In addition, as the availability of quantum computer hardware has grown, entirely new variants of quantum games have emerged to take advantage of these machines’ inherent capabilities, quantum computer games.

In this paper, we reflect upon the development process of three videogame ‘promotypes’, prototypes designed to promote the game production pipeline service in development at Aalto University. In the process of developing example games for potential internal clients of the university, we aimed to set out realistic project goals for given resources to better communicate the scope and potential level of the delivered outcomes. Our lessons in this project were, at large, general lessons in game development, including how motivation and proficiency with production tools, alongside the anticipated expectations of clients and players for polished games, affected the game development processes. In addition, we explore how the pursuit for academic accuracy and the model of a non-intensive process of academic game development posits additional challenges in the development of a realistically balanced production pipeline.