The University of Chicago has come to play. Throughout the 2025-26 academic year, UChicago will host the Year of Games, a campus-wide celebration of the art of play that brings together gamers across mediums and disciplines.
Over the past decade, UChicago has become a growing center of innovative game design and research. In the Weston Game Lab and Media Arts and Design program, students, faculty and staff develop experimental games—digital, board, card and alternate reality—that are driven by social impact.
“When I arrived at UChicago, I was immediately impressed by our faculty’s impressive research and teaching on games,” said Torsten Reimer, University librarian and dean of the University Library. “I saw a unique opportunity to bring together faculty and students from across campus, foster collaboration and advance scholarship through our campus-wide Year of Games.”
The Weston Game Lab, located in the MADD Center on the 1st floor of the John Crerar Library, maintains a robust board game collection for student and community use.Photo courtesy of the MADD Center
The yearlong campaign will officially launch with a kickoff symposium held Oct. 17-19 featuring more than two dozen game designers, artists, scholars, preservationists and industry innovators speaking on panels moderated by UChicago faculty.
Friday and Saturday’s keynotes will take the form of live tapings of My Perfect Console, a podcast hosted by journalist Simon Parkin, featuring Halo video game developer and Bungie Studio co-founder Alex Seropian, SB’91, and comic book writer and video game narrative designer Evan Narcisse.
The symposium, including keynote events, will take place at the Logan Center for the Arts. Attendance is free and open to all.
Want to play games created by the panelists ahead of the symposium? Organizers recommend checking out Haven, UFO 50, Kentucky Route Zero, Animal Well or Halo.
First-year students can play Haven Academy, a multimedia role-playing game created by UChicago scholars and students to help orient incoming College students.Courtesy of the Weston Game Lab
Beginning Sept. 15, game enthusiasts can also visit the Regenstein Library to see Charting Imaginary Worlds: Why Fantasy and Games are Inseparable, an exhibition exploring the long and fruitful relationship between the fantasy genre and play.
Don’t play video or board games? The Year of Games is still for you, organizers say. The University-wide partnership will feature events throughout the year, relating games and play to everything from music, religion and film to philosophy, contemporary art and medieval history.
“Games are already embedded in everything we do,” said Assistant Instructional Professor Chris Carloy, head of the Year of Games steering committee. “Games are ways that we learn, ways that we mediate and understand the world we're in.”
Want to follow along as the Year of Games unfolds? Join the mailing list and receive updates about upcoming events, programming highlights, and opportunities to get involved.
Already planning a game or play-related event? Fill out this Google form to propose an event to add to the Year of Games calendar.
This article was originally published by UChicago News.