Serious games and gamified interventions are rapidly evolving across education, healthcare, and public/social outreach, but there remain open questions about what actually sustains engagement, which behavior-change techniques work for whom, and how to design for real-world adoption (including mobile, wearables, and immersive XR).

The SG4Impact special track invites full and short papers on serious games and gamified interventions that aim to produce measurable outcomes in education, healthcare, rehabilitation, social outreach, and behavioral improvement. We welcome work spanning design, implementation, user experience, evaluation, deployment, including contributions that integrate artistic practice (aesthetics, narrative, sound, performance) as a core part of the intervention.

The purpose of this track is to bring together researchers, practitioners and game designers specializing in serious games that target measurable change in:

• learning outcomes and skills
• health and rehabilitation outcomes
• social outreach, inclusion, civic engagement
• behavior change (habits, wellbeing, safety, sustainability, etc.)

Scope

This track welcomes research across the full lifecycle:

• Concept & design (mechanics, narrative, aesthetics, accessibility)
• Hardware & implementation (mobile, wearables, XR, sensors, analytics)
• User experience & engagement (immersion, flow, emotion, motivation)
• Evaluation & evidence (RCTs/quasi-experiments, mixed methods, longitudinal engagement)
• Deployment (clinical/educational pipelines, organizational integration, ethics, privacy)

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

1. Design and artistic practice:

• systems and feedback loops that drive serious outcomes (learning, therapy, behavior change)
• expressive Design as Intervention: narrative, embodiment, characters/agents, sound and music as active components of the intervention
• aesthetics & art direction: visual style and artistic direction that reinforce intended goals and experiences
• inclusion & participation: accessibility, inclusive design, and participatory/co-design methods with stakeholders

2. Technology enablers:

• XR (VR/AR/MR), presence, telepresence, embodied interaction
• mobile + wearables + sensor fusion; biofeedback; affective computing
• AI for adaptation (personalized difficulty, coaching, procedural content)
• intelligent agents/NPCs; conversational systems for coaching/support (with transparent methodology)

3. Evaluation and user experience:

• engagement measurement (behavioral telemetry, retention curves, adherence, UX scales)
• cognitive/affective effects (attention, memory, stress, emotion regulation)
• qualitative insights (meaning-making, identity, stigma reduction, empathy, social boding)
• comparative studies (game vs non-game interventions; gamification intensity; “dose”)

4. Application domains:

• education & training (schools, workplace, professional skills)
• health & rehabilitation (digital therapeutics, mental health literacy, adherence)
• public outreach (prevention, health communication, risk awareness)
• social impact (prosocial behavior, inclusion, civic participation, climate/sustainability action)

Domna Banakou, Associate Researcher, LAPMA, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France.

Dr. Domna Banakou is a leading expert in Virtual Reality Embodiment whose interdisciplinary background spans a PhD in Psychology from the University of Barcelona and advanced degrees in Computer Science and Imaging from UCL and Ionian University. Her pioneering research utilizes immersive VR to explore body representation and the cognitive impact of ownership illusions, a body of work that has garnered over 4,000 citations and extensive global media coverage from outlets like the BBC and WIRED. A distinguished speaker, she has delivered keynotes at high-profile venues such as Expo 2025 Osaka and the London School of Economics, cementing her reputation as a transformative figure at the intersection of technology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. www.domnabanakou.com

contact: [email protected]

Geoffrey Gorisse, Associate professor, LAPMA, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France.

Dr Geoffrey Gorisse is a senior researcher at the LAMPA laboratory. His research lies at the intersection of immersive virtual reality, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science. He obtained an MSc and a PhD in virtual and extended reality from ENSAM. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Event LAB at the University of Barcelona, he joined the Presence & Innovation team in 2019.

His current research focuses on exploring how avatars and virtual agents impact the sense of presence, embodiment, and collaboration in immersive environments. He is particularly interested in the cognitive and behavioral correlates of user representation modalities. His research also explores new forms of virtual incarnation, including non-anthropomorphic representations, and investigates their effects on interaction, affordances, and user experience in virtual reality.

In addition to his research, he lectures on subjects such as 3D modeling, real-time rendering and programming for virtual reality interfaces. He also serves on editorial and conference committees in the XR/VR field, reflecting his commitment to advancing the discipline. Dr Gorisse has published widely in international journals and conference proceedings, and has received awards for his doctoral work from his institution, as well as best paper and honorable mention awards at conferences such as ACM CHI and IEEE VR.

contact: [email protected]

Pierre Bourdin-Kreitz, Multimedia and Telecommunications Technology, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain

Dr. Pierre Bourdin Kreitz is Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Technology at Open University of Catalonia (UOC). He uses virtual reality and immersive technologies as tools to carry out research both at the technological level and at the psychological level, studying human behavior, immersive technologies in education or Health/eHealth. https://es.linkedin.com/in/pierrebourdin

contact: [email protected]

• Andreas Schrader, University of Luebeck, Germany
• Bruno Azevedo, Centro ALGORITMI, University of Minho, Portugal
• Carles Sora Domenjó, Centre de la Imatge i la Tecnologia Multimèdia (CITM), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
• Christos Lougiakis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
• Daniel Archer, The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong
• Federica Caruso, University of L’Aquila (DISIM), Italy
• Jaime Gallego Vila, (UPC) Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain
• Javier Salvador Marco, Centro de estudios Monlau, Spain
• Joan Arnedo Moreno, Open University of Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
• Marta Fernández Ruiz, Centre de la Imatge i la Tecnologia Multimèdia (CITM), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
• Mohamad Eid, Interactive Multimedia Research Lab (AIMLab), NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Olivier Christmann, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France
• Sylvain Fleury, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France
• Titouan Lefrou, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France
• Varvara Garneli, Ionian University, Greece
• Virginie Lepont, Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, France
• Vlasios Kasapakis, University of the Aegean, Greece

Conference Proceedings

All accepted and registered papers will be submitted for publishing by Springer – LNICST series and made available through SpringerLink Digital Library: ArtsIT Conference Proceedings. This series is indexed in leading indexing services, such as Web of Science, Compendex, Scopus, DBLP, EU Digital Library, IO-Port, MatchSciNet, Inspec and Zentralblatt MATH.

Available Journals

All accepted authors are eligible to submit an extended version in a fast track of:

• EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies
• EAI Endorsed Transactions on Broadcasting Technologies

Authors have the opportunity to publish their articles in the EAI Endorsed Transactions journal selected by the conference (Scopus, Ei-indexed, ESCI-WoS, Compendex) by paying an additional $250, discounted from the standard $400 rate for conference authors.

The article’s publication is subject to the following requirements:  

• It must be an extended version of the conference paper with a different title and abstract. In general, 30% of new content must be added.
• The article will be processed once the conference proceedings have been published.
• The article will be processed using the fast-track option.
• Once the conference proceedings are published, the corresponding author should contact us at [email protected] with the details of their article to begin processing.

Additional publication opportunities

• EAI Transactions series (Open Access)
• EAI/Springer Innovations in Communications and Computing Book Series
  (titles in this series are indexed in Ei Compendex, Web of Science & Scopus)

EAI is an open community dedicated to creating an environment where every member receives the same opportunities, benefits and opportunities to develop and grow their research mission and career. As the largest free professional research society in the world EAI offers a complete range of conference proceedings publication opportunities. Based on the qualification of the conference and the conference scope EAI provides the possibility to publish the proceedings for every sponsored conference. Consistent with its mission to support developing communities all EAI sponsored conferences appear in EUDL, the European Union Digital Library (EUDL). EUDL is Open Access and free for EAI members reaching a community of 250,000 subscribers and providing the visibility that allows the conference organizers to develop the conference into a fully fledged indexed proceedings publication in subsequent years.

Papers should be submitted through the EAI ‘Confy+‘ system, and have to comply with the Springer format (see Author’s kit section).

• Full/ Regular papers should be 12-20 pages in length. (Excluding appendices, references, appreciation, etc.)
• Short papers should be 6-11 pages in length. (Excluding appendices, references, appreciation, etc.)

*Please note that additional pages will be subject to an extra charge for each extra page uploaded.

All conference papers undergo a thorough peer review process prior to the final decision and publication. This process is facilitated by experts in the Technical Program Committee during a dedicated conference period. Standard peer review is enhanced by EAI Community Review which allows EAI members to bid to review specific papers. All review assignments are ultimately decided by the responsible Technical Program Committee Members while the Technical Program Committee Chair is responsible for the final acceptance selection. You can learn more about Community Review here

1. Go to Confy+ website.
2. Log in or sign up as a new user.
3. Select your desired track.
4. Click the ‘Submit Paper’ link within the track and follow the instructions.

• All papers must be submitted in English. 

• Submitted PDFs should be anonymized.

• Double-blind review process.

• Previously published work cannot be submitted, nor can it be concurrently submitted to any other conference or journal. These papers will be rejected without review. 
• Papers must follow the Springer formatting guidelines (available in the Author’s Kit section). 
• Authors must read and agree to the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

• Submission closes at 23:59 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on the day of the Submission Deadline.

• As per new EU accessibility requirements, going forward, all figures, illustrations, tables, and images should have descriptive text accompanying them. Please refer to the document below, which will assist you in crafting Alternative Text (Alt Text)

HOW TO WRITE GOOD ALT TEXT

For full information, click HERE.

AI Authorship Policy

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria. Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. We thus ask that the use of an LLM be properly documented in the Acknowledgements, or in the Introduction or Preface of the manuscript.

The use of an LLM (or other AI-tool) for “AI assisted copy editing” purposes does not need to be declared. In this context, we define the term “AI assisted copy editing” as AI-assisted improvements to human-generated texts for readability and style, and to ensure that the texts are free of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and tone. These AI-assisted improvements may include wording and formatting changes to the texts, but do not include generative editorial work and autonomous content creation. In all cases, there must be human accountability for the final version of the text and agreement from the authors that the edits reflect their original work. This reflects a similar stance taken on the AI generative figures policy, where it was acknowledged that there are cases where AI can be used to generate a figure without being concerned about copyright e.g. to generate a graph based on data provided by the author. 

AI Authorship Guidance

Authors should familiarise themselves with the current known risks of using AI models before using them in their manuscript. AI models have been known to plagiarise content and to create false content. As such, authors should carry out due diligence to ensure that any AI-generated content in their book is correct, appropriately referenced, and follow the standards as laid out in our Book Authors’ Code of Conduct.

AI-generated Images Policy

The fast-moving area of generative AI image creation has resulted in novel legal copyright and research integrity issues. As publishers, we strictly follow existing copyright law and best practices regarding publication ethics. While legal issues relating to AI-generated images and videos remain broadly unresolved, Springer Nature journals and books are unable to permit its use for publication.

Exceptions:

• Images/art obtained from agencies that we have contractual relationships with that have created images in a legally acceptable manner.
• Images and videos that are directly referenced in a piece that is specifically about AI and such cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
• The use of generative AI tools developed with specific sets of underlying scientific data that can be attributed, checked and verified for accuracy, provided that ethics, copyright and terms of use restrictions are adhered to.

Papers must be formatted using the Springer LNICST Authors’ Kit.

Instructions and templates are available from Springer’s LNICST homepage:

• LaTeX2e Proceedings Templates (zip)
• Microsoft Word Proceedings Templates (zip)

Please make sure that your paper adheres to the format as specified in the instructions and templates.

When uploading the camera-ready copy of your paper, please be sure to upload both:

• a PDF copy of your paper formatted according to the above templates, and
• an archive in .ZIP file, containing LaTeX or Word source material prepared according to the above guidelines.