Internationales Zentrum für Ethik in den Wissenschaften (IZEW)

International Conference

Sustainable Futures at Play:  

Aesthetics, Ethics, and Ecologies of Sustainable Development in Games

21–23 October 2026, Tübingen

Preliminary Program

Organizers: Jana Hecktor, Martin Hennig, Theresa Krampe 

 

 

 

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Venue: Großer Senat / Kleiner Senat, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, 72074 Tübingen

13:00Arrival, Registration, and Coffee
13:30–14:30

Welcome Address

Thomas Potthast, University of Tübingen

Introductory Remarks
14:30–14:45  Coffee Break
14:45–16:00

Panel 1: Playing and Making Games

The Energetics of Play 

Alenda Y. ChangUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

 

Planetary Play: Game Making with Care for the Planet

Ruth Dorothea Eggel, Cologne Game Lab & Sonja Fizek, Cologne Game Lab

16:00–16:30  Coffee Break
16:30–18:15

Panel 2: Industry

Building Sustainability Alliances During Difficult Times: Interdisciplinary Lessons from International Sustainability Networks in the Game Industry

Thorsten Busch, ZHAW Zurich & Florence Chee, Loyola University Chicago 

 

Game Jams for Sustainability: Industry Mentorship and Collaborative Brainstorming in Co-Creative Game Design Activities

Luke West, University of Tübingen

 

Industry Talk 3: TBA

19:00

Dinner (self-pay)

Venue: TBA

 

Thursday, 22 October 2026

Venue: Großer Senat / Kleiner Senat, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, 72074 Tübingen

09:30–10:45

Panel 3: AI

Generative AI in Game Design – An Ethical Reflection

Jana Hecktor, University of Tübingen

 

Games & AI Talk 2: TBA

10:45–11:15 Coffee Break
11:15–12:30

 

Panel 4: Analysis I

Reading Sustainability: Semiotic Analyses of Eco-Aesthetics in Contemporary Game Culture 

Martin Hennig, University of Tübingen

 

The Implicated Ludic Subject: Deconstructing Narrative and Procedural Rhetorics of Sustainability

Jan-Noël Thon, Osnabrück University

12:30–13:30Lunch
13:30–14:45

Panel 5: Analysis II

“Disease vectors. Internet of flesh. Biomimicry”: Characters as More-Than-Human Assemblages in Indie Games

Theresa Krampe, University of Tübingen

 

Always beginning anew – Hannah Arendt's theory of action and political-ecological crises in digital games

Lars Dolkemeyer, Berlin

14:45–15:00Coffee Break
15:00–16:15

Panel 6: Board Games / Histories (hybrid)

Ludic sustainability in the 1980s/1990s: Environmental Board Games as Historical Roots of Today's Eco Games

Peter Podrez, Cologne University

 

Composing the Future: Eco-Games Beyond 18XX

Steven Gotzler, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

16:15–16:30

Coffee Break

16:30–18:30

Roundtable: Accessibility

Sustaining Situated Knowledge: How Disabled Gamer Communities Shape Accessibility

Markus Spöhrer, University of Tübingen

 

En-/Disabling Analog and Digital Play for Sustainability

Claudius Clüver, University of Siegen

18:30Finger Food and Games

 

Friday, 23 October 2026

09:00–11:30

Policy Jam 

“Imagine that we, somehow, made it happen!”: An Exploration of Pathways towards Systemic Sustainability in and through Games 

Patrick Prax, Uppsala University

11:30–11:45

Coffee Break

11:45–12:30

Future Collaborations (Funding Applications & Publications)

 

 

 

 

Pre-Conference Programm

Tuesday, 20 October: Pre-Conference Day Creathon Event

Venue: Doblerstraße 25, 72074 Tübingen

Organizer: Justine Valiergue (didactic support: Luke West)