Some Assembly Required: Starting and Growing a Game Lab

This DiGRA 2009 panel document examines how game labs can be established, operated, and grown, drawing on four case studies of labs situated in diverse institutional contexts. Its central argument is that a game lab is a valuable resource for games research, serving as a venue for interdisciplinary collaboration, a site for studying games in culture, and an environment for developing experimental games and design innovation. The panel is aimed particularly at humanities departments, where laboratories are less common, and at attendees who either already maintain a game lab or are considering creating one.

The four labs profiled are the Experimental Game Lab at Georgia Tech, which blends critical theory with practice and maintains an extensive game library and "critical play" orientation; Tiltfactor, founded in 2005 as one of the first game research labs in the United States and known for influential independent and activist games such as Darfur Is Dying and Hush; the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at USC, a think tank focused on experimental design concepts with a state-of-the-art usability lab; and the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, an international collaboration that develops research tools such as Grow-a-Game and VEXATA. Each presenter addresses what resources their lab required, how it has grown, and how it fits within its institutional structure.

The discussion highlights recurring themes across the cases, including the value of integrating theory and practice, the importance of process and human values in design, and the challenges of balancing fundraising against research goals. Institutional integration within a curriculum is identified as a particular challenge where laboratories are uncommon. The panel's stated aim is to share practical lessons on what has worked and what has not, and to offer guidance for newly forming labs.