The Game Development Research Centre (GDRC) is operated by the University of Skövde, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Malmö University and Karlstad University. Within GDRC, researchers and the games industry come together to establish game development as a distinct research domain in Sweden.
GDRC’s four research areas are:
– Artificial intelligence
– Computer graphics and technology
– Tools for game development
– Business development and management
A major focus is to build long-term relationships with the games industry, ranging from small studios to large international companies.
The goal is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Swedish games industry by producing research that is relevant, applicable and closely integrated with industry needs.
Knowledge Foundation press release: https://www.kks.se/en/article/sweden-establishes-research-hub-for-game-development/
Skövde University’s page on GDRC: https://www.his.se/en/about-us/collaboration/game-development-research-centre/
Malmö University’s role in GDRC
Starting from February 1st 2026, Malmö University’s Game Lab is leading the GDRC’s work on research and innovation intelligence, with the aim of deepening understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of game development research. The work, carried out in close collaboration with industry partners and international game development research centres, will build a strong common foundation for the development of the centre’s research areas and doctoral courses.
Malmö University press release: https://mau.se/en/news/New-research-centre-for-game-development-confirmed
MAU’s goals within GDRC
Our goals within the GDRC project are:
– Community. We seek collaborations with game practitioners, companies and organizations that are community-oriented and interested in contributing to improve game development as a whole.
– Innovation. We seek collaborations with game practitioners, companies and organizations that focus on innovation and experimentation, not just technological but also in game design and art.
– Relevancy. We seek the input of game-makers when developing our research projects as we wish to create knowledge directly relevant to their practice.
– Reciprocity. We want to build reciprocity between academics and game-makers, because the feedback loop between theory and praxis is fundamental to the meaningful development of both.
– Education. We want to make industry participation in education easier, through guest lectures and internships for example, and bring our research back into education so that it stays relevant.
Studying how academia-industry collaborations happen
We have conducted interviews with researchers who have collaborated with the industry, from Arts, to Design, Humanities, Computer Science and technical universities. Our preliminary findings highlight best practices for researchers on how to network and make themselves known, establish a shared vision and goals with industry collaborators, and create a shared language between academia and practitioners. These findings are not only informing how we build our collaborations, but will also be turned into academic papers.
Finding research topics of interest within the games industry
We are currently conducting interviews and workshops with game practitioners and community organizers to identify what are the open questions within the game industry. Our focus is currently building connections with our local community of the Malmö and Copenhagen area, but we are always open to talks and collaborations on an international level. This preliminary research will be followed by workshops with individual companies, organizations and practitioners with the objective of co-creating research projects for academia-industry collaborations.
MAU’s GDRC Team
As a research team we are quite diverse in our interests, among which we can list:
– Human-AI collaborative systems to co-create games and creative content;
– Emotion within biofeedback and affect-adaptive games;
– Playful learning and education;
– Live-action role-play;
– Poetics of game design;
– Game design and production methodologies and processes.
While Human-AI collaboration is our main area of research within GDRC, the variety of backgrounds that we bring to the projects allows for adaptability and innovative approaches.
The researchers and research assistants currently involved are:
Alberto Álvarez – alberto.alvarez@mau.se
Raquel Robinson – raquel.robinson@mau.se
James Fey – james.fey@mau.se
José Font – jose.font@mau.se
Maria Felicia Hodor – maria-felicia.hodor@mau.se
Laura DeCarli – laura.decarli@mau.se
