ECGBL

30 September-02 October 2026

Darmstadt, Germany

ECGBL 2026

20th European Conference on Games Based Learning

Technische Universität

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Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Conference Chair

Dr.-Ing. (habil.) Stefan Göbel

The European Conference on Games Based Learning was established 19 years ago. It has been held in Austria, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Norway and France to mention only some of the countries that have hosted it. ECGBL is generally attended by participants from more than 40 countries and attracts an interesting combination of academic scholars, practitioners, game designers and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of games-based learning and serious games. Among other journals, the Electronic Journal of e-Learning publishes a special edition of the best papers presented at this conference.

The conference is also host to The 14th International Educational Games Competition. On 30th September we will be hosting a playday where conference participants and local players will be able to play the games entered into this year’s competition.

ECGBL 2026 is being held at Technische Universität Darmstadt, TU Darmstadt, Germany

Personal Message from the Conference Chair

The Serious Games research group at TU Darmstadt is delighted to host the 20th edition of ECGBL in 2026.
Since 2008, interdisciplinary, applied research is investigated for the creation (authoring), control (personalisation and adaptation) and evaluation (measurement of effects) of serious games. Application examples among others include educational games, vocational training, personalised exergames or mental health games.

Important Dates

Abstract submission deadline10 March 2026
Notification of abstract acceptance24 March 2026
Full paper due for review29 April 2026
Notification of paper acceptance (with any requested changes)08 July 2026
Call for Games Closes03 May 2026
Notification of Game acceptance02 June 2026
Earlybird registration closes22 July 2026
Final paper due (with any changes)05 August 2026
Final Author payment date26 August 2026

We are planning to run our series of conferences as physical events with the option for participants to join virtually. We urge you to continue to submit your abstracts and papers in line with the published dates (extensions will be granted on request). For more details contact info@academic-conferences.org.

Conference Publications

Papers accepted for the ECGBL after the double-blind peer review process, will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration and payment. The conference proceedings have an ISSN (2049-0992) and will be assigned an ISBN on publication. Proceedings are accessible here: https://papers.academic-conferences.org/index.php/ecgbl

Additionally, papers that have been presented at the conference will also be considered for further development and possible publication in the journals listed below. Authors are invited to submit their work to these journals mentioning that they attended the conference. Authors will be expected to develop the work by 40-50%, including a change of title and abstract. Individual journal procedures will need to be followed and there is no guarantee of publication.

The Editors of the Electronic Journal of e-Learning will make selections if they feel work is appropriate and of sufficient quality for the journal. If invited to publish in a journal authors will be expected to develop the work by 40-50%, including a change of title and abstract. Individual journal procedures will need to be followed and there is no guarantee of publication.

Conference Accreditations

Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL) are:

  • submitted for consideration by the Web of Science (WoS) Conference Proceedings Citation Index
  • indexed by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in the UK
  • listed in the EBSCO database
  • listed in the Elsevier SCOPUS abstract and citation database
  • listed on Google Book Search
  • listed on Google Schoolar
  • Ranked 1 in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers

The Conference Proceedings are submitted for accreditation on publication. Please note that depending on the accreditation body this process can take up to several months.