Submissions

CHI PLAY is an international and interdisciplinary conference (by ACM SIGCHI) for researchers and professionals across all areas of play, games and human-computer interaction (HCI). We call this area “player-computer interaction”.

The goal of the conference is to highlight and foster discussion of current high quality research in games and HCI as foundations for the future of digital play. To this end, the conference will feature streams that blend academic research and games with research papers, interactive demos, and industry case studies.

CHI PLAY grew out of the increasing work around games and play emerging from the ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) as well as smaller conferences such as Fun and Games and Gamification. CHI PLAY is sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI).

As a SIGCHI-sponsored conference, CHI PLAY will consider submissions related to games and play. We encourage submissions on novel and innovative game interactions and mechanics and acknowledge that contributions on systems research may involve less extensive evaluation than more traditional research papers. We welcome submissions from all topics in interactive game research that are relevant to player-computer interaction, including but not limited to the following:

  • Game Interaction
  • Novel Game Control
  • Novel Implementation Techniques that Affect Player Experience
  • Evaluation of Feedback and Display Technologies for Games
  • Gamification
  • Neurogaming
  • Persuasive Games
  • Games for Health, Learning and Change
  • Exertion Games
  • Player Experience
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality Games
  • Games User Research
  • Game Evaluation Methods
  • Psychology of Players and Games
  • Player Typologies
  • Accessible and Inclusive Game Design
  • Novel Game Mechanics Impacting Player Experience
  • Casual Game Design Studies
  • Social Game Experiences
  • Serious Games
  • Alternate Reality Games
  • Tools for Game Creation
  • Developer Experiences and Studies of Developers
  • Industry Case Studies

Although we are interested in papers on the effects of various technologies, software, or algorithms on player or developer experience, technical contributions without clear indications of the impact on players or developers are not within the scope of CHI PLAY.

The CHI PLAY submission templates can be found on the Guide to Submissions Format Page.

Summary of Submission Deadlines:

  • 18th April 2016, 11:59pm PT: Full papers
  • 27th May, 2016: Workshop and course proposals, Student game competition
  • 15th July, 2016: Doctoral consortium, industry case studies, and works-in-progress

We encourage the following research submission types:

PAPERS

4 page notes and 10 page papers, references excluded from page limit. Paper talk at the conference.
Papers must be in the two-column ACM SIGCHI format and in the English language (paper failing to meet these criteria will be desk rejected with a brief review from the papers chairs). All accepted papers must be presented as a talk at the conference with the option of also presenting a demo or video at the conference. Paper length must match the size of the contribution, and the same general review criteria hold for all papers. All papers will undergo the same review process and be published in the same way: all accepted submissions in this category will be included in the conference proceedings and we intend to publish through the ACM Digital Library.

Authors are invited to submit high-quality original work to advance the field. Papers will be subject to blind peer reviewing and all identifying information about authors needs to be removed from the submitted manuscripts. In general, citations to your own work must not be anonymous, but should be described in a way that does not reveal you as the author of the cited work. However, where it is not possible to describe the work in a way that does not reveal you as the author (e.g., you are building directly on work in a previous paper) then citations should be anonymised and author names (only) removed from the reference in the reference section at the end of the paper (which we refer to as the Mandryk Method). Submissions must be made using the Precision Conference System (PCS). We encourage authors strongly to submit a video figure to support and accompany their submission. The committee will choose the best to be part of a plenary session at the conference.

  • Paper deadline: 18th April 2016, 11:59pm PT
  • All submissions should be made via the PCS system here (emailed submissions cannot be accepted)
  • Reviews sent to authors: 7th June, 2016
  • Rebuttals due: 14th June, 2016
  • Decisions: 5th July, 2016
  • Camera-Ready Deadline: 29th July (PT), 2016

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

6 pages in ACM SIGCHI Extended Abstract format excluding references, poster presentation at the conference.
Works-in-progress provide a unique opportunity for late-breaking results to be presented in a poster format. Accepted submissions will be presented as a poster at the conference. Posters papers will be lightly peer-reviewed and archived in the proceedings planned to be published in the ACM digital library. We encourage authors to submit a video figure to support their submission, and the committee will choose the best videos to be part of a plenary session at the conference.

  • Paper deadline: 15th July 2016, 5:00pm PT
  • Review deadline: 5th August, 2016
  • Decisions: 12th August, 2016
  • Camera-Ready Deadline: 19th August, 2016

PS: Do not submit posters as part of the submission process.

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

(4 pages in ACM SIGCHI Extended Abstracts Format excluding references, plus a poster presentation at the conference) The CHI PLAY 2016 Doctoral Consortium provides an opportunity for Doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests in games and HCI in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished researchers. Students who have a clear topic and research approach, and have made some progress, but who are not so far along that they can no longer make changes are welcomed to submit for this full-day event. DC participants receive free registration to CHI PLAY.

  • Paper deadline: 15th July, 2016
  • Review deadline: 5th August, 2016
  • Decisions: 12th August, 2016
  • Camera-Ready Deadline: 19th August, 2016

INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES

Details to be announced.

  • Paper deadline: 15th July, 2016
  • Review deadline: 5th August, 2016
  • Decisions: 12th August, 2016
  • Camera-Ready Deadline: 19th August, 2016

CHI PLAY STUDENT GAME COMPETITION

6 pages in ACM SIGCHI Extended Abstract format excluding references, interactive demonstration at the conference.
The CHI PLAY Student Game Competition will provide a unique opportunity for students to showcase their interactive play systems and designs. Students will need to submit a video of their game as well as proof of student status (full-time or part-time, all levels up to Ph.D.). A jury panel will nominate the best submissions for an interactive presentation at the conference, where a panel of experts choose the winners.

  • Student game competition submissions: 27th May, 2016
  • Student game competition notifications: 24th June, 2016

WORKSHOPS

4 pages in ACM SIGCHI Extended Abstract format excluding references, workshop at the conference
Workshops allow conference participants that share a common interest to deepen their knowledge and meet in an interactive hands-on learning and discussion environment. They provide great opportunities for community-building at CHI PLAY. Workshops should focus on a theme in one of CHI PLAY’s core areas mentioned above. We especially welcome workshops that bridge the gap between practitioner and researcher knowledge or between communities. Workshops should provide novel perspectives and generate ideas about player-computer interaction. If you are passionate about this field, please consider organizing a workshop. Workshops can independently from the conference result in special issues of journals, wikis, websites, or books.

  • Workshop proposal submissions: 27th May, 2016
  • Workshop proposal notifications: 24th June, 2016
  • Workshop participation submissions: 12th July, 2016
  • Workshop participation notifications: 12th August, 2016

COURSES

4 pages in ACM SIGCHI Extended Abstract format excluding references, course at the conference
Courses at CHI PLAY should allow participants to learn new hands-on knowledge about player-game interaction, development and evaluation. They are great opportunities for industry pros to teach their knowledge to an interested audience and allow interdisciplinary knowledge development between practitioners and researchers. If you work in game development and are eager to teach a workshop at CHI PLAY, we look forward to your submission.

  • Course proposal submissions: 27th May, 2016
  • Course proposal notifications: 24th June, 2016
  • Course participation submissions: 12th July, 2016
  • Course participation notifications: 12th August, 2016

DEMOS/PLAY

CHI PLAY offers a chance for game developers and researchers to showcase their commercial game or to deploy multiplayer social games at the conference. Please contact the DEMOS/PLAY chairs if you are interested in showcasing your game during the conference breaks.

REVIEW PROCESS: ALL PAPERS

We have selected a program committee of experts in human-computer interaction and game research to lead the formal review process. Once your paper is submitted as a blind manuscript in the correct format, our program committee and external reviewers will provide at least 3 high quality reviews (at least two from our PC members). The Associate Chair (AC) will contribute their own opinion about the paper and summarize the individual reviews, meta-reviewing the paper and providing advice to the authors regarding the rebuttal. A rebuttal is a chance to clarify any misconceptions that the reviewers might have about the paper. This is an opportunity for authors to rebut factual error in reviews or to answer questions asked by reviewers. Rebuttals are required to be written in a very short timeframe after the reviews are sent out. CHI PLAY rebuttals are 5,000 characters in length. The PC and conference chairs will review and discuss all submitted rebuttals. The papers chairs will then deliberate in close communication with the committee members about the acceptance of papers. Authors will then be recommended to make certain changes before the camera-ready submission and acceptance might be tentative until those changes are included. At least one author of the paper must register for the conference and present the paper at the conference.