7th International ICSE Workshop on Games and Software Engineering
(GAS 2023)
Co-located with the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023)
Eastern Time (ET): May 19th 8am - May 19th 3:40pm / Australia Eastern Time (AET): May 19th 10pm – May 20th 6:40am.
icse.gas.workshop.2023@gmail.com
Games are a popular form of entertainment and, due to their nature (i.e., interactive, immersive, etc.), strongly lend themselves for use beyond this original intent. Serious games, or games with a purpose, have been introduced to integrate the entertainment value games with domain specific objectives on important topics within education, health, and the environment to mention a few. In addition, gamification has been used to enhance non-entertainment applications with game elements; it aspires to foster behavioral changes, engagement, motivation, and participation in activities. In this context, the actions performed have meaning/value in the game experience in order to improve workplace performance or learn something in real life. The growing adoption of gameful experiences in all of the previous contexts make their design and development increasingly complex due to, for example, the number and variety of users, and their potential mission criticality. This complexity is nurtured, among the other factors, by a lack of theoretical grounding and adequate frameworks to engineer the intended solutions.
GAS 2023 seeks to bring the attention of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners to the opportunities and challenges involved in new trends and issues related to the development of entertainment games, serious games, and gamified applications. It provides a forum to explore issues that crosscut the software engineering and the games development communities.
Schedule - Eastern Time (ET): May 19th 8am - May 19th 3:40pm / Australia Eastern Time (AET): May 19th 10pm – May 20th 6:40am.
8h-8:15am (ET) - Welcome
8:15h - 9:30am (ET) - Keynote (Maria Rauschenberger)
9:30am-9:45am (ET) - Morning Break
9:45-11h (ET) - Paper session 1: Testing, QA
11-12h (ET) - LUNCH
12h-13:15h (ET) - Keynote (Lei Ma)
13:15h-14:05h (ET) - Paper session 2: Balance and progression: specifics of game mechanics
14:05h-14:20h (ET) - Afternoon Break
14:20h-15:30h (ET) - Closing panel with Q&A
15:30h-15:40h (ET) - Closing remarks
Paper sessions and accepted papers
Paper session 1: Testing, QA
Survival of the Tested: Gamified Unit Testing Inspired by Battle Royale
Antonio Materazzo, Tommaso Fulcini, Riccardo Coppola and Marco Torchiano
An Exploratory Approach for Game Engine Architecture Recovery
Gabriel Ullmann, Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc, Fabio Petrillo, Nicolas Anquetil and Cristiano Politwski
Exploring Quality Assurance Practices and Tools for Indie Games
Jeff Cho and Karim Ali
Paper session 2: Balance and progression: specifics of game mechanics
Domain-Specific Languages for Describing Game Progression Logics
Ross Mawhorter
Assessing Video Game Balance using Autonomous Agents
Cristiano Politowski, Fabio Petrillo, Ghizlane El Boussaidi, Gabriel Cavalheiro Ullmann and Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc
Panel topic: Pedagogical Issues in Games and Software Engineering
Panelists:
Thorsten Händler, Ferdinand Porsche FERNFH - Distance-Learning University of Applied Sciences
Beatriz Marin, Universitat Politècnica de València
Joseph Osborne, Pomona College
Keynotes
Lei Ma (University of Alberta)
Title: Automated Game Testing in the Era of Data-Driven Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities
Maria Rauschenberger (University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer)
Title: Breaking Boundaries: Navigating the Challenges of Game Development in a Diverse and Technologically Advanced World
Co-organizers
Antonio Bucchiarone, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)
Vanissa Wanick, University of Southampton
Kendra M. L. Cooper, Independent
Scholar
Adam Smith, University of California, Santa Cruz
Dayi Lin, Centre for Software Excellence, Huawei
PC members
Enes Yigitbas, Paderborn University
Bruce Maxim, University of Michigan
Fabiano Dalpiaz, Utrecht University
Tanja E. J. Vos, Open Universiteit and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia
Christos Gatzidis, Bournemouth University
Matthew Guzdial, University of Alberta
Jeremy Bradbury, Ontario Tech University
Pedro Beça, University of Aveiro
Alfinge Wang
Richard Wetzel, Immersive Realities Research Team, School of Information Technology, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Ahmed Khalifa, University of Malta
Mauricio Souza, UFLA
Important dates
• Submission deadline - EXTENDED: 20th January 2023
• Notification of acceptance: 24 February 2023
• Camera-ready version: 17 March 2023
• Registration: Early bird ** 13th March 2023
Workshop date: 19th May (AET) / 20th May (ET) - online
Topics of interest
GAS 2023 welcomes submissions addressing topics at the intersection of software engineering and entertainment games, serious games, and gamification. Topics include, but are not limited to tailored, interdisciplinary approaches on:
engineering activities (requirements engineering, architecture, de-
sign, testing, playtesting).
umbrella activities (adherence to standards (e.g., Code of Ethics),
build management, configuration management, lifecycle processes
(e.g., Agile, DevOps), traceability).
adaptable game development and game play.
artificial intelligence in game development and game play.
biometrics in game development and game play.
competitions (e.g., game jams).
data analytics and visualisations.
domain specific languages and formal methods for games.
maintenance and evolution of games.
metrics for game development.
model based representations, analyses, and transformations.
monitoring, analysis, and visualization of game play data at scale.
procedural content generation.
QoS properties (e.g., accessibility, privacy, user experience))
re-use in games (e.g., franchises, modding, product lines).
software engineering education and training.
tools, infrastructure, and services.
Workshop goals
Bring together and expand the greater communities of Software Engineering and Game Engineering in an interactive program that encourages discussion and scholarly debate from interdisciplinary perspectives.
Identify and explore emerging opportunities, research challenges, costs, and benefits for entertainment games, serious games, and the gamification of traditional (non-games) applications and activities.
Identify and explore emerging research challenges, trends, costs, and benefits through games or game-based applications with SE techniques.
Generate a new research agenda, identify topics of interest for this community, and how future workshops and social media groups may explore these topics.
Submission guidelines
GAS 2023 is seeking three types of submissions:
• Long Research Papers: max. 8 pages.
• Short Research Papers: 4 - 6 pages.
• Extended Abstracts (e.g., demo, position statement): 2 pages.
Organization
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co-organizers (icse.gas.workshop.2023@gmail.com)
