Agile GamesXP 2026

About the Agile Games Track

Playing games is a natural part of human life. We are social beings and seek ludic activities to explore our creativity, reasoning and problem solving while having fun. The Agile Movement is all about people, either the ones creating the software or the ones using it. This concern with people, creates a common ground between games and agility.

Games are a powerful means to bring people together and create a fun and inclusive environment that can still be productive. Some games are specifically designed to support Agile practices and engineering processes; some others are of general purpose but can be applied in an Agile context.

The Agile Games track creates a space for game and Agile enthusiasts to come together. We aim to invest in these activities, stimulating the community to search and use new fun approaches to these important processes, yet considering the people first.

We are looking for games and experiences along with them in Agile environments, with a special focus on, but not limited to, gamification of Agile practices, experiences with new agility-specific games, or general-purpose games applied to agility.

We welcome thoughtful participants interested in games, either game designers, game enthusiasts, or people interested in them. We would like a mix of short talks, game sessions, and discussions. We want to learn from your experiences and develop new ideas. From university professors to industrial coaches and practitioners to learning organizations – please propose something to help us put people first with fun in the processes, or just come and add to the conversation.

Submissions Details

We invite submissions of structured sessions (e.g., short talks and experience reports) to mix with game sessions and discussions. Proposals should address games and gamification in Agile that could foster good discussions, such as new games that make processes more fun or using games for team-building, strategies to assess the impact and the value of using games, games in remote and hybrid formats, and more.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: - Relevance to practitioners - Likelihood of starting a discussion - Being something interesting and new, not established

We expect three types of submissions:

• Game Demo

  • Format: an abstract (250 to 500 words)

    • Content: the scenario in which the game applies, the game dynamics, and the settings
    • Playability in the Conference:
      • Willing to host a game session?
        • What is the number of required players (minimum and maximum)?
        • Are there any extra resources needed for the demonstration (electronics)?
        • Are there any requirements for the game room? Table? Auditorium? Presentation?

  • Game Experience Report

    • Format: 4 pages -Type: Presenting a New Game or Adopting a Game in a New Context
    • Presentation of the game, its purposes, settings, and dynamics
    • The scenario in which the experience happened -The impacts on the context, the results of the game session(s)
• Game Publication
  • Format: 4 pages + supplementary material
    • Type: Presenting New Game
    • Presentation of the game, its purposes, settings, and dynamics
    • The scenario in which the experience happened
    • The impacts on the context, the results of the game session(s)
    • Supplementary material: rule book, game in Print-and-Play version
    • Playability in the Conference: willing to host a game session?
    • The authors must hold the rights to the game itself and all of its assets, such as, but not limited to, assets, icons, or images

The submissions are either an abstract (250 to 500 words) for the “Game Demo” setting or a short paper (max. 4 pages) for the “Game Experience Report” and “Game Publication” settings; in the case of the latter, the specified supplementary material (SM) will be acceptable, which is not constrained by the 4 pages limit: you can submit a PDF with the author’s files. Note that no SM replaces the original work, and if only the SM is submitted, it will be rejected.

All submissions will undergo a single-blind reviewing process, conducted by at least two members of the Program Committee. Authors of “Game Publications” and “Game Experience -

Reports” should consult Springer Author Instructions and use their proceedings templates for LaTeX or Word for submission preparation. The SM does not require following this Springer Template.

During the conference, for the “Game Demo” and “Game Publication” settings where the authors marked as “willing to host a game session”, the registration of at least one of the authors for the proceedings to continue is mandatory. After the conference, you will be asked to improve your paper based on feedback from the conference participants and reviewers. The accepted papers will be published as Open Access in the post-conference proceedings by Springer (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, LNBIP).

Submissions will only be accepted via the conference submission system link (https://easychair.org/my2/conference?conf=xp2026).

Track Chairs

• Marcelo Walter, Co-Chair, Objective (mlwalter@gmail.com)
• Phyllipe de Souza Lima Francisco, Co-Chair, Federal University of Itajubá, Brazil (phyllipe@unifei.edu.br)

Questions?

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the track chairs above.

Awarded Papers