ABOUT ME

I’m Professor for Game Computing at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and hold positions at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Ontario Tech University. My research interests lie at the intersection of games user research, data analytics, and information visualization. My work particularly centers on understanding player behavior in games and on researching methods to explore and communicate the collected data to derive actionable insights for game design and development. As part of this, I’m working on data visualizations to support the analysis of increasingly large-scale player behavioral datasets used in game analytics. My work has been published in international journals and conference proceedings, such as CHI, CHI PLAY, FDG, Computers & Graphics, and Entertainment Computing.

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Recent Book

Data Analytics Applications in Gaming and Entertainment seeks to provide a cross section of current data analytics applications in game production. It is intended as a companion for practitioners, academic researchers, and students seeking knowledge on the latest practices in game data mining. A total of 25 authors from industry and academia have contributed 12 chapters covering topics such as player profiling, approaches for analyzing player communities and their social structures, matchmaking, churn prediction and customer lifetime value estimation, communication of analytical results, and visual approaches to game analytics. Read more ...

Latest Publications

	Player-Centric Data Visualization for Metroidvania Games: Insights and Use Cases: The Case of Hollow Knight Oliver Gstöttenbauer, Claire Dormann, and Günter Wallner Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction [DOI] [PDF] [Research Gate]
	Pathways of Desire: Enhancing Navigation and Sense of Community Through Player-Generated Desire Paths Michael Lankes, Günter Wallner, and Martin Kocur Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025), Honorable Mention Award [DOI] [PDF] [Research Gate]
	A Conversation around Best Practices, Challenges, Career Advice, and Trends in Games Users Research Simone Kriglstein, Joshua Flitcroft, Jak Marshall, Francis Leo Tabios, Emma Varjo, and Günter Wallner ACM Games: Research and Practice [DOI] [Research Gate]

[see full list of publications]

Professional Activities (Selection)

Chairing & Organization

Associate Chair, Games and Play, CHI 2024, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, USA
Program Co-Chair, CoG 2023, IEEE Conference on Games, Boston, USA
Program Co-Chair, VINCI 2023, International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, Guangzhou, China
Associate Chair, CHI PLAY 2023, Stratford, Canada
Co-Organizer, PLEY: 4th Eye Tracking in Games and Play Workshop, co-located with ETRA 2023, Tübingen, Germany
Associate Chair, Games and Play, CHI 2022, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New Orleans, USA
Associate Chair, CHI PLAY 2022, Bremen, Germany
Program Co-Chair, VINCI 2022, International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, Chur, Switzerland
Co-Organizer, PLEY: 3rd Eye Tracking in Games and Play Workshop, co-located with ETRA 2022, Seattle, USA
General Chair, CHI PLAY 2021, Vienna, Austria
Associate Chair, Games and Play, CHI 2021, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan
Co-Organizer, PLEY: 2nd Eye Tracking in Games and Play Workshop, co-located with ETRA 2021, Virtual
Program Co-Chair, CHI PLAY 2020, Ottawa, Canada
Co-Organizer, Be Part Of It: Spectator Experience in Gaming and eSports (Workshop), co-located with CHI 2020, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
Co-Organizer, PLEY: 1st Eye Tracking in Games and Play Workshop, co-located with ETRA 2020, Stuttgart, Germany
Program Co-Chair, CHI PLAY 2019, Barcelona, Spain
Associate Chair, Games and Play, CHI 2019, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Glasgow, UK
Track Chair, Game Interfaces and User Interaction, CoG 2019, IEEE Conference on Games, London, UK
Track Chair, Player Modeling, Game Analytics and Data Visualization, FDG 2019, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
Spotlight Co-Chair, CHI PLAY 2018, Melbourne, Australia
Associate Chair, Games and Play, CHI 2018, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Montreal, Canada
Co-Organizer, Exploiting Players? Critical Reflections on Participation in Game Development (Workshop), co-located with CHI PLAY 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Associate Chair, CHI PLAY 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Track Chair, Game Analytics & Visualization, FDG 2017, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Cape Cod, MA, USA
Program Co-Chair, ACE 2016, 13th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Osaka, Japan
Workshops and Courses Co-Chair, CHI PLAY 2016, Austin, TX, USA
Associate Chair - Games Subcomittee for Late-Breaking Work, CHI 2016, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose, CA, USA
Publication Chair, ICEC 2016, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Vienna, Austria
Co-Organizer, Tool Design Jam: Designing Tools for Games User Research (Workshop), co-located with CHIPLAY 2015, London, England
Workshops, Course, Tutorials Co-Chair, CHI PLAY 2015, London, Great Britain
Program Committee Member ICEC 2015, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Trondheim, Norway
Poster Co-Chair, ACE 2014, 11th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Funchal, Madeira
Local Organizing Committee Member ICGG 2014, 16th International Conference on Geometry and Graphics, Innsbruck, Austria
Poster Chair, ACE 2013, 10th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Enschede, Netherlands
Chair Art & Culture Track, ACE 2012, 9th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal

Steering Committees

Steering Committee Vice-Chair, CHI PLAY, since 2023 (member since 2021)
Steering Committee Member, IGDA Analytics SIG, since 2022

Editorial Activities

Editorial Board Member, ACM Games: Research and Practice, since 2022
Editorial Board Member, Behaviour & Information Technology, since 2023
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Visual Game Analytics, Information Visualization Journal (SAGE)
Guest Editor, Special Issue Best Papers from ICEC 2016, Entertainment Computing Journal (Elsevier)

Program Committee Member

Program Committee Member, Technical Game Development and Novel Controllers), FDG 2023, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
Program Committee Member, CoG 2022, IEEE Conference on Games, Beijing, China
Program Committee Member, ICEC 2022, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Bremen, Germany
Program Committee Member, Game Development Methods and Technologies, FDG 2022, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Athens, Greece
Program Committee Member, GII 2021, Workshop on Game Intelligence and Informatics, Delhi, India
Program Committee Member, Analytics and Player Modeling, CoG 2020, IEEE Conference on Games, Osaka, Japan
Program Committee Member, Game Analytics and Visualization, FDG 2020, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Malta
Program Committee Member, JCSG 2020, Joint Conference on Serious Games, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Program Committee Member, GII 2020, Workshop on Game Intelligence and Informatics, Singapore
Program Committee Member, VINCI 2020, International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, Virtual Event
Program Committee Member, DLI 2020, EAI International Conference on Design, Learning & Innovation, Virtual Event
Program Committee Member, iLRN 2020, Immersive Learning Research Network Conference, Virtual Event
Program Committee Member, CoG 2019, IEEE Conference on Games, London, UK
Program Committee Member, CoG 2019 - Esports Special Session, IEEE Conference on Games, London, UK
Program Committee Member, ICEC 2019, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Arequipa, Peru
Program Committee Member, GAW 2019, Game Analytics Workshop, Atlanta, GA, USA
Program Committee Member, VISSOFT 2019, IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization, Cleveland, OH, USA
Program Committee Member, VINCI 2019, International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, Shanghai, China
Program Committee Member, TIE 2019, International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education, Braga, Portugal
Program Committee Member, ArtsIT 2018, EAI International Conference: ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation, Braga, Portugal
Program Committee Member, HCI and Player Experience Track, FDG 2018, Foundations of Digital Games Conference, Malmo, Sweden
Program Committee Member, ICEC 2018, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Poznan, Poland
Program Committee Member, IVAPP 2019, Int. Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Prague, Czech Republic
Program Committee Member, IVAPP 2018, Int. Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Funchal, Portugal
Program Committee Member, iLRN 2018, Immersive Learning Research Network Conference, Western Montana, MT, USA
Program Committee Member, INTETAIN 2017, International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, Funchal, Portugal
Program Committee Member, Human Factors Track, ICHI 2017, IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, Park City, Utah, USA
Program Committee Member, ICEC 2017, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Tsukuba City, Japan
Program Committee Member, iLRN 2017, Immersive Learning Research Network Conference, Coimbra, Portugal
Program Committee Member, IVAPP 2017, Int. Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Porto, Portugal
Program Committee Member, Player Analytics Workshop @AIIDE 2017, San Francisco, CA, USA
Program Committee Member, DiGRA/FDG 2016, Joint conference of the Digital Games Research Association and the Foundations of Digital Games, Dundee, Scotland, UK
Program Committee Member, iLRN 2016, Immersive Learning Research Network Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Program Committee Member, ICHI 2016, IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics 2016, Chicago, USA
Program Committee Member, IVAPP 2016, Int. Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Rome, Italy
Senior Program Committee Member ACE 2015, 12th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Iskandar, Malaysia
Program Committee Member, FDG 2015, Foundations of Digital Games, Pacific Grove, California
Program Committee Member, Human Factors, ICHI 2015 (IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics)
Program Committee Member TAProViz 2015, 4th International Workshop on Theory and Application of Visualizations and Human-centric Aspects in Processes in conjunction with the 13th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM2015), Innsbruck, Austria
Program Committee Member IVAPP 2015, International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications, Berlin, Germany
Program Committee Member ICEC 2014, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, Sydney, Australia
Program Committee Member TAProViz 2014, 3rd International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization in conjunction with the 12th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM2014) Haifa, Israel
Senior Program Committee Member ACE 2013, 10th Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference, Enschede, Netherlands
Program Committee Member TAProViz 2013, 2nd International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization in conjunction with the 11th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM2013) Beijing, China
Program Committee Member TAProViz 2012, 1st International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization in conjunction with the 10th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM2012)Tallinn, Estonia

Reviewing

ETRA 2022 (ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications)
EuroVis 2022 (EG Conference on Visualization)
DIS 2020 (Designing Interactive Systems)
INTERACT 2019 (International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction)
EuroVis 2019 (EG/VGTC Conference on Visualization)
EICS PACM 2018 (Engineering Interactive Computing Systems)
EuroVis 2017 (EG/VGTC Conference on Visualization)
VAST 2017 (IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology)
EuroVis 2016 (EG/VGTC Conference on Visualization)
GI 2016 (Graphics Interface)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction / Taylor Francis
CHI Play 2015 (ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play)
VAST 2015 (IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology)
CHI 2015 (ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
EuroVis 2015 (EG/VGTC Conference on Visualization)
CHI Play 2014 (ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play)
Entertainment Computing Journal / Elsevier
The Scientific World Journal / Hindawi Publishing Corporation
VAST 2014 (IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology)
CHI 2014 (ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
Computers & Graphics Journal / Elsevier
Gamification 2013
FDG 2013 (International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games)
CHI 2013 (ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
ACE 2012 (Advances in Computer Entertainment Conference)
AVI 2012 (Advanced Visual Interfaces)
ICA Conference 2012, ICA Game Studies Special Interest Group
VAST 2011 (IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology)
Neural Computing & Applications Journal / Springer
Eurographics 2010 (Annual conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics)