I realise I haven’t shared many updates over the past year, but in truth, that’s because so much of our time has been joyfully absorbed in the work itself. 2024 has been a beautifully full year, rich with project delivery, deepening partnerships, and community engagement across multiple countries and contexts. From co-designing playful interventions to supporting inclusive education through creative practice, we’ve been busy not just building programmes, but nurturing relationships and learning alongside our collaborators. As we step into a new chapter, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve been up to and how these experiences continue to shape our journey.
As we reflect on 2024, it’s clear that our work in the Ludic Design team (driven by our GameChangers initiative) has been driven by a shared commitment to co-creation, inclusivity, and care, anchored in the belief that play, art, and imagination are powerful tools for social and environmental change. This has been a year of deepening relationships and evolving practice, where ideas seeded years ago have begun to bloom into impactful, grounded initiatives.
At the heart of this has been the FAiR (Frugal Artist-in-Residence) project, which officially launched in August with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. FAiR builds on our longstanding collaborations through the ACES and CreativeCulture initiatives, and seeks to explore how art can foster environmental awareness in playful, accessible, and locally meaningful ways. Its debut at the STEAM Beach Festival in Sarawak, Malaysia, was an invitation to connect coastal communities with their environment through activities like nature bracelet-making, collage, and cyanotype printing. What emerged wasn’t just a celebration of creativity, it was a clear demonstration of how frugal and playful methods can resonate deeply, inspiring stewardship and connection with place.
This year also saw our growing engagement with the role of Generative AI in education. A particularly exciting development was the launch of GameAid, a project led by our colleague Dr. Petros Lameras, and developed in collaboration with the Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam. Funded by the British Council and running from August 2024 to 2026, GameAid equips educators in rural areas with the knowledge and confidence to use AI through the lens of a co-designed serious game. The project received national attention in November when it was featured by the BBC, highlighting how playful design can bridge the digital divide and create new pathways for teacher empowerment.
Throughout the year, our work continued to straddle local and global spaces. In May, we ran RemixPlay: Sensors, both in Coventry and with our partners at Manchester Metropolitan University. These events created spaces to prototype playful experiences using sensor-based interfaces, and more importantly, to co-think how play and technology can serve educational and wellbeing goals. We were reminded yet again that when learners and educators are invited into the design process, the outcomes are not only more relevant, they’re more playful too. We have submitted an article that discusses findings from the co-creation process to a journal for peer-review.
Later in the year, in November, I had the opportunity to return to Malaysia and Indonesia for fieldwork visits that were deeply significant. Alongside Dr. Petros Lameras, I travelled to Sarawak where we reconnected with our partners at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), engaged with a local artist- Angelina Bong and other collaborators through the FAiR project, and co-presented at a panel session at the Gamification Seminar hosted by UNIMAS. This visit was a moment of reflection as well as co-creation, allowing us to reconnect on the ground with those who have shaped our work since the early days of GameChangers, which led to CreativeCulture and ACES.
From there, I continued on to Indonesia with Prof. Katherine Wimpenny for the British Council–funded I-HEDU project, visiting partners at Universitas Negeri Malang and participating in events in Bali. I was especially honoured to join the International Disability Day panel and connect with members of the disabled community in Malang, reaffirming our commitment to inclusive, accessible, and co-designed educational futures.
My South-East Asian tour concluded with a keynote at the International Conference of Education Research and Innovation in Sarawak, co-hosted by the Ministry of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development. It was a meaningful opportunity to reflect publicly on the long-term journey of our GameChangers work with Malaysia since 2017.
We were equally proud to contribute to ongoing scholarly conversations. Our special issue on AI and Games in Education expanded to include sixteen papers from around the world, pushing the boundaries of what learning through play can look like in digital and hybrid environments. This complemented other editorial work, such as our contributions to recently published books and special issues that explore the theoretical and applied dimensions of playful learning systems.
But perhaps the most personally meaningful moments of the year were those when we celebrated the achievements of our research students—individuals who have contributed significantly to our shared mission. In July, we marked the graduation of Dr. Saif Alatrash and Dr. Wayne Gallear , two researchers whose work has explored immersive experiences, games, and innovation in education. Their dedication and creativity have not only enriched our research culture but also opened up new avenues for inquiry and collaboration. We were also delighted to celebrate the graduation of Dr. Glen Shearer, based in Australia, whose PhD I had the pleasure of co-supervising as an external advisor. His research explored a new framework, Reportable Serious Game Mechanics (SGMX), building from the Learning Mechanics- Game Mechanics Model, specifically designed to enhance the quality and effectiveness of organisational learning through serious games.
These graduations are milestones not just for the individuals, but for all of us. They represent years of thoughtful research, community engagement, and the resilience it takes to finish such an intensive journey. Their work stands as a testament to what happens when you blend academic rigour with curiosity, empathy, and the willingness to explore learning differently.
So much of what we’ve achieved in 2024 has been made possible by the ongoing trust and collaboration of our partners, whether in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, or right here in Coventry. This has not been a year of isolated innovations, but of interconnected practices, each informing the next. Through frugal methods, playful design, and grounded community work, we’ve continued to grow a practice that is not only global but deeply personal.
We move into 2025 not with the urgency to do more, but with a deeper appreciation for doing it well, together.
Sylvester Arnab 