Call for Book Chapter Proposals:

Teaching the Game, Second Edition
Play Story Press
https://playstorypress.org/2026/04/07/call-for-proposal-teaching-the-game-second-edition/

Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 1, 2026 (chapters due June 15, 2026)

We are pleased to share this call for book chapter proposals for the second edition of Teaching the Game, to be published open access by Play Story Press. Abstracts are due May 1, 2026 . Authors will be notified by May 15, 2026. Accepted chapters will be due by June 15, 2026. Full details are below, but please feel free to contact us with questions or to submit your proposal at rferdig@gmail.com.

Best, Rick Ferdig (with Emily Baumgartner and Enrico Gandolfi).

PURPOSE

Gaming is taught across multiple content areas (i.e., media studies, education, computer science, design, humanities, business, and beyond) and across every level of instruction. Despite this breadth, we do not always share syllabi, teaching strategies, or best practices across disciplines or institutions. The goal of Teaching the Game has always been to fix that: to bring together faculty who teach gaming and create a single, rich, open-access resource for the field.

The first edition of this collection was published in two volumes in 2021 through Carnegie Mellon’s ETC Press. Together, Volume 1 and Volume 2 brought together 49 chapters representing gaming courses from institutions around the world, organized across five disciplinary areas: Business, Health, and Humanities; Communication and Media Studies; Computer Science; Education; and Game Design and Development. We encourage prospective contributors to review both volumes before submitting; they are available free of charge at and will give you a clear sense of the format, voice, and scope we are looking for.

This second edition, published by Play Story Press, is not a simple reprint. The field has changed enormously since 2021 — in technology, in research, in the industry, and in how we teach. The second edition is designed to reflect that change. All chapters should speak to the current moment in gaming and gaming education, and all accepted authors will receive an updated chapter template that includes, among other things, a required section on artificial intelligence: how AI has changed what you teach, how you teach it, and what you ask students to do.

Each chapter includes multiple parts, which will be detailed in the template. Among them: teaching objectives, teaching pedagogy, teaching best practices, teaching tools, delivery context, expanded course syllabus, and future directions. Chapters will be organized by content area. As with the first edition, that organization will emerge from the submissions themselves.

AREAS WE ESPECIALLY WELCOME

Any course in which games are taught, designed, studied, or used as a learning tool is eligible. The following areas are particularly underrepresented in the existing collection, and we actively encourage submissions in these areas:

• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN GAME DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN. Courses that engage with generative AI tools, AI-driven game design systems, procedural content generation, or the ethics of AI in games. This includes both courses that teach about AI and gaming as subject matter and courses that have fundamentally rethought their workflow or assignments in response to AI tools for gaming and game design.
• IMMERSIVE AND EXTENDED REALITY (XR). Courses focused on virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, or spatial computing in game design, education, or media studies.
• GAME ENGINE LITERACY AND PLATFORM STUDIES. Courses that have navigated the rapidly shifting game engine landscape (including the move toward open-source alternatives) or that address platform trust, tool selection, and vendor independence as pedagogical concerns.
• ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSIVE GAME DESIGN. Courses that address accessibility as a content area, teaching students to design for players with disabilities, examine industry practices, or engage critically with representation and inclusion in games.
• INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES. The first edition drew largely from North American and Western European institutions. We actively encourage submissions from instructors in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and other regions where gaming education is growing and whose perspectives remain underrepresented in the existing literature.
• OTHER COURSES THAT FOCUS ON CRITICAL AND RELEVANT AREAS LIKE INDIE AND COZY GAMES, GAME-BASED MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING, MOBILE GAMING, AND STREAMING/CONTENT CREATION.

DETAILS

To be considered, please submit a 250-word abstract by May 1, 2026, that includes:

• Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and email address(es)
• Title of course
• Course keywords — content area (e.g., computer science, media studies), level (e.g., undergraduate, graduate), and delivery mode (e.g., online, face-to-face, hybrid)
• Brief description of the course, including its context and any recent changes you have made in response to developments in technology, AI, or the field

Full chapters will be due June 15, 2026. Accepted authors will receive a complete updated chapter template. We strongly encourage prospective authors to review both volumes of the first edition before submitting. The book will be published open access with Creative Commons licensing by Play Story Press.

Please send proposals and any questions to rferdig@gmail.com.