Call for papers: DiGRA Australia 2026 National Conference
UniSC is delighted to invite you to contribute to and attend our 2026 three-day national Digital Games Research Association Australia (DiGRAA) conference. The conference will be held on Monday the 9th, Tuesday the 10th and Wednesday the 11th at the University of the Sunshine Coast Moreton Bay Campus in Petrie in the City of Moreton Bay. Registration is free.
Important dates
July 9 2025 – call for papers opens.
September 1 2025 – Submission deadline. Please note there will be no extensions to the submission deadline.
October 1 2025 (approximately) – Notification of submission outcomes.
January 9 2026 – Deadline to register for in person attendance and submit slides/video.
January 26 2026 – Deadline for presenters to sign up for a DiGRAA membership.
February 9, 10 and 11 2026 – Conference.
Details
The DiGRA Australia 2026 National Conference is an opportunity for games researchers, critics, designers, developers and artists at any career stages to share their work. We aim to provide an inclusive forum that reflects the diversity and vibrancy of Game Studies in Australia, and that allows interdisciplinary dialogues to critically engage with games, players and the culture that surrounds them.
DiGRA Australia 2026 will be hosted at UniSC’s Moreton Bay campus in Petrie. It will run as a hybrid conference, allowing both online and in-person attendance and presentations. You can find detailed information about attending the conference here in the Delegate Guide.
UniSC is a proud member of RUN (the Regional Universities Network) making DiGRAA 2026 the first national conference hosted by a RUN or regionally located university. Creative, trained people are essential for a regional area to develop creative capital (Comunian et al., 2015), innovate and be economically successful (Mecocci et al., 2022). And given the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay are both known for their creative culture and industries, ranging from fashion to theatre to writing and more, while not prescribing a conference theme we would like to invite authors to reflect on the broad theme of creativity when preparing their DiGRAA 2026 submissions. Creativity is essential to the development and analysis of video games and indeed all academic research.
Comunian, R., Gilmore, A., & Jacobi, S. (2015). Higher education and the creative economy: Creative graduates, knowledge transfer and regional impact debates. Geography Compass, 9(7), 371–383. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12220
Mecoci, F.B., Maghssudipour, A., & Bellandi, M. (2022). The effect of cultural and creative production on human capital: Evidence from European regions. Papers in Regional Science, 101(6), 1263-1288. https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12702
Submission process
Extended abstracts (traditional track)
This is the standard format for submissions to the DiGRAA conference. Extended abstracts are a maximum 800 words (excluding references) using the DiGRA Australia Template. Submissions do not have to be anonymised. Submissions will be reviewed by the DiGRA Australia programming committee.
Accepted extended abstracts will be presented at the conference as a 15-minute talk. In-person presenters will present live, and online presenters will be requested to provide a pre-recorded video to minimise technical issues. All presenters, in-person and online, are expected to be present in their session for a live Q&A.
Extended abstracts are to be submitted via the Google Form at this link.
Practice track
Continuing 2025’s successful non-traditional research outputs (NTROs) submission format, we will be running a practice track for DiGRAA 2026, specifically for those wishing to exhibit and present practical work at the conference. The practice track will be programmed as part of the conference and is aimed for the scholarly inclusion of industry and creative practitioners at DiGRA Australia. Conference attendees will have opportunities to mingle and discuss the works.
Submissions to the practice track include a description of the work and a research statement using the DiGRA Australia Practice Track Template. Submissions do not have to be anonymised. Practice track submissions containing software must be able to run standalone or on a browser. Practice track submissions will be peer reviewed by the practice track programming.
Accepted works into the practice track will be presented at the conference as an interactive experience or in-person viewing format, along with a 5-minute lightning talk. Abstract and image of accepted works will be archived on the DiGRAA website. Presentation requirements and social media policy is the same as above.
Practice track submissions are via the Google Form at this link.
Submission rules
To ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to present their work, only one submission may be made per lead author, per submission type, and individuals may present only one paper per submission type during the conference. Thus, you may submit to both the extended abstract and the practice track once each as the lead author. There is no limit on secondary authorship.
To present at DiGRAA 2026 in either track, you will need to be a member of DiGRA Australia. Membership is optional for non-presenting authors. You do not need to be a member at the time of submission, only by the date listed above. You do not need to be a member of DiGRA International. DiGRA Australia conferences have a ‘grey list’ policy for accepted submissions that are withdrawn with no reason provided, or for which the presenter simply does not attend.
By participating in DiGRAA 2026, you agree to be bound by the Code of Conduct, which can be viewed here.
Travel Bursaries
DiGRAA will be providing up to 9 travel bursaries of up to $500 each to research students and early career, non-waged researchers. One travel bursary will be reserved for an Indigenous, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander applicant.
Recipients of DiGRAA Travel Bursaries must have an accepted contribution to the conference (whether in the extended abstract or practice track), be a DiGRAA member, and are expected to attend the entire conference in person.
After you have completed your extended abstract or practice track submission, please also submit your travel bursary application here.
If you have your abstract/practice track submission accepted, then your travel bursary application will be reviewed.
Tips for authors
We advise potential authors to review the papers from previous DiGRA Australia conferences as a guide to the expected tone and quality. Some further tips:
- We welcome submissions that explore both in-progress and complete works, but they should represent novel scholarship. If the submission resembles previously published work, we recommend the author explicitly identify the additional contribution of their DiGRA Australia submission.
- Make the novel contributions of the paper clear. Do not spend the bulk of the abstract describing the research context and background.
- Papers can present any kind of research, analysis or commentary, but should be written so that the importance of the work can be understood by reviewers working in different disciplines or using different approaches.
- We strongly recommend that submissions articulate the issue or research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework used, the findings or conclusions to be presented, and/or the relevance to the wider game studies discipline.
- Submissions are expected to have references to reflect the author’s engagement with existing scholarship.
Abstract writing information session: Dr Jacqueline Burgess, an experienced conference abstract peer-reviewer for various conferences and journals including Games and Culture, regular DiGRAA presenter and a member of the Executive, will facilitate an information session that will provide some tips and hints for writing and structuring your DiGRAA 2026 abstract and an introduction to DiGRAA for new attendees. There will also be time for questions. The session will run from 1pm to 1.30pm July 30 QLD time and can be accessed via this Zoom link: https://usc-au.zoom.us/j/86485346681?pwd=K6wgmdOknMIIxFssQ7rDA2du382yX5.1 It will be recorded for those who cannot make it.
We look forward to welcoming you to UniSC Moreton Bay!
Conference organising committee
Dr Jacqueline Burgess (conference chair), Senior Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast
Dr Alexander Muscat, Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast
Dr Kirsty Redgen (financial officer), Associate Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast
Professor Christian Jones, Leader of the Engage Lab, University of the Sunshine Coast
Arden Sedmak, incoming HDR student, University of the Sunshine Coast
Jana Voelker, incoming HDR student, University of the Sunshine Coast
Jesse Clement, HDR student, University of the Sunshine Coast
Tiana Toussaint, incoming HDR student, University of the Sunshine Coast