Call for papers

The annual IEEE Conference on Games (IEEE CoG) aims to be a leading venue for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and novel approaches to bring innovation in and through games. Games are a great domain to study and develop novel ideas in design, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, psychology, education, sociology, and creativity, as well as their applications in real-world problems.

IEEE CoG 2026 will take place at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, located in Madrid, Spain.

We invite contributions related to all game aspects, including, but not limited to:

• Accessibility and inclusivity in games
• AI for game development (automated playtesting, adaptation/personalization in games, etc.)
• Esports and live-streaming
• Extended reality (virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality)
• Game analytics, game data science, and data visualization
• Game design (frameworks, game mechanics, etc.)
• Game editors and authoring tools
• Game-playing AI
• Game technology (game engines, graphics, audio, animation, physics, networking, controls, etc.)
• Game user research (player/opponent modeling, player experience studies, psychology of play and player types, etc.)
• Games as test-beds for algorithms
• Games for education, learning and development
• Generative AI for games
• Player-computer Interfaces
• Procedural Content Generation
• Serious/applied games (for health, sustainability, etc.)

Please note: CoG is not a conference about game theory and does not accept papers about game theory unless they are applied to games people would play, such as video games or board games.

This is a call for full technical papers. We invite the submission of full *technical* papers with an 8 page limit. Full *technical* papers should provide a technical or empirical contribution to scientific or engineering aspects of games. Relevant dates for this call are as follows:

• Submission of full technical papers: 17th March 2026
• Notification of acceptance of full technical papers: 1st May 2026
• Submission of the camera-ready version of full technical papers: 28th May 2026

All page limits include references and appendices.
NONE OF THE SUBMISSION DEADLINES WILL BE EXTENDED.
All deadlines are Anytime on Earth (AoE).

Other important dates:

• Submission of auxiliary papers: 14th May 2026
• Notification of acceptance of auxiliary papers: 10th June 2026
• Submission of the camera-ready version of auxiliary papers: 24th June 2026
• Games industry talk proposals: 10th April 2026
• Notification of acceptance of games industry talk proposals: 24th April 2026
• Early bird (and author) registration: 24th June 2026
• Conference dates: 1st – 4th September 2026

Submission Instructions

Papers must be submitted through the conference submission system available at the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=ieeecog2026

All paper submissions should follow the recommended IEEE conference author guidelines. MS Word and LaTeX templates can be found at https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates

All submitted papers will be fully peer-reviewed, and accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and on IEEE Xplore. CoG will use a *double-anonymous review process*. Authors must omit their names and affiliations from their submissions, avoiding obvious identifying statements. Submissions not abiding by anonymity requirements will be desk rejected.

Papers might be allocated to either poster presentations or oral presentations.

Track Description

We invite authors to select the track that best matches the expertise needed to assess your research and that you believe will most fully appreciate the contribution of your paper to the field of games research.

Track: AI for Game-playing

This track is suitable for computational and artificial intelligence applications in digital and non-digital games, except for procedural content generation. Topics include but are not limited to general game-playing AI, mixed-initiative authoring tools, believable agents, and AI-assisted game design and testing.

Track: Procedural Content Generation

This track focuses on advancing research on developing and evaluating algorithms that automatically create game design and content such as levels, maps, characters, stories, textures, and music. We welcome theoretical papers on the subject.

Track: Game Human-Computer Interaction

We welcome a broad range of submissions that aim to advance practical or theoretical understanding of Human-Computer-Interaction in games. Topics include AR/VR, visualization for player-computer interaction, accessible and inclusive design of player-computer interaction and innovative game mechanics.

Track: Game Analytics and Player Experience

This track invites papers focused on using data to analyse and understand games, including eSports, game player experience. It covers how to use data, including analytics and computational methods, to model player behaviour, analyse performance, player segmentation, player experience evaluation and the use of data to optimize acquisition, retention, and monetization in games.

Track: Game Design and Technology

This track invites papers that improve the technical aspects of game design and development. Typical contributions include designerly contributions to games, game engines, benchmarks, computer graphics techniques, animation and networking.

Track: Serious Games

This track is dedicated to the study, design, development, technology and deployment of games for serious purposes such as education, training, and health. Topics include AI, game design, multimodal interaction for serious games, their development and testing.