Games for Good
We invent responsible video games
We are researchers that work with the industry to build responsible video games
MISSION
We develop new ways to use popular games to solve scientific problems and make valuable research progress.
VISION
The video game of tomorrow becomes a responsible way to participate in resolving scientific and social problems. They connect and build trust of society in science and game industry.
VALUES
- Reliable: we are responsible for our scientific outcomes
- Trustworthy: we believe in strong partnership
- Focused: we love projects with concrete impact and deliverables
- Educational: we communicate science to people
- Talent development: we train experts who believe in sustainable gaming
The impact of our work
We engaged several millions and collected over half a billion contributions
"So there's your incentive, folks. Stay on Borderlands 3 and save some lives"
Evening Standard
"By simply completing levels in the mini-game you’ll help correct millions of small computer errors that arise as scientists try to map the microbiome of the human gut"
Kotaku
"Sometimes, contributing to breakthroughs in science can be as simple as playing a game"
Discover Magazine
Total Games Played
Combined amount of games played from all our projects.
Total Users
Combined amount of users who contributed from all our projects.
Projects Launched
Total amount of projects and variations of them we have successfully launched
Total Games Played
Combined amount of games played from all our projects.
Total Users
Combined amount of users who contributed from all our projects.
Projects Launched
Total amount of projects and variations of them we have successfully launched
"So there's your incentive, folks. Stay on Borderlands 3 and save some lives"
Evening Standard
"By simply completing levels in the mini-game you’ll help correct millions of small computer errors that arise as scientists try to map the microbiome of the human gut"
Kotaku
"Sometimes, contributing to breakthroughs in science can be as simple as playing a game"
Discover Magazine
Blog
Publications
/JOURNAL
Playing the System: Can Puzzle Players Teach us How to Solve Hard Problems?
Renata Mutalova, Roman Sarrazin-Gendron, Eddie Cai, Gabriel Richard, Parham Ghasemloo Gheidari, Sébastien Caisse, Rob Knight, Mathieu Blanchette, Attila Szantner and Jérôme WaldispühlContributed talk at the CH I2023 “ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems”
/JOURNAL
Playing the System: Can Puzzle Players Teach us How to Solve Hard Problems?
Renata Mutalova, Roman Sarrazin-Gendron, Eddie Cai, Gabriel Richard, Parham Ghasemloo Gheidari, Sébastien Caisse, Rob Knight, Mathieu Blanchette, Attila Szantner and Jérôme WaldispühlContributed talk at the CH I2023 “ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems”
/JOURNAL
Human-supervised clustering of multidimensional data using crowdsourcing,
Butyaev, Alexander, Drogaris, Chrisostomos, Tremblay-Savard, Olivier, and Waldispühl, Jérôme Royal Society Open Science, 9, pages 211189/JOURNAL
When Citizen Science meets Teaching: A storified citizen science computer game to teach and contribute to genomic data analysis,
Drogaris, Chrisostomos, Butyaev, Alexander, Nazarova, Elena, Patel, Harsh, Singh, Akash, Kadota, Brenden, and Waldispühl, Jérôme bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, May, 2022./JOURNAL
Leveling up citizen science,
Waldispühl, Jérôme, Szantner, Attila, Knight, Rob, Caisse, Sébastien, and Pitchford, RandyNature Biotechnology volume 38, pages 1124–1126 (2020)
/JOURNAL
3DGV: Immersive Exploration of 3D Genome Structures using Virtual Reality
Zhang, Eric, Drogaris, Chrisostomos, Gédon, Antoine, Sossin, Aaron, Faraj, Rajae, Chen, Haifen, Cyr, Yan, Majewski, Jacek, Blanchette, Mathieu, and Waldispühl, JérômebioRxiv, 2019.
/JOURNAL
Ten simple rules to create a serious game, illustrated with examples from structural biology.
Baaden, Marc, Delalande, Olivier, Ferey, Nicolas, Pasquali, Samuela, Waldispühl, Jérôme, and Taly, AntoinePLoS Comput Biol 14, pages e1005955, 03, 2018
/JOURNAL
Deep learning is combined with massive-scale citizen science to improve large-scale image classification,
Devin P Sullivan, Casper F Winsnes, Lovisa Åkesson, Martin Hjelmare, Mikaela Wiking, Rutger Schutten, Linzi Campbell, Hjalti Leifsson, Scott Rhodes, Andie Nordgren, Kevin Smith, Bernard Revaz, Bergur Finnbogason, Attila Szantner & Emma LundbergNature Biotechnology volume 36, pages 820–828 (2018)
/JOURNAL
Science Game Lab: tool for the unification of biomedical games with a purpose,
Good, Benjamin, Santini, Sarah, Wallace, Margaret, Fortugno, Nicholas, Szeder, John, Mooney, Patrick, Waldispühl, Jérôme, Tsueng, Ginger, and Su, Andrew IbioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Labs Journals, pages 156141, 2017.
/CONFERENCE
Lessons from an online massive genomics computer game,
Singh, Akash, Ahsan, Faizy, Blanchette, Mathieu, and Waldispühl, JérômeIn Proceedings of the Fifth AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP 2017), 2017.
/JOURNAL
Massively Multiplayer Online Science,
Attila Szantner Levelling Up: The Cultural Impact of Contemporary Video games/JOURNAL
October 2016.
Collaborative Solving in a Human Computing Game Using a Market, Skills and Challenges,
Tremblay-Savard, Olivier, Butyaev, Alexander, and Waldispühl, Jérôme
In Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, ACM, pages 130-141, 2016.
/CONFERENCE
Crowdsourcing RNA structural alignments with an online computer game,
Waldispühl, Jérôme, Kam, Arthur, and Gardner, Paul PIn Proceedings of the 20th Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, pages 330-41, 2015.
/MISC
Un jeu pour faire avancer la génétique,
Waldispühl, JérômeIn “La Recherche”, 491, pages 46-51, September, 2014.
/JOURNAL
Open-Phylo: a customizable crowd-computing platform for multiple sequence alignment,
Kwak, Daniel, Kam, Alfred, Becerra, David, Zhou, Qikuan, Hops, Adam, Zarour, Eleyine, Kam, Arthur, Sarmenta, Luis, Blanchette, Mathieu, and Waldispühl, JérômeGenome Biol, 14, pages R116, October, 2013.
/JOURNAL
Phylo: a citizen science approach for improving multiple sequence alignment,
Kawrykow, Alexander, Roumanis, Gary, Kam, Alfred, Kwak, Daniel, Leung, Clarence, Wu, Chu, Zarour, Eleyine, {Phylo players}, Sarmenta, Luis, Blanchette, Mathieu, and Waldispühl, JérômePLoS One, 7, pages e31362, March, 2012.
Talks
/TALK
Playing the System: Can Puzzle Players Teach us How to Solve Hard Problems?
Invited talk at the CH I2023 “ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems”....
/TALK
“Borderlands Science”, Talk at Amazon “Voice of the Customer”.
Seminar series (with Attila Szantner and Jonathan Moreau-Genest)./TALK
“Borderlands Science”.
Invited short talk at the 31st edition of Soup & Science./TALK
“Le potentiel des jeux en ligne pour les sciences participatives”.
Invited talk at the 88e congrès de l’ACFAS “Engagement des Québécois et des Québécoises en sciences : pratiques multiformes”./TALK
“On the Border: Where Science Meets Gaming”.
Invited online webinar organized by The Royal Canadian Institute for Science (with Gabriel Richard, Sarah Hays, and Nikki Stout)./TALK
“One Billion Guns vs. One Billion Nucleotides”.
Invited panel member at the Games 4 Change Festival (with Rob Knight, Randy Pitchford, and Attila Szantner)....
...
...
...
/TALK
February 26, 2016.
“Crowdsourcing genomics research”, Invited seminar, Chemistry department, University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France.
/TALK
November 13, 2015.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
guest lecture for BIOT505, McGill University.
/TALK
April 15, 2015.
“Using games for research-based learning”,
invited lecture at the CRI Workshop “Leadership program”, Paris, France.
/TALK
March 4, 2015.
“Crowdsourcing Genomics Research”,
Invited seminar, Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
/TALK
November 19, 2014.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
invited lecture at POP! (symposium organized by the association of students in bioinformatics at UdM), Université de Montréal University.
/TALK
November 14, 2014.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
guest lecture for BIOT505, McGill University.
/TALK
November 6, 2014.
“Video game players advancing genetic research”,
Fourth Montreal Summit on Innovation, Montreal, Canada.
/TALK
April 30, 2014.
“Phylo: A human-computing game for genomic research”,
Games & Crowds Work- shop, Washington, DC, USA.
/TALK
April 29, 2014.
“Crowdsourcing Genomic Data Analysis with Human-Computing Video Games”,
invited talk at the White House OSTP Crowdsource Games Workshop, Washington, DC, USA.
/TALK
March 26, 2014.
“Crowdsourcing Genomic Data Analysis with Human-Computing Video Games”,
invited talk at the CRI Workshop “Leadership program”, Paris, France.
/TALK
February 8th, 2013.
Invited Departmental Seminar, “Phylo: A Citizen Science Approach to Com- parative Genomics”, Shriner’s Hospital, Montreal, Canada.
/TALK
November 13, 2012.
Invited panelist at round table “Bring Your Own Data follow-up session” organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Emergencies, Washington D.C., USA.
/TALK
July 14, 2012.
Invited lecture, International Workshop “Learning Through Research”, Paris, France. “Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”.
/TALK
June 13, 2012.
Invited lecture, Game for Health Conference 2012, Boston, USA. “Phylo: Crowdsourcing Genetic Data Analysis”.
/TALK
May 22, 2012.
Talk at the Fabelier seminar series, University Paris 5 Descartes, Paris, France. “Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”.
/TALK
March 5, 2012.
Invited lecture, Game Developer Conference, San Francisco, USA. “PHYLO: help cure disease through guilt-free gaming”.
/TALK
March 2, 2012.
Talk at the Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, USA. “PHYLO: help cure disease through guilt-free gaming”.
/TALK
September 28th-30th, 2011.
Playing the System: Can Puzzle Players Teach us How to Solve Hard Problems?
Invited lecture, CUSP Conference, Museum of Modern Art, Chicago, USA. “PHYLO: Play video games and help Science”.
/TALK
February 26, 2016.
“Crowdsourcing genomics research”, Invited seminar, Chemistry department, University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France.
/TALK
February 26, 2016.
“Crowdsourcing genomics research”, Invited seminar, Chemistry department, University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France.
/TALK
November 13, 2015.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
guest lecture for BIOT505, McGill University.
/TALK
April 15, 2015.
“Using games for research-based learning”,
invited lecture at the CRI Workshop “Leadership program”, Paris, France.
/TALK
March 4, 2015.
“Crowdsourcing Genomics Research”,
Invited seminar, Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
/TALK
November 19, 2014.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
invited lecture at POP! (symposium organized by the association of students in bioinformatics at UdM), Université de Montréal University.
/TALK
November 14, 2014.
“Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”,
guest lecture for BIOT505, McGill University.
/TALK
November 6, 2014.
“Video game players advancing genetic research”,
Fourth Montreal Summit on Innovation, Montreal, Canada.
/TALK
April 30, 2014.
“Phylo: A human-computing game for genomic research”,
Games & Crowds Work- shop, Washington, DC, USA.
/TALK
April 29, 2014.
“Crowdsourcing Genomic Data Analysis with Human-Computing Video Games”,
invited talk at the White House OSTP Crowdsource Games Workshop, Washington, DC, USA.
/TALK
March 26, 2014.
“Crowdsourcing Genomic Data Analysis with Human-Computing Video Games”,
invited talk at the CRI Workshop “Leadership program”, Paris, France.
/TALK
February 8th, 2013.
Invited Departmental Seminar, “Phylo: A Citizen Science Approach to Com- parative Genomics”, Shriner’s Hospital, Montreal, Canada.
/TALK
November 13, 2012.
Invited panelist at round table “Bring Your Own Data follow-up session” organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Emergencies, Washington D.C., USA.
/TALK
July 14, 2012.
Invited lecture, International Workshop “Learning Through Research”, Paris, France. “Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”.
/TALK
June 13, 2012.
Invited lecture, Game for Health Conference 2012, Boston, USA. “Phylo: Crowdsourcing Genetic Data Analysis”.
/TALK
May 22, 2012.
Talk at the Fabelier seminar series, University Paris 5 Descartes, Paris, France. “Helping Genetic Research Through Guilt-free Gaming”.
/TALK
March 5, 2012.
Invited lecture, Game Developer Conference, San Francisco, USA. “PHYLO: help cure disease through guilt-free gaming”.
/TALK
March 2, 2012.
Talk at the Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, USA. “PHYLO: help cure disease through guilt-free gaming”.
News
Nominations and awards
won
by our projects.
Our users understand the value of our projects and their impact. It is our great honour for our team to be recognized for these projects.
Project Discovery
Public Service, Activism, and Social Impact
Peoples Voice Winner, 2021
Team Members
Principal Investigators
Scientific Collaborators
Professional Staff
Graduate Students
Alumni
Julien Mounthanyvong
Tim Keding
Got a project?
Let’s talk.
We are very excited to discuss new ideas and are very keen on new collaborations in both, science and industry