About
Materializing Design is a SSHRC-funded research group at Concordia University investigating epistemological grounding for games research.
Our goals are:
- To develop best practices and workflows for game makers to document, archive, and reflect on their work, aka the Method for Design Materialization (MDM).
- To progressively build a set of public-facing online game development repositories, documented using MDM, supporting future research into game design practice.
- To transparently employ grounded theory analysis to inform evidence-based patterns for how game design actually happens.
- To surface and materialize game design processes for an audience of academics, members of the game industry, design practitioners, and the general game-curious public.
The Method for Design Materialization (MDM) is a methodological approach to design practice documentation that connects design reasoning and materials, in order to make design processes traceable.
Members
Faculty
Rilla Khaled
Primary Investigator
I am an academic / designer who has the aesthetics of the 90s internet permanently forged into my psyche. I teach Computation Arts at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal. I direct the TAG Research Centre (when I am not on sabbatical). I don't do social media as a general rule, but am always reachable at: rilla.khaled@concordia.ca
Pippin Barr
Co-Investigator
Hi, I’m Pippin. I make games. I’m kind of on Bluesky, and definitely on email. If you want to stay up to date, you could subscribe to my newsletter!
I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montréal. I’m also the department chair right now. I’m a member of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre, part of the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture, and Technology.
Jonathan Lessard
Collaborator
Game designer, professor, and researcher, holder of the Behaviour Interactive Research Chair in Game Design. I have been exploring the playful affordances of various technologies and concepts such as natural language processing and possible worlds theory for the past decade. My main research interests include emergent narratives, complex simulations, natural language interactions, and game design history. J'aime jouer
Research Assistants
M. Shahrom Ali
Designer/Engineer - Admin
M.A. Educational Technology
B.S. Computer Science
Courtney Blamey
Qualitative Analyst
Ph.D. Candidate Communications & Media Studies
M.A. Media Studies
B.A. Game Design & Creative Writing
Jeremy Dumont
Archivist - Designer
B.A. Computational Arts (Game Design)
Anna Huang
Graphic/Web Designer
BFA Graphic Design
Val Nguyen
Designer - Researcher
M.Des. Design & Computation Arts
B.A. Industrial & Product Design
Students
Matt Bethancourt
PhD Student
Ph.D. Student INDI
MFA Design & Technology
Mo Gharbia
PhD Student
Ph.D Student INDI Fine Arts
M.A. Film Studies
B.A. Mass Comms./Media Studies
Vadim Nickel
PhD Candidate
Ph.D. Student INDI
Chip Limeburner
PhD Student
Ph.D. Student INDI
Po Ki Chan
PhD Student
Ph.D. INDI
Austin Techs
MDes Student
M.Des. Computation Arts
Affiliate Members & Faculty
Adrian Demleitner
Visiting Researcher
Visiting Researcher (2025)
Enric Granzotto Llagostera
Alumni
Tom Cole
Affiliate Member
Femke Kocken
Visiting Researcher
Marc Lajeunesse
TAG Co-ordinator
Publications
Enric Granzotto Llagostera, Rilla Khaled, Kalervo Sinervo. (2025). Tracing Research Through Design with Ponte: Bridging game development repositories and qualitative research tools. FDG '25: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Game. 10.1145/3723498.3723821
Rilla Khaled, Kalervo Sinervo, Muhammad Shahrom Ali, Pippin Barr, Matthew Bethancourt, Femke Kocken, Chip Limeburner, Vadim Nickel. (2024). Reflective Surfaces: Experimenting with Playful, Playable Publication Formats. ACM Designing Interactive Systems DIS 2024. 10.1145/3656156.3665435
Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr. (2023). Generative Logics and Conceptual Clicks: A Case Study of the Method for Design Materialization. Design Issues. 10.1162/desi_a_00706
Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr. (2023). A Method for Design Materialization: Accountable Game Design Research . DiGRA 2023: Limits and Margins of Games. 10.26503/dl.v2023i2.2041
Rilla Khaled, Jonathan Lessard, Pippin Barr. (2018). Documenting Trajectories in Design Space: a Methodology for Applied Game Design Research. Federation of Digital Games (FDG). 10.1145/3235765.3235767
Recommended Readings
Pippin Barr. (2023). The Stuff Games Are Made Of
Beck, K. L., Beedle, M. A., Bennekum, A. van, Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., Grenning, J., Highsmith, J., Hunt, A., Jeffries, R., Kern, J., Marick, B., Martin, R. C., Mellor, S. J., Schwaber, K., Sutherland, J., & Thomas, D. A.. (2013). Manifesto for Agile Software Development
Stephen J. Beckett. (2017). The Logic of the Design Problem: A Dialectical Approach
John Bowers. (2012). The logic of annotated portfolios: Communicating the value of “research through design.”
Damien Charrieras, Nevena Ivanova. (2016). Emergence in video game production: Video game engines as technical individuals
Maggie Breslin, Richard Buchanan. (2008). On the Case Study Method of Research and Teaching in Design
Philip J. Cash. (2018). Developing theory-driven design research
Owen Chapman. (2012). Research-Creation: Intervention, Analysis and “Family Resemblances”
Laureline Chiapello. (2017). Epistemological Underpinnings in Game Design Research
Tom Cole, Marco Gillies. (2022). More than a bit of coding: (Un-)Grounded (non-)Theory in HCI
Nina Costa, Lia Patrício, Nicola Morelli. (2018). A designerly-way of conducting qualitative research in design studies
Nigel Cross. (2006). Designerly ways of knowing
John Dewey. (1933). How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process
Brian Dixon. (2019). Experiments in Experience: Towards an Alignment of Research through Design and John Dewey’s Pragmatism
John Sharp, Colleen Macklin, Steven Davis, Yu Jen Chen, Tuba Ozkan, Carla Molins Pitarch. (2019). Iterate - Chapter 2: Failure
John Sharp, Colleen Macklin, Steven Davis, Yu Jen Chen, Tuba Ozkan, Carla Molins Pitarch. (2019). Iterate - Chapter 3: Iteration
Jorge Frascara. (2007). Hiding Lack of Knowledge: Bad Words in Design Education
Christopher Frayling. (1994). Research in art and design
Danny Godin, Mithra Zahedi. (2014). Aspects of Research through Design: A Literature Review
Granzotto Llagostera, E., Khaled, R., & Sinervo, K. (2025). Tracing Research Through Design with Ponte: Bridging game development repositories and qualitative research tools
Per Liljenberg Halstrøm. (2016). Design as Value Celebration: Rethinking Design Argumentation
Heekyoung Jung, Heather Wiltse, Mikael Wiberg, Erik Stolterman. (2017). Metaphors, materialities, and affordances: Hybrid morphologies in the design of interactive artifacts
Rilla Khaled, Pippin Barr. (2023). Generative Logics and Conceptual Clicks: A Case Study of the Method for Design Materialization
Klaus Krippendorff. (1989). On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition That “Design Is Making Sense (Of Things).”
Annakaisa Kultima. (2018). Game Design Praxiology
Enric Granzotto Llagostera, Rilla Khaled. (2023). ON COOKING A SOUR GAME
Søren Rasmussen, Jonas Fritsch, Nicolai Brodersen Hansen. A Design Archival Approach to Knowledge Production in Design Research and Practice
Jennifer Moon. (2004). A handbook of reflective and experiential learning: Theory and practice
Johnny Saldaña. (2025). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers
Donald Schön. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action
John Salisbury, Tom Cole . (2016). Grounded Theory in Games Research: Making the Case and Exploring the Options
Kennon M. Smith. (2018). Producing the Rigorous Design Case
EDITORS J. Michael Spector, Barbara B. Lockee, Marcus D. Childress. (2023). Learning, Design, and Technology
Mikael Wiberg. (2022). Approaching Things that Trigger Things: A Review of Three Shifts in the Character of Things and Their Implications for Design Unavailable
Susan J. Deeley. (2022). Writing a Critical Reflective Journal
Mithra Zahedi, Virginie Tessier. (2023). Designerly activity theory supporting research-through-design
Marieke Zielhuis, Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, Daan Andriessen, Pieter Jan Stappers. (2022). Making design research relevant for design practice: What is in the way?