Evocative Games

26/02/2026

The newest addition to The Psychgeist of Pop Culture book series just dropped, and we suspect that it might be of interest to our followers, because this time the theme is Dungeons & Dragons (!).

Among really interesting and insightful work from contributors all over, you will also find the chapter "Bleed as a Mechanism for Transformation in D&D" which is written by Evocative Games' very own Kjell Hedgard Hugaas and Sarah Lynne Bowman.

Shout out to Psychgeist founder Rachel Kowert as well as this book's editors Jared Kilmer and Nina Higson-Sweeney. All three of these folks are absolutely wonderful to work with.

You'll find a link that will help you get your hands on your very own copy in the first comment. (And as always, PDFs are available for free download!

20/02/2026

As our followers you know that we only created our Social Media accounts a few weeks ago, and in that short span of time we have been blown away and humbled by how many of you that want to keep up with what we are doing.

Now, 750 might not be all that impressive in a world where viral reach is measured in the millions, but to us every one of our Evocateurs is important. You are here because you too believe that we can leverage the power of playfulness to transform ourselves, our communities, and the world we live in for the better. And for that you have our admiration and our gratitude.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, organized citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead

16/02/2026

We spent the weekend getting our old website up and running again. It is still quite rudimentary, but we wanted to greet those who go looking for us outside of Social Media nicely too.

LinkedIN (and to a degree FaceBook) is and will still be where we do most of our reaching out and connecting with people, and the website also leads people back there to connect with us. But, over time, we will showcase more of our projects in detail on the website, as a way for folks to get a better idea of the nitty gritty of what we do.

Until then, check it out! See how shiny it is. :)

Evocative Games is a Creative Studio and Private Research Company with decades of experience in creating immersive experiences and conducting research in game related fields.

06/02/2026

Being part of EU projects is such a great way to meet people who do amazing work in their communities and field all across Europe. CVS-Bulgaria is one of the partners in our Dystolarp project, and it was wonderful to meet them in Katowice.

04/02/2026

Evocative Games member spotlight #3

Josephine Baird is a member of Evocative Games’ board. Her significant competence in a wide range of fields, makes Josephine our highly valued Jill of All Trades. She is also a Ph.D. candidate at Tampere University in Finland. She is a game designer and game design consultant, as well as a writer and visual artist. Her work often relates the intersection between games, identity, gender, and sexualities. Her research and recent publications present the theoretical and methodological basis for her thesis that role-playing games might provide a potent opportunity for people to explore their gender subjectivity in safer environments. Her current research will conclude with the design of a live action role-playing game that puts this theoretical work into practice. She is also an actor, highly experienced and engaging public speaker, and co-host of the podcast It Is Complicated.

More information about our Josephine can be found at: https://josephinebaird.com/

29/01/2026

Exciting things on the horizon!

Last week we participated in a kick off meeting for the Erasmus+ funded project "Dystolarp" with participating organizations from Slovenia (Zavod Bob), Italy (Euphoria Net), Bulgaria (CVS), Poland (Liveform), Belgium (European Gamification in Learning and Education) and Sweden (Evocative Games). It is still early, so we do not have much to show you right now, except for the wonderful smiling faces of the people we are lucky enough to get to work with for the next 2 years.

But what will we be doing, you might wonder?

"The Dystolarp project aims to harness the immersive power of Live Action Role-Playing games to foster a deeper understanding of civic engagement, environmental stewardship and democratic values among young people. By engaging participants in interactive dystopian scenarios where they must navigate societal challenges, we aim to enhance soft skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving through ethical dilemmas, promote active citizenship and encourage sustainable practices in non-formal education."

So, stick around. There will be lots more to follow. :)

27/01/2026

Evocative Games member spotlight #2

Kjell Hedgard Hugaas is the CEO of Evocative Games, and in most cases the nuts and bolts in the daily running of the company (which includes the SoMe parts :) ). Kjell is a Northern Norwegian game designer, organizer, writer, theorist, and trained actor. He has spent over 3 decades designing games for leisure, education, therapy, leadership, and other professional settings.

The last few years he has deepened his exploration into the transformative potential of games, and has proposed specific intentional game design practices that facilitate transformative effects. Kjell has theorized how ideas impact players through the processes of memetic bleed, procedural bleed, and identity bleed, and is the person behind the concepts of the bleed perception threshold, and bleed as a homeostatis recovery process. Another of his research interests is how games affect players' attitudes towards mortality and death. He currently works on the EU-funded projects EDGE and ROCKET, and for the Greek larp organization LARPifiers on the Horizon Europe project Larpocracy.

25/01/2026

Evocative Games member spotlight #1

In this short series, we will spotlight who the people behind Evocative Games are. And we start at the top, with the chairperson of the board.

Dr. Sarah Lynne Bowman chairs the EG board. She is a scholar, game designer, and event organizer. Her work at Evocative Games centers around game design and game research on specific projects. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in Radio-Television-Film and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in Arts and Humanities. Sarah has taught in the Humanities, English, and Communication. She formerly served as Coordinator for the Peace & Conflict Studies program at Austin Community College, where she teaches Humanities. Bowman is a founding member of the Transformative Play Initiative, who research analog role-playing games as vehicles for personal and social change. She co-edited The Wyrd Con Companion Book (2012-2015) and currently edits for the International Journal of Role-Playing and Nordiclarp.org. In addition, she is a co-editor and co-author of the textbooks Transformative Role-playing Game Design (2024) and Implementing Role-playing Game Design (in review for 2026). Bowman has co-organized several conferences, including Living Games (2014, 2016, 2018), Role-playing and Simulation and Education (2016, 2018), the Edu-Larp Conference (2025, 2026) and the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar (2022, 2025).

If anything in Sarah's comprehensive background sparks your interest, please don't hesitate to reach out to Evocative Games.

23/01/2026

Evocative Games is now an associated partner in the Erasmus+ funded project ROCKET. It is an innovate project where we use custom designed analog online role-playing game scenarios to explore concepts from Conflict Transformation, DEI, and Critical Virtual Exchange.

From the website:

"ROCKET is an innovative project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program. It seeks to develop a working concept for Critical Virtual Exchange which implements Role-Playing Games and Conflict Transformation. These novel modes of online interaction can aid participants to take on new perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of issues relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In addition to students, the initiative offers educational formats aimed at teaching and administrative staff. Conceived by the universities of Göttingen, Groningen, and Uppsala, ROCKET seeks to improve European Higher Education while also connecting to local communities."

ROCKET is an innovative project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program. It seeks to develop a working concept for Critical Virtual Exchange which implements Role-Playing Games and Conflict Transformation. These novel modes of online interaction can aid participants to take on new...

23/01/2026

Welcome to our little corner of Facebook. If you are into using transformative game design in different professional settings, from education, to health services and leadership, you have come to the right place.

Evocative Games started as a place for us to find a home for projects that did not fit into our other affiliations. It has been around for a couple of years already, but the last year the number and size of our projects have increased quite significantly. And as a result, we are now raising our profile across social media and throughout our fields and networks.

Let's do cool stuff together! :)