Publications

• Juul, Jesper, Emil Hammar, Dooley Murphy, and Alessandro Canossa. 2026. “The Partial Truth about Virtual Objects: How Users Reason About and Explore Intentionally Simplified Environments.”Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
• Canossa, Alessandro, Lisa Toender, Lucas Fellner, Jesper Juul, Willem Maden, and Jichen Zhu. 2025. “The Unseen Hand: The Influence of Visual and AI Literacy on AI Text-to-Image Generation.” IASDR Conference Series.
• Canossa, Alessandro, Lisa Toender Berger, Lucas Fellner, Willem van der Maden, Jesper Juul, and Jichen Zhu. 2026. “Algorithmic Creativity: How Visual and AI Literacy Impact the Use of Text-to-Image Tools in Design Tasks.” In HCI International 2025 – Late Breaking Papers.
• "Reflections on Video Games and Game History - An Interview with Jesper Juul". American Journal of Play 17/1, 2025.
• Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2024.
  
  
• Jesper Juul and Laurel Carney: "Would you like Games with that Computer? Revisiting early Game History & Culture with the Commodore 64". Proceedings of the DiGRA 2023 conference, Seville, Spain.
• Emil Lundedal Hammar, Alessandro Canossa, Michael Debus, Johannes Pfau, Magy Seif El-Nasr, Jesper Juul, Ahmad Azadvar: "From Teams to Games: Connecting Game Development to Game Characteristics". , 23 Jul 2023, HCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Papers: 25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

• "Paths to Success: Data and Lessons from Danish Game Companies: Findings & Recommendations for the Danish Games Industry". 2023. Report for the Interreg project. Emil Lundedal Hammar, Michael S. Debus, Jesper Juul, Alessandro Canossa.

• Johannes Pfau, Michael Debus, Jesper Juul, Emil Lundedal Hammar, Alessandro Canossa & Magy Seif El-Nasr: "Predicting Success Factors of Video Game Titles and Companies". In Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2022, ed. Barbara Göbl et al.. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2022, 269–82, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_22.

• “The Game of Video Game Objects: A Minimal Theory of When We See Pixels as Objects Rather than Pictures.” In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. CHI PLAY ’21.

• "The Independent Mode: A Functionalist Account of Independent Games and Game History". FDG '20: International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.

• "Imagining a New World". In Koven, Bernard De. The Infinite Playground: A Player’s Guide to Imagination. Edited by Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2020.

• “Braid: Indies”. In Nina Huntemann and Matthew Thomas Payne: How to Play Video Games. New York: NYU Press 2019.

• "Virtual Reality: Fictional all the Way Down (and that’s OK)". Disputatio journal, 2019.

• Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2019.
  
• Half-Real: Videogames entre regras reais e mundos ficcionais. Brazilian Portuguese translation of Half-Real, translated by Alan Richard da Luz . Blucher 2019.

• "航行於無盡的遊戲之河：以歷史上的設計模式為例" . Chinese translation of Sailing the endless River of Games. DigiArts journal 2018.

• "The Aesthetics of the Aesthetics of the Aesthetics of Video Games: Walking Simulators as Response to the problem of Optimization”. 12^th International Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Copenhagen, 2018.

• “The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul” in Ruberg, Bonnie, and Adrienne Shaw, eds.: Queer Game Studies. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press 2017.

• "Playing". In Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins (eds.): Debugging Game History - A Critical Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2016.

• ハーフリアル ― 虚実のあいだのビデオゲーム. Japanese translation of Half-Real. Tokyo: New Games Order 2016.

• "Avatar", with Rune Klevjer in Jensen, Klaus Bruhn (eds.): The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons 2016.

• "Sailing the Endless River of Games: The case for Historical Design Patterns". 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG, Dundee 2016.

• Sztuka przegrywania. Esej o bólu, jaki wywołują gry wideo. Polish translation of The Art of Failure. Kraków: Korporacja Ha!art 2016.

• しかめっ面にさせるゲームは成功する 悔しさをモチベーション. Japanese transation of The Art of Failure. Tokyo: Born Digital 2016.

• Die Kunst des Scheiterns: Warum wir Videospiele lieben, obwohl wir immer verlieren. German translation of The Art of Failure. Wiesbaden, Germany: Luxbooks 2014.

• “On Absent Carrot Sticks: The Level of Abstraction in Video Games”. In Ryan, Marie-Laure, and Jan-Noël Thon, eds. Storyworlds across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology. University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

• "High-tech Low-tech Authenticity: The Creation of Independent Style at the Independent Games Festival". In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 2014.

• “Gameplay.” entry in Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, and Benjamin J. Robertson (eds.) The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press 2014.
  
  "Gameplay". translated to Spanish by Miguel Olmedo Morell.
• The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2013.
  
  
• "Narrative" and "Defender" entries in Wolf, Mark J. P. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2012.

• Staffan Björk & Jesper Juul: "Zero-Player Games Or: What We Talk about When We Talk about Players". Conference paper presented at the The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Madrid, 2012.

  • Staffan Björk & Jesper Juul: "Jogos zero-jogador ou: do que falamos quando falamos de jogadores". Portuguese translation of "Zero-Player Games", Intexto journa 2019.
    

• 游戏抽象度. Chinese translation of A Certain Level of Abstraction, 2012.

• 캐주얼 게임- 비디오게임과 플레이어의 재창조. Korean translation of A Casual Revolution, 2012.

• "In Search of Lost Time: On Game Goals and Failure Costs" In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, ACM 2010.

• Mia Consalvo, John Sharp, Ulrika Bennerstedt, Jesper Juul: "Tweeting GDC" in Dikkers, Steinkuehler, Squire & Zimmerman (eds): Real Time Research: Improvisational Game Scholarship. Pittsburg, PA: ETC Press 2010.

• Jesper Juul, Rasmus Keldorff: Depth in one Minute: A Conversation about Bejeweled Blitz. In Davidson, Drew (ed).: Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning. Pittsburg, PA: ETC Press 2010.

• "After Game Graphics". Catalogue text for the Press Play exhibition, Permanenten, Bergen, Norway, 2010.

• A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. Cambridge: MIT Press 2009.
  
  

• "Easy to use and incredibly difficult: on the mythical border between interface and gameplay". Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games, ACM (2009), 107-112. With Marleigh Norton.

• "Fear of Failing? The Many Meanings of Difficulty in Video Games". In Bernard Perron and Mark J. P. Wolf (eds.): The Video Game Theory Reader 2, 2009.

• "Rules and Fiction". In Juan Antonia and Àlvarez Reyes: Try Again. Madrid: La Case Encendida 2008.

• "The Magic Circle and the Puzzle Piece". In Stephan Günzel, Michael Liebe and Dieter Mersch (eds.): Conference Proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games 2008. Potsdam: Potsdam University Press 2008.

• "A Certain Level of Abstraction". Conference paper at the DiGRA conference, Tokyo Japan, September 2007.

• "Variation over Time: The Transformation of Space in Single-Screen Action Games". In Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Ulrich Brinkmann, Matthias Böttger (eds): Space Time Play. Basel: Birkhäuser 2007.

• Swap Adjacent Gems to Make Sets of Three: A History of Matching Tile Games. In the Artifact journal. Volume 2, 2007. London: Routledge.

• Without a Goal: On Open and Expressive Games. In Videogame/Player/Text, edited by Tanya Krzywinska and Barry Atkins. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2007.

• Bez celu. O grach otwartych i ekspresyjnych. Polish translation of "Without a Goal" in Kultura i Historia 13/2008.

• Half-real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge: MIT Press 2005.
  
  

• [Danish language] "Hvad spillet betyder" / "What the Game Means". In Ida Engholm & Lisbeth Klastrup (eds:): Digitale Verdener. Copenhagen: Gyldendal 2005.

• [Danish language] "Tid til at Spille". In Carsten Jessen and Bo Kampmann Walther (eds.): Spillets Verden. Copenhagen: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitets Forlag 2005.

• Introduction to Game Time / Time to play. In Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan: First Person, Cambridge: MIT Press 2004.

  • Introducción al tiempo de juego / Tiempo para jugar, Spanish translation of Introduction to Game Time / Time to play. Translated by Miguel Olmedo Morell.

• The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness. Keynote at the Level Up conference, Utrecht, November 2003.

  • "ゲーム, プレイヤ, ワールド : ゲームたらしめるものの核心を探る". Japanese translation of "The Game, the Player, the World". Translated by Haruhisa Tanaka.

  • "游戏、玩家、世界: 对游戏本质的探讨". Chinese translation of "The Game, the Player, the World". Translated by Guan Pingping.

• Just what is it that makes computer games so different, so appealing? Column for the IGDA (international game developers association) website. April 2003.

  • ¿Qué es exactamente lo que hace que los videojuegos sean tan diferentes, tan atractivos? Spanish translation of Just what is it... Translated by Miguel Olmedo Morell.

• The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of Progression. Paper from Computer Games and Digital Cultures, Tampere Finland, June 2002.

• Games telling stories? Article in the Game Studies journal, July 2001.

• What computer games can and can't do. Paper from the DAC conference, Bergen, August 2000.

  • Co potrafią,a czego nie potrafią gry komputerowe. Polish translation in Wiedza i Edukacja, 2008.

• English translation of my master's thesis on computer games and interactive fiction.

• [Danish language] my Master's thesis: En Kamp Mellem Spil og Fortælling

• Paper from the DAC conference, November 1998: A clash between Game and Narrative.

  • El choque entre juego y narración, Spanish translation of A clash between Game and Narrative. Translated by Mike Morell (Miguel Bernardo Olmedo Morell).

Posters

• "The Suicide Game: Player Perception of Self-destruction in a Game".
  With Albert Dang and Kan Yang Li. Conference poster presented at the DiGRA conference, Tokyo Japan, September 2007.

• August 2016: "Good Feedback for bad Players? A preliminary Study of ‘juicy’ Interface feedback". With Jason Begy. Conference poster presented at 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG, Dundee 2016.

Reviews

• "The repeatedly lost art of studying games". Review of The Study of Games in the Game Studies journal, July 2001.

• "Defender: Unnecessarily Hard". "Asteroids: Forgotten Futurism". Reviews in Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz, Ulrich Brinkmann, Matthias Böttger (eds): Space Time Play. Basel: Birkhäuser 2007.

• Review: Alexander R. Galloway Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies 2007; 10; 508.

Theory games

• (A world's first!) Game about theorising about computer games: Game liberation (Published in the M/C journal, November 2000.)

• 4:32. Conceptual and deceptive video game made in response to Petri Purho in response to John Cage. February 2010. Awarded "most innovative game" the New York University Global Game Jam.

Other projects

• Tic Tac Toe. Unbeatable Tic Tac Toe program and some observations about the game.
• Eliza. Java version of Joseph Weizenbaum's famous psychiatrist program.
• Petscii Jetski. Commodore 64 10-line BASIC visual game poem. With Nick Montfort. 2020.