On February 21, 2026, the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU) will host the first regional conference on video game research—the DiGRA Central Asia Conference.
DiGRA Central Asia Conference will bring together researchers and developers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The program combines academic and practical perspectives on video games as a cultural, technological, and educational phenomenon.
The conference program includes three thematic sections: “Gamification and Education,” “Game Development, Technology, and Player Behavior Analysis,” and “Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in Game Design.” As part of the event, developers will also present their own video games, including educational and outreach projects, as well as games created specifically for scientific research.
The Chair of DiGRA CA and Head of GameLab KBTU, Alexandra Knysheva, notes, “The organizing committee deliberately shaped the conference as a moment of orientation—a space to map the present landscape of video game research in Central Asia and to imagine its future trajectories.”
The conference is organized by the Central Asian chapter of DiGRA, which was founded in April 2025. Among its founders are GameLab KBTU, IITU Mixed Reality Lab, the Bishkek-based game development and interactive media college Portal, and independent researchers from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The detailed program, registration, and participant information are available on the official conference website: digraca.org