Sjors Martens

Raised in the vicinity of Rotterdam and currently grounded in Utrecht, I’ve had my share of experiences with cities. Having studied Media studies and Performance Studies with a particular focus on games at Utrecht University, I started specializing more and more into cities, placemaking and urban games.
Since 2015 I am pursuing a PhD at Utrecht University focusing on the fit between the city and the games designed for it. I argue that many games designed for the city do not actually attain the goals they set out for but instead facilitate a cornucopia of other actions. Untangling this fit requires a model of cities and games that I have tested in several cities such as Utrecht, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Murcia and Boston.

In 2017 I started to work with Play the City as reporter, chronicling the playtests and providing the core team with design recommendations.