[4][5] De Schutter graduated from the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool (Antwerp, Belgium) in 2003 with an MA in Visual Arts, and in 2011 he received his Ph.D. in the Social Sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Leuven, Belgium).

[7] From 2007 until 2012 De Schutter was a researcher, teacher and game designer for the e-Media Lab of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (campus Group T),[8] where he worked on games to facilitate inter-generational knowledge transfer,[9] rehabilitate psycho-motor skills,[10] train entrepreneurial skills,[11] sensitize university students on urban mobility for the disabled[12] and teach the psychology of game design.

[15] De Schutter founded the Flemish Chapter of the Digital Games Research Association and chaired its executive board until May 2013.

[20] De Schutter was one of the speakers at South by Southwest in 2013 in a panel on "Designing Games for Realism".

[29][30] De Schutter has published more than 30 peer-reviewed research papers in areas such as design, communication, education, media studies and technology.