Study
In the four-semester Master’s Major in Game Design, the skills acquired in the Bachelor’s Major are deepened in connection with a specific research question and higher professional qualification is attained. The Master's programme is also open to BA graduates from other universities (of applied sciences) who have an interest in game-oriented design and research. The MA major guarantees a comprehensive practical and academic examination of forward-looking topics in contemporary game design. It is dedicated to the research, further development and critical discussion of current technological, social, artistic and cultural phenomena that are characterised by game mechanics.
Key concepts
Animation & 3D Modelling, Artificial Intelligence, Alternate Reality Games, Augmented Reality, Game Art, Gameplay, Gameproduction, Gamification, Pervasive Games, Procedural Programming, Serious Games, Sound Design, Game Mechanics, Game Systems, Storytelling, Teamwork, Visual Design, Interactive Environments, Multisensory Interaction, Playification, Tangible Interface, Ubiquitous Computing, Urban Games, Virtual Reality, Social Game
Focus areas
The Master’s Major in Game Design offers the following specialisations:
– Game Mechanics & Motivation Design
Why do we play games and why do we play them on the computer? Analysing game mechanics takes a closer look at the core of every game and the motivational system that the game mechanics represent. Games are mostly control loops that organise the game world with its (fellow) players and establish motivations in a separate space, a «magic circle», while game mechanics are constructs of rules for interactions that enable the game to run. These rules form the basis for all the excitement and frustration that we experience in games.
– Game Production
The iterative process of variation and applied scientific reflection leads to a fully developed game in the focus area «Game Production». Experimental prototypes condense storytelling, game mechanics, graphics, sound and technology into an innovative game of outstanding quality.
– Game design fields & tools
Games are complex systems and consist of individual aspects such as storytelling, game mechanics, graphics, sound and technology such as programming. Each of these fields has its own logic and can be researched specifically. Questions arise such as: Which tools are needed specifically for these fields? Which ones need to be developed?
– Ludic Game Art
The focus area «Ludic Game Art» creates content for mobile toys, smartifacts, iPhone and Internet, game fashion, augmented reality and alternate reality games. The innovative design goes beyond the applications of conventional games and creates new interfaces and forms of expression for our society.
– Serious Games
The focus area Serious Games develops games that address the fields of medicine, therapy, education, evaluation and science. New strategies of integration and motivation define serious game design as a promising branch of game development.
- Urban Games
«Urban games» are games of an analogue, digital or mixed-media, trans-real nature that take place in an urban context. What must a game mechanic be like if the environment cannot be completely controlled? How does the same urban or pervasive game change when it is played in a different cultural context? The focus area «Urban Games» is dedicated to these and similar design and research questions with prototypes, experiments and events.
– Game Studies
«Game Studies» is the academic study of digital games and has established itself as an interdisciplinary academic field since its beginnings towards the end of the 1990s. Initially consisting primarily of narratological and ludological approaches, game studies draw its theoretical and applied concepts and discourses from a variety of humanities and natural sciences.
–Gamification / Playification
«Gamification» looks at the motivational design of originally non-game contexts and often serves the purpose of using playful elements to increase or prolong the engagement and participation of participants, particularly in marketing or education. Gamification is therefore often criticised as a behaviourist method that works with basic quantitative «badges, points and leaderboards». In contrast, «playification» is establishing itself as a method that uses more qualitative game strategies to make the experience itself (and not so much the access to it) more exciting and subversive.
– Play
«Play» - in the form of «Paidia» represents the free, unrestrained dimension of play; in contrast to Ludus, which is regarded as the regulated aspect of play. What are the origins of play? Who plays when, where and for what purpose? Do animals and AI play? In which cultures and at what times is/was play played, and what rules is this supposedly free play subject to? To what extent is play in football different from play on the flute - or in theatre? What power potential does play have; who plays with whom - intentionally, voluntarily, in which roles?
– Collaborative Worlds
Game Design is more than just entertainment. It offers opportunities to advance collaborative knowledge production in real and virtual worlds. The focus area «Collaborative Worlds» addresses and develops new social networks that are located at the interface between real and artificially generated worlds.
Career goals
Art Director, Game Artist, Game Concept Lead, Game Project Lead, Independent Game Developer, Cultural Producer, Media Artist, Serious Game Designer
Further information on studying and enrolment:
Application for the programme: here
Further information on the programme and duration of studies: here
Diploma theses MA Major Game Design: here
Successful graduates and their studios: here
Video presentation MA Major Game Design: watch here
Contact persons
René Bauer
Head of MA Major Game Design
Researcher
Contact
Mela Kocher:
Deputy Head of MA Major Game Design
Researcher
Contact