MA Games Design

Course summary:

Rooted in experimental practice, MA Games Design will equip you with both the technical and critical skills to produce a broad portfolio of innovative game prototypes.

About this course:

The course will enable you to understand and articulate the unique value of game experience to an increasingly interested design industry. You will explore concepts such as goal, challenge and obstacle in relation to game design. You'll also examine how games design principles are being used more generally and how these ideas impact upon our increasingly digital culture.

Reasons to apply:

Freedom to explore through practice:

Respond to live briefs, learn through creating and find your unique position between coding and making.

Experiences beyond the screen:

Make games in the widest sense - including physical, experiential, critical and socially-reflective games across both digital and non-digital - and discover the possibilities of playable experiences.

Connect with industry:

Engage with gaming industry professionals and plug-in to contemporary design practices through our range of guest lectures, events, trips, and visits to conferences.

Develop your portfolio:

Create finished products, exhibit work and graduate with a high quality and diverse portfolio that will prepare you for a career in the games, interaction and wider design industries.

Collaborate beyond the boundaries of games design:

Work with animators, interaction designers, sound artists, graphic designers, filmmakers across UAL's diverse network of artists, designers, makers and communicators.

Anyone Interested.

Course details:

MA Games Design critically examines the concept of play in relation to the practice of games design. You will produce playable prototype gaming experiences and use games design as a means to test critical ideas from broader culture. The course is particularly interested in how games design principles are being used more generally and how these ideas impact upon our increasingly digital culture. MA Games Design will enable you to understand and articulate the unique value of game experience to an increasingly interested design industry and allow you to understand the value of your game experience prototypes. Building on LCC's resources, in digital, time-based and interactive media, alongside printmaking, graphic design and visual communication, the course encourages experimental and reflective practice that echoes the cross media nature of the design, communication and media industries. The course also supports progression to research at MPhil/PhD level as well as to advanced self-directed experimental practice.

Fees & Funding:

Home / EU fee

University of the Arts London (UAL) is Europe’s largest specialist art and design university. Its unique creative community is made up of six renowned Colleges, each with its own world-class reputation: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts.

UAL is the world’s sixth best University for Art and Design in the QS World University Rankings 2018. Offering an extensive range of courses in art, design, fashion, communication and performing arts, UAL is the main talent pipeline to the UK’s creative industries.

Home to a diverse community of over 18,000 students from 129 countries, UAL has a track record for launching and furthering careers. Our graduates can be found in every part and at every level of the creative and cultural sectors, from heads of global business to self-employed practitioners, and on shortlists for awards ranging from the Turner Prize to the Oscars.

Building on UAL’s association with some of the most original thinkers in the arts, students and staff are inspired to challenge convention, generate new ideas and nurture talent. Home to award-winning staff and students for more than a century, UAL’s Colleges are at the forefront of learning, creativity and practice in their specialist subjects. This close-knit College structure offers opportunities for learning and enquiry for people at all stages of their creative development.