Research
Video games are now an important medium in both economic and cultural terms, as an integral part of the entertainment industry and creative sector. However, the aesthetics and techniques of video games are also being applied across a much wider spectrum of activities – they support the learning processes of children, young people and adults in the classroom and at the workplace, provide a fun way to assimilate complex content, and motivate patients in medical and therapeutic settings.
Our research activities are focused on bringing the functionality and processes of classic video games into new cultural or commercial domains. Bachelor's and Master's students alike gain real benefits from the research element of the Game Design course. Working alongside lecturers and research assistants, they explore innovative research issues in collaboration with international research partners. The Subject Area Game Design has been working since 2004 on a large number of study and research projects in partnership with well-known international partners from industry and the tertiary education sector. These collaborations typically lead to published research findings, and/or fully functional technological applications.
Serious & Applied Games
The Serious and Applied Games R&D programme formulates and analyses game functionality and processes in cultural or academic contexts. The aim is to achieve optimum synthesis between knowledge and training content and gaming principles, to enable Serious and Applied Games to perform their function successfully. Key success criteria are developed and assessed through carefully designed user tests and study settings. If you have a gaming project idea or a collaboration proposal, why not contact us via email.
Game Archive
The Game Archive is resource for both education and research. The Game Archive has a wide selection of media and playback equipment: books, digital games in old and new carrier formats, a range of gaming consoles, board games, card games, simulators and simulations, magazines, flyers, posters, and game advertising.
These media and devices are available for both teaching and research. Students in the Subject Area Game Design can use them, play them and borrow them at any time. GameLab and Game Archiv are equipped with current play stations, and also models that have not been commercial available for many years. They encourage exploration of a wide range of gaming strategies.
The Game Archive has a large and constantly growing collection of video games and game systems covering the forty-year history of computer games. The archive is continually receiving systems, games and related materials from a wide range of sources. Please contact our office at any time.
Annual reports
Our annual reports catalogue the publications of our lecturers and research assistants.
Institute for Design Research (IDE)
The research conducted in the Subject Area Game Design forms part of the research activities of the Department of Design, as bundled in the Institute for Design Research (IDE). The IDE is an integrative institute, coordinating and proactively supporting a wide range of research projects across the various subject areas. As the central point of contact for research projects in the Department of Design, the IDE forms the bridge between the researchers in the Department and external research partners.