The MFA in Game Design is for creative visionaries intent on producing socially, culturally, and emotionally substantial work. The degree prepares students to advance the frontier of games by exploring emerging theories and applying them to practice. The games students create throughout their degree will be challenged by peers and faculty in critiques. Graduates of the program will be equipped to define and realize their authentic, thriving professional lives. An MFA is also a terminal degree that opens opportunities to teach at the university level and enter an academic tenure-track career.

DePaul’s game design programs are nationally recognized. We are a 2022 Top Game Design School according to both The Princeton Review and Animation Career Review.

Degree Requirements

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• Situate their creative practice within historical, aesthetic, and social contexts; design and develop games that are significant in those contexts.
• Leverage the affordances of games to intentionally evoke specific emotions and experiences, purposefully communicate ideas as well as have the desired social impact.
• Critique games from a variety of perspectives including historical, aesthetic, and social.
• Iteratively build projects up from simple prototypes to increasingly complex systems.

Curriculum Requirements

No Introductory Course may be substituted for any other course at any level.

First Year

• Fall Quarter
  •  GAM 420 Creative Computation
  •  GAM 424 Game Design Workshop
• Winter Quarter
  •  GAM 430 Art Games Bootcamp
  •  GAM 520 Game Design Proseminar
• Spring Quarter
  •  GAM 440 Games with A Purpose Bootcamp
  • 1 Focus Area Elective

Second Year

• Fall Quarter
  •  GAM 540 Game Development Practicum
  •  GAM 530 Games Studies Proseminar
• Winter Quarter
  •  GAM 550 Incubation Studio
  • 1 Focus Area Elective
• Spring Quarter
  •  GAM 600 Thesis Studio
  • 1 Focus Area Elective

Third Year

• Fall Quarter
  •  GAM 600 Thesis Studio
  • 1 Focus Area Elective
• Winter Quarter
  •  GAM 600 Thesis Studio
  • 1 Focus Area Elective

GAM 600 must be taken 3 times.

Focus Area Electives

Focus Area Electives include any graduate level GAM, ANI, CP, DOC, FILM, POST, SCWR, GD, EXP, UXD, GPH, or VFX courses. Students should work with their faculty advisor to select a grouping of Focus Area Electives that will best serve the student's professional trajectory.

MFA Thesis Proposal and Development

In parallel to taking Incubation Studio in Winter quarter of their second year to prepare their Thesis proposal, students must solicit a Thesis committee consisting of 2-3 members. At the end of the Incubation Studio each student's Thesis committee assesses their progress and provides feedback and guidance on the Thesis proposal. By the beginning of Spring quarter the Thesis committee will have given feedback and students will have had the opportunity to revise their Thesis proposal. With their Thesis committee's approval candidates can enter Thesis Studio Spring quarter to begin their Thesis project. Candidates continue Thesis development through Thesis Studio courses taken in the Fall and Winter quarters of their third year. In addition to work completed in the Thesis Studio courses students are required to provide quarterly evidence of progress, iteration, and refinement to their Thesis committee in the form of playable prototypes, proof of concept papers, or other appropriate means. The forum to present progress is in an end-of-quarter critique with the entire third-year cohort and all Thesis committee faculty in attendance.

MFA Thesis Showcase and Defense

Candidates will turn in a final draft of their completed Thesis project by the end of the Winter quarter of the third year and be required to publicly show their work in the annual MFA showcase or exhibit their work in a juried venue. The candidate will defend the Thesis before the Thesis committee who will review the Thesis project to decide whether the candidate should be awarded the degree. If the committee does not deem the project ready for approval, the student will be given notes and asked to resubmit their project. Students may resubmit up to three times. If a student's project is not deemed passable after the fourth time, the student will not receive the MFA. Students have eighteen months from the submission of their first draft to obtain the committee's approval or the degree will not be awarded.

 

Degree Requirements

Students in this degree program must meet the following requirements:

• Complete a minimum of 64 graduate credit hours in the designated degree program.
• Complete all graduate courses and requirements listed in the designated degree program.
• Earn a grade of C- or better in all graduate courses of the designated degree program.
• Maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher.
• Satisfactorily complete the MFA thesis as determined by the student's MFA Advisor Committee.
• Students cannot count credit earned towards a previously awarded master's or MFA degree toward the completion of this MFA program.

For DePaul's policy on repeat graduate courses and a complete list of academic policies see the DePaul Graduate Handbook in the Course Catalog.