Introduction to Game Studies and Game Design

This program will help participants practice skills that will help them in a university context, including lectures and seminar-style discussions, as well as some practice-based making in a workshop format. This integrated approach will allow participants to sample a range of formats in a three-week period. The program includes material from the humanities, media arts, and social sciences. 

This program resembles the introductory courses that are part of the fastest growing Arts and Humanities majors at the University of Chicago: Media Arts and Design (MADD). The MADD program nurtures nimble makers and critical thinkers, blending theory with playful experimentation. MADD graduates excel in diverse fields, ranging from game design and creative technology to arts education and entrepreneurship. To help navigate the program’s diverse offerings, courses are grouped into thematic “clusters” that reflect different areas of focus. These clusters serve as a guide for students to orient themselves within the curriculum and identify affinities that align with their interests. These clusters include creative computing, digital sound and music, expanded cinema, and media performance, but the most popular of them is games.

• Available for current high school students who are at least 15 years old
• The program's medium of instruction will be in English, so applicants should be comfortable in an English-speaking learning environment
• Applicants must be Hong Kong residents or be eligible to study in Hong Kong during the program period

Week 1: Games as Culture and Media 

• Morning lectures will cover the foundations of games studies, key media and game theory concepts, and methods of game analysis.
• Afternoon sessions will take the form of seminar discussions and exercises in game analysis and criticism with outputs focusing on argument-driven participant presentations.

Week 2: Designing Meaningful Games 

• Morning lectures will cover advanced concepts in game studies and game design basics, which include narrative design, game for change and social impact, and experience design.
• Afternoon sessions will take the form of game design exercises that build from analog to digital principles.

Week 3: Final Projects and Presentation Preparation 

• Morning lectures will cover practical questions of game criticism, game publishing, and various careers in games, ranging from design for museums to educational contexts to the broader commercial game industry. 
• Afternoon sessions will ask participants to work in small groups to prepare their final project and presentation for the closing day.

For each of our Summer Academy programs, participants will also have the opportunity to attend sessions led by a UChicago admissions counselor to better understand the highly selective admissions process practiced by U.S. colleges and universities. Such sessions will give participants a window into the role that essays play in the application and how an application is holistically reviewed for admission.

Patrick Jagoda is the William Rainey Harper Professor of Cinema & Media Studies, English, and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Chicago. He is Chair of Cinema & Media Studies, the Director of the Media Arts and Design program, co-editor of Critical Inquiry, and Director of the Weston Game Lab. He is also a recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Ashlyn Sparrow is a Senior Research Associate in Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Chicago and a programmer at Waking Oni Games. She has worked on scholarly board, card, and digital games, public health apps, serious games development, interactive learning experiences, and digital media art with youth and for youth.

The University of Chicago’s Division of the Arts & Humanities is one of the four graduate divisions of the University of Chicago, offering 19 degree programs across 16 departments and committees. Research in the humanities gives us the tools we need to articulate deep truths about ourselves. What does it mean to be a human being? What has it meant historically and what will it come to mean? The students and faculty in our departments dedicate themselves to the thoughtful consideration of humanities’ place in the world. The Division teaches fifty languages on a regular basis, and our four Master’s programs offer remarkable opportunities for students to advance their knowledge of a field in an interdisciplinary context through courses taught by some of the world’s leading scholars. Though the field of game studies intersects with fields such as computer science and economics, it is based in the Arts and Humanities Division.

• Early Bird Application Deadline: February 28, 2026
• Regular Application Deadline: April 15, 2026

1. School Transcript
2. Statement of Purpose with prompts:
   • Why are games important beyond their role as an entertainment activity or pastime? Why do you want to understand the art, culture, business, and/or craft of games?
   • Game-related question: What is your favorite game? If you could recommend just one game for American professors to play, which game would it be and why?
3. English proficiency scores
4. List of extracurricular activities and achievements
5. [Optional] Links to any projects that might be relevant to this course. This could include an analog or digital game, an image, a piano recital, a ballet performance, a data analytics project, a short story, or anything you think could be useful to make a game

- Submit your application here

• Program fee includes use of the UChicago Campus in Hong Kong facilities, one meal and refreshments during on-campus days, excursion expenses, and shuttle buses to and from the campus and Kennedy Town MTR Station. Program Fees are non-refundable once paid unless the program is canceled by the UChicago campus in Hong Kong.