Games Research and Education (M.Sc. and Ph.D.)
Welcome to the Institute of Digital Games, the research and education centre at the University of Malta, focusing on game design, game analysis, and game technology!
Our work is at the forefront of innovative games research. We explore games and play, uncovering new playful and generative possibilities in game design and technology. We delve into everything games can teach us about ourselves.
Our multidisciplinary academic team spans computer science, literature, game design, philosophy, media studies, and social sciences.
Click here to read our annual report for the year 2022/2023.
Find us on …
David developed an innovative model for understanding board game involvement for his thesis.
It is an environment roaring with ideas, thoughts, games, prototypes, concepts. It was a period when I felt constantly inspired.
Rebecca is researching narrative in games. As part of her thesis, she developed a choice-driven video game.
Practice in the form of game project assignments and a supportive teaching staff really boost your confidence as a game designer!
The Institute feels like a little community that you're part of.
William's research explored the procedural generation of multi-floor levels for first-person shooters.
Being involved in the research process, I realised how passionate everyone at IDG is about their research.
Blog What we have been up to lately
Interview on 'playable philosophy'
Dr. Stefano Gualeni was interviewed by Radio Beckwith (Turin, Italy) on topics concerning his works on ‘playable philosophy’ and the experiential and existential relationships we can establish with virtual worlds. The interview, titled … read more
IDG staff at the Dagstuhl Seminar on AI-Driven Game Design
IDG staff members Georgios N. Yannakakis and Antonios Liapis attended the Dagstuhl Seminar 17471 titled "Artificial and Computational Intelligence in Games: AI-Driven Game Design". This highly prestigious seminar is accessible by invititation only, and it is … read more
Game Lecture: Georgios Yannakakis - 15th November 2017
Georgios Yannakakis - 15th Novermber 2017 - 18h00 @ Institute of Digital Games About the talk: Based on his award winning paper Prof. Georgios Yannakakis will discuss the challenging task of representing everyday emotional states computationally. This is … read more
IDG Awarded best Paper at Affective Computing and …
Georgios Yannakakis's paper "The Ordinal Nature of Emotions" was named as Best Paper at the Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction - ACII in San Antonio, Texas. The full paper is available here: https://goo.gl/y4e2nJ Prof. … read more
IDG at Gameslit 2017 Conference
Since the first edition, held in 2013 at the University of Malta, the Games and Literary Theory conference series has grown into one of the leading international venues for humanistic game studies. At this year's edition, held at the … read more
IDG at CEEGS2017 Conference
The Institute of Digital Games had a strong present at this year's Central and Eastern European Game Studies conference, held at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodus, Trnava, Slovakia, on September 28-30. IDG member Daniel Vella, together with Jaroslav … read more