Norrmalm, Sweden
DEGREE TYPE
Master degree
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
15 Jan 2026
EARLIEST START DATE
31 Aug 2026
TUITION FEES
SEK 135,000 / per semester *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* first instalment: SEK 67,500 | EU/EEA Citizens are not required to pay tuition fees
Key Summary
Introduction
Sweden is a leading nation in the global game industry, and Skövde is the leading Swedish city in which to study game development. Here you will find four master's programs in games, eight bachelor's programs covering all disciplines of game development, extensive game research, a successful game incubator, and last but not least, a large number of game companies. All these activities are located in the middle of Skövde and united under the umbrella of Sweden Game Arena. As a master's student in games user experience, you will become part of this ecosystem and benefit from a competitive advantage in a career within the international game industry.
About The Program
The Games User Experience master's program is aimed at applicants with a bachelor's degree in any of the many areas involved in game development. You will gain not only a theoretical and practical understanding of the experiences and emotions games elicit in their players, but, more importantly, how to examine and evaluate them. Students who graduate from the program can move on to work with game design and game user experience studies in game companies, or apply to Ph.D. programs in most countries. However, it is also possible to stay in Skövde and pursue a career in games.
The focus of your studies
Developing games is about creating engaging experiences for players. The growing ubiquity of games in society and culture means that new and diverse user groups are playing games. This has led not only to new opportunities, but also many new challenges for game developers. One of these is to better understand how players interact with games and in what ways these interactions can be studied, understood, and improved. Working with games user experience will involve working with interaction design, research methodology, human-computer interaction, and game development in order to fully be able to unpack peoples' experiences of playing games.
To put it briefly: the Games User Experience program provides you with knowledge about how to analyze and understand what happens when people play games. What feelings are invoked? How can we better understand the players´ reactions? How can we make games more accessible and engaging for new audiences? In this rapidly growing field of expertise, researchers and developers are continuously trying to figure out how best to answer the big question: "why is this fun?"
Admissions
Curriculum
The study program is provided by the University of Skövde and is named Games User Experience - Master's programme (Games User Experience - magister program). It comprises 60 credits and is a second-cycle programme. The main field of study is informatics.
Games User Experience (GUX), sometimes also known as Games User Research, is a rapidly growing field of expertise in games. It is also a strongly interdisciplinary field of expertise, with game user experience spanning game development, interaction design, human-computer interaction and research methodology, all of which are important in understanding the various types of experiences people have while playing games. The study programme provides the student with knowledge of how different GUX methods can be applied in game development in order to better understand and develop game experiences. Since game experiences are shaped by a complex combination of game design, technical interfaces and the players’ different preferences, capabilities, literacies and intentions, they need to be studied using multi-faceted approaches. GUX therefore requires a combined knowledge of scientific methods, information technology, game design and analyses. GUX especially aims to support game developers as well as players’ gameplay experience through the conscious use of game mechanics and interfaces.
The study programme consists of modules that allow students to entrench themselves in theoretical concepts, as well as provide them with opportunities to conduct GUX work in practice. This combination of approaches will provide the student with the tools necessary to carry out GUX-related tasks both in more theoretically oriented academic settings and in industry situations. The study programme deepens students’ knowledge of evaluation methods so that they can understand how both quantitative and qualitative approaches be used to study and analyse game experience.
The study programme concludes with an individual thesis project in which studentsconsiderably deepen their knowledge by identifying and solving a research issue within Informaticsthat isrelevant to games user experience. The thesis project may be completed in cooperation with an external organisation.
The study programme comprises the following modules
- Games User Experience – Research & development A1N, 7.5 credits
- Applied Game User Experience A1N, 15 credits
- Game Design A1N, 7.5 credits
- Experimental Game Evaluation, A1F, 7.5 credits
- Master Degree Project in Informatics A1E, 22.5 credits
Gallery
Program Outcome
Objectives for Master’s Degree according to the Higher Education Ordinance
- Knowledge and understanding
- Competence and skills
- Judgement and approach
- Local Objectives for the Study Programme according to the University of Skövde
Career Opportunities
The specialisation in Games User Experience gives you the opportunity to develop excellence in this specific and rapidly growing field of game development. This provides a good foundation for an international career in the game industry, as many studios are increasingly starting to see the value in being able to evaluate their own development choices. Another possible career path is represented by companies outside of the traditional game industry that work with user experience design and evaluation. And since this is an academically oriented programme with a heavy emphasis on applied research methods, there are also of course many opportunities for pursuing a career in academia by proceeding on to PhD studies or other types of research positions.
Program delivery
When? Where? How?
- Study period: 1 September 2025 - 7 June 2026
- Location: Skövde, Campus
- Pace of study: 100%