İstanbul Bilgi University Digital Game Design Department is the first four-year BA degree programs in the field of digital gaming in Turkey. Focusing on digital games as expressive media, the program aims to educate game designers who are capable of blending creative thinking with technical and organizational skills. 

Thanks to the digital distribution channels and the continuing introduction of new platforms digital gaming has become a highly competitive and truly global industry within the last decade. Survival and success in this environment requires creative and innovative gaming ideas and applications. Digital Game Design Program aims to educate a workforce capable of meeting the requirements of this industry in both national and global levels. 

Digital Game Design Department focuses on game play as an interactive communication process transmitting ideas and emotions through player experiences. Thus students are encouraged to experiment with new and innovative ideas in game design. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of game development; courses and projects intersect with visual communication design and computer engineering fields.

Digital Game Design Department seeks students who are able to focus on game development from design perspective, and to merge mathematical thinking with creativity. Students will be expected to reach a high level of technical expertise in using industry standard game engines and other authoring tools in their studies. Player experience will be the focus of their design approach and thus they are expected to show interest to fields such as psychology, sociology, statistics, arts, and digital culture. 

Digital Game Design BA Program aims to create a productive environment for the students where they will be able to utilize their theoretical knowledge into practice. It is composed of a number of core courses and a selection of electives to choose from according students’ specific interests and strengths. Reflecting this principles the backbone of the core courses consist of game design studio courses focusing on different types of games. First year students will focus on the design of analog games, second year students on the design of 2D games, third year students on the design of 3D games, and fourth year students will develop a polished game using industry standard techniques and methodologies in a genre and platform of their choosing according to their previous experiences. Studio courses are supported by courses focusing on game programming, game art, and game audio. Other courses include courses on game culture, uses of games in education and social issues, storytelling in games, player psychology, and the business and management of game development. Students will also take courses from three different types of electives; General Education Electives, Full List Electives, and Digital Game Design Program Electives. Digital Game Design Program Electives consists of courses allowing students to deepen their understanding of games and expertise in different areas of game design. General Education and Full List Electives give student the opportunity to take courses from other related programs such as Visual Communication Design BA Program, Film and Television BA Program, the Music Department, and Faculty of Engineering.

Core courses of the Program are held in the digital game development laboratory “Blue Studio”. In addition, students have the opportunity to work on their personal projects in the game prototyping laboratory “Play Space”. These laboratories are equipped with high end game development computers, VR systems, 3D printers, game consoles, and game prototyping kits. The department also offers an analog and digital game collection to its students for study purposes. 

Graduates of the programme will be able to work in both creative and administrative positions in the Turkish and global game industry. They can also work in industries such as education, media, software development, advertising, marketing, and entertainment where playable and game like content and services are produced and offered to customers.