Programme-specific admission requirements
Applicants to the programme must meet the general eligibility and language requirements that are common to all Master's programmes in the field of science and technology.
The admission criteria to the programme is a high quality Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, communications engineering, or electrical engineering. Excellent candidates with degrees in other fields such as information systems, engineering, natural sciences, mathematics or physics will be considered if they have sufficient studies and proven skills and knowledge in the required areas.
Required background in the Game Design and Production major:
- mathematics (linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, statistics, and discrete mathematics)
- good programming skills
- algorithms and data structures
- databases
- theory of computing
- computer networks
- software engineering
- project and team work
Knowledge of the following areas is considered an advantage:
- game design
- audiovisual design and production skills (3D modeling, 2D art, sound design, video editing)
- participation in game projects and jams
Evaluation criteria for Game Design and Production major
The major in Game Design and Production is organized in the two schools of Aalto University: the School of Science and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. A group of students representing a variety of skills, backgrounds and talents are chosen every spring. Depending on the school attended, the student graduates with either M.Sc. (Technology) or M.A. (Art and Design). Correspondingly, if you have background in technology/engineering, you should apply to the programme through the School of Science (current page), and if your background is in art/design, you should apply to the major through the School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
The evaluation of applications is conducted in two phases.
Phase I
Evaluation of the applicant’s application based on the above criteria. Special attention will be paid to the major-specific required and additional background knowledge.
During the evaluation, we value especially prior involvement in game production, e.g., participation in game jams and the creation of interactive software and technology, e.g., computer graphics. This experience is best demonstrated as videos to which links can be provided as part of the application documents.
Phase II
Based on the evaluations in Phase I, the best applicants will be invited for interviews. Skype or phone interviews will be used with those applicants who do not live in Finland.
Applicants will be required to complete a set of assignments prior to interviews and a portfolio pitch as part of the interview.
Note that both prospective M.Sc. and M.A. students go through the same application process for the Game Design and Production major, but the focus of the portfolio evaluation and interview will vary depending on which degree is being applied for.
Required application documents
In addition to the compulsory application documents, applicants to the programme are requested to provide the following study-option-specific documents:
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)*
- Motivation letter*
- The motivation letter should be written in English. The maximum length of the motivation letter is about 4000 characters.
- At least one original recommendation letter (preferably academic)
- You can upload the recommendation letter(s) to your online application form. There are no specific instructions for their content.
*) The lack of these documents will adversely affect the evaluation of your application.
In addition, these additional documents add value to your application:
- Course descriptions of courses taken in relevant subject areas (see the subject lists above)
- You can either copy the course descriptions from the university website or study guide or summarize them yourself. A list of most important topics covered will suffice.
- Work certificates and certificates of other relevant achievements
- Copies of any publications
- Official transcript of records for other university studies which are not included in the mandatory part of the application
- With documents related to degree studies, follow these instructions. With other higher education studies (e.g. open university or other non-degree), upload the documents to your application as part of the study-option-specific documents.
- GRE or GMAT test results, if available
- Please upload the test result to your study-option-specific documents.
The application should explain the full educational history of the applicant.
General instructions on study-option-specific documents
All additional application documents described above should preferably be submitted in English. If some other language than English, Finnish or Swedish is used in them, the applicant must provide precise, word-for-word translations of them.
Upload the documents to your online application form in pdf-format. Name the file(s) according to format: Name of the document-Lastname-Firstname (e.g. CV-Lastname-Firstname.pdf). Maximum file size is 1.0 GB.
The study-option-specific documents must be uploaded for each study option separately, even if you use the same document (e.g. CV). Please check carefully the study-option-specific document requirements for each study option you apply to.
The deadline for the study-option-specific application documents to be uploaded to your application form is 10 January 2020 at 15:00 (GMT +2).
