Lastly, the Center also offers a graduate certificate in Game Design as a one-year credential for students and professionals that are engaging with us from other fields of academic study The Center also works with doctoral students in the SOC PhD program in Communication Studies when their interests and research overlap with games as a media form. In addition to these core programs, the Center also partners with the AU Department of Computer Science to offer a track in Games & Playable Media as a part of the MA in Computer Science, with the AU Department of Literature to offer a track in Game Development as a part of the MA in Literature, Culture and Technology, with the Film & Media Arts Division of SOC to offer a track in Games and Interactivity as a part of their MFA, and more.

Both of these degrees are centered on an approach deeply focused on experiential education: students learn to make games by doing so, and work with faculty, staff, and other professionals creating games as a part of their studies. Graduates from these programs are found not only at game design and development studios, but at a wide variety of policy think-tanks, museums and cultural institutions, educational environments, and more as they apply games broadly to a wide variety of fields and domains. As an MFA, this program focuses its 3rd year on the creation, production, and dissemination of a major thesis work in this area. The MFA Program focuses more broadly on games as a form of interactive art, with crossovers into experimental media, film, and interactive storytelling. The MA program is a tightly focused 2-year degree that explores game design, research, and production through a series of foundational courses, electives and a culminating capstone experience.

Wargaming game center