MA vs MS vs MFA in Game Design: Studio, Research and Professional Master's

A master's in games can be a Master of Fine Arts, a Master of Science, a Master of Arts, or a professional degree with its own name, such as Carnegie Mellon's Master of Entertainment Technology. The award hints at the program's purpose: an MFA is usually a studio degree built around your own creative work, an MS often expects technical preparation or research methods, and an MA ranges from games scholarship to applied design. As with bachelor's awards, the hint is only a starting point. This guide compares real programs on the things that matter most: length, the final project, admission materials and technical expectations.

The short version

MFA: the studio degree

MFA programs center on an individual or group creative project; the examples here run from two to three years.

• NYU's MFA in Game Design is a two-year, 60-credit, full-time program. The second year is the thesis, where students "work alone or in groups on a project of their choosing." Required courses include Game Studio, Code Lab and Game Studies.
• DePaul's MFA in Game Design (64 quarter hours, designed for 2.5 years) requires Thesis Studio over three consecutive quarters. Candidates show the work publicly and defend it before a thesis committee.
• UT Dallas's MFA in Game Development (54 credits) ends with a 15-credit thesis or master's project over two long semesters, with a public presentation.
• WPI's MFA in Interactive Media & Game Design (45 credits, three years) requires an individual project; "team-based projects are not permitted for the MFA." The degree includes training in teaching methods.
• American University describes its 54-credit MFA in Games and Interactive Media as a "terminal degree" that "will offer you the qualifications to teach at the university level."

An MFA is not a PhD. It centers on creative practice, not original scholarly research. If research is your goal, see game studies and doctoral research.

MS: technical or research-oriented

MS programs vary more than MFAs, but two directions recur.

Technical MS degrees expect programming. RIT's MS in Game Design and Development (33 credits, two years) expects "at least one year of programming experience in a widely-used object-oriented language (C++, C#, or Java preferred)," with a bridge course for those who lack it. In the second year, teams "construct a working game engine and software title" as the capstone. DePaul's MS in Game Programming (48 quarter hours, plus up to 24 hours of introductory courses that can be waived) lists mastery of C++ and implementing a real-time game engine among its outcomes.

Research- or studies-oriented MS degrees look different. Rensselaer's M.S. in Critical Game Design combines a seminar in cultural analysis of games with game design research methods and a year-long Master's Project that includes a production deliverable and written research documentation. NYU Steinhardt's MS in Games for Learning (36 credits) covers cognitive science, learning sciences and designing games for learning, with a two-semester capstone thesis.

WPI shows the MS/MFA contrast inside one department: its MS ends in a master's thesis or a master's project that is "typically done in teams," and the portfolio is optional; its MFA requires an individual project and a portfolio.

MA: from games scholarship to applied design

• American University's MA in Game Design (36 credits) includes Games and Rhetoric and Games and Society, and states that "you do not need to have a background in coding." A portfolio is optional.
• West Virginia University's online MA in Game Design (30 credits) puts half of its credits into a thesis sequence in which each student designs a playable game prototype and defends the proposal and the result.
• SCAD offers both an MA (45 quarter hours, ending in an MA final project) and an MFA (90 quarter hours, with Thesis Studio I–III and a practical experience requirement) in Interactive Design and Game Development. At one school, the MFA is twice the length of the MA.

Professional master's degrees

Some well-known programs use neither MA, MS nor MFA:

• Carnegie Mellon's Master of Entertainment Technology is a two-year, full-time program: an Immersion Semester (Building Virtual Worlds, Improvisational Acting, Visual Story, ETC Fundamentals), then three semesters of 14-week interdisciplinary team projects.
• University of Utah's Master of Entertainment Arts and Engineering is a two-year cohort program with five tracks and a large-team master's game project that students are expected to publish.
• SMU Guildhall's Master of Interactive Technology in Digital Game Development is a two-year, full-time cohort program with specializations in art creation, level design, production or programming, ending in a thesis defended at a graduate exhibition.

These programs are built around team production and specialized roles rather than a single creative thesis.

Admission materials compared

What programs ask for tracks their purpose:

• Studio programs ask for creative work. NYU's MFA portfolio includes a one-page critical analysis of any game and a one-page design statement for each project. DePaul's MFA portfolio may include digital or board games, design documents, performance documentation or writing. WVU accepts up to five samples with a total viewing time of no more than 60 minutes.
• Technical programs ask for code. Utah's Game Engineering track requires a code sample in a compiled language (preference for C++, C# and Java), while its Game Art and Game Design tracks require portfolios. RIT reviews a portfolio and expects object-oriented programming experience.
• Research programs ask for writing. Rensselaer's Critical Game Design programs require a scholarly writing sample and a separate research proposal in addition to examples of prior work.
• Some offer alternatives. Carnegie Mellon requires "either a portfolio or GRE scores," plus interviews. SMU accepts prior work or a specialization-specific portfolio assignment and asks for a video essay.

Few of these programs require the GRE outright: NYU, WPI, RIT, WVU and NYU Steinhardt say it is not required, and Utah, SMU and Rensselaer list it as optional. Always confirm on the program's own page for your entry year.

Choosing among them

Choose an MFA if you want time and support to develop your own creative practice, or if you want a studio credential that at least one school, American, describes as qualifying graduates to teach at the university level. Choose a technical MS if you want deeper programming or engine work and already have coding experience. Choose a research-oriented MS or MA if you are interested in how games work in culture, learning or society. Choose a professional master's if you want intense team production in a specific role.

Then check length, cost and format: a 30-credit online MA and a three-year campus MFA are very different commitments. Browse the master's directory and the online master's list, and read choosing a game design master's for funding, tracks and part-time options.